by Camille Baker

Disclaimer: Due to the political sensitivity of the content of this article, one of the organizations is unnamed.

Keywords: curation, event production, staging issues, Net Art, Game Art, Installation, Performance Media.

This 2 or more-part entry(gripe) deals with my production experiences as a new media art curator in over the last few years: attempting to bring to light issues often not often discussed on the staging of media art curatorial events in gallery and non-gallery settings, with little or no internal organizational support. It explores my personal experiences and trials as a self-taught event producer and curator, and my likely biased but passionate and frustrated perspective. This first part lay the background and hopefully doesn’t read too much like a resume coverletter….

I have been a media art event producer / curator since 2002 as the Events Producer/ Curator in 2004, Lead Curator / Conference Director in 2003, and Visuals Coordinator in 2002 for an unnamed organization and international media arts event. Most recently, I have become the Co-executive Director/ Curator for my own non-profit media performance society, The Escape Artists Society (T.E.A.S. www.escapeartists.ca) in Vancouver, since 2005. For the last four years I have explored new media arts exhibition and performance issues extensively within the context of growing, struggling new media organizations. As such, it has been a necessity for me to research the wealth of media and performance-based artwork and artists in the current contemporary art milieu, such as digital installation, new media art and performance history, exhibition and event production, staging issues, as well as art curation, exhibition and production. It has also been required of me, in order to assist the development of each organization, to investigate Canadian arts funding and administration, expanding to my knowledge base tremendously. One might ask, why I didn’t start within more established organizations to prevent the grief I will go on to discuss? I answer that, opportunities knocked and I thought that I should answer.

As the primary coordinating producer/curator for the unnamed event, from late 2002 to late 2004, as well as for TEAS since last year, I have been responsible for: coordinating staff and curators administratively and creatively; coordinating specific curators and artists and keeping them on deadline, on target and on budget; maintaining event sub-themes and keeping them within the mandate and mission; and keeping staff, board members and volunteers focused on joint tasks, in order to produce the events. I also acted as a liaison between the board members, event directors and the curators, to disseminate and mediate information in all directions.

In 2003, I juggled the roles of curatorial / conference director, while holding a full-time job and working on my Masters studies, to critical success from my peers and the relevant New Media art community. As a result, the unnamed organization has gained annual support funding since 2004, and become a more successful and prominent international event since than in the years prior to my involvement.

I curated a net art exhibition online, a large group interactive art installation exhibition in two separate non-traditional gallery spaces, and co-curated a dance and technology performance event for the unnamed event for two consecutive years. In addition, I directed and managed the conference planning, coordination for the same large-scale event directing in 2003, and assisting in 2004.

Meanwhile, I have been continually augmenting my experience with more of a theoretical background of contemporary curatorial practice by participating on-line media art listservs and web forums, as well as continuously performing theoretical investigation, research and production of my own. This on-going informal and practical training has given me a clear understanding of modern curatorial process and practices, however, the field of new media art is ever changing and requires constant study and involvement to keep and stay current.

In these roles, I was responsible for far more than curating for these young organizations, but also became involved in board recruitment, assisting in organizational start-up, volunteer and staff recruitment, and as one of the few individuals who staffed the unnamed event with any professional arts organizational experience or education. I got involved in assisting the start-up these organizations partly due to my entrepreneurial approach, lack of hands-on experience in media arts, because I wanted to be a part of something exciting in Vancouver, and because I had experience in starting up facilities and organizations from my previous career in social services and knew some of what was involved. Thus, I have ended up performing a combination of functions and involved in everything from: developing a vision, mission and mandate of each organization, guiding the board development and governance, writing grants, recruiting additional special event curators, hiring and training staff, technical production planning, assisting the art direction, as well as assisting with sponsorship, as well as all the duties of a key curator, event production and conference coordinator. With the unnamed organization producing such a large-scale event, these tasks should have been better distributed by the board and directors.

My perceptions of the world of new media art curating, especially in terms of curating, presentation/ exhibition and growth, are mostly anecdotal. I had little experience in this domain before I joined the unnamed organization and they have always had an informal approach to curating: inviting individuals or collaborators with an interest in a cutting-edge area, some contacts, and the enthusiasm and the energy to organize it. This was good for me while still engaged in my masters studies, looking for some real-world experience to graduate with(after changing careers I wanted to get this as quickly as possible as I’m not getting any younger). I am now of the opinion that curating is, to some degree, a matter of taste and exposure: I invite or make a call for artists, review and research a great many works, then choose the works I think are most interesting and unique. The unnamed organization very much like to stick to hard and fast themes to guide each annual event – which can add some kinks to curating if the curator has received a great number of good works that don’t quite fit the theme, while a number of not so great ones do. I have tried to focus on quality and intrigue over hard and fast adherence to themes – sometimes you just don’t get the right fit but still need to show the best work.

I spend a great deal of time perusing Rhizome and similar web art portals, subscribing to numerous listservs and reading discussions (and getting involved with writing for Furtherfield), researching all that CRUMB has to offer and reading relevant books to make sure I am really armed for the task academically/critically and artistically. I also have teamed up with others, who have an interest and background in media art and performance technology, to make sure I had a sense of other perspectives.

What’s come to light for me is that presenting intriguing artworks, both online and installation setups, in a professional manner requires a certain amount of money or sponsorship from companies with new products they want to show off – seems obvious I suppose, especially in technology dependent field. Neither of these scenarios has materialized in the context of my curatorial practice because the organizations I have been involved with to date have started with no money and very little sponsorship except for personal financial investment of the organizers. Within the unnamed organization, I had little support from the staff, as they too had little or no experience staging such displays or understanding of the presentation needs to help support my efforts. So the result has been years of knowing the standards I want to have, but often receiving inappropriate or barely adequate sponsored equipment (with excessive representation at the events), with little or no tech support for the equipment, and an abysmal displays for accessing net and installation art, no matter how much planning and continual requests. Much like any start-up operation, especially in the arts, you make do and still try to realize your goals for the event, as well as trying to take care of the artists and make a decent experience for the visitors.

Yet this has taught me that I have, perhaps, hoped for more than was possible at the level development of each organization and I have begun to understand what it really costs to do a good job of setting up an exhibition, and what types and amount of sponsorship commitment is necessary to really make such exhibits successful. On the other hand, I found much discussion online as to the quandary so many net art curators have been having, even in well-funded organizations and galleries: how to present and engage viewers in net-based works in a physical setting effectively, so I don’t feel so thwarted. However, it has been a frustrating experience to try create great exhibits with key elements so badly represented, without control or money to change the situation.

Another issue is presenting media installations effectively in the available spaces. We had access to big spaces, with concrete floors (bouncing, echoing sound), portable walls, not allowed to put anything on the permanent or portable walls (heritage building), not allowed to close off the space once the show is closed for the evening (community centre public access concerns), and had one big spaces that had with no technical accommodation at all. All these circumstances – which were not evident when we booked the spaces (within our budget) due to our inexperience, and also tough without money to pay enough skilled technicians – nightmares, making it difficult for visitor immersion in any of the pieces and difficult to set many pieces up. However, through all these obstacles, I have been determined to make them work and I think these have still been moderate successes.

It has been difficult to really know what goes on at other, similar large-scale events without the funds to go and see what they are doing, plus I was a Maters student when I was with the unnamed organization and now I still have limited funds with the new organization, teaching as a sessional and starting a PhD. Thus, I have often felt that I have been curating and learning exhibit design totally blind. The first year was the most difficult, but at least I had a professional gallery technician both in the space as well as one volunteering, assist in the exhibition set up. By 2004, I was much better prepared and felt ready to do something more elaborate, but I had more to organize because the society wanted a longer and bigger exhibition, I had a less skilled technician who was stretched much to far beyond his abilities and more spaces, with less technical support fort each. Yet the event received more money, so the decision-makers in the organization decided to have us invite far too many artists, and we ended up with a miscalculated, exponential(nightmare), scaling issue, which the funds still didn’t mange to cover adequately.

I really learned with t he unnamed event that having a stable organization, understanding what is involved in and the technical people to support your vision and the artists, is critical. Even with additional funds, its wise to use them more effectively, rather than just adding more events and more artists into the program, resulting in paying them less and giving them less assistance to, creating a nightmare experience for everyone, and then being underpaid and under acknowledged as well. I also discovered that even if it’s the whole organization that makes the decisions on these matters at a programming and funding level, often the artists and visitors only know the producers and curators, and so they end up shouldering the negative results and responses, as much as the positive, so it is a hard way to earn a reputation.

Part 2 coming soon…..

-- Camille Baker is a media curator/ producer/ artist/ instructor living in Vancouver --
For more on Camille Baker, see www.swampgirl67.net