MoMA R&D
Salon 1 A Curator's Tale
To kick-off the MoMA R&D Salon series, our inaugural salon, A Curator’s Tale, explored what it means to be a curator, both within a museum and outside museum walls in the commercial, educational, and social arenas. From algorithms that recognize and recommend music to museum visitors who participate in organizing crowd-sourced exhibitions, curatorial practice has reached a dynamic and controversial stage.
Watch the videos from the salon and explore some of these questions: Is the “curatorial turn” a passing metaphor—like the “edited” lives, libraries, and wardrobes of a few years ago—or does it mark a healthy and necessary development of life and culture, both online and in the physical world? Does online curation undermine the authority of museum curators, as some commentators have suggested? What do all these curators have in common? Does the increasingly prevalent use of the verb “to curate” indicate a more active, and perhaps more democratic involvement with culture and diverse individuals, or is it just another way for the capitalist machine to consume, market, and brand?
The salon took place on October 15th, 2012.
Speakers
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Ann Temkin
Ann Temkin is Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art. From 1990 to 2003 she was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Ann received her BA from Harvard University and her PhD in the history of art from Yale University.
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Tor Erik Hermansen
Tor Erik Hermansen is the cofounder of Stargate, a prolific record producing and songwriting team. Working alongside, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor is responsible for, among other hits, Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable,” Rihanna’s “What’s My Name”, and Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow.”
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Jeff Jarvis
Jeff Jarvis is Professor and Director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Jeff is the founder of the blog Buzzmachine.com and cohost of the podcast This Week at Google. He has authored Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, What Would Google Do?, and the Kindle Single Gutenberg the Geek.
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Maria Popova
Maria Popova is a Bulgarian-born Brooklynite, writer, blogger, and critic. A self-professed “hunter-gatherer of interestingness,” Maria founded the highly influential online emporium of ideas Brain Pickings. Included in The Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials, Brain Pickings is “your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology,” according to Maria.She has written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others. She is on Twitter at @brainpicker.
Reading Resources
- Armstong, Mark. “Curation and the Question No One Is Asking.” markarms.tumblr.com, June 5, 2012.
- Bernstein, Shelley (Curator). “Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition.” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NYC, June 27–August 10, 2008.
- Brady, Colin. “An Open Letter to Everyone Using the Word “Curate” Incorrectly on the Internet.” Aboriginal Curator in Residence Blog, October 4, 2011.
- Carr, David, and Maria Popova, Max Linsky, Mia Quagliarello, and Noah Brier. “The Curator and The Curated.” Panel discussion from SXSW, Austin, Texas, March 10, 2012.
- Chayka, Kyle. “How the Art World’s Lingo of Exclusivity Took Root, Branched Out, and Then Rotted from Within.” ArtInfo, August 7, 2012.
- Chocano, Carina. “Pinterest, Tumblr, and the Trouble with ‘Curation‘.” New York Times Magazine, July 20, 2012.
- Dilenschneider, Colleen. “Curator 2.0: The New Duties of an Evolving Job.” Know Your Own Bone, January 13, 2011.
- Grace, Janelle. “Collection (Not) as Curation: How Exhibitions are Different from Libraries.” Hyperallergic, September 25, 2012.
- Grinspan, Izzy. “Is “Curate” the Most Abused Fashion Word of 2010?” RackedNY, October 26, 2010.
- Haas, Jonathan. “The Changing Role of the Curator.” Fieldiana Anthropology, New Series, No. 36, Curators, Collections, and Contexts: Anthropology at the Field Museum, 1893-2002 (September 30, 2003): 237-242.
- Johnson, Paddy, Ceci Moss, and Rex Sorgatz. “New Style Curators.” Panel discussion from Rhizome’s New Silent Series, The New Museum, New York, November 18, 2010.
- Kennedy, Randy. “The Fine Art of Being a Curator.” New York Times, July 18, 2012.
- Levy, Steven. “Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?” Wired, April 24, 2012.
- Rosenbaum, Steve. “Innovate: Curation!” Lecture from TEDxGrandRapids, Grand Rapids, MI, June 6, 2011.
- Scoble, Robert. “The Seven Needs of Real Time Curators.” Scobleizer.com, March 27, 2010.
- Shirky, Clay, and Steven Rosenbaum. “Video: Talk about Curation.” CurationNation, n.d.
- Sicha, Choire. “You Are Not a Curator You Are Just a Filthy Blogger.” The Awl, June 1, 2012.
- Steiner, Christopher. “Can Creativity Be Automated?” MIT Technology Review, July 27, 2012.
- Vartanian, Hrag. “The New Yorker Wades into “Curator” Confusion.” Hyperallergic, October 4, 2012.
- Venkataramanan , Madhumita. “Biblio Tech: Curation Nation—Fall of the Machines.” Wired, March 25, 2011.
- Williams, Alex. “On the Tip of Creative Tongues.” New York Times, October 2, 2009.