Kurating By Numbers

From Net Art News, Rhizome June 10, 2005

Kurating By Numbers

On the 4th of June, Tate Modern hosted the CURATING, IMMATERIALITY, SYSTEMS symposium to kick off its epochal Open Systems survey show of the conceptual and informatic art that swept the 1960s-70s. The conference acted as the first docking bay for UK-based programmer Grzesiek Sedek and curator Joasia Krysa's open source curating software KURATOR. Drawing on affinity between code art and curatorial praxis, the software tries to redevelop curating as a generative experiment in social relations, within and against an art world that is only beginning to bypass the genteel stultification of curator as the golden alibi of art markets and aesthete-at-large. KURATOR posits "software curating" as a way to distribute curatorial process over networks of people, including artists and others, and finally outwards from the special domain of an individual. It further combats the reification of taste by partially automating many of the traditional metiers that distinguish the curato! r - selectivity being one. There will be an online panel discussion and public forum touching on KURATOR and many other themes that emerged during the symposium, Monday June 13th, via the Tate's website. - Marina Vishmidt