Hi Folks,
Perhaps another thread concerning our curatorial practice would be more
conducive to a dialogue. We have just launched a peer-reviewed publication
called the Journal of Curatorial Studies that seeks to be a forum for critical
discussions on curating, exhibitions and display culture. The first issue is
free to download at
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=205/
Our editorial points out the journal’s general mandate, below, and there are
several questions listed in the middle paragraph. We might also discuss the
status of this emerging area of study called curatorial studies. Does it
constitute a discipline? If not, should it aim to become one? What would be the
advantages and disadvantages? And if it is a discipline, what should its
parameters be?
We look forward to hearing your comments.
Jim and Jennifer
__________________
Journal of Curatorial Studies, 1.1, 2012
Editorial
Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher, Editors
Curating, as a field of study, often falls between the cracks of disciplinary
boundaries. Until recently, it has been left to curators themselves to theorize
upon their practice and the function of exhibitions. The Journal of Curatorial
Studies builds upon the pioneering contributions of curators to encourage
in-depth investigations from an array of disciplines. Through the examination
of current and historical exhibitions, display venues in the art world and
elsewhere, and the work of individual curators, the journal inquires into what
constitutes “the curatorial.”
While curating as a practice of arranging objects remains important, in the
current context exhibitions involve more complex and unorthodox conjunctions of
rhetoric and methodology. Cultural analysis, collaborative processes,
institutional critique, performative interventions, networked interactivity –
these are some of the strategies that are now regularly employed. This journal
will explore these and other issues, such as: How has the identity and
authority of the curator shifted in a decentralized artworld? How do
exhibitions emphasizing experience and interactivity function as forms of
research and knowledge? Beyond the so-called gatekeeping function, what are the
new ideological conditions that drive the activity of curating? What
connections exist between displays of visual art and those found in culture at
large? To this end, the journal will feature thematic and open issues,
theoretical explorations, contemporary and historical case studies, interviews
with curators, artists and theorists, and reviews of exhibitions, conferences
and books.
The Journal of Curatorial Studies invites texts from a broad range of
perspectives on curating and exhibitions. It intends to serve the international
community of curators, academics whose research engages questions of the
curatorial, whether stemming from the art world or other domains of
contemporary culture, as well as the growing number of curatorial schools and
graduate programs. We welcome a readership that encompasses a range of
standpoints – scholars in art, art history, visual culture, museology and
material culture studies, along with curators, artists, art critics and
cultural theorists.
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
