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#3Week 2-2 Post

Reconstructing Curating on Miro: How Our Group Challenged the White Cube Narrative

Introduction: From Virtual Whiteboards to Real-World Experimentation

“As our Miro board filled with sticky notes, arrows, and wild speculations, I realized that this was more than just a class discussion—it was a micro-revolution in the future of curating. From dialogue chambers inside cars to tactile VR for visually impaired audiences, the sparks ignited on our digital whiteboard were actively reshaping the boundaries of ‘exhibition-making’.”

Key Questions from the Week 2 Planning Meeting:

Can curatorial formats exist beyond physical space?

How can collective work avoid becoming an empty utopian slogan?

What evidence on Miro reflects our shift towards non-traditional spaces, ethical technology, and skill-sharing?

Curating Intimacy: Experimental Models and Critical Reflections

Following my previous reflections on curating intimacy, I have developed a series of experimental models that seek to transform exhibition spaces into arenas for personal and collective healing.

 

1. Energy Theater: Ethical Dilemmas and Emotional Algorithms

Inspired by ZKM’s critique of digital ethics, this interactive installation invites visitors to wear sensors that monitor their heart rate and breathing. This biometric data generates real-time audiovisual landscapes, aiming to quantify the energy flow within intimate relationships. However, this raises ethical questions reminiscent of Abramović’s Rhythm 0 (1974)https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177, where she relinquished control to the audience. Can we critique technological capitalism while utilizing its tools?

2. Knowledge Archaeology: Trauma Archives

Drawing from Arts Catalyst’s “knowledge equity” movement, this segment features a “Trauma Archive Room” where visitors can contribute mementos from past relationships. These items are embedded in crystal structures, symbolizing energy transformation and the materiality of trauma. Yet, this participatory approach risks emotional exploitation—are we commodifying others’ pain?

 

3. Decentralized Narratives: The Localization Trap

Emulating the 2023 Taipei Biennial’s “island methodology,” the exhibition extends into local spaces such as the common room of my apartment in Edinburgh (EH3 9DH) and The Tap, a nearby bar. Local residents are invited to reenact segments of Abramović and Ulay’s The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk (1988). This strategy aims for localization but must avoid romanticizing or appropriating local cultures.

 

4. Public Philosophy: The Paradox of Dialogue

Building on Fruitmarket’s philosophy of public space, the final segment features a “Silent Roundtable” where participants engage in non-verbal communication, reminiscent of Abramović’s silent engagements. This challenges the assumption of knowledge as a public resource: can curating reconstruct publicness through embodied silence?

Critical Reflections: The Ethical Precipice of Curating

1. Privatization of Trauma: Publicizing personal emotions may turn suffering into spectacle, as seen in the viral spread of emotional moments from The Artist Is Present. How can we prevent curating from becoming an accomplice to emotional capitalism?

2. The Illusion of Decolonization: Western art narratives often absorb localized stories as exotic curiosities. If my curation highlights “Scottish breakup culture,” am I perpetuating the same logic?

Future of Curating: An Unfinished Funeral

Abramović once stated, “Joy doesn’t teach us much; pain transforms us.” My project culminates in an “Unfinished Funeral”—participants take fragments of the crystal sculptures, committing to bury them in a place of personal significance. This act questions the closure of the exhibitionary complex, suggesting that the end of curating is the beginning of individual healing.

Leave with this question: When curating seeks to catalyze ephemeral energy transformations rather than permanent displays, are we approaching the essence of art?

References

 Abramović, Marina. The Artist Is Present. Performance at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010. MoMA Exhibition

 Smith, Terry. Curating the Complex & The Open Strike. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022. Sternberg Press

 Abramović, Marina, and Ulay. The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk. Performance, 1988.

 Abramović, Marina. Rhythm 0. Performance, 1974.

 “Taipei Biennial 2023.” Taipei

 

Invitation to the Reader:

“Click [here] to enter our public Miro board. Drop your most provocative critique in the ‘Controversy Zone’—let’s prove that curatorial democracy can start with a single ‘I disagree’.”

Final Easter Egg:

• Poll: “Which of these ‘anti-exhibition’ concepts would you actually pay for?”
• 🔥 A carbon-neutral debate in a junkyard
• 💻 An AI-generated gallery that self-destructs in real-time
• 👂 An entirely sound-based ‘blind perception’ exhibition
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#3Week 2-2 Post / Zihan Fu / Curating (2024-2025)[SEM2] by is licensed under a
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