Comments on: The Scholar-Curator as Storyteller http://incisive.nu/2010/the-scholar-curator-as-storyteller/ Content, Publishing, Editorial Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:56:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: amber simmons http://incisive.nu/2010/the-scholar-curator-as-storyteller/comment-page-1/#comment-360 amber simmons Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:31:59 +0000 http://incisive.nu/?p=814#comment-360 >>But ideally, I want a visitor to come out of one of my exhibitions having her own personal connections to some of the included artworks, and those connections might have absolutely nothing to do with what I’d attempted to elicit, or even what the artist intended. And that, I think, is the very essence of what makes a fantastic story. The narrative is only one aspect of story. Another aspect is the personal--what the experiencer derives from what is said or presented. How he assesses and recreates the story along the lines of his own life, his own emotions, and his own experience, how he reconstructs his inner world to incorporate this new experience is what makes storytelling so compelling. Yes, there is something I, the creator, hope to impart to you, the receiver, but if you aren't participating in that event--or, more accurately, if I haven't left *room* for you to participate in that event--then I have failed as a creator. The interaction between what is created and what is experienced is the thing! >>But ideally, I want a visitor to come out of one of my exhibitions having her own personal connections to some of the included artworks, and those connections might have absolutely nothing to do with what I’d attempted to elicit, or even what the artist intended.

And that, I think, is the very essence of what makes a fantastic story. The narrative is only one aspect of story. Another aspect is the personal–what the experiencer derives from what is said or presented. How he assesses and recreates the story along the lines of his own life, his own emotions, and his own experience, how he reconstructs his inner world to incorporate this new experience is what makes storytelling so compelling. Yes, there is something I, the creator, hope to impart to you, the receiver, but if you aren’t participating in that event–or, more accurately, if I haven’t left *room* for you to participate in that event–then I have failed as a creator. The interaction between what is created and what is experienced is the thing!

]]> By: Elizabeth Schlatter http://incisive.nu/2010/the-scholar-curator-as-storyteller/comment-page-1/#comment-357 Elizabeth Schlatter Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:10:36 +0000 http://incisive.nu/?p=814#comment-357 The problem I have with equating curating with storytelling is that it doesn't work as well in the realm of visual arts. With history and science it makes sense, particularly as a narrative construct within a finite set of parameters (a fancy way of saying a story has a plot along with a beginning and an end). Not that there isn't story telling involved in art exhibitions, but I think that art exhibitions organized purposely to tell stories ultimately do a disservice to their content, that being visual art. The one unique thing that art can offer is an aesthetic experience, sort of analogous to experience of reading and studying a poem vs. an article. And using art to tell stories relegates it to narrative purposes when there's so much more that art can offer to the world. When I organize exhibitions, I always have in my head an idea of the path and connections I hope a visitor might make. But ideally, I want a visitor to come out of one of my exhibitions having her own personal connections to some of the included artworks, and those connections might have absolutely nothing to do with what I'd attempted to elicit, or even what the artist intended. But as long as the visitor really takes a moment to look or listen or just experience a moment with an artwork, then whatever the result of that experience is, I'm basically thrilled, story be damned. The problem I have with equating curating with storytelling is that it doesn’t work as well in the realm of visual arts. With history and science it makes sense, particularly as a narrative construct within a finite set of parameters (a fancy way of saying a story has a plot along with a beginning and an end). Not that there isn’t story telling involved in art exhibitions, but I think that art exhibitions organized purposely to tell stories ultimately do a disservice to their content, that being visual art. The one unique thing that art can offer is an aesthetic experience, sort of analogous to experience of reading and studying a poem vs. an article. And using art to tell stories relegates it to narrative purposes when there’s so much more that art can offer to the world. When I organize exhibitions, I always have in my head an idea of the path and connections I hope a visitor might make. But ideally, I want a visitor to come out of one of my exhibitions having her own personal connections to some of the included artworks, and those connections might have absolutely nothing to do with what I’d attempted to elicit, or even what the artist intended. But as long as the visitor really takes a moment to look or listen or just experience a moment with an artwork, then whatever the result of that experience is, I’m basically thrilled, story be damned.

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