[-empyre-] NightSense
Hi Renate, To begin responding to your questions, Nuit Blanche, which began as an all-night art event in Paris, happens annually in cities around the world. In Toronto, it is sustained by a board of directors from the art community, Toronto City Hall Special Events, the Toronto Arts Council, public and private galleries, and numerous other organizations both public and corporate (Scotiabank is a named sponsor). Jim and I were approached by Nuit Blanche organizers to propose a curated project, and happily our proposal for NightSense was accepted. This involved commissioning 10 projects from artists of our choice, and selecting 5 "open call" projects from a roster of submitted proposals. We were assigned "Zone B" -- Toronto's Financial District. This immediately created an implicit link between our initial proposal focussed on the "senses at night" and "finance capital." Because we work in a context-sensitive manner, we began by researching the history of the neighbourhood, and doing site visits to identify salient venues, first with our production team and then pairing places with prospective artists. Of course, in the fall of 2009 the corporate sector was reeling from the financial crisis, which gave special resonance to the way we configured the projects. In the dark, the haptic senses of touch, vertiginous vestibular destabilization, and proprioception come into play, along with sound, smell and -- at a critical moment when the New York Times reported that financiers were seeking help from astrologers and psychics -- the 6th sense or paranormal sensorium. Over the two years prior to the "nuit", we worked with a seasoned team at Toronto City Hall Special Events overseen by Umbereen Unayet and Dan Surman, who did an amazing job of securing the sites we were interested in which included closing Bay Street ( Canada's equivalent to Wall Street) where Dempsey & Millan installed Avalanche, a carnival ride staffed by real coked-up carneys dressed in business suits, Ryan Stec's inaugural project as the first artist to incorporate the CN Tower (iconic of Toronto), Heather Nicol's memoryscape at Union Station (a major train hub of surprised commuters that night), IAINBAXTER&'s game of Monopoly with real money at the Toronto Stock Exchange (this venue was very tough to get and was ultimately secured with a letter penned by the Mayor of Toronto, David Miller to the President of the stock exchange), as well as bank atriums, plazas, arcades, alleys, malls and walls. Rather than analyze our own projects, we wanted to provide video links for a selection of projects. In our curatorial practice, we are particularly interested in how the affects of exhibition extend cultural theory in ways distinct from textual analysis. Perhaps these may incite some discussion. Ryan Stec Bright Lights Big City (CN Tower LED system synched with 12 hour CIUT FM simultaneous audio broadcast/Jokers of the Scene) http://vimeo.com/6964024 Dan Mihaltianu Vodka Pool (pool of vodka in lobby of the Canadian Bank of Imperial Commerce) http://www.ccca.ca/nuitblanche/nuitblanche2009/artists/b7m.html Rebecca Belmore Gone Indian (artist's pow wow to re-territorialize Royal Bank plaza) http://www.ccca.ca/nuitblanche/nuitblanche2009/artists/b6m.html Center for Tactical Magic Witches Cradles (form of torture recuperated by witches to incite prophetic visions) http://www.ccca.ca/nuitblanche/nuitblanche2009/artists/b5m.html http://www.tacticalmagic.org/CTM/project%20pages/Witches_Cradles.htm Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan Wild Ride (Avalanche carnival ride placed on Bay Street between the Bank of Montreal and Scotia Bank) http://www.ccca.ca/nuitblanche/nuitblanche2009/artists/b8m.html What initially intrigued us about this event in Toronto was the opportunity to curate an exhibition for an over-night event that mobilizes and engages in one night an audience of a million people. We were keen to explore what happens when art spectatorship moves outside the gallery on this scale. It became clear that a mass audience can engage with conceptually rigorous art works. And the role of mass media, such as television, became significant as they rushed to cover what was happening. Rather than the reductive and often trivializing "containment" of artworks customarily found in art coverage, the reportage assumed the perspective of durational participant broadcasting from "within" immersive art events. So while we hope for some responses to the work, what we cannot show unfortunately, is our own curatorial itinerary through the zone. We circulated through the project from sunset until sunrise, watching the mood shift with different waves of engagement. All the best, Jennifer and Jim Jennifer Fisher, PhD Associate Professor, Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies Department of Visual Arts CFA
Re: [-empyre-] NIGHTSENSE
ogating > the diverse histories of display, and engaging with the performative > aspects of presentation." > > Looking forward to hearing more about Nightsense and how do you > characterize the word "curating" in your own practices. Thanks so > much. Renate > > > On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Jim Drobnick wrote: > > Dear Renate and Tim, > > > > Thanks for inviting us to participate in this month’s series of > > conversations. > > > > To start one thread, we thought we would begin with a relatively recent > > project of ours, NIGHTSENSE, that formed part of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in > > 2009. We are revisiting this project at this time because we are editing a > > special issue of Public magazine on the topic of “Art and Civic Spectacle.” > > > > NIGHTSENSE featured visual and extra-visual artworks within the shadowy > > world of Toronto’s financial district. Addressing the spectre of market > > destabilization, the invisible transmission of broadcast signals, as well as > > hauntings from a locale where early Toronto history has been all but erased, > > these projects to engaged the audience in both critical and ludic > > participation. NIGHTSENSE invited a reconsideration of the normal sensory > > economy by intensifying the subtle but powerful links between bodies, > > aesthetic perception and shifts in capital. (Images can be found > > at http://www.displaycult.com/exhibitions/NIGHTSENSE.html) > > > > The overall context in which NIGHTSENSE appeared was Nuit Blanche, which we > > hope list members have experienced or read about. These events last all > > night long in a number of cities worldwide, and typically involve thousands > > of visitors (1,000,000 or so in Toronto for each of the past couple of > > years). Artists produce large-scale performances and interventions that > > engage, critique and reconceptualize the urban context. > > > > Our issue of Public will address the dynamics and significance of these > > popular mass events. How do the monumental artworks of city-wide exhibitions > > relate to the diverse histories of spectacle? What are the opportunities and > > challenges of such events? When audience levels reach into the hundreds of > > thousands, what issues are raised about spectatorship and participation? > > What impact can curating have on mass subjectivities? > > > > We’re interested in starting a discussion based on these questions, and any > > others that may arise from the list. We look forward to hearing your > > thoughts. > > > > All the best, > > Jennifer and Jim > > > > Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher > > DisplayCult > > www.displaycult.com > > > > > > ___ > > empyre forum > > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au > > http://www.subtle.net/empyre > > > > -- > > Renate Ferro > Visiting Assistant Professor of Art > Cornell University > Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420 > Ithaca, NY 14853 > Email: > URL: http://www.renateferro.net > http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net > Lab: http://www.tinkerfactory.net > > Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space > http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre > ___ > empyre forum > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au > http://www.subtle.net/empyre > > > > -- > Ashley Ferro-Murray > PhD Student > Dept. Theater, Dance & Performance Studies > University of California, Berkeley > ferromurray.net > > ___ > empyre forum > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au > http://www.subtle.net/empyre Jennifer Fisher, PhD Associate Professor, Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies Department of Visual Arts CFA 252 YORK UNIVERSITY 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 jef...@yorku.ca ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Curatorial Studies
Hi All, Apologies for the lapse. We have been travelling the last few days, and now find ourselves off grid in a frosty cabin on a mountain lake posting in town at the WiFi cafe. Thank you for the provocative questions and thoughts. We've been trying to focus our posts on projects in which we are currently involved, such as an exhibition reckoning with questions of a mass audience for art, and the launch of a curatorial studies journal that we are editing. We see the role of editors and curators as somewhat continuous insomuch as not only selecting, but also mobilizing and framing contingent conditions for communication. For us, the agency of curatorship simultaneously engages the criticality of choice (of works presented) with conditions of reception, which are necessarily performative. Regarding Tim's point that the Biennale Reader "seemed to promote curatorial authority over artistic production and institutional position over the independent status of so many artists," as independent curators we do not speak on behalf of the institution. Our role is perhaps closer to that of artists in a provisional and interventional sense. Our agency as curators is involved with staging and configuring of art in collaboration with artists to produce events for diverse audiences. While we take care to focus a curatorial proposition, at the same time, we have to let our attachment to any specific outcome go. Just as we cannot impose meaning, we cannot control the ultimate impact of an exhibition. So, we do not see criticality and ludic participation as mutually exclusive -- putting these elements into play so to speak engages them simultaneously. So happily we take Pedro's point about curating as creating spaces, revolutionary or revelatory. For us, the purview of the curatorial is conjunctural, operating in the connections of art, communities, spaces, histories, discourses, aesthetics, affects in ways that may achieve coherence (or fail to). While acknowledging that ultimately the budgets impact on what is possible in exhibitions, we resist the instrumentalization or containment of both art and curating. Rather, curatorial practice involves a rigorous criticality considering the always-already mediating conditions pertaining to art's presentation. The curator as communicator can then function first as "curer" through the homeopathic mimicry of symptoms for critical revelation, for thinking of rhetorics of arrangement of art in place differently. The curator can secondly also function as "carer" -- in Foucauldian sense of "care of the self" -- through the integration of techniques that can achieve a "turn" within aesthetic experience's transformative impact. This is where integrating the senses beyond vision becomes interesting to us. To these we would add an additional etymological aspect of curate -- "curiosity" -- which impels curators, artists and audiences toward engagement with the art and presentation event. Until soon, Jennifer and Jim Jennifer Fisher, PhD Associate Professor, Contemporary Art and Curatorial Studies Department of Visual Arts CFA 252 YORK UNIVERSITY 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 jef...@yorku.ca ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
