Attempt (2.0) How to Present?
The work this attempt proposes, is to initiate and encourage a discourse that addresses an invitation we have received to present the project: Manqué Manqué at Goldsmiths College, curating studio* (26th Feb 08).
The premise for the invitation to participate in Tuesday Meeting (a weekly meeting organised by MFA Curating students at Goldsmiths), is centred around the opportunity to present current projects engaging critically with those on the course, while concurrently providing an instance to cultivate the project further.
So, how to present?
Based upon Henry Petroski’s comparison of the PowerPoint presentation to a modern Plato’s cave, in his book entitled Success through Failure, I wanted to propose a beginning:
The allegory of the cave updated to modern times might be set as follows. A group of people seated in a cavernous room, restrained by a prevailing paradigm. The chairs in which they sit are rigidly attached to the floor and to each other, the images on the screen before them rivet the group’s eyes to it. They are watching things that are being projected from a booth in the back of the room, which they sometimes forget they are in. The images on the screen are accompanied by commentary coming from a disembodied voice issuing from speakers around the room. The images and words are sharp and bright and are the reality of the moment. They fade in and fade out like shadows on a night of patchy clouds.
* The curating studio is a room measuring approx: W-13ft x L-18ft x H-10ft. Within there are three tables, each measuring approx: W-3.5ft x L-5ft x H-3ft and around 18 chairs. The room is separated by a step running across the space horizontally. The tables and chairs take up one half the space within the room. There are windows opposite the entrance and immediately to the left (thought these do not receive much light). We are able to hire equipment for the media centre, should we request to.
3 comments:
The Institute for Reciprocal Possibilities imports its formal lesson plans with detailed and deliberated learning outcomes into a state of this art Amstrad. The machine can accept such literal ideals but in an act of incredible generosity to the students refuses to repeat, regurgitate, respond; the learned one having no option other than to translate. Quite a tool for learning and a point for closure.
how wide is the gap before it becomes an unbreachable chasm? and how narrow can it become before it evades definition -a toe hold? equally what is the requisite distance/duration of an interruption? the presentation could explore via the architecture of the room the dimensions of these concepts.
C.
As indeed could the point of entry and exit or the relative hierarchy using the furniture etc. Stewart Home once made a fabulous presentation to a gagging audience wearing a scarf wrapped around his mouth that mopped up the oozing obsequiosus of his fan base and spittled forth half truths. Lovely.
S
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