XPLORE: New Media Art Incubation -

“Curating After New Media”

Date: April 16 (Fri), 17 (Sat), 20 (Tue)
Duration: 4 hours/day
Place: Zoom Meetings
Participants: 12 Indonesian young curators and artists
– Anam Khoirul (Yogyakarta)
– Bayu Genia (Jakarta)
– Carly Whitaker (Johannesburg)
– Catharina Utami (Jakarta)
– Elghandiva Astrilia Tholkhah (Jakarta)
– Erika Ernawan (Bandung)
– Gladysmara Ledys (Sumatra Barat)
– Jessica Tanto (Jakarta)
– Putu Sridi (Bali)
– Rachmat Hidayat Mustamin (Makassar)
– Rumah Tangga (Depok)
– Savitri Sastrawan (Bali)

Background & Objectives

New media art is no longer a foreign art form in Indonesia, but instead it has brought vitality to the local art scene in the past few years. An increasing number of artists is now pursuing new media art while more and more galleries and museums are showcasing new media art works as their main concentration. However, despite the increase of interest and demand in the field, there is a lack of opportunities for curators to learn and discuss new media art curatorship.

Meantime, the exhibition environment is rapidly changing through the pandemic and urgently requiring a new curatorial approach. In responding to this paradigm shift, XPLORE: New Media Art Incubation (est. 2018) this year focuses on the discourse on curating after new media. This workshop aims to equip Indonesian curators with theoretical and practical insights in new media art curatorship. Consisting of a lecture, case study presentations, group discussions, and a project pitch, the workshop will highlight on various yet fundamental topics in the field including (1) modes of curating, (2) participative systems, (3) production, critical making, and distribution, (4) curating issue, and (5) curating in the post-pandemic era.

As the first new media art curator workshop held in the country, this program is instructed by the world recognized new media art scholar and curator Beryl Graham (UK) as the mentor-in-chief and supported by numerous International and Indonesian curators with extensive knowledge and experiences. By completing this workshop, the participants will be exposed to the most up-to-date aspects in new media art curating, gain both conceptual and practical knowledge in the field, and expand international networks for their own project in the future.

Mentor-in-Chief

Beryl Graham (UK) – Beryl Graham currently serves as Professor of New Media Art at the University of Sunderland. She holds a PhD concerning interactive media artwork and has given lectures internationally, including Banff Center (Canada), Tate Modern, and the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK). She is the co-founder of CRUMB resource for curators of new media art. http://www.crumbweb.org

Her books include Digital Media Art (Heinemann 2003), Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (MIT Press 2010 with Sarah Cook) and New Collecting: Exhibiting and Audiences (Ashgate 2014 ed.). She has written for periodicals including Art Monthly, Leonardo, and the Journal of Curatorial Studies.

Guest Mentors

ARCOLABS (ID) – ARCOLABS is a Jakarta-based curator initiative that focuses on producing innovation and creative thinking through a variety of practice-based programs including visual art exhibitions, community development projects, hands-on workshops, student research, and other academic and non-academic events. Consisting of three professional curators from various backgrounds — Evelyn Huang (Indonesian-Chinese) from Cultural Studies, Jeong Ok Jeon (Korean) from Fine Arts, and Nin Djani (Indonesian) from Southeast Asia Studies — ARCOLABS has promoted both interdisciplinary interaction and international exchange between artists, theorists, practitioners, and scholars. www.arcolabs.org; IG – @arcolabs.id

Suzy O’Hara (UK) – Suzy O’Hara is a curator and researcher based at the University of Sunderland. Through her practice, she interrogates evolving relationships between art and technology and investigates interdisciplinary and cross-industry models of curation that utilize and inform innovation-based strategies. She holds a PhD from the CRUMB research group at the University of Sunderland and an MA in Curatorial Studies from Newcastle University. She is the co-editor of Art Hack Practice Critical Intersections of Art, Innovation and the Maker Movement (Routledge Press 2019 with Vitoria Bradbury).

https://www.sunderland.ac.uk; http://www.colabsunderland.co.uk/

Agung Jennonghujatnika (ID) – Dr. Agung Hujatnika, M.Sn, also known as Agung Hujatnikajennong, is a lecturer at the Visual Art Study Program, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Bandung, and currently a member of the Research Group of Aesthetics and the Science of Arts at ITB. As an independent curator, he has curated a number of major national and international exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad since early 2000s. Aside from teaching and researching, he writes for various national mass media, academic journals and exhibition catalogues. His book ‘Kurasi dan Kuasa’, on curatorship and power relations in the Indonesian art world, was published by Marjin Kiri and the Jakarta Arts Council in 2015.

Bob Edrian (ID) – Bob Edrian is a curator and writer based in Bandung, Indonesia. Focusing his research on the development of sound in the arts and media art, his curatorial projects include “Bandung New Emergence Vol. 6: Listen!” (2016), “Intomedia” (2017), “Soemardja Sound Art Project” (2018), and “International Media Art Festival Instrumenta” (2018-2019). Currently, he is a curator at NuArt Sculpture Park and the director of Audial Plane, a division for sound art and experimental music at Orange Cliff Records. His recent work has been featured in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound Art (2020).

Day 1 (Friday, 16 April 2021)