NICA Electives: Ecologies of Curation (Utrecht University)

When? Block  2  (13 November 2017 – 26 January 2018)
Where? Utrecht University
More information and registration

Ecologies of curation entails the trans- and interdisciplinary study of the interaction between spectators, artworks/performances and the spatial, social and media environments wherein the objects and acts are staged, produced, situated. Taking the etymological roots of curating as ‘care-taking’ into account, we will explore how curators can and should respond to transformational practices that increasingly cross and bend institutional borders. How does curating produce the type of ecologies in which media, contemporary art and performance projects can actually perform their potential, and where acts of mediation, interfacing or staging function as accelerators of the perceptual and performative strategies that are embedded in these works? Next to investigating current trends in discourse in relation to their historical context, we will jointly visit and critically analyse several curatorial projects, addressing media, contemporary art and performance works but with a focus on trans- and cross-disciplinary approaches. Based on these various strands of research, students write a critical evaluation of a curatorial project of their own choosing, hereby actively addressing the relation between curation and art ecologies.

After completing this course, the student has developed a critical and historical understanding of curating and mediation  in the field of media, contemporary art and performance. He or she has knowledge of key theories and ideas about curation and knows how to critically understand them. The student has learned how to analyze curatorial projects, approaches and methodologies and he or she has learned how to develop a curatorial project in a creative and critical way.

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NOTE: This is not a NICA core activity but an elective announced on this site solely for  your information. You should register for this course through the university that offers it, and the credits you will earn will also be given out by that university. If your program includes a requirement to earn credits from a national research school, the credits for this elective do not count towards that requirement. You may need to acquire the permission of your programme coordinator and/or board of examinations in order to participate and earn credits for this elective.