New Media Curation: a novel methodology with preliminary criteria for exhibiting new media and interactive art Deborah Jane Turnbull Tillman A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Art, Design & Media Faculty of Art & Design 5 September 2018 PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: Tillman First name: Deborah Other name/s: Jane Turnbull Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: PhD School: Art, Design and Media Faculty: Art and Design Title: New Media Curation: a novel methodology with preliminary criteria for exhibiting new media and interactive art Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) This PhD thesis responds to a call from curators to modify the way responsive art is designed, exhibited and experienced, in order to learn from and be transformed by this process of change. How we are transformed, and how we describe that transformation through discursive language becomes apparent, particularly regarding the variables of disruption and authenticity as introduced into new exhibitions for analysis. I have worked in practice-based research roles, producing and exhibiting interactive art for the last 10 years as Director of the research initiative New Media Curation (NMC) and for 2 years as Assistant Curator in Design and Technology at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Stuck in a cycle of producing and exhibiting, the opportunity to reflect on and reframe my practice arose in listening and responding to various calls for reform to practice from my contemporaries. This study tracks emerging and established artists’ processes from studio to exhibition. I will reflect on their place in my curatorial process under the NMC banner to establish an arena of practice-based research in experimental public spaces using an NMC Methodology. This methodology is then tested and reworked in a bricolage approach through three curated interventions over the course of the PhD. The first, Denoéument, was part of VIVID 2015’s Musify+Gamify (highlighting the process of emergent practitioners, students at UNSW Art & Design). The Methodology is then reflected on and the processes modified in a case study for Curator-as-Producer role for ISEA2015: disruption. The final case study allows for any changes in audience experience to emerge and be recorded in the voices of fellow curators who experienced the exhibition and are already contributing to the discussion on curating interactive art. This exhibition is titled Re/Pair and took place as a closing event for The Big Anxiety Festival at UNSW Art & Design in November 2017. The outcomes consist of a new model featuring criteria for curating interactive art in public spaces (festivals) with a focus on disruptive practices and authentic audience experience. These criteria emerge from the data collected and reflected on in the case studies from all key participants in the making and experiencing of Interactive Art, namely artists, curators and audiences. This lends to and changes the traditional curatorial task of establishing criteria and authenticity from provenance to reflecting on what criteria emerge from authentic experience design. The result of this reworking of NMC’s practice-based research methodologies is to provide preliminary criteria and a novel approach for curating new media art. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). ………… ………… …… …………… 5 Sept 2018 Signature Witness Signature Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: 2 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed Date ……18 September 2018……………………………………….............. 3 Acknowledgements As shown within these pages, no creative work is accomplished on one’s own. I owe many people a debt of gratitude for their contributions to my doctoral research, but also to those who helped me grow New Media Curation by supporting me as a curator, and NMC as both a small business and a research platform. For the latter, the two people who initially encouraged me the most in the New Media Curation endeavour were Ian Gwilt and Aram Dulyan, thank you for pushing me so hard to get started, gentlemen. To those that encouraged me with projects, publications, conversations, and inspiration, a huge thank you to Ernest Edmonds, Linda Candy, Lizzie Muller, Matthew Connell, Norie Neumark & Maria Miranda, Martin Tomisch, Hank Haeusler, Lian Loke, Ollie Bown, Rob Saunders and Andy Dong. You helped me grow as a curator through your continued support of New Media Curation, and for this I am very appreciative. For the former, to the people who helped me shape my formal research during this degree, I am forever grateful to Petra Gemeinboeck, Mari Velonaki and Alex Davies. You have supported me in my exploration from five ideas down to one; thank you for your patience, your honesty, your resources, your thesis edits, and even your names alongside mine in publications. Such generosity and investment of time in a PhD candidate is envied by many of my contemporaries. Likewise, to my colleagues at the Creative Robotics Lab, David Rye, David Silvera-Tawil, Scott Brown, Belinda Dunstan, Mike Gratton, Tim Wiley and Jorge Forseck; thank you for working with me for the last few and rather intense years, whether it be feedback on APRs, interviews or edits to papers, ideation, collation and analysis of data, testing our ideas through teaching or helping out my students; what a team. I have felt very lucky to be able to contribute to and benefit from this lab environment over the course of my PhD. To those that participated in supporting my Case Studies, I am very grateful for your experimental spirit. For Denouément, a huge thank you to Ollie Bown and Lian Loke who curated Musify+Gamify and let me intervene into and disrupt their audiences’ experience in the name of research. A big thank you as well to Timothy Jones, Artistic Director and General Manager at the Seymour Theatre, for supporting my ethics application and letting us run a little bit amok. Thank you as well to UNSW Art & Design tutor Tom Ellard and his students Lauren Wenham and Seunghyun Kim for participating in the Case Study, with your works and your enthusiasm. For ISEA2015: disruption, a big thank you to the Artistic Directors Kate Armstrong and Malcolm Levy for first hiring me and then letting me perform a reflective practice case study on all of our work. I am also very grateful to Symposium Directors, Philippe Pasquier and Thecla Schiphorst for allowing me to sit in on Organisation Committee meetings, and being friendly and approachable regarding production or publication matters on this Case Study. The exhibition could not have happened without the production team Kate and Malcolm assembled, so a massive thank you to Aiden Ferris, Kristina Fiedrich, Elisha Burrows, Matt Smith and Steven Tong. I sincerely hope we get to work together again. 4 And finally, for Re/Pair, a really big thank you to Jill Bennett and Rachael Kiang for allowing me to disrupt the schedule at a later date then was ideal, and for bringing us under the umbrella of the Big Anxiety Festival. Thank you to the artists Mari Velonaki, Petra Gemeinboeck & Rob Saunders, Wade Marynowsky, Patricia Flanagan, and Rochelle Hayley. Your time and patience through artist interviews and workshops to final exhibition was unflagging and I appreciate you lending your experience and ideas to my final study. Thank you as well, to Vanessa Bartlett, whose edits to the press release were invaluable in gaining access to an already very full festival platform. To those that assisted me in editing the draft manuscript, a huge thank you to Grace Pilar Mitchell and Jeong Greaves. Your feedback and championing of ideas, automation of references and correct tense have made a huge difference to the readability, I am very grateful to not be the only person not to have read this multiple times. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to my family. First to Arron, Miriam and Tiger Tillman, thank you for your endless support and presence for whatever the task that was in front of me, be it an exhibition, a publication, or time and space to study, you are all so supportive.