Open curatorial practice

The Open Source Development Model

- Development in the bazaar, not the cathedral
– The communication and distribution channel is the Internet
– Development group is typically open
– Rapid release of new versions
– Open, public and ongoing testing

implementing the above into a creative practice – curatorial practice. What effect would this have on exhibiting artists? would the audience benefit?

Need to consider a radical experiment.

Dictionary of the curator so far

Administrator; Advocate; Agent; Artist; Author; Avant-garde; Broker ; Collaborator; Collector; Commissioner; Composer; Creator; Curator ; Dealer; Developer; Diplomat; Initiator; Innovator; Interpreter; Interviewer; Investigator; Maker; Manufacturer; Masterplanner; Mediator; Negotiator; Observer; Originator; Organiser; Practitioner; Presenter; Producer; Programmer; Promoter; Researcher; Sponsor; Traveller; Validator; Writer

The Interview – seminar response

It’s such a lovely day and I can’t believe the view. What a way to start the day: the sky, the river, the bridge, so much. I noticed the bar and the kitchen, I should have polished my shoes – what did he say? Mushrooms. Wild mushrooms; I didn’t expect to talk about mushrooms, I can just see the story board now – a small granddad like figure on a mission to discover new proteins whilst experimenting with mushrooms. His trousers are dirty. I ask another question in a hope to uncover his inner workings but his mind was obviously somewhere else. I found myself agreeing that Dundee had no decent restaurants and smiled at his idea of owning a seafood restaurant, and of course utilising the abundance of wild mushrooms.  A treat not many people know about.

Back in the office I look over my notes. I was so nervous this morning, an interview with one of the greatest minds in the 21st century. He had a twenty-minute slot before jetting off to another country, only ten hours after stepping off the last plane. I was privileged. Throughout the interview I had been manipulated, I am not totally sure that I had got an answer for any of my questions; he had been in control. Not surprising really.

The thing was I could see it, his character, the story, the proud father and grandfather, enjoying a time in his life where he no longer had to prove himself – been there done that – he had people to do the dirty work. His eureka moment had come and he was still able to ride that wave. The most cited bio scientist in Europe had dirty trousers and sofa’s to die for.

A reflection on an interview I conducted once.

so many questions…..

Open source – take it literally and metaphorically and apply it to a cultural process. Can it reinvent the curatorial process? reverse the growth and resources, go beyond the branding of exclusivity and uniqueness and share.

“Factory Records borrowed Andy Warhol’s art affectation – the appropriation of an industrial term to describe art practice – and applied it to the original landscapes of the industrial revolution. By inverting the idea of a Factory, the normal Fordist aims of industry are suddenly perverted and equally artist-as-genius mythologies are overturned”.

From The Factory to the Allotment: Tony Wilson, Urbanist
Lets get the arts out of its Cathedral

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Eric S. Raymond’s free software development models:

The Cathedral model, in which source code is available with each software release, but code developed between releases is restricted to an exclusive group of software developers.

The Bazaar model, in which the code is developed over the Internet in view of the public. Raymond credits Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel project, as the inventor of this process. Raymond also provides anecdotal accounts of his own implementation of this model for the fetchmail project.

I would like to know the following:

1. What are your personal views about the ‘Cathedral’ and the ‘Bazaar’?
2. If you subscribe to one of these models how much of it applies to the whole of your life?
3. Do you jump from one to another to suit your needs?
4. Besides in a software engineering world, can the Cathedral and the Bazaar be seen any where else? or could it be applied to something else?

The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Centralised versus Decentralised River Basin Management  13049lankford-hepworth-cathedral-bazaar-2006-water-week

Collaboration Fanzine

A fanzine in the Ganghut style – images and email conversations documenting project development

collaboration-publication

This will take a few minutes to download

experiment correlation

experimental video piece for collaboration project

experiment correlation

Assessment Statement – Semester 1

I have been considering what it is I have being doing, professionally, during my time in the art sector. I have been curating within the visual arts, under various guises, for nearly ten years. I have reached a point at which I have begun to question what it is I do as a visual arts curator and what other people see or believe I am doing – this includes my peers, colleagues, family and friends. This semester has been a time to reflect on the projects I have been involved in and to consider what roles I played, as curator what exactly this entailed. I hope to identify commonalities, if any, compare successes and failures, how I did it and why it was done in that way. Also to make comparisons with the work of other curators – is it possible for me to identify my practice and place it into a contemporary curating context?

Examining Art Spaces

Dundee Contemporary Arts – DCA promotes the development and exhibition of contemporary art and culture through providing opportunities for artists to create, and for audiences to engage with an active, varied and high-quality cultural life for the people of Dundee, Scotland and beyond. link Typical new contemporary gallery build, white cube space, high ceiling, white walls, grey concrete floor.