Curating Between Worlds: How Digital Collaborations Become Curative Projects
Figure 2. Screengrab of Net_Working interface, Watershed Media Centre, 2002.
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To let the work ‘die’ and preserve nothing. To think of a model by which they can design a solution to transmit the ‘essence’ of the art project beyond its original incarnation.
Weil suggests example models as being those of music and theatre where systems of notation and sets of instructions allow an event to be restaged and reinterpreted in order to be kept alive through time. ‘In order to preserve the artistic intent, one must start thinking beyond the constraints of obsolescence, while trying to “frame” the various dimension of an artistic proposition’ (Weil 2002). Peter Weibel (2000) also considers the curator as an impresario or producer studying theory and commissioning new works in the same way as a film producer. However, he differs slightly in stating that a curator does not necessarily take care of an existing work, but is more concerned with producing/commissioning new work, and that this is the most interesting aspect of curatorial practice in new media. Weibel’s approach is more in tune with the digital artist-as-curator who may not be so interested in the re-showing of their complex multi-linked art piece, but wishes to begin with the next. For Paul (2006), a curator may play a role closer to that of film producer in arranging for the public presentation of a work through overseeing a team of creators. She sees the flexibility in the digital aspect of new media works allowing for varied ways of presentation scenarios, and for work to be resited for specific venues—as with music and theatre productions. This is not so different from traditional curatorial challenges but online works bring extra considerations of contextualization as suggested by Paul, While some aspects of the curatorial role—such as selection of works, organization of exhibits and their art-historical framing—still apply to the process of online curating, transformations occur in the process of filtering, ‘describing’ and classifying within online environments. (Paul 2006: 90) 87