Curatorial Thinking: Exhibition as Medium

The exhibition, where objects are grouped together for a limited time to elucidate a particular thesis or argument, has been a key curatorial practice since the establishment of the public museum in the course of the long nineteenth century. But all exhibitions, whether time-bound or “permanent,” tell stories, communicate meaning, and establish values by presenting objects and ideas mediated through space. This course will examine how curators and exhibition designers construct aesthetic, historical and didactic narratives, and how they deploy text, graphic images, and digital components, to interpret and complement objects. Assignments will include the preparation of an exhibition using Google SketchUp, entailing interpretive components and object/images. Weekly assignments will focus largely on curatorial practice and interpretation, including critical evaluation of current exhibitions. Midterm presentations will be an opportunity to workshop the proposed exhibition project. This course is a pre-requisite for those intending to submit an Exhibition QP. As in other QP tracks, topics should come out of a pre-existing paper. The faculty advisor under whom the original paper was written, together with the instructor of this class, will share advising for the project. Deadlines and other aspects of the QP process will remain consistent with other tracks. 3 credits. Satisfies the digital literacy project requirement. MDP.