The exhibition itself was a huge learning experience. Each of the different aspects to this part of the project taught us something new and often presented us with new challenges; the exhibition presented challenges and new experiences from install, through the exhibition dates, right to deinstall. The tour dates of the exhibition were one of the biggest learning experiences. While it was exciting to see the reactions from visitors to months of work, there was still so much to learn from these reactions. Some visitors came to look around quickly, but many were eager to engage with the topic that was so important to their lives. The engagement and responses to the living archive portion of the exhibit were a learning point to better understand these communities.
There were many challenges and learning experiences; one such challenge took place during install and the first of the tour dates. Early on in our discussions with Winnie Herbstein, she made it clear how important audio quality was for her and the presentation of her work. In the midst of these conversations she also expressed a desire to have the audio for the film come from a speaker, as she did not feel comfortable with headphones used. As we began this aspect of installation, we realized the speakers were not operating correctly. This issue was a stressful moment as it was the day before the first day of the exhibition. The Edinburgh College of Art’s team at Bookit was incredibly helpful, helping us figure out that we needed a mixing board in addition to helping to install it. The topic of the audio for the film remained relevant for the duration of the exhibition as it was noted that the noise level in such a small space was overwhelming for several visitors. This information brought us back to the original question posed in the brief, “To what extent can exhibition-making be used as a form of knowledge production (curatorial, conservation etc.) in collections?” Here we learned that there were drawbacks to showing Winnie Herbstein’s films in such a space, how the sound here should be considered in future display, especially in smaller spaces such as the Traveling Gallery.
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