Art F City

fuckyeahwomenartists:

Today, I went to a lecture titled Curating Art in the Digital Age at my school. It featured two prominent art figures in the world of digital art: Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City and Amanda McDonald Crowley ofEyebeam Art + Technology Center.

Where I take issue, and where it pertains to this blog, was in Paddy Johnson’s lecture. The subject of Tumblr came up several times. Paddy responded by saying that tumbling is not curating, but “just picking stuff.” However, isn’t that essentially curating? Whether a work is in a museum’s possession or not, the curators pick pieces that speak to one another and put them in physical dialogue. In tumbing, I observe practices that are similar to those observed by curators; I chose which works to display and which pieces are published in proximity to one another.

No, picking stuff is not “essentially curating”. When was the last time anyone described a book of newspaper clippings and images “curating”? Up until a couple years ago no one. That’s because a collection of newspaper clippings and images don’t necessarily constitute a) a thesis statement or cogent reflection, b) preservation of the digital medium. If you owned and maintained the server space used you might be a little further along in proving the curation case, but you’d still have to present evidence that the collection functioned differently than a sketch book. Arrangement of images is not enough: that’s simply exhibition design. 

I should mention that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using the term “curating” to describe what one does with a tumblr, it’s drawing the equivalency to museum curating that I take issue with. Art Fag City will be publishing an essay this week that addresses the subject of medium (and by default curation). I believe it will be one of the more important posts I’ve published (at least to the fine art world) so I hope that everyone checks it out. 

spiers:

We don’t use freelancers very much, but enough that we occasionally take pitches that just come over the transom. But right now I have a voicemail account clogged with really inappropriate stuff and then I have to spend an extra half hour clearing it out, just to get to vmails I actually need to…

The long and short of it: Don’t call. Read the publication before sending out a pitch. 

the-sunday-best:

I bought a piece of crap from H&M and brought it home and this is a review.

This piece of crap has buttons that fell off the minute I tried to fasten them, and stitches that unravelled from the pockets as soon as I dropped in my keys. Keep in mind, it’s brand new. I didn’t get it off a sale rack,…