Cloud Computing: The Museum (a screencast exhibition)
Curated by Chrissie A. Miller
May 6th, 2015
Exhibition Information:
ARKHAM (@arkhammag) is a quarterly magazine founded in 2014 by two students from Savannah College of Art and Design—Jacqueline Miller and Yasamin Rahmanparast. The magazine’s mission is to illustrate the human condition through artistic imagery and expressive content. Rahmanparast says, “every issue, we synthesize our own personal realities with others and challenge their notions of what is. Within each issue, every theme gets eaten, digested and eventually regurgitated onto our pages into a new state of matter. Simply, it’s us”. ARKHAM ‘s founders are working on the forth and final issue, Yonder to be released next month.
Brett Burnham (@brettburnham) is a traditional tattoo artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. Brett has been tattooing since 2006 in cities all over Maryland and Pennsylvania. He is currently working at Saints and Sinners Tattoo shop in Fells Point, Baltimore.
Words to know:
Cloud computing (the cloud): refers to the growing phenomenon of users who can access their data from anywhere rather than being tied to particular machine.
Feed: web feed or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format that provides users with frequently updated content.
Platform: the framework or content management system that runs software and presents content.
Screencast: a video that capture what takes place on a computer screen, usually accompanied by audio narration, often created to explain how a website works, but can be any piece of explanatory video that strings together images or visual elements.
*All definitions taken from http://www.socialbrite.org/sharing-center/glossary/
Curatorial Statement (audio content):
In Bruce Altshuler’s piece “The Canon of Curating”, he emphasizes the importance of assessing an exhibitions’ significance as two fold—the exhibition itself as well as the content within it, when trying to distinguish a canon for curatorial practice (pg. 6). Since the 1980’s and 1990’s the field of curating has escalated and the study of exhibitions has proved to be one of both historical context and innovative practice. Exhibitions are no longer solely valued for the work they contain, but as a works of art themselves. The same can be said of the examination of exhibitions. Altshuler argues that there are two perspectives when faced with the examination of an exhibition, “that of the practitioners and that of those who research, analyze, and evaluate what practitioners create” (Altshuler, 6).
Though these two perspectives inform and are related to each other, depending on the examiner, an exhibition could be important for exhibition-makers but not for historians or critics—judged for its curatorial innovation rather than it’s historical significance (Altshuler, 7). In other words, it is possible for an exhibition to be important, even visionary, regardless of the art exhibited. Now more than ever, the line between artist and curator, exhibition and art is blurring, making room for new forms of artistic practice and cultivation.
When considering the creation of an innovative exhibition, it is important to keep Altshuler’s perspective of the canon of curating in mind. Because the field of curatorial practice is a relatively new one and the definition of exhibition content (art) is expanding, curators need to be adjusting to (or at least considerate of) the current demands of the 21st century.
The attention span of the everyday person is becoming shorter and more fleeting with each passing day. Due to the introduction of social media and innovative uses for technology, we demand a certain speed and efficiency in every aspect of our lives. With this efficiency comes a high volume of information, which can often be overwhelming. Consequently, the amount of time visitors spend within a museum or gallery or the amount of time spent viewing individual works of art has gone down considerably, in part due to the large quantity of works presented (Zhijie, 144). Within this traditional model of an exhibition, Qiu Zhijie argues that therein creates an underlying need for competition. Artists (and curators for that matter) are now forced with this notion of how to keep spectators engaged long enough to appreciate what is in front of them.
Cloud Computing: The Museum (a screencast exhibition) offers a solution to this problem. Cloud is a different kind of exhibition. It presents two Instagram accounts (@ArkhamMag and @BrettBurnham) as curated collections and the tablet as the museum.
Cloud is not a true exhibition; rather, a displaying of what has become a part of the everyday experience and reframing how we think about/interact with/react to those experiences, to see a different potential in the otherwise mundane. Now, individuals are able to access art to some degree anywhere, regardless of proximity to museums or galleries.
With the tap of a finger, viewers from all over the world have the chance to expose themselves to an array of exhibitions and artistic content, as well as contribute to the conversation around each individual piece. Viewers are given the opportunity, not only to comment on the works but also to double-tap the works, showing support and appreciation of what is in front of them—taking as little, or as much time as they want. Anyone in the world with access to a mobile device can download the Instagram application and visit these two online exhibitions— @BrettBurnham and @Arkhammag.
Important questions to consider:
· Can you curate an Instagram account? Or online platform?
· Can online platforms become galleries?
· What does this kind of exhibition do to the artist/curator relationship? What about the artist/audience relationship? Or even the art/artist relationship?
· Can you curate without realizing it?
· Can you have an exhibition without physical objects?
