Curatorial Studies Towards Co-creation and Multiple Agencies

Erin A. Peters reflects on her objectives as a curator and educator, and the agency of museum visitors as co-creators.

collections.In my experience, a curator of ancient art (or other historic art) is s ig nif ica ntly different from a curator of contemporary art, and seems to blend practices of art and science curators.In looking for commonalities across curators of contemporary art, science , d igita l data, and ancient material culture from the information here, perhaps it can be said a curator generally uses research, knowledge, and opinion to select and collect, and combine elements (objects and ideas) into a different thing than the thing was alone before being collected and combined (in a museum collection, an exhibition, a research publication).In this vein, and in simpler terms, a curator selects a thing as important through research and expertis e, c a r es for and preserves it, interprets it, and makes it available and viewable.
Two things immediately strike me as missing in such a curatorial practice: the agency of people (audiences) and of objects/things.If look ing to reception theory, and agency of material culture, a more nuanced and holistic picture can come into view. 7When looking f o r the agency of people in the 2014 panel publication, there were few positiv e a llusio ns , a nd panelists were more generally disparaging towards audience participation.Fo r ins tanc e, in his published reflection on the panel, Dan Byers commented that The public re mains the most vital voice within any m useum, and differe ntiates it from the academy.Knowle dge and experience is share d, and in the sharing, culture is m ade.But as the e mphasis is place d on spectacle, and on audience 'de ve lopment,' 'engagement,' and 'participation,' (all concepts which are very e asily bastardized today towards lowe st common denominator ends), art m useums could benefit from curators who have also spent long ye ars in conve rsation with artists and researching in private. 8t if we go beyond seeing audience participation in museums as solely s om ething to seek, entice, and therefore control, and also take participation as a given through receptio n, more productive practices of curator-audience co-creation could be developed.In reception/viewer theory, meaning is made through individual reception and p e rc ep tio n, a s well as social interaction. 9This meaning-making happens parallel to or apart from constructed meaning imposed through curatorial messages.If we were to appreciate audience self-made meaning as equally valuable as our specialist meaning, and to solicit it in 7 For ins tance, Wolfgang Kemp adds to rec eption theories and describes the "beholder" with "prec onditions" like s pecific gender, presence, and his tory, whic h intrinsically inform an experience with a work of art (whic h has its own s et of prec onditions).I n Kemp's methodology of rec eption aesthetics, beholders ac tively c onverse/participate with a work of art (or an exhibition, etc .), and bring innate meaning that c omes from the partic ularities of a beholder's and an artwork 's c ontexts.Wolfgang Kemp, an active process of co-creation, audience participation could be more nuanced than "spectacle."10I could not detect the agency of objects/things in the 2014 panel dis cus sio n, whic h is likely a reflection of the curatorial tendency to privilege the "original" context (or lif e ) o f a n object or idea.Indeed, we generally go to great pains to "reenact" the context of the original moment of creation through research and interpretation; this is especially the case for myself and other curators of ancient material culture.This is true across dif f e re nt t y p e s o f institutions, from anthropology, archaeology and natural history, to art museums.Even with different intentions of interpretation and display-i.e. between a didactic pr e se nta tio n tha t values knowledge and an aesthetic presentation that values the aura of an objectinformation about the original context (as we understand it) is us ua lly c o nvey ed thr oug h reconstruction, recreation, or label data.This kind of reenactment d is r eg ard s a n o bj e ct's presence and agency through time, and particularly its contemporary context as a m use um object.Going forward, if we recognize our understanding of the original context of an ob je ct or idea as one story, and present an object as a museum object by using m ate r ia lity a s a museological theory, we can be transparent and egalitarian in our presentatio n o f o b je cts and ideas. 11Through transparency and exposure of an object's lives (a multiplicity of interpretations), we can participate in critical curating, 12 and also move beyond institutio nal critique to become a post-critical and reflexive museum profession b y uniting the o ry a nd practice. 13 striving to unite theory and practice, and looking back at different understanding s o f curators and curatorial practice discussed here, I find it important to a s k : what d o e s this mean for me as a curator, and for the kind of curating I teach students so they can b e b es t prepared for what curating will look like in the future?Towards this question, I will c a s t the net wider to think how curators function within their larger institutions, communities, and the larger museum field.For this task, museum studies-a fast developing f ie ld o f s tudy tha t looks at the whole of the museum profession, from daily tasks to the overarching theoretica l principles of museum practice and operation in and relation to society -can be useful.Trends in museum studies can help neutralize and contextualize a curator's practic e to b e ho listic rather than isolationist.For instance, the trend towa rds the democratization of museum professions and tasks places curators as one force in a larger interconnected picture, in which exhibitions are one task.But does democratization mean doing awa y with s p e cialty and rigor?I would say no; in my practice, rigorous scholarly training and practice is the cor e of what I can contribute.Indeed, I see specialist scholarship and research a s ne ce ss ar y to the core of museum work so that we can be accountable for the information and experiences that we present.At the same time, I realize my perspective is only one in a web of interwoven and interdependent ones, which, in addition to a vast arr ay o f c o llea gue s a nd publics, also involves objects' and audiences' agency.Through the process of reflection for this essay, I've identified a num b er o f e leme nts that I will strive to make a part of my own work as Assistant C urator and Lecturer of C uratorial Studies.I will base my practice in rigorous scholar ly r e se ar ch with a r e s ear c h program in which I can participate actively in the fields relevant to ancient material culture in order to be a capable steward for the collections at the C MP.I will relate my research to the collections and also with the larger societal picture of our contemporary wo rld , s o tha t m y work is in dialogue with a broad range of people and circumstances.I will be an advocate for the mission-driven model, while supporting missions to be nimble, in dialogue with the pas t, participating in the present, and with an eye to the future, in order to avoid the entr enc he d mantra: "we do things this way/don't do things that way."I will be transparent, and use difficult information and stories as productive points of dialogue, which may encourage us to take on blame and actively combat the colonial notion that we are here to make people better with art/knowledge by bringing them into contact with objects/ideas that we think are important.I will avoid educating people and interpreting objects, but instead a c knowled g e and encourage the agency of people and objects as part of curatorial work.Rather than seeing myself as a collector/caretaker for objects, space, and ideas, and then creating visual, sensory, scientific knowledge, I will aim to be a facilitator in complexity and practice curation that is ever evolving, seeks many stories, and appreciates a wide range of value systems and expertise.I hope to do this by combining my curator (specialist) authority with o b j ec t a nd people/audience agency, both solicited and unsolicited; seeking out the least familiar and the "lowest common denominator" to shock my learned practice from comfortable process, which will ideally generate new methods of approach; and striving for true diversity that is be y ond cultural, racial, or ethnic, forcing interaction with ideas I believe to be wrong in order to promote genuine freedom of thought.This kind of curatorial practice may help m e p r e pa re the next generation of curators and museum professionals for whatever the future may bring.

Erin Peters in Discussion with Annika Johnson, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Erin Peters's vantage point at the intersection of multiple disciplines and institutions provides a unique opportunity to consider the ever-changing role of curator.When and how does curatorial agency come into play amidst the thicket of institutional visions, initia tiv es a nd everyday operations?How might curators soften disciplinary and institutional borders?Peters' personal mission statement that emerges centers on approach and action, and curatorial agency is here distributed among objects and their lives, and audience participants, who emerge as key co-creators in the mix.To follow up, I asked her a few questions about her experiences enacting this curatorial thinking (Annika Johnson).
AJ: How does the physical space of the museum factor in as an agent amidst (a nd lite ra lly housing) the tangle of viewer, curatorial, and object agencies?I'm curious specifically a b out your research on space in ancient Egypt and how this has influence d y o ur think ing a b out museum space and audience agency.
EP: Excellent question-generally, I see the physical space (specifically the built environment) of the museum as part of object/thing agency, as it is in the realm of the physical/material.Just as objects housed within museums are actively charged with a myriad of stories, perspectives, and ways of communicating, so too is the space around them.Through this active agency, museum space controls and communicates.Your question about physical space makes me think about non-physical space and its agency.Of course the r e is virtual space, but also social space, mental space, ritual space, etc.I am intere ste d in ho w AJ: You mention that we need to move beyond institutional critique, which struck me because self-reflexivity is now pretty standard within museum practice.Within the method of curatorial practice you envision, and in your experience working with ancient a r t, wher e is institutional critique productive and where does it fall short?EP: You are right, institutional critique/self-reflexivity is a standard in much of today's museum work and curatorial practice.I see it as continually necessary beca us e we a r e f a r from shedding our colonial 18 th /19 th century roots where museums and "art" are society conditioners, but we seem to be stuck in critique.I would say institutional critique falls shor t in the forever deconstructing of the museum/the market/the art world.I do think it is important to continue to expose the conditionality of art/knowledge in its economic, political, religious contexts and realities, but I don't see that critiquing the s y ste ms a r e e noug h to overcome ingrained structures or renew institutions.Rather, to move forw ard , we ne ed to start constructing, which is where I see post-critical museum and curatorial practice as beneficial, as it calls for the development of metadisciplinary views and c o lla bo ra tion.T he curatorial practice I hope for (and for our larger world-view) will continue to deconstruct, but also construct, ideally in some way not tied to our modern (Enlightenment) Western mindset.

AJ:
After reading your Innovation Studio post "Students + Staff: Moving From Experiment to Practice," it seems that your students responded positively to the id e a o f a c ur a tor a s a n agent rather that the agent in interpreting objects. 14As students of a totally digital generation, did this seem natural to them, or was their some resistance to this id e a? W ha t excited them most about the future of museums?EP: Indeed, my students not only responded positively to the idea of a curator as an a g ent, it seemed completely familiar to them, and being the agent seemed foreign.As you no te, it is likely that this comes much from their presence in a digital generation, which has democratized and pluralized access and authority through the internet.It seemed what excited them most about the future of museums is where museums can be active and positive participants in societies-as connectors of objects, people, time, and space.In many ways, my students struck me as leagues ahead in thinking about museum work and curatorial practice, and I'm excited to see them as not only future museum professionals, but integral in current and present museum work, by taking experience and moving to exploration, they can help us bring about necessary evolution.