Page 35 - The Black Box Book

Ghidini (2019) relates the curatorial approach of ‘curating online’ to
the practice that derives from the online display of museum and gallery
collections. She initially defined this method through The Smithsonian
Institution’s experimental approach to the Revealing Things project
(1998) to the Google Arts and Culture project (2011-present). It also
analyses several examples from the history of ‘curating online’ practice,
based on how they have responded in a site-specific way to the chang-
es that web technology has brought to publishing and distribution in
the process of its gradual public accessibility and rapid commercialisation
(from early web-based Bulletin Board System platforms such as ARTEX
(the 1980s) to experiments with web interfaces in the 1990s (e.g. äda’web,
1995), to projects such as. CuratingYouTube (2007-present) and #exstrange
(2017) experimented with ready-to-use services and responded to
the platformisation of the web environment that comes with the so-called
Web 2.0 era. Meanwhile, Ghidini (2019) clarifies that in the meantime, we
also include presentations of visual material that was not initially intended
for the online space in the category of ‘curating online.’

NETWORK OF CARE
In her theoretical work, Annet Dekker (2018) refers to ‘networks’ as
organized networks of individuals with a common purpose and CURATING SYSTEMS
as a space that possesses the potential to act as “collaborative practices Joasia Krysa (2008) situates curating “ in the context of theories of
that work towards the realization of projects”. (Dekker, 2018, p. 89) Fur- immateriality, a critical discourse around software art practice, and
thermore ‘network of care’ (Dekker, 2015/2018/2022) is referred to as an understanding of open systems.” (Krysa, 2008, p. 3) Such a system is
a network “ based on a transdisciplinary attitude and a combination of an open space for exchange and communication at the level of produc-
professionals and non-experts who manage or work on a shared project”. tion-user and a place where “established social relations of production
(Dekker, 2018, p. 91) To administer a project within a network, it is best and distribution” are violated. (Krysa, 2008, p. 3–4) The curatorial process
shared within “an open system, or a dynamic set of tools” (Dekker, 2018, presents “a collective and distributed executable that displays machinic
p. 91), where all information can be shared, administered, or transferred. agency.” (Krysa, 2008, p. 4) The term ‘system’ in the given context is
The maintenance and monitoring of such a system are also arranged seen as ‘the operating system of art,’ representing new possibilities of
by the network. A ‘network of care’ “maintains or conserves (parts of) collective curating. By distributing curating among many different agents,
an artwork [...] and introduces knowledge from a variety of fields and including networks and software, this ‘operating system’ of art presents
backgrounds”. (Dekker, 2018, p. 14) Dekker (2018) exemplifies this ap- new options for collective and distributed curating. (Krysa, 2006, p. 15)
proach by analyzing various net art projects: Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend The curator is part of the system as a whole; still their role is not central:
Came Back From the War (1996), Igor Štromajer’s performative action
o μ 4× (2016-2020), or Martine Neddam’s web-based work mouchette. “Systems are of particular importance for understanding extend-
org (1996-ongoing), among others. In collecting and preserving online art, ed curatorial production, which does not only refer to the physical
the collaborative ‘network of care’ approach is not exclusively linked to aspect of the computer and the network, but also to the technical
the technical attributes of the artwork (the material) but points above all and conceptual properties of what constitutes the curatorial object
to the existence of the social relations within which the work exists. By – for example, works distributed through networks, dynamic and
stressing collectivity in networks, “conservation is less about conserving transformative systems”. (Krysa, 2006, p. 14) Curatorial practice
materials and more about the preservation of social information and re- has gradually moved from the object, past processes, to open net-
lations”. (Dekker, 2018, p. 14) work systems. Thus, more factors enter the curator’s workload that
cannot be separated from technological or socio-political develop-
ments because curating represents “open systems, implying a state
in which there is continuous interaction with the socio-technological
environment.” (Krysa, 2008, p. 3)
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