The Role of the Curator in Online Video Art

As video online has exploded, visual and video art have moved in
parallel and incongruent ways.  Online art-specific collectives like
Rhizome have formed as receptacles and meeting spaces for artists, but
are they relevant or even necessary?  What do art databases like the
Perpetual Art Machine mean for how we understand, consume, locate
video art?  Are these sites curated spaces by simply existing?  And,
if so, how do human curators navigate and cull from these spaces?

We will explore the definitions and potential discomforts of online
curating, as well as what should define online video curating and what
makes a person an "expert" in a digital age. The web enables everyone
to become an art curator, but we must look at the differences between
curating and merely grasping at memes, attempting to discover or
produce the next major movement. Specifically following in the
theoretical traditions of McLuhan and Postman, video online must be
approached with the same skepticism and care we have used to evaluate
new media over the past forty years.  Understanding it within its own
distinct online framework, art is an essential, potentially less
explosive place to begin discussions about curating, ownership, and
the basics of web video.

Brittany Shoot is an American writer and media consultant based in
Copenhagen, Denmark.  She has an MA in Visual and Media Arts from
Emerson College and co-curates online video projects including art
collective DVblog.org and the Lumiere video project
(videoblogging.info).

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