Panel Statement

Based on the research of the co-chairs, the intention of the panel is to precipitate critical reflection on wider issues affecting contemporary art curatorship in response to ISEA2013’s theme, ‘Resistance is Futile’. In 2012 Claire Bishop was resoundingly criticised by the media arts field for her article, published in ArtForum, on the question of why the contemporary art scene has ignored society’s larger digital transformation. Critics lamented that Bishop had deliberately disregarded, as part of her argument, the ever-expanding field of arts practice that engages the digital, as something separate. As new media art and digital arts are already in museum collections from Taichung to Preston, this resistance to acknowledging its place within the art world, and its further collection and historicisation, seems futile. In contradiction to Bishop’s position, it is now possible to examine the subtleties of how collected new media and digital art works are exhibited, interpreted and contextualised as part of the wider field of contemporary arts. Festivals, which famously allow for the latest or newest work-in-progress, play a strong role in museums acquiring artworks, many of which are first shown in festival exhibitions. Therefore, this panel will share knowledge concerning contemporary curatorship; the invited panellists work across the contemporary arts, including festivals, museums and collections. They will discuss a range of curatorial issues where the qualities of new media, electronic and digital arts can be seen to continue to challenge museums as a result of the character and nature of their associated practices. Institutional functions including communications, interpretation, audience engagement and access will be discussed, including issues of creation, presentation, participation and consumption, i.e.: designing exhibition spaces as mediated environments; preserving media art histories; the expansion of curating platforms, including new modes of content curating, collaboration with artists and publics, social media and curatorial approaches that support expanded publication in a global context.

• Sarah Cook is a curator and writer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and co-author (with Beryl Graham) of the book Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (MIT Press, 2010) and co-editor (with Sara Diamond) of Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues. She is currently a Reader at the University of Sunderland where she co-founded and co-edits CRUMB, the online resource for curators of new media art and teaches on the MA Curating course. She is a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Curatorial Studies and co-chaired Rewire, the Fourth International Conference on the histories of media art, science and technology with FACT in Liverpool (2011). Having grown up in Canada, Sarah has a longstanding association with The Banff Center where she has worked as a guest curator and researcher in residence for the Walter Phillips Gallery, the International Curatorial Institute and the New Media Institute, developing exhibitions, summits, residencies and publications. After completing her PhD in 2004, Sarah worked as adjunct curator of new media at BALTIC  Centre for Contemporary Art funded by the AHRC. In 2008 Sarah was the inaugural curatorial fellow at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York, where she worked with the artists in the labs to develop exhibitions of their work. Sarah has curated and co-curated international exhibitions including Database Imaginary (2004), The Art Formerly Known As New Media (2005), Broadcast Yourself (2008), Untethered (2008) and Mirror Neurons (2012).
• Vince Dziekan is Director of Graduate Research in Design in the Faculty of Art Design + Architecture at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. In addition, he has research affiliations with Museums and the Web, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Foundation for Art & Creative
  Technology (FACT) in Liverpool, UK; Kasa Galleri, Istanbul, Turkey; and is Digital Media Curator of The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA). Vince is an artist, curator, academic and researcher, whose work focuses on the impact of digital technologies on curatorial design and the implications of virtuality on exhibition-based practices. This interdisciplinary investigation has been articulated most recently in his first book, Virtuality and the Art of Exhibition: Curatorial design for the Multimedial Museum (published in 2012 by Intellect Books, UK). He has published extensively in relation to his research in various peer-reviewed journals and presented at numerous refereed conferences, both nationally and internationally. In addition, he has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions and through his independent curatorial practice. In August 2009, he exhibited his demonstration exhibition, The Ammonite Order, Or Objectiles for an (Un) Natural History at Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, Northern Ireland as part of the ISEA2009 juried exhibition. He has co-curated The World Is Everything That Is The Case for ISEA2011, which formed part of the satellite program of the 12th Istanbul Biennial, as well as providing creative direction for the exUrbanScreens project (2012-13). Most recently, he is leading a new exhibition initiative for Museums and the Web, the leading international conference in the field of museums and advanced digital technology.