A pedagogical aid

Darragh Kerrigan

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#Pedagogical_aids | #Symposiums | #Provider | #Social_curation | #Conservation

In 2011, the exhibition ‘Another Story: Photography from the Moderna Museet Collection’ was a landmark rehanging of the collection that featured only photographs dating from 1840 to 2010 (figs.1, 2). Historical and contemporary work was shown side by side. Writing about the particular questions museums face when exhibiting photography, Anna Tellgren reflects especially on whether an exhibition focus on ‘photography as art’ also means collecting vintage prints or their negatives. The negative provides a curator or photo historian with a possibility, in many cases, of presenting other versions of the photograph in terms of size and scale in print and on screen. A lesson the museum learned from this exhibition was that they needed to foster public engagement as least as much as public enjoyment..

Fig 1 Julia Margaret Cameron, J. M. (1866) The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty

Fig 2 Sherman, C (2008) Untitled #470. Copyright the Artist and Courtesy of Metro Pictures

The museum decided that a re-design of pedagogical aids was needed to promote a knowledge about the general history of photography as well as the lives and works of the artists exhibited (fig.3). Similarly, the Gallery of Photography in Dublin runs practical courses in historical photographic processes, book binding workshops, scanning and conservation, as well as public discussions and critical events. The aim is to enhance public attention with specific educational activities (figs.4, 5, 6).

Six years after the re-hang, already discussed, the Moderna Museet presented ‘Before and Behind Bars’. This was an exhibition about the role of photographic images in art and the transformation of the medium since the 19th Century. Rather than having only one purpose 'the key thing when it comes to photography at the museum is to continue to work on and research the collection while also continually exhibiting it' (Tellgren, 2018). The exhibition was supported by guided tours, discussions, artist talks and symposiums.

Fig.3 Hegarty, B. (2015) Attributes of Open Pedagogy.

The same kind of critical reflection was behind the Museum21 symposium at IMMA in 2008. The event featured six international artists, curators and historians, who brought their perspectives to a set of formal questions addressed during the symposium, which included:

What is the point of a museum in the 21st-century? How can galleries and museums best serve a mobilised multicultural public? Has the need to attract an audience and funding made the artistic or intellectual credibility of galleries and museums questionable? Are public galleries and museums still the main sites for cultural innovation and the reception of contemporary art?

The question of what a museum might stand for in terms of photography was asked by PhotoIreland as part of the festival programme in 2019. At its one-day symposium guest curators, with experience working at the George Eastman House and Fotomuseum Winterthur, addressed how the history of photography in the museum has been far from stable. Underpinning this was the festival's contention that changing technologies behind photography's ubiquity has made it difficult to contain within discrete institutional boundaries (PhotoIreland, 2019).

Academic and curator Paul O’Neill has focussed on the division between artist and curator. Many arguments in this discourse have yearned for a cultural value of the artist over the curator, that the artist’s word should be taken over the curator. Writer Gertrud Sandqvist has a counter argument on this mentality, she suggests that the curated exhibition should not reflect the identity of the curator or of the artist, and that the artist and curator risk becoming a trademark of each other. In Loney Abrams' (2013) appraisal of O’Neill's analysis, he contends that O'Neill does not adequately address the role the curator has in our understanding of an artwork if we view it online rather than in the gallery space. Abrams addresses this missing scenario through a set of questions:

If we primarily come to know art online, then what role does online curation play in the contemporary art world? Have bloggers initiated a de-professionalization of curating? And how does contemporary curating not only reflect the way in which we see work, but also present artworks whose medium is virtual and web-based? - Abrams.

Maria Lind proposes a hybrid approach in which the role of the curator, whom she names instead as the provider. This role combines what the curator provides, which is a means of creating possibilities for producing and exhibiting art, from someone who digests, historical and contemporary culture, helping to exhibit new work and being able to separate other works of artists so that they are not too similar with the position of the creator. The creator discerns patterns and poses questions, makes suggestions and strives to make exhibitions more than the sum of their parts (fig 5).

Fig.5 How to work with galleries and collectors as emerging artists, Illustration by Qiong li

Lind sees the exhibition as a discussion between the audiences and those involved in its creation. Since Lind presented this concept, it has become common to hear mainstream museums refer to their part in the broader cultural conversation globally (Artists and Curators, 2014).

Citation

Kerrigan, D. (2020) 'Pedagogical openness' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/darragh-kerrigan

References

Abrams, L. (2013) ‘The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s)’, The Brooklyn Rail, Available at: https://brooklynrail.org/2013/04/art_books/the-culture-of-curating-and-the-curating-of-cultures

Another Story Photography from Modern Museet Collection (2012) Available at: https://www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/exhibitions/another-story/ (Accessed: 17 April 2020)

Artists and Curators (2014) Available at: https://visualartists.ie/the-manual/artists-and-curators/ (Accessed 31 March 2020).

Museum21 Symposium at IMMA (2008) Available at: https://imma.ie/about/press-centre/museum21-symposium-at-imma/ (Accessed: 21 April 2020)

O’Neill, P. (2012) ‘Curating as a Medium of Artistic Practice’ in The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s), pp 126-129.

PhotoIreland (2019) Photography and the Museum: Contradictory Histories and Contemporary Perspectives. Available at http://museum.photoireland.org/july-2019/symposium-photography-museum/ (Accessed 31 March 2020).

Tellgren, A. (2018) ‘Exhibiting a Collection of Photography’ in Why Exhibit? Positions on Exhibiting Photographies, Eds. Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger and Iris Sikking, pp 255-267

Images

Figs 1 Cameron, J. M. (1866). The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty.

Fig 2 Sherman, C. Untitled #470 (2008) Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures.

Fig 3 Bates, T. (2018) Review of online learning: open pedagogy. Available at https://www.tonybates.ca/2018/12/26/2018-review-of-online-learning-open-pedagogy/

Fig 4 Workshops at Gallery of Photography, Dublin. Available at: https://www.galleryofphotography.ie/engagement/

Fig 5 Qiong li (n.d.) How to work with galleries and collectors as emerging artists. Available at: https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-work-with-galleries-and-collectors-as-an-emerging-artist/

The social imaginary

Ella Owusu

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#Exhibitions | #Documentary | #Social_curation | #Mise_en_scene | #Data_curation

There are current issues in curating photography that are common to other contemporary issues about what social values look like in the public domain. Rastenberger (2018) argues that photographic exhibitions help spectators understand how photographs work and communicate. Social platforms allow everyone to participate with photography and create self representations. The problem with this is that what’s made visible on the surface isn’t always the meaning conveyed beneath.

What Barthes (1961) terms the 'photographic paradox' is the condition where photographs can have two messages at the same time: one without a code that denotes what is seen and one with a code that is connotes what is meant. Because photographic messages are so fluid, containing what have been described as slippery signs, this causes problems when trying to find meaning in works displayed on social platforms like instagram. When looking at virtual and real life exhibits two commonalities they have are that they’re both fixed and protected by glass screens. So in a way we mostly observe images through glass frames (fig 1).

Fig 1 Graham, R. (2017) That's Not Me

Social media encourages participation in creating and sharing images but it doesn’t consider the ethical issues around visibility and privacy in what’s displayed. Exhibitions allow for interpretations in order to challenge and question what we see while this isn't always the case on social media. Another description for exhibitions is mise en scene which is mostly common in cinema but also in photographs from its frame to arrangement (fig.2). Rose describes mise-en-scene as the composition of moving images and the 'temporal organisation of a film' (2016, pp. 76).

Rose argues that it’s a decision about what to shoot and how to shoot it and in the case of curating what to display and how to display it. Douglas (2015) explains mise en scene as 'unstable signs and gestures' and 'social imaginaries'. It also questions the accuracy of documentary, the truthfulness of media and historical values that are attached to what we see and how we’re told to see. Arrangements and displays of exhibitions are based on individual curators visual and structural codes as well as the original artist themself. How it’s sequenced, spaced and composited all adds up to these visual and structural codes.

Fig 2 Mise-en-scene or Telling a story

Exhibitors encourage spectators to create snapshots of exhibits to circulate digitally and gain them publicity. The issue is that when they’re circulated they become banal, generic images. White cubes have always been seen as the ideal way of exhibiting. Its arrangement being spacious and limited to keep gazes focused on exhibits (fig 3). Rose (2016, p. 71) argues that focalizers are done differently depending on individuals.

People look at specific things in different ways and how they look tells us how to catch their gaze, “the visual organisation of looks and gazes of an image”. It’s argued that it isn’t the only correct way that one can exhibit but it was the “whitewashed” and “upper class” way that was attached to the notions of what exhibitions were. O’Doherty (1976, p.42) argues that “the eye is the only inhabitant of the sanitized installation shot”. What he means is when we view exhibitions our eyes are the only thing present in that moment. Floyd argues that installation shots help us imagine what its like in the present moment of that exhibition. They often signify and represent themselves as a repeat, “the image turns into an exhibition and the exhibition turns into an image” (Floyd, 2019, p. 95).

Fig 3. Exhibition views Third Nature, part of the exhibition ‘Sleight of Hand’, Lishui Art Museum, China, November – December 2019.

The typological approaches in installation shots makes spectators familiar with it as if they’re physically there. They’re tied to traditional shots of “images of images” (Floyd, 2019, p. 96). It’s also documentations for archival and data curation purposes. The problem with contemporary exhibitions is that although people attend physically they still view it through virtual screens while taking snaps. Overall views of exhibition spaces need consideration before taking installation shots. A whole space cannot be captured accurately in just one frame, one must consider eye level view, aerial, distant, close ups and the walls they’re presented on. Sometimes people present in exhibitions are also captured (fig 5). They’re captured how they naturally observe work and aren’t always staged.

Fig 4. Transitions between curation domains along the research data lifecycle, based on the Data Curation Continuum figure by Andrew Treloar

Rastenberger and Floyd have mutual worries of losing traditional exhibitions now that its being modernised. Curations that take weeks to prepare, people now virtually exhibit quicker. This questions whether traditional exhibitions will slowly decrease and conform to virtual exhibitions?

Citation

Owusu, E. (2020) 'The social imaginary' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/ella-owusu

References

Barber, R. (2017) “Instagram Curation - Lulu Saint August”. Lulu saint august [Online]. Available at: https://www.ruthbarber.com/projects/2019/6/13/instagram-curation-lulu-saint-august.

Curry, E. and Freitas, A. (2016) “Big Data Curation”. Springer Link [Online]. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-21569-3_6.

Floyd. M, K. (2019) “Exhibitions views: towards a typology of the installation shot”. Revista De Historia Da Arte: The Exhibition: Histories, Practices and Policies, 164(6), pp. 93 - 109.

Fortis Green Film + Medien (2015) Exhibition Film: Haus der Kunst – Stan Douglas: Mise en scène. Available at: https://vimeo.com/128926065 (Accessed: 12 April 2020)

Gilden, B. (2020) “ London art exhibitions calendar”. Time out [Online]. Available at: https://www.timeout.com/london/art/london-art-exhibitions-calendar.

Keate, A. (2012) “London Visual arts: Dieter Roth Diaries installation shot at Camden Arts Centre © Photo by Andy Keate”. Pinterest [Online]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/219057969348963978/.

Mendizabal, D. A. (2019)”Reflections on Roland Barthes: The Photographic Message (1961)”, OMNITUDO, pp. 1-6. Available at: https://omnitudo.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/reflections-on-roland-barthes-the-photographic-message-1961/

O’Doherty, B.(1976) Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. 1st ed. California: University of California Press. Available at: https://books.google.ie/books?id=BuKbTXgDw2YC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=the+sanitized+installation+shot&source=bl&ots=30VaCErXok&sig=ACfU3U3oN7ZKa9LitA3fwCX8H0yRdSlhmg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilmezq_OPoAhXkUBUIHeUcDg8Q6AEwAXoECAwQLg#v=onepage&q=the%20sanitized%20installation%20shot&f=false

Rastenberger, A.K. (2018) ‘What’s been viewed?’ 1st ed, Why Exhibit?: Affective Spectatorship and the Gaze from Somewhere. Amsterdam: FW books, pp. 97 - 101.

Rose, G. (2016) “The Good Eye: The Montage of Film” 4th ed, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to researching with visual materials. London: SAGE Publications LTD, pp. 76

Rose, G. (2016) “The Good Eye: Spatial Organisation” 4th ed, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to researching with visual materials. London: SAGE Publications LTD, pp. 71

Rose, G. (2016) “Digital Methods: What are the Ethical Issues involved in using Digital methods?” 4th ed, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to researching with visual materials. London: SAGE Publications LTD, pp. 301 - 302

Rose, G. (2016) “Making Images As Research Data: Photo Documentation” 4th ed, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to researching with visual materials. London: SAGE Publications LTD, pp. 310 - 311

Rose, G. (2016) “Using Images to Disseminate Research Findings: Data Visualisation” 4th ed, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to researching with visual materials. London: SAGE Publications LTD, pp. 333 - 334

Smith, B. (2016) The Definitive guide to content curation. Available at: https://adespresso.com/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-content-curation/ (Accessed: 30 March 2020)

Images

Fig 1 Graham, R. (2017) “Rodney Graham: That’s Not Me 5-star review – starring role in his own method-acting dramas”. BALTIC [Online]. Available at: https://twitter.com/balticgateshead/status/842761946126569473

Fig 2 Carnaby, J. (unknown) “Mise-en-scene - Telling a story”. Judith Carnaby [Online]. Available at: http://www.judithcarnaby.com/project/mise-en-scene

Fig 3 Stradtmann, J. (2019) “Exhibition views Third Nature, part of the exhibition ‘Sleight of Hand”. Lishui art museum - exhibition views [Online]. Available at: http://janstradtmann.de/3476-2

Fig 4 Treloar, A. (2016) “Transitions between curation domains along the research data lifecycle, based on the Data Curation Continuum figure”. Research Gate [Online]. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Transitions-between-curation-domains-along-the-research-data-lifecycle-based-on-the-Data_fig2_303980668

Re-structuring power

Grace Scully

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#Spectator | #Exhibition | #Social_curation | #Copyright | #Appropriation

Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger argues the affective nature of photography is grounded in the spectators' view of the world, emphasising the connection between the physicality of photographs and how they are displayed in exhibitions (2018, p.111) . She elaboratei in interviews on her interest in 'how and why we distribute images in physical form' (Feuerhelm, 2019).

Figure 1: The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe) / La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) by Renee Magritte, LACMA, 1929.

Rastenberger (2018, p.111) cites Sarah Kember who, working in the field of digital media, had theorised photography’s relationship with reality and digital manipulation two decades prior. She (2018, p.111) rebutes concerns about photography’s reliability citing debates decades previously that the real is “lost in the act of representation”. Figure 1 (Renee Magritte, 1929) illustrates this. This theory can be associated with Walter Benjamin’s argument that the “aura” is lost in the photographic reproduction.

Figure 2: Tyler Mitchell's I Can Make You Feel Good at ICP by Joseph Rovegno, International Centre of Photography, 2020.

Rastenberger (2018, p.112) stresses the importance of the spectators emotional reaction to photographs. She (2018, p.112) argues that it is no longer relevant to assume a neutral spectator, that it is essential to account for diverse backgrounds and worldviews. Rastenberger (2018, p.112) theorises that rejecting conformities and boundaries could be implemented within exhibition spaces, thus experimenting with the limits of what can be displayed and how. Tyler Mitchell’s recent exhibition (Joseph Rovegno, 2020, Figure 2) represents creative ways of displaying photographs. As a Professor of Exhibition Studies Rastenberger uses her authority to create change in the functionality of exhibitions. She (Feuerhelm, 2019) emphasises there must be changes in positions of power, which is predominantly “white educated middle class middle aged privileged (wo)man”, acknowledging she is part of that group.

Figure 3: Yes Rasta by Patrick Cariou, 2000, and Canal Zone by Richard Prince, 2008.

In this chapter Eric Schrijver outlines copyright critique and how this is carried out by artists, critics, and the legal system. He (2019, p.163) argues what can be considered, morally, to be acceptable copying (“homage”, “inspiration”) and what is not (“imitation”, “rip-off”, “derivative”). The copyright case between Cariou and Prince (Patrick Cariou, 2000, and Richard Prince, 2008, Figure 3) is an example of this. Schrijver (2019, p.166) gives examples of artists' works that have appropriated other works; Richard Prince’s Marlboro Man (1980-1990s), Deborah Bright’s Dream Girls (1989-1990), and Shigeyuki Kihara’s Ulugali’i Samoa - Samoan Couple (2005). He (2019, p.167) argues how Sherrie Levine’s After Walker Evans series was permitted due to Evans creating the series while he was working as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration. This meant the photographs are in the public domain and are free for anyone to use and reuse. Awareness of copyright law was a factor in Levine’s appropriation of Evan’s work (Schrijver, 2019, p.167). Contrasting appropriation and cultural appropriation, Schrijver (2019, p.167) defines cultural appropriation as when the creator of the work is someone of privilege who copies aspects of the work of someone less privileged. Photographer Alexandra Watson (2019), in countering claims of “artistic freedom”, argues that photographers have a responsibility to create work that does not misappropriate another culture. Schrijver (2019, p.167) argues that the original understanding of appropriation, pre 2000s, was that of the artist taking on a larger entity such as “capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy” and thus was deemed acceptable . But in recent years it is recognised that the artist can occupy spaces of power and this must be taken into account.

Figure 4: Vogue Italia November 2015 by Steven Meisel, 2015.

Schrijver (2019, p.168) details Céline Semaan, an Arab woman, fashion activist and designer, critique of designer Marine Serre’s use of hijab in her show, notably the main image circulated being a white woman who Semaan argued has the choice whether or not to wear it. Semaan (2018) criticises instances of cultural appropriation as she argues it “reinforces oppressive power relations". Schrijver (2019, p.168) argues furthermore that the designer Serre’s apolitical stance is concerning. The fashion industry is no stranger to cases of cultural appropriation; see Gigi Hadid’s Vogue Italia shoot (Steven Meisel, 2015, Figure 4). Copyright law rarely overlaps with cultural appropriation due to copyright only applying to the work of an individual artist not the idea (Schrijver, 2019, p.168).

Figure 5: Barack Obama by Mannie Garcia, 2006, and Hope Poster by Shepard Fairey, 2008.

Schrijver (2019, p.169) defines plagiarism as copying another’s work and passing it off as your own. Shepard Fairey not accrediting Mannie Garcia’s photograph (Mannie Garcia, 2006, and Shepard Fairey, 2008, Figure 5) as inspiration for his poster resulted in a court case. The overarching feature between appropriation, plagiarism, and cultural appropriation is the intention behind the work and the political position of the creator. Schrijver asserts that it is not the act of copying that artists have issue with but often 'the way they do it' (2019, p.170).

Photographer Audrey Wollen (2018), when denouncing Richard Prince’s appropriation of one of her images for his New Portraits series, argues the act of appropriating is fine as long as the person doing it is not in a position of power over the other person. Regarding the restructuring of power and the future of the artworld, Schrijver argues that 'people who might not have had a voice before are heard' (2019, p.171).

Citation

Scully, G. (2020) 'Being human-centred' in Curating Photography: Poolside. TU Dublin: BA Photography [Online]. Available at www.curating.photography/post/grace-scully

References

Jeffries, J.K. and Kember, S., eds. 2019. Whose Book is it Anyway?: A View from elsewhere on publishing, copyright and creativity. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. Rastenberger, A-K. (2018). ‘What’s been viewed?, in Rastenberger, A.K. and Sikking, I. (eds.) Why Exhibit? Positions on exhibiting photographies. Amsterdam: Fw Books. Schrijver, E. (2019). ‘Some copies are better than others: copying and ethics’ in Copy this book: an artist's guide to copyright. Eindhoven: Onomatopee.

Images

Cariou, P. (2000) Yes Rasta [Online]. And Prince, R. (2008) Canal Zone [Online]. Available at: https://99designs.ie/blog/tips/5-famous-copyright-infringement-cases/ (Accessed: 24th April 2020) Garcia, M. (2006) Barack Obama [Online]. and Fairey, S. (2008) Hope Poster [Online]. Available at: https://99designs.ie/blog/tips/5-famous-copyright-infringement-cases/ (Accessed: 24th April 2020) Magritte, R. (1929) The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe) / La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) [online]. Available at: https://collections.lacma.org/node/239578 (Accessed: 24th April 2020) Meisel, S. (2015) Vogue Italia November 2015 [Online]. Available at: https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/opinion/gigi-hadid-vogue-italia-cultural-appropriation/ (Accessed: 24th April 2020) Rovegno, J. (2020) Tyler Mitchell's I Can Make You Feel Good at ICP [Online]. Available at: https://museemagazine.com/culture/2020/1/28/art-out-contact-high-at-icp-5c2gm-3nc85 (Accessed: 24th April 2020)