On Sunday, Macaulay students from all campuses gathered at the Macaulay building to view a photo gallery made up of their own photos. The gallery was wonderfully curated by students who created a fantastically organized and beautiful presentation. In many cases, the curation was better than the photos.
In addition to viewing and enjoying, students were posed with a challenge. We were asked to use a camera to create a video “re-curation” of the gallery, putting together any photos we wanted to tell our story. I was fortunate enough to be put in a group with Ayala, Leah, and two very nice girls from City College, all of whom had very artistic perspectives to share.
It was a really great experience, which highlighted the importance of presentation in art. One photo on a desk is not the same as a photo placed in a creatively put together exhibit. Pictures can almost speak to each other when placed in certain ways. It is up to the curators to provide this experience, and in my opinion, the curators of the gallery did an excellent job.
Without further adieu, here is our video re-curation:
I would continue here with a deconstruction of the video and its point, but I’d rather let the piece speak for itself. I’m interested in what others have to say about it anyways.
comments about the video:
1) amazing background music
2) great theme of “the world is watching”
3) interesting credits
4) smart choices for supporting your theme
While I would like to start off by saying GREAT VIDEO! this is not the entire purpose of my response. What I would like to focus on instead is the whole concept of “re-curation.” I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the photographs put up, but the excercise the Macaulay people made us perform was one that I was entirely dissatisfied with. Rather than allowing us to browse the photographs at our leisure, to enjoy the art as it was, they assigned us the task of filming the photographs and uploading videos onto our computers. The concept of looking at art through a camera lens rather than looking at the art the way it is was one that Lauren brought up in one of the earliest posts on this blog. It was the only thing I could think about as my group shuffled along from display to display, peering down at the tiny camera screen to make sure we had exactly the shots we wanted. I spent more time looking at the screen than at the actual artwork. I tried to remind myself to pause a moment longer to actually appreciate the art, but eventually all I wanted to do was finish quickly and go have lunch. Why couldn’t we just have viewed the art for what it was? I’ve learned my lesson, but has Macaulay?