WEEK9 SICP: PUBLISING AND READING CORNER
The ninth week of the Publishing as Curating course has given me a new way of thinking about and planning my own personal curatorial project (SICP). Not only did the course give me a new understanding of the possibilities of publishing as an independent and revolutionary curatorial practice, but it also opened my eyes to the ways in which publishing and the construction of a reading area in the library can provide a more sustained, three-dimensional, interactive experience and theoretical extension to the exhibition.
Below are a few specific points of my planning and reflections on the SICP project this week based on the course content:
Firstly, I recognised that publishing is not just an auxiliary record of an exhibition, but an independent curatorial act capable of expanding the time and space of an exhibition. The Phone is the Keyhole and Serpentine’s How We Hold, mentioned in the course, create an active and continuously updated body of texts by organically combining exhibition content, participant voices, toolkits and archival fragments. Drawing on this idea, I plan to devise a multi-media publishing programme for the SICP project, producing a digital e-journal as well as a reading area in the COLLECTIVE LIBRARY related to the exhibition, which will allow visitors to continually review, discuss and deconstruct the exhibition themes even after the exhibition has ended. In this way, publishing becomes an important vehicle for the extension of the exhibition, giving it a ‘long-tail effect’.
Hillside Gallery and the Library, Carlton Hill, Edinburgh.
Secondly, I plan to embed multi-layered interactive content in the publication. On the one hand, I would like to invite the artists, technicians and visitors involved in the project to jointly write about their feelings, reflections and critiques during the exhibition process, forming a diverse collection of texts. As emphasised in the course, by ‘rotating authors’ and ‘publishing behind the scenes’ accounts, the concentration of power in traditional curatorial practice can be broken down and each participant can become a narrator. This approach not only helps to show the labour and creative collision behind the curation, but also makes the exhibition more transparent and inclusive. On the other hand, I also plan to set up QR codes in the reading area of the library, so that viewers can scan the QR codes to access in-depth interviews, audio archives, and online interactive discussion platforms related to the exhibition, thus enabling the linkage between online and offline.
Thirdly, I intend to introduce a discussion of identity, marginalisation and mobility into the content of the publication, with selections from the SICP project such as The Season of Burning Things and Rhadinace reflecting an exploration of migrant identities, ecological relationships and the construction of myths. Rhadinace‘ both reflect an exploration of migrant identities, ecological relationships, and the construction of myths. Constructing a framework of complementary theory and practice allows the publication to present not only the artworks themselves, but also to show how artists reconfigure narratives in complex historical, ecological and social contexts.
Rhadinace, Fergus Carmichael(2024).
The Season Of Burning Things.
Directed by Asmaa Jama & Gouled Abdishakour Ahmed.
2021.
Finally, I will focus on the sustainable mode of operation of publications and the reading area of the library. As mentioned in the course, publications should not only have an immediate dissemination effect, but also build a long-term knowledge archive. Therefore, I plan to establish partnerships with local public libraries and art organisations, and regularly organise publication-related lectures and seminars to ensure that the themes of the exhibitions and their extensions can be more widely disseminated and preserved.
References
Serpentine. How We Hold: Rehearsals for Art and Social Change. Accessed March 20, 2025. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/how-we-hold-rehearsals-for-art-and-social-change/.
The Phone is the Keyhole; The Penpot, the Heart. Accessed March 20, 2025. https://hvm-books.com/publications/the-phone-is-the-keyhole-the-penpot-the-heart.
British Council. “The Season of Burning Things.” Accessed March 16, 2025. http://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/the-season-of-burning-things.
Rhadinace. “Rhadinace.” Vimeo video, 2025. Accessed March 16, 2025. https://vimeo.com/926942535/1a6086654e?&login=true#_=
(https://unsplash.com/photos/blue-and-white-heart-illustration-j1RpMqas82o)
