Curating the Object W1 Reading Curating, exhibitions and the Gesamtkunstwerk 23 - 'Curating' is being used in a greater variety of contexts than ever before, inference to everything from an exhibition of prints by Old Masters to the contents of a boutique wine shop. - 'to curate' and its variants (curating, curated) are coinages of the twentieth century - this records a shift in understating from a person (curator) to an enterprise (curating) now understood as an activity unto itself - Link in - idea of curating and the contemporary idea of creativity itself; making aesthetic choices - idea of curating stems from feature of modern life - the proliferation and reproduction of ideas, raw data, information, images etc. - ef forts of the internet have had a large ef fect - the exponential increase in the amount of data created by human societies - documents, books, images, video. 24 - not declining , addition we also create more material goods each year than the previous one - cheaply produced objects. - the result a shift in ration of importance between making new objects and choosing from what is already there. - curating as a profession with a specif i c history and touch on moment in the history of curating as a toolbox for the future - dialogues between artists and places, between publics and exhibitions can be starter of globalisation. - homogenisation (making similar) danger - as french artist Dominique Gonzalez Foerser ' exhibitions are a way to resist the pressure towards an ever more uniform experience of time and space, by keeping the visitors in the art moment a little longer. - its important to shape exhibitions as projects of long duration and to consider issues of sustainability and legacy - f lyinf ly out curating - produces superf i cial results - curating to everything that involves simply making a choice. - making art is not the matter of a moment and nor is making an exhibition; curating follows art. - being a curation - seen as a new profession - roots latin - curare; to take care of 25 - Rome, curators were civil servants who took care of some rather unimaginative functions ; overusing public works, bathhouses, empire's aqueducts and sewers. - Medieval period, the focus shifted to a more metaphysical aspect of human life - the curatus was a priest who took care of the souls of a parish. - 18C 'curator' came to signify - looking after a museum collection - different kinds of caregiving rose, the contemporary curator remained close to the sense of curare of cultivating, growing, pruning and trying to help people and their shared contexts to thrive. - professional curator;s role - 4 functions - 1. preservation of art - national heritage, a set of artefacts, safeguarding this heritage became a primary responsibility of the curator. - 2. selection of new work - museum collections added to and the caretaker of the museum thus becomes the caretaker of