What remains after the exhibition?

For me, it’s not a blank wall or dismantled tape. It’s what lives on in documentation, in the hands of the audience, and in the tools we leave behind.

 Publishing as Curating: Letting the Audience Finish the Sentence

W9 and W11 asked us to rethink publishing and archiving not as aftermaths, but as curatorial forms themselves. Inspired by this, I designed a post-show publishing strategy rooted in co-authorship, reuse, and future circulation.

🟣 1. Co-Written Curatorial Zine

80 copies were printed and a digital PDF uploaded to ECA’s internal archive. This zine combines:

  • Audience Woolclap entries
  • Workshop writing
  • Reflections by student collaborators
  • Maps and images from the show

It isn’t a catalogue. It’s a collective reflection. Like Annie Fletcher and Sarah Pierce’s Paraeducation Department (O’Neill & Wilson, 2010), this zine aims to hold multi-directional knowledge, not top-down curatorial statements.

🟣 2. Audience Feedback Report

A visual brief summarising:

  • Voting trends and participatory patterns
  • Comments from visitors
  • Emotional responses collected via story corners and stickers

Influenced by Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher’s ideas in The Artist as Curator (2016), I considered affective response as a legitimate and valuable form of curatorial feedback.

🟣 3. Workshop Documentation & Visual Archives

Each cross-school session (TESOL, Design, Art Ed, CAT) was photographed, annotated, and saved:

  • Worksheets, maps, and trails
  • Concept boards and tactile feedback models

This echoes Simon Sheikh’s call in W4 for archives that are plural, localised, and generative.

🟣 4. Re-Usable Tools

From Woolclap’s QR systems to accessibility signage templates, all elements were designed for modular reuse:

  • Editable InDesign files
  • Google Drive folder accessible to ECA students

This allows the curatorial infrastructure to evolve rather than restart—what Nina Simon called “scaffolding for participation.”

🟣 5. Intra-School Curation Toolkit

I compiled my practical learning into a short downloadable guide:

  • Budget structuring
  • Co-authorship credit templates
  • Ethical guidance for participatory mechanisms

Open to all schools within ECA, this toolkit translates my project into a replicable low-cost, collaborative methodology.

Just as Dave Beech warned against “managerialist participation” (2010), I wanted to build not just inclusion, but meaningful reciprocity—with tools, not just talk.

🔍Why These Outputs Matter

I didn’t want the exhibition to vanish into memory or slide decks. These outputs are ways of letting the audience remain in the room—even after they leave.

They also prove something essential: that low-budget, high-sensitivity curating is not only possible but documentable. It leaves behind proof. And potential.