Final Project (Curation)

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Carry out curatorial and visual cultural research in terms of the ability to discover, identify and use up to date primary and secondary curatorial and related visual cultural sources, including academic writings, using both paper and electronic sources
• Make reasoned arguments in curatorial and visual cultural studies based on appropriately selected source materials
• Apply information gained through instruction and/or self-study to inform, support or critically analyse curatorial positions in context
• Recognise multiple perspectives and integrate/apply these to curatorial and visual cultural studies and their related core issues, such as audience formation, educational-focus within exhibition structures, the relationship between the curator and the artist / practitioner, the relationship between the curator and the ‘object’, the politics of subjects and subjectivity as activated / implicated by / in the exhibition space
• Apply curatorial and visual cultural theories to practices (e.g., collaborative curation), understand, and evaluate how different perspectives in theory relate in practice to, for instance, relational aesthetics, feminism, collaborations, education-focused exhibition structures, questions of authorship, biennial systems and networks of contemporary art, institutional critique, critique of spectacle, amongst others.
• Identify problems and analyse key issues requiring curatorial and visual cultural research, and pursue an independent project to produce a coherent and structured essay or final project, as well as record and reflect upon your intellectual journey in the Learning Log / Blog component of this module
• Solve problems by applying knowledge of curation and visual cultural studies theory and historical and contemporary approaches of practice in order to address actual problems or hypothetical fact-based situations involving questions of display, authorship, finances, and education-focused exhibition needs, to select key issues, and argue convincingly for possible solutions

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• With some minimal guidance, undertake independent research in areas of curation and visual culture, which you have not previously studied
• Structure in coherent manner information and materials from disparate sources, sifting the relevant from the irrelevant.
• Act independently in planning and structuring a task in areas of curation and visual culture in which you have already studied
• Understand the aesthetic, pedagogical, political, socio-economic, and cultural impact of curatorial practices
• Evaluate arguments based on evidence from the curatorial profession and visual cultural institutions
• Produce word-processed documents complying with presentation and referencing practice within the academic discipline of curatorial and visual cultural studies
• Reflect constructively upon your learning, and make effective use of feedback received
• Present knowledge and argument in a clear, structured and comprehensible manner, adapted to the needs or requirements of a particular audience or exercise
• Work effectively as a participant in a group project, and appreciate the possibilities of learning with the support of your peers studying curatorial and visual cultural studies
• Use a range of electronic information sources including the worldwide web, electronic retrieval systems, and on-line curatorial and visual cultural studies materials
• Demonstrate proficiency in the use of the English language, including correct use of curatorial and visual cultural terminology, both orally and in writing
• Evaluate concepts, principles, histories, theories, and practices and make critical judgements of the strengths and weaknesses of particular arguments.
• Understand rhetorical and topical, textual, curatorial, visual cultural, historical, and practical problems raising investigative issues of sophisticated complexity and considerable depth

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Appreciate curatorial issues of fundraising, budgets, and of arts commissioning
• Develop innovative communication techniques
• Explore critical curatorial writing approaches
• Create professional relationships and networks with artists, curators and other professionals
• Develop and produce interpretation materials and publications, in various formats and within digital cultures
• Understand the critical and creative interdependence of learning and public programmes teams with curatorial roles within various institutions
• Provide considerations of what the “public intellectual presence” of an exhibition and its ancillary outputs will be and how it can prove most effective
• Recognise the challenges particular to curating programmes that extend beyond the traditional gallery or museum space into an array of public and sometimes virtual / digital realms
• Demonstrate consideration of exhibition design, construction and installation issues and identify historical examples and various theoretical approaches to resolving such curatorial issues
• Identify and engage various audiences and publics, including demonstrating an awareness of diverse audiences and their needs, along with the ethical and health & safety issues implicated within these considerations

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The broader critical, intellectual, social and economic contexts within or as part of which the curator operates
• The function and practical application of theories of curation in the contemporary art world and beyond
• The nature and limits of curation within its contemporary expanded field, particularly in relation to new media and the digital humanities
• Core and specialist areas within contemporary curation including exhibition history, critical debates on current directions in the profession, developments within new media and the digital humanities in relation to the art of curation today, the function and critique of the biennial system, challenges faced within curatorial practice, and the current salient cultural aims, political questions, and practical skills needed within the profession and discipline
• Visual cultural thought and theories, processes and practices appertaining to contemporary curation
• The interrelationship between the history of curation and the state of professional curation today

The aim of this module is to promote a concerted period of independent study leading to the final resolution and presentation of your postgraduate curatorial practice in the form of an individual written work and a collective group exhibition. The module aims to bring together and utilise your learning and skills developed in the previous modules. Through these modules you will have established and explored, in increasingly ambitious ways, the scope and focus of your ideas allied to appropriate theoretical and practical approaches to practice. In this module you will independently – both individually and collectively – apply new ways of bringing a creative conclusion to your ambitions for this postgraduate programme and to establish new ways of working within the field and profession of contemporary curation.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

This final project module is supported through tutorials and seminar, though most of the module’s time is given over to the students’ independent study and practice. The tutorials and seminars support the development of the individual and group projects which mark the culmination of the MA Contemporary Curation and demonstrate the students’ theoretical and practical approaches to curation today. Group projects will follow the guidelines set out in the previous Contemporary Curation: Practices module and apply the same key principles to the production and assessment of group work. In the 25% assessed group work assignment for the module, all students in the group will receive the same mark,

School-level guidance and key principles on learning in a group will be developed, disseminated and made available to all students on the module through handbooks and Blackboard.

The key principle is that a module that includes a group assessment must also include an individual component/mark for part of the assessment. Other guidance will include:

(a)a student group should comprise of between 3 and 5 people: numbers above this discourage effective collaboration

(b)groups will be briefed on clear guidance as to how they will be assessed against the criteria set

(c)detailed guidance on the principles of learning and working as a group will be provided, and

(d)clear guidance on how the module leader will deal with any controversies or disputes will be provided.

Internationalisation

This module puts great emphasis on developing an appreciation of the complexities that are inherent in contemporary curation in an era of globalisation. It is anticipated that within both assessment components of this final project module, students will engage with practices and networks that embody the current cultural diversity exhibited both in the student cohort and in the wider research and practice-based community.

Learning activities include

Seminar discussion

Peer group learning

Reflective writing

Presentations

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Barker, Emma (1999). Contemporary Cultures of Display. Yale University Press (Open University: Art and Its Histories book series).

Smith, Terry (2012). Thinking Contemporary Curation. Independent Curators Inc.

Creswell, J. W (2014). Research Design. Sage.

O’Doherty, Brian (2000). Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. University of California Press.

Hoffmann, Jens (2014). Show Time: The 50 Most Influential Exhibitions of Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson.

Hoffmann, Jens (2013). Ten Fundamental Questions of Curating. Mousse Publishing.

Steedman, Marijke (ed) (2012). Gallery as Community: Art, Education, Politics. Whitechapel Gallery.

Rose, G (2011). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. Sage.

Hatt, M and Klonk, C (2005). Art History: A Critical Introduction to its Methods. Manchester University Press.

O’Neill, Paul (2012). The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s). MIT Press.

White, M and Schwoch, J (eds) (2006). Questions of Method in Cultural Studies. Blackwell.

Obrist, Hans Ulrich (2014). Ways of Curating. Allen Lane.

Pickering, M (ed) (2008). Research Methods for Cultural Studies. Edinburgh University Press.

Walliman, N (2010). Research Methods: The Basics. Routledge.

Nairne, Sandy, et al (1996). Thinking About Exhibitions. Routledge.

Obrist, Hans Ulrich (2008). A Brief History of Curating. JRP Ringier.

D’Alleva, A (2005). Methods and Theories of Art History. Lawrence King..

Brett Davis, M (2007). Doing a Successful Research Project: Using Qualitative or Quantitative Methods. Palgrave.

Adamson, Glenn (2007). What Makes a Great Exhibition?. University of the Arts.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External