News

June, 2008 Archive

Click! Opens at Brooklyn Museum
Davin — June 27th, 2008

Back in March, Brooklyn Museum put out an open call for photos responding to the theme “The Changing Faces of Brooklyn.” The 389 photos submitted, each with a 100-word artist’s statement, were presented online anonymously and randomly for public evaluation in a unique experiment in the wisdom of crowds. Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition is the result of the 410,089 evaluations made. It’s a clustered exhibit of the top 20% of the evaluated works. The exhibition opens today and runs until August 10th.

What’s also interesting is how thoroughly documented and transparent the process has been. It’s clear that organizer Shelley Bernstein, the museum’s Manager of Information Systems, and her team saw this as a chance to examine this type of public evaluation. The exhibition exposes some of the data collected and provides some interesting comparative tools that track things like “evaluator knowledge level”, the level of discussion on each image, and the location of the evaluator.

Image: Claudia Sohrens. Schauplatz # 18 (Greenpoint Warehouse), 2006. All rights reserved

brooklynmuseum.org

Posted in Events, Exhibitions, Organizations, Websites — Comment
Jonathan Gitelson: Chicago El Stories
Davin — June 5th, 2008

Jonathan Gitelson: Chicago El StoriesJonathan Gitelson’s public art project in Chicago’s Armitage Brown Line Station opened today and there is an accompanying website, chicagoelstories.com, which approximates the experience for people who can’t make it to the station. Thankfully, there’s no rush as this is a beautifully conceived permanent element within the station. Jonathan has also posted a quick 360 video of the space on his blog.

On the website, each of the 42 still photos are presented with audio stories of varying lengths. The interviews were conducted between February and April 2007 on the platform of the station. Each passenger was asked to tell a story about their Chicago experience. In the station, the images of the related Chicago locations are paired with excerpts from each person’s story on 20“x24“ glass tiles.

Gitelson’s work is wonderfully varied and high concept with a great personal sense of humour. You need return visits to really take in all of the projects on his website, thegit.net.

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Chicago El Stories also reminds me to mention the Toronto location-based oral history project, Murmur. Shawn Micallef, James Roussel, and Gabe Sawhney began Murmur in Toronto’s Kensington Market in 2003 and it has spawned new locations around the city and around the world.

Posted in Events, Exhibitions, People, Websites — Comment
Women in Photography Launches
Davin — June 3rd, 2008

Photo by Elinor CarucciCara Phillips and Amy Elkins have launched their much anticipated Women in Photography site today and their first feature is Elinor Carucci.

“There are more women working in the contemporary photo world then ever before. Their methods, choice of subject matter, visual language, and processes run the gamut of artistic possibility. What unites them is their passion and the effort they devote to creating extraordinary bodies of work. Women in Photography is a showcase for this work. It is also a resource for photographers, editors, curators, gallery owners, and viewers alike to discover and enjoy the work of female artists. By mixing the work of emerging photographers with artists that have achieved high levels of success within fine art and commercial worlds, the project is designed to open a visual dialogue and create a venue to share work, support, and ideas.” — wipnyc.org

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