Page 21 - The Black Box Book

them creatively. The study (Naef, P. & Birchler, B., 2022) provides insights the issue of the increasing number of ‘born digital’ artefacts and cultur-
into the impact of the pandemic on performance art and artists in France. al projects requiring specific preservation and mediation solutions for
An article (Zoljargal, 2022) focuses on using marketing skills by artists the future generation. Digital Curating is elaborated upon to describe
who have had to adapt quickly to anti-pandemic measures. One study the new phenomena of employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to interact with
(American Journal of Arts Management, 2022) is centred around the is- digital traditional art collections and expand AI Curating methodologies.
sue of online broadcast performances in terms of audience satisfaction. The following chapters are organized into three sections. The first
Elena Sidorova presents the economic impact of the pandemic on the art section is The Black Box: The lock-down curatorial project. In each chap-
market in her study. (Sidorova, 2022) 1 ter, the authors discuss the online curatorial project Black Box, which
This publication is one of the first glimmers of reflection concerning was the primary impetus for the writing of this book that provides dif-
online exhibition practice in the age of the pandemic, and the research ferent perspectives of the roles played by the creative team members in
cited above corroborates it to some extent. Yet, these previous reflections the process of the project’s realization.
do not overlap with the topics addressed in this book. It should be noted Chapter What to look for in a black box? An attempt to recapit-
that the issues of digital curation and digital art preservation have been ulate the pandemic experience in gallery management places the pro-
the subject of a long-standing debate from which our research team has ject in a broader context of the conditions of exhibition institutions in
benefited. While making contributions with research inquiries centred on the Czech Republic at a time of repeated lockdowns. It outlines exhibition
2
internet curation during the exceptional pandemic period and introducing and dramaturgical trends that dominated Czech galleries in the 1990s,
artificial intelligence as a new force of curation online. the period preceding the pandemic outbreak. These include reinforcing
This monograph tries to answer the question of how curatorial the idea that the gallery serves as a critical institution that hosts and nur-
techniques, communication platforms, and the social role of exhibition tures social engagement. These ethical arguments affected Galerie TIC’s re-
institutions have altered due to rapid and external circumstances, which sponse to the operational restrictions and existential uncertainties brought
at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic compelled the shift from physical on by the outbreak and lockdown. Therefore, the birth of the Black Box
gallery spaces to online environment. To achieve this set of objectives, project is not merely a result of the decision-making of a particular cu-
a combination of methodological approaches is used, navigating between ratorial team but also of broader institutional strategies and progressive
the inductive and deductive treatment of the issue, to provide the most art management practices. The key terms that emerge in the process
comprehensive picture of the lived practice of digital curation in the time of reflecting on the transformation of art institutions in the first year of
of the pandemic, accompanied by expert commentary and dialogue with the pandemic are words such as ‘paralysis’, ‘partial decline’ or the ‘mechan-
relevant academic discourse. From the online curatorial discussion stand- ical conversion’ of an off-line program to online, followed by a reflection
point and the problems with archiving and mediation of digital art, case on the impact that these categories have bore upon art management.
studies of particular online curatorial projects incorporating digital media The theoretical background within which the chapter operates frames
are framed and analyzed. Members of the author collective frequently the (re)established practice of exhibition institutions to use already proven
describe projects in which they have participated, imbuing the studies with or test new curatorial strategies in the environment of the world wide web
a flavour of personal testimony and providing not only detailed descrip- as a space that transforms the categories of art, institution, authorship,
tions of the projects’ outcomes, but also conceptual context and unique audience or curatorial practice. The chapter recapitulates the reasons and
information about the specific circumstances of their work. The authors problems curators faced in seeking ways to meaningfully run an institution
consistently contextualize particular investigations into the growing topol- during the exhibitions’ closure and imposed isolation. It describes how
ogy of online curation within the broader theoretical discourse and view the gallery has morphed from the expected role of displaying and me-
them in connection to other similar curatorial attempts. diating the experience of art to one where it becomes a co-producer or
The first chapter, Digital Curating and AI Curating: The Network a general supporter of artistic production. Namely, this support included,
of Terms, focuses on the basic concepts used in the book and forms above all, the provisioning of creative scholarships or long-term support
the methodological framework of the book. It begins by introducing for contemporary artists. This text interprets various artistic interven-
the phenomena of the widespread digitization of cultural material and tions that became part of the Black Box project, also in the wake of
the lived realities of a fomenting health and economic crisis. In conclusion,
1 The EBSCO scholarly database was used to search for studies: the chapter summarizes the position that the project occupies in the con-
https://www.ebsco.com/ (Accessed December 23, 2022). text of a critical reflection on the contemporary state of (not only local)
artistic and cultural production, understanding it as a project situated at
2 See the chapter Digital curating and AI curating: The Network of Terms the intersection between an archive, a curatorial experiment and an online
dedicated to the terminology used and lists of references used in writing gallery of artworks.
each chapter of the book.
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