In Week 10, our collective meeting focused on project updates, current challenges, and strategies for participatory curation. We shared a range of case studies and then brainstormed our own thematic proposals.

I focused on designing an interactive element that would make the temporal experiences of East Asian women visible to the public.

Meeting Process

Case Study: Candy Chang’s Before I Die (2011)

The example I’m sharing this week is a global participatory art project by Candy Chang, in which she transformed the side of an abandoned house in New Orleans into a giant chalkboard bearing the prompt: “Before I die, I want to ____.”

Here, people shared sincere confessions of desire, fear, humor, and hope. The wall became a mirror of the community’s collective dreams, constantly erased and rewritten as new voices joined in. The project has resonated globally: to date, more than 5,000 “Before I Die” walls have appeared in 78 countries and 35 languages.

Before I Die, New Orleans, Louisiana and worldwide
2011 – Present

We discussed how Before I Die effectively curates community voices—Chang provides the framework, but the content emerges directly from the participants. This blurs the boundaries between artist, curator, and audience, a defining feature of participatory practice, and a theme explored by Claire Bishop in her 2012 book Artificial Hells.

The project also highlights the importance of process over product: the wall is constantly evolving—photographed, erased, and rewritten—underscoring that the ongoing act of participation is just as significant as any final outcome.

From a curatorial perspective, this reinforces the need to intentionally guide and attend to the participatory process itself, rather than focusing solely on its visible results.

Feasibility of a Participatory Proposal

Inspired by this example, I propose to create an interactive installation tentatively titled “If I Had Time…”. This will take the form of a participatory wall within the exhibition, inviting visitors—particularly East Asian women—to share their personal experiences and aspirations related to time.

An important question arises: how to ethically frame and facilitate audience participation. I will address this concern in detail in the final curatorial proposal.

Group photo

Reference:

Before I Die: https://www.candychang.com/beforeidie/

Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells : Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso, 2012.
Week10: Collective blog / Shumiao Cheng / Curating (2024-2025)[SEM2] by is licensed under a