This week’s lecture provided insights into digital curation from the example of CCA Annex. Some of the ideas described by guest speaker Alex Misick were very interesting: the CCA Annex aims to be a platform that can collaborate with people, and is actively working to encourage audience interaction. For example, they initially used the broadcasting platform Twitch, but switched to Vimeo, which has more spokes features, to make it more interactive. The chat function allows for easy interaction as it has a place for a certain type of discourse. In terms of participation hurdles, the online event can be organised through a browser, so that people can literally just visit the site and watch the live event without having to post a separate link. Alex described this as the CCA Annexe literally being like an annexe, or a room within a room. He finds that this kind of idea prevents one-way transmission, which can be a problematic aspect of digital curation.
CCA Annex Home page (n.d.). Screenshot by the author. Available at https://cca-annex.net/
As an example of the work, he presented Sean Wai Keung’s Dish of The Week. This piece documents his attempts to recreate a recipe in his own kitchen, where the artist invited a community group in Glasgow to share their recipe with him. He presents the resulting footage alongside information about the communities he works with and the poems he was inspired by while cooking. As an example of the work, he presented Sean Wai Keung’s Dish of The Week. This piece documents his attempts to recreate a recipe in his own kitchen, where the artist invited a community group in Glasgow to share their recipe with him. He presents the resulting footage alongside information about the communities he works with and the poems he was inspired by while cooking. Alex drew on this work to explain that it was the result of thinking about the ways in which artists could work (and produce work) in digital online spaces during a time of pandemic. I regard the example of the potatoes as an experimental work that was building a local area within the idea of food and cooking, which is a history, like the stories and personal relationships of different people around food. Then, it’s essentially for the artists themselves, as it requires community conversation and a certain kind of learning.
Sean Wai Keung (n.d.). Dish of the Week. Screenshot by the author. Available at https://cca-annex.net/entry/dishes/
In addition, Alex argued that CCA annex acts as a digital extension of the material gallery. He stated that the programming and conversations for a physical exhibition are the same as for a physical one, but the context in which the work is completed is different from a digital one. Even though the Annex is a website, in a way, it has a relationship and visuality, both physical and building, with many of the projects and commissions they do. CCA’s projects are physical, they are in buildings, but they are not confined to them, they are like a transmission from the building. Additionally, the CCA works internationally. He explained that, in fact, 35% of visits to the CCA are international. The platform is for a variety of programming in the building, such as exhibitions, the Intermedia Gallery and the C Library, where commissions are obtained. Other benefits of digital curation, such as the ecological comfort of the programme and the flexibility of working with artists in terms of deadlines and timeframes, could be percieved from his conversation, although a potential problem also emerged. That is, online is difficult to maintain an audience – CCA Annex was an idea that was generated during the pandemic, but now that that situation is over, I realised that necessary to consider that purely online projects may not be in demand.
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