Today I read a paper by McLaughlin and Gabard-Durnam published in 2022 entitled Experience-driven plasticity and the emergence of psychopathology. After reading it, it’s surprising how unconsciously the keynote of my curatorial project, which I keep mulling over and over again, popped into my head, ‘How can curation stimulate bodily perception and the experience of rebirth?’
The concept of ‘experience-driven neuroplasticity’ proposed in this article made me start to rethink the relationship between exhibition space and the body-perhaps we are not just ‘walking into’ an exhibition space, but letting the body experience it again. Perhaps we are not just ‘entering’ an exhibition space, but letting the body experience another opportunity to shape itself.
As mentioned in the article, the human nervous system is not static, but undergoes deep structural reorganisation as a result of specific experiences, especially strong emotions or trauma. The way we perceive, our ability to deal with emotions, and even our sense of trust and intimacy with others are all ‘written’ into our bodies by these experiences. I suddenly realised that the exhibition was an opportunity for ‘re-experiencing’.
This made me think about why I have always been so fascinated by ‘non-visual’ media such as smell, touch and light. Not for the sake of creating atmosphere, but because they can bypass the logical system of the brain and directly awaken the earliest and most instinctive memories of the body. Just like sometimes when I smell a burst of jasmine, I will suddenly recall my grandmother’s quilt when I was a child, and that sense of security will return to my body almost instantly.
The article also mentions a concept that struck me particularly well: the ‘critical window period’. Our brain is particularly sensitive to external stimuli at certain stages, such as childhood, or the ‘blank period’ after a certain kind of trauma. I think exhibitions can actually create a similar ‘psychological window period’ – not in terms of time, but in terms of the state of perception. If an exhibition can make people slow down, quiet down, and re-aware of what they are experiencing, then it may become a medium for reorganisation in this ‘window’.
I began to imagine that the exhibition space in the future would no longer be a white box, but more like a ‘sensory restoration room’: soft light, coarse materials, and even a kind of background sound that can make people daze. The viewer is no longer coming to see something, but to enter a state, to be awakened by his own body.
After reading this article, I wrote down a sentence on the edge of my notes, which is also the sentence for today:
‘To curate is to leave a margin of perception for rebirth.’
Core Concept & Theme：
‘Life is not merely a state of being, but a process of continual metamorphosis, remodelling, and generation.’
This exhibition explores the fragility and plasticity of life, focusing on how individuals are constantly changing, adapting, and regenerating in response to time, environment, trauma, and technology. Life is both fragile and infinitely malleable; it can decay and disintegrate, but it can also be repaired, reinvented, and even transcend its original form. The exhibition invites the audience to enter a non-linear narrative space, and in the interactive experience of sight, touch, sound, light and shadow, to perceive how life is shaped, shattered, and reorganised into new forms of existence.
Key Questions：
– Is the shape of life fixed, or is it a constant flow between shaping and disintegration?
– How are memories, bodies, and identities altered by external forces (social, technological, traumatic)?
– Does the plasticity of life imply freedom, or is it a controlled deformation?
Medium:
This exhibition explores the fragility and malleability of life using a multitude of mediums, centred on installation, video, bio-art, sculpture and sound art, combined with interactive and immersive experiences.
Through spatial interventions that allow the viewer to physically perceive the changes of life, such as soft fabric structures, flowing liquids, fragile glass or wax installations, the shaping and disintegration of life is simulated.
The non-linear narrative structure, through spatial design, deformable materials and video loops, allows the audience to experience the continuous shaping and reorganisation of life. Breaking the traditional way of viewing, the audience can feel the ‘fragility and plasticity’ of life through walking, touching and immersive experience.
Through spatial interventions that allow the viewer to physically perceive the changes of life, such as soft fabric structures, flowing liquids, fragile glass or wax installations, the shaping and disintegration of life is simulated.
The non-linear narrative structure, through spatial design, deformable materials and video loops, allows the audience to experience the continuous shaping and reorganisation of life. Breaking the traditional way of viewing, the audience can feel the ‘fragility and plasticity’ of life through walking, touching and immersive experience.
Venue Selection: A hybrid curatorial approach of ‘physical + digital’.
The physical venue may be in an industrial/experimental location, providing a more ‘unfinished’ quality that echoes the ‘life-shaping’ concept of the exhibition. There will also be an online component (Virtual Exhibition) that will allow global audiences to access and personalise their experience of the exhibition at any time, and to experience the exhibition in a virtual space to maximise accessibility.
The physical venue may be in an industrial/experimental location, providing a more ‘unfinished’ quality that echoes the ‘life-shaping’ concept of the exhibition. There will also be an online component (Virtual Exhibition) that will allow global audiences to access and personalise their experience of the exhibition at any time, and to experience the exhibition in a virtual space to maximise accessibility.
The goal of this exhibition is to go beyond the static way of viewing and allow the viewer to walk, touch, and interact to experience the changes of life and to continue to explore their own form with this reflection even after the exhibition is over.
References：
McLaughlin, K.A. and Gabard-Durnam, L., 2022. Experience-driven plasticity and the emergence of psychopathology: A mechanistic framework integrating development and the environment into the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) model. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 131(6), pp.575–586.
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press.
Julie Louise Bacon
10 February 2025 — 18:10
While you summarise some activities from earlier in the course, it is quite general. In Week 1, you mention “Combined with my previous visits to art museums and my own curatorial experience”: this is one clear place to add details and content that create a sense of you and your interests.
In Week 2 you outline your interest in immersive exhibition experiences: it is important to support statements/descriptions of curatorial methodologies with critical thinking from theorists or curators about immersive experience in this case. You do offer Juhani Pallasmaa’ thoughts on audience engagement with sensory aspects of exhibitions, make sure you tell the reader who all the people are you reference (the Finnish architect…)
It is good to see you mention exhibition case studies as examples, keep doing this. I looked with interest at Chiharu Shioda’s Trembling Souls, you include some really good visuals. Take care to give all information necessary when you cite examples/references, dates of exhibitions, locations etc. Very good to read about your field trip to the Tate, and you link this back to the previous week: also good, it creates narrative flow between your posts.
It’s great to see substantial ideas taking shape for your SICP, well done: be sure to add some narrative text to the Week 4 post, it reads more like a list at the moment, though it has strong content, including the title! It would be good to look back and see where you can edit in the sense of your project research developing.
You do mention the Collective in one post, with some good summary, however you need to weave more review and reflection of the collective work in, link it to you own project where relevant and add independent research that expands on the tasks/discussions.
It is also very important to add content that contextualises your independent project research in relation to the content and key ideas raised by course materials and weekly lecture themes. This can be references to readings, a thinker or curator, case study examples of arts organisations, arts practice etc from the lectures. You then show how this has informed your own work.
Presentation: It is good to see you using titles for posts to editorialise them and give the reader a hook. Consider also using sub-headings strategically; format key terms/ideas (eg bold); use standard formatting for exhibitions and book titles (italics), quote accurately; delete all standard WordPress content; add bibliograhies to the end of posts.