i'm a curator, you're a curator, we all are curators simply because we select & organise...apprently

one bad yet good yet bad thing about living where i do is the fact that things take a while to happen / move / filter through. but i'm afraid that the candid flippant misuse of the term 'curator' has finally arrived, last week to be exact, with the opening of a new place in town.

music nights are no longer 'hosted' or 'presented' by some guy but are 'curated'. the promo leaflets and website reads like this: this 'whatever-catchy-name of a gig night' is curated by 'so and so' and features 'this whatever' band; with '... the venue is created and curated by...' (running the place + dictating what goes and what doesn't = curating ...actually that's not too far from where a lot of curators would like to be! chuckle...)

this is nothing new, i know, and is not a new subject to discussions, i know, and no matter what i say / think, it is most definetly not new, i know. but it still angers me to the point i just can't wait for - and actively source - another buzz word to come along so that people can jump on that and leave my precious 'curator' be,

here are some interesting (read 'infuriating') examples:
elle decoration Oct 09
from ny discusses the way her interior is decorated and declares '...i guess i'm less of a shopper, but more of a curator.' giving some thought to what you put in your home / selecting + styling = curating.

local music festival: swn
selecting + event organising = curating. i actually spoke to huw about this and he was genuinely afraid that he shouldn't have used the term, as he couldn't really explain why it's used.


i'm just waiting now for the local market to have some curated stalls, for a curated vintage clothes shop to open, and for the term to loose all meaning until no one wants it...

what makes good design?

cardiff design festival

this year, i've put together a digital exhibition for this year's festival and will be uploading it on to here probably friday (so keep an eye out for it) after the opening on thursday eve. if you're around cardiff, come along to milgi, city road - it will be a good event.

guerilla marketing done right

what a fantastic way of building curiosity, interest and excitement and a novel way of advertising which is new new new to here (although i know it's been done done done in other places...)

john lewis is in town and don't we all know it.

museums take note, this is how it's done.

book of the month

this month i will mostly be leafing through and reading 'tactile: high touch visuals' edited by robert klanten, sven ehmann and matthias hubner, published by die gestalten verlag, berlin. different design discipline's use of three-dimensional space is the subject, so plenty of inspiration for exhibition design.

product of the month

september's product of the month is klaus aalto's 'city boy picnic grill' for selki-asema.

perhaps a bit late for the summer picnic season but surely a must-have for the fresh autumn ones? compact, clean lines and quality materials (stainless steel and oak), this grill is pretty enough for any shelf and practical enough for a good lot of use.
as seen in copenhagen design week's code 09 showcase and available at www.finnishdesignshop.com.

pop-up culture

they say that in tough times, creativity blossoms.

as money is scarce in the arts, innovative thinking comes into major play and one key movement has been the 'pop-up' exhibition space. landlords and estate agents are clocking the advantages of offering empty shops to curators and artists to set up for days /weeks / months. fashion brands have been doing this for ages (comme des garcons the most obvious), banksy has done it, so it was only time until the flow reached others.

san francisco has a programme 'art in storefronts' up and running, backed by the Mayor (article here http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=35742 (thanks to curating.info)), new york has a 'no longer empty' initiative, numerous pop-ups in london and interestingly, salon gallery of london have just released details of a competition they are running for young curators to win the chance to put on a show - 'london's next top curator'. check out http://www.salongallery.co.uk/ for details on how to apply. crap title but a great chance for young graduates which is very much needed.

from personal experience, it's pretty difficult to find landlords open enough for suggestions on this, but i'm sure that says more about here and anything. ho hum. although there has been one - the 'aaaaart shop' in the main shopping centre here. so hopeful signs that it'll catch on. i do hope so.

time to get self-motivated to fill the empty with the full.

p.s. interesting article on this subject here (another favourite blog worth keeping an eye on) - http://newcurator.com/2009/02/slack-space-empty-shops-as-exhibition-space/

i heart scandinavia

i love scandinavia.

i wish i was danish.

i wish where i lived looked as good as copenhagen.

i wish everyone had as amazing a style-sense as the stockholm-ians.

i try to visit once a year just to top up my inspirations and aspirations... and of course i take a lot of photos.

the architecture:

(aarhus)

(copenhagen)

(copenhagen)

(aarhus)

(copenhagen's black diamond)

(aarhus' museum of modern art, ARos)

the graffiti (how danish can you get - a bike and sausages!):

(aarhus)

the art:

('boy' by ron muecks...at ARos, aarhus)

the clothing, the best interiors and design shops, the most awesome pastries and the prettiest people. i could go on and on...

rca m.a. fashion exhibition at the v&a

a second stop after the design museum on my london trip was the v&a (another massive favourite of mine). telling tales was the main attraction for me, but more on that later.

i managed to catch the rca's fashion m.a. and boy, am i glad i did. of course, my eyes naturally searched for shoes and was pleased to find helen wilde's work and these boots in particular (the image is rubbish i'm sorry, damn reflective glass). amazing detailed folds of leather, together with the overhanging at the front and back add just enough to these beautiful and minimal boots.

another eye catcher was this knitted dress by abbie shaw. the huge zip-pull is just calling out to be played with, but the winner for me is the structure of the dress = totally contemporary but at the same time you could imaging jackie-o in it. a good look indeed.

a quick mention of one other student - jarah stoop who makes the most outstanding luggage and bags = masculine, tough and industrial. highlight for me was this holdall on a trolley.

all in all, impressed and excited to see the great quality of work coming out of the rca. onwards and upwards.

bubble, burst

it is wedding season at the minute and my third was this week. i felt adventurous and decided to make a statement head-piece = an origami cube, made out of beautiful paper (in a colour, complementing my homemade dress) and placed, nestling in my hair.

stood outside the church waiting to go in, a tramp inquired as to why i had a cardboard box on my head. yep. i know what you're thinking, he probably fancied it for himself but that just totally killed it for me. hilarious. i guess the origami swan medallion i made will have to wait...

so today, catching up on some of my favourite blogs, i saw these images from LAMagazine of a shoot by Billy Kidd (full spread here - http://www.lagmagazine.com/beauty/editorial.php?uid=nWqKCt7i58nq7X1pr4G0) on susie bubble's http://www.stylebubble.co.uk/style_bubble/. beautiful, and totally the look i was going for, although perhaps not so full-on.

also, interestingly, spotted these paper shoes on another favourite, http://www.highsnobette.com/ of work by ndeur, (http://ndeur.wordpress.com/), a leg of the le creativ sweatshop, as part of 'ndeur + make a paper world'. good good stuff.

the use of a material out of it's usual and in an unexpected form is always fascinating. and of course, shoes just make my day. more on this juxtaposition, i promise.

design museum exhibitions

few weeks back i made my way to the design museum in london (a favourite place of mine) to see the super contemporary exhibition and the mariscal installations.

mariscal was a real good fun exhibition, a feast of colour for the eyes with lots of texture and experiences - absolutely perfect for children (and not too self conscious adults) to play with and get involved. highlights were the dark room plastered with graffiti, the hoards of hanging cartoon characters and cute little videos shown on screens embedded in theatre-like sets. there was so much to see and my eyes could not stay still - not a bad thing considering the type of exhibition it was, a proper celebration of the vividness and energy of mariscal's work.

super contemporary was pretty hard core and hard work - so much info and so much to take in. on the one hand i hate this - you lose concentration quick; but on the other it allows you to dip in and out of the content, taking in what you want, what interests you, what you fancy.
the fact that it was all london based really interested me (boy, they're pushing to further cement london's reputation as design capital), although i could spot missing people / publications / designs. they should have had an audience participation bit where you could contribute your own opinions - very interesting from london's point of view to know what other nations think / associate / know of the london design scene.
as icon magazine's justin mcguirk commented in the editor's bit in july's issue, someone should do an alternative show - how interesting would that be?

the timeline design of the exhibition was spot on, the layering by practice all headed by the history of the time worked fantastically (although i would've painted the wood a nice white just to let it disappear into the wall a bit). it was strange working around the room and shifting from 'history' to recognising your own memories of things happening - particularly for me the channel four re-branding for some reason...

here's are a few snaps of the exhibition's design - again, i have to say that i loved the look and the slotting in and layering of images and texts, worked beautifully. and everyone appreciates colour coding, right?


so, i loved the timeline but was not that impressed with the commissioned stuff in the middle of the room. although, saying that, i loved the idea of the maps of london with designers' favourite places... picked up some handy info.
one installation which stood out for me was neville brody's freedom space. walking into that cubicle was a strange experience.
i like how abstract an image the repetition of the cameras make.

a good friend of mine commented that they should just have published a book of the info and commissioned work...and i totally see that.

let's start at the top...

so blogging has really taken off in the past couple of years, with everybody interested in telling everybody about themselves / their opinions / their loves and hates etc.. presidents and prime ministers and cultural institutions have embraced it, and young writers / photographers / artists / designers / makers / curators / critics use blogging as a medium for spreading their work, concepts and ideas.

my reasons for starting this is as practical as it is self-indulgent.

i am one of those aforementioned curator using this medium as a platform to share, muse and present people / places / things that interest and influence me. i work in the the art and design world and constantly see and hear things worth sharing and discussing - sometimes good and intelligent, other times bad and stupid. expect totally multi-discipline posts - all aspects of design and visual art all the way through to geek talk about museums, curating and exhibitions in the form of reviews, photos, excited babbling and the odd academically-slanted article.

i guess you'll learn a lot about me...

would i class myself as a digital curator? not sure about that.

a relatively new term to the language of curation, it's still a bit vague as to its definition. some would argue that grouping together images with a connecting thread is by no means a curated 'exhibition', but that would just lead us down the old road of the changing role of the curator... interesting though, and i believe that it certainly is something worth proper discussion, as the internet and all it can offer is certainly here to stay. already it's changing peoples' experience of museums and collections, it's a self-built foundation for artists and designers and a harvesting ground for the development of new movements.

so, here's my own space.

there's already some discussion on blogging curators - here's a couple links.

curtsey of the wonderful michelle kasprzak of http://www.curating.info/:

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_display/features/featured-in-print/e3idcc910dc3148408d3fd35c04e4c44b86

check out also an interview with michelle on labforculture.org:

http://www.labforculture.org/en/resources-for-research/contents/research-in-focus/cultural-blogging-in-europe/interview-with-michelle-kasprzak-curating.info