Panel Statement

Panel: e-discourse in online networked communities: structure, timing, tone, and affect

Timothy Murray traces the evolution of online curating, from early international collaborations to the development of robust online curatorial exchanges that forever altered the centrality of museum-based curation.

He begins by reflecting on three of his early networked curatorial projects as a means of highlighting the discursive shifts of e-curating. In 1999, he sent out a call for work over the emergent rhizome network for works for a small exhibition he was planning on CDROM art. Not expecting much of a response, he limited the call to a three-week delivery date with the idea that the exhibition may be extended beyond a small group of artworks from Australia, Europe, and the US. Within three weeks, an astonishing 130 works arrived from over thirty countries resulting in the 80-work exhibition, Contact Zones: the Art of CD-ROM, which toured internationally for four years, including ISEA2000 Paris. The ability to expand the initial network with such a range of international artists impacted and altered the conceptual organization of the show. The emergent network of curators and artists also resulted in a relocation of the exhibition in Mexico City for which he developed the first bi-lingual online catalogue (Spanish / English). The catalogue then provided the framework for other international exhibitions deriving from Contact Zones in Macau and Johannesburg.

• Timothy Murray, Cornell University, Society for the Humanities, US

Full text (PDF)  p. 423-425