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Unit of study_

ARHT6960: Contemporary Curating

Semester 1, 2024 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

This unit of study focuses on contemporary curatorial practices and explores emerging trends and new directions in curating. It considers the expanding role of the curator, moving from traditional contexts in the art gallery and museum, to contemporary art spaces, artist-run initiatives, public sites, and into globalised and virtual settings. Curating is its own discipline. It has its own histories and is constantly evolving new modes of exhibition-making. The Contemporary Curator is inventing new ways for art to involve itself in society and we investigate the curatorial practices that meet the complexities, complacencies, inequalities, and possibilities of the contemporary moment.

Unit details and rules

Unit code ARHT6960
Academic unit Art History
Credit points 6
Prohibitions
? 
CAEL5032
Prerequisites
? 
None
Corequisites
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator Lilian Cameron, lilian.cameron@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s) Lilian Cameron, lilian.cameron@sydney.edu.au
Type Description Weight Due Length
Presentation Curatorial Pitch
n/a
10% Week 05
Due date: 19 Mar 2024 at 23:59
1000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO2 LO3 LO1
Assignment Project Literature Review
n/a
30% Week 09
Due date: 22 Apr 2024 at 23:59
2000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO2 LO1 LO4
Assignment Participation in Peer Feedback
n/a
10% Week 12
Due date: 16 May 2023 at 23:59
500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO3 LO1 LO4
Assignment Curatorial Project
n/a
50% Week 13
Due date: 26 May 2024 at 23:59
2500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO4 LO1 LO2 LO3

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

 

Distinction

75 - 84

 

Credit

65 - 74

 

Pass

50 - 64

 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

 

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website  provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.  

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them, you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section.

Studiosity is permitted for postgraduate units unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy 2023 reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy 2023. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 Contemporary Curating: Foundational Concepts and Methodologies Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3
Week 02 Space and Spectatorship: The Legacy of the White Cube Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 03 Institutional Critique: Curating as an Expanded Field Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 04 Curating Queer Pasts, Presents and Futures Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 05 Student Curatorial Pitch Presentations: Present your idea to the class. Group 1. Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3
Week 06 Student Curatorial Pitch Presentations: Present your idea to the class. Group 2. Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3
Week 07 Site visit to the Art Gallery of NSW: Intervention, Performance and Participation Field trip (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 08 The Global and the Local in Current Curatorial Practice Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 09 Site Visit to the 24th Biennale of Sydney: White Bay Power Station and Curatorial Responses to Site Field trip (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 10 Socially-engaged Practice and Curating across Disciplines Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 11 Collaborative Curatorial Practices and Indigenous Knowledge Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 12 The Artist as Curator and the Curator as Artist Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 13 Digital (R)evolutions: Curating and the Digital Realm Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4

Attendance and class requirements

  • Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.

  • Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.

  • Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Week 1: February 20

Contemporary Curating: Foundational Concepts and Methodologies

Required Reading                                                      

Maura Reilly. ‘What Is Curatorial Activism’, Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating, Thames & Hudson, 2018, pp17-33.

Terry Smith. ‘Thinking Contemporary Art’, Art to Come: Histories of Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, 2019, pp27-53

Additional Reading and Resources

David Balzer interview (podcast) with London Review of Books:

https://player.fm/series/london-review-bookshop-podcasts-1520922/curationism-david-balzer-and-zoe-pilgerLinks to an external site.

Zdenka Badovinac, Contemporaneity as Points of Connection

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/11/61343/contemporaneity-as-points-of-connection/

Note: There are two special issues of e-flux entitled "What is Contemporary Art?". While looking at them you might want to look at other articles in e-flux to get an idea of the breadth of the discussions.

The A-Z of contemporary art

Andrew Frost, The A-Z of contemporary art in the Sydney Morning Herald (3rd of March 2012)

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/the-a-to-z-of-contemporary-art-20120301-1u40k.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpYAOx9GvB8

https://www.macp.sva.edu/renonwnded-art-historian-and-writer-terry-smith-on-mapping-the-global-art-world-and-activism

Further reading

Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, and Anton Vidokle. What Is Contemporary Art? Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2010.

Zdenka Badovinac, 'Contemporaneity as Points of Connection' e-flux Journal #11 December 2009

Boris Groys, ‘Comrades of Time’, e-flux Journal, Issue 11, December 2009.

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/11/61345/comrades-of-time/

Jörg Heiser. All of a Sudden: Things That Matter in Contemporary Art. New York, NY: Sternberg Press, 2008.

Kate Fowle. ‘Who Cares? Understanding the Role of the Curator Today’, Cautionary Tales: Critical Curating, edited by Steven Rand and Heather Kouris, apexart, 2007, pp26-35.

Anthony Huberman. ‘The Artist’s Institute: Take care’, in Mai Abu El Dahab, Binna Choi and Emily Pethick (eds), Circular Facts, Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2011.

Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2005.

Gillian Perry, Paul Wood, and Open University. Themes in Contemporary Art, Open University Art of the Twentieth Century Series. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2004.

Jean Robertson and Craig Mcdaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Margriet Schavemaker, Mischa Rakier, and Jennifer Allen. Right About Now: Art & Theory since the 1990s. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2007.

Week 2: February 27

The legacy of the White Cube: Space and Spectatorship

Required Reading


Brian O’Doherty. ‘The Eye and the Spectator’, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, edited by Brian O'Doherty, Expanded edition, University of California Press, 1999, pp35-64.      

Elena Filipovic. ‘The Global White Cube’, The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe, edited by Barbara Vanderlinden and Elena Filipovic, MIT Press, 2005, pp63-84.

Also published online in Oncurating, Issue 22, April 2014. https://www.on-curating.org/issue-22-43/the-global-white-cube.html#.Y9czZuxByWA

Further Reading:    

Tony Bennett. ‘The Exhibitionary Complex’, New Formations, no. 4, Spring 1988, pp73-102.

Walter Grasskamp. ‘The White Wall - On the Prehistory of the ‘White Cube’’, On Curating, Curating Critique 9, no. 11 (2011), pp78-90.

Michel Foucault. ‘Des Espaces Autres’ (Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias), Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité, no. 5, October 1984, pp46-49; translated by Jay Miskowiec in Diacritics 16, no. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp22–27.

Thomas McEvilley. ‘Introduction’, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, edited by Brian O’Doherty, Expanded edition, University of California Press, 1999, 7-12.

Week 3: March 5
Institutional Critique: Curating as an expanded field

Required Reading                                                                                           

Alexander Alberro. ‘Institutions, critique, and institutional critique’, Institutional Critique: an Anthology of Artists’ Writings, edited by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson, MIT Press, 2009, pp2-19.

Verónica Tello. ‘What is Contemporary about Institutional Critique? Or, Instituting the Contemporary: A Study of The Silent University’, Third Text, Volume 31, Issue 6, 2020, pp635-648

Further Reading      

Benjamin Buchloh. ‘Allegorical Procedures: Appropriation and Montage in Contemporary Art’, Artforum International, Volume 2, Issue 1, 1982, pp43-56.

Daniel Buren. ‘The Function of the MUseu, Institutional Critique: an Anthology of Artists’ Writings, edited by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson, MIT Press, 2009, pp102-106

Andrea Fraser. ‘From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique’, Artforum International, vol. 44, no. 1, September 2005, pp278–283.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Week 4: March 12

Curating Queer pasts, presents and futures

Required Reading

Craig Middleton and Nikki Sullivan. ‘Queering Display’, in Queering the Museum, London: Routledge, 2019, pp43-63

Maura Reilly. ‘Challenging Hetero-centrism and Lesbo-/Homo-phobia: A History of LGBTQ exhibi-tions in the U.S’, Oncurating, Issue 7: Queer Curating, May 2018

Further Reading

Isabel Hufschmidt. ‘The Queer Institutional, Or How to Inspire Queer Curating’, Oncurating, Issue 7: Queer Curating, May 2018

Getsy David, ed. Queer, London: Whitechapel Gallery and Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2016

Andrew Gorman-Murray. ‘So, Where Is Queer? A Critical Geography of Queer Exhibitions in Australia’, Where is queer? London: Routledge, 2008, pp67-80

Week 5: March 19

Student Curatorial Pitch: Present your idea to the class. Group 1.

Week 6: March 26

Student Curatorial Pitch: Present your idea to the class. Group 2.

Mid-Semester Break: 1-5 April 2024

Week 7: April 9
Curating Performance at the AGNSW

Required Reading

Véronique Hudon. ‘The Curator’s Work: Stories and Experiences from Tino Sehgal’s Events’, in Dena Davida, Marc Pronovost, Véronique Hudon and Jane Gabriels, ed,. Curating Live Arts: Critical Perspectives, Essays, and Conversations on Theory and Practice, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2018, pp263-272

Jonah Westerman. ‘Project Overview’, Performance at Tate: Into the space of art, Tate website, accessed January 2023. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/project-overview

Further Reading

Beatrice Von Bismark. ‘Exhibiting Performances: Process and Valorization in When Attitudes Become Forms—Bern 1969 / Venice 2013’, in Dena Davida, Marc Pronovost, Véronique Hudon and Jane Gabriels, ed,. Curating Live Arts: Critical Perspectives, Essays, and Conversations on Theory and Practice, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2018, pp29-37

Adrian Heathfield and Hugo Glendinning. Art and Performance. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Kate Lawrence. ‘Who Makes Site-Specific Dance? The Year of the Artist and the Curatorial Matrix’, in Judith Rugg and Michèle Sedgwick, Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance, Bristol: Intellect, 2007, pp163-173

Tate. ‘An Introduction to Performance’, Tateshots, Tate website, September 22 2017, accessed January 2023.      https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/performance-art/introduction-performance-art                                                                                                        

Week 8: April 16

The global and the local in current curatorial practice

Recommended Reading

Ana E Bilbao, ‘From the Global to the Local (and Back)’, Third Text, Vol. 33, No. 2, 179-194, 2019.

Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal and Solveig Øvstebø, ed., The Biennial Reader, Bergen Kunsthall and Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010

Charles Green and Anthony Gardner, Biennials, triennials, and Documenta: the exhibitions that created contemporary art, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016

Julie Nagam, Megan Tamati-Quennell and Carly Lane. Becoming our future : global indigenous curatorial practice, Winnipeg, Manitoba : ARP Books, 2020

Fatoş Üstek, ‘The Impact of Context Specificity in Curating amidst the Forces at Play in a Globalized World of Realms’, in Brad Buckley and John Conomos, eds., A Companion to Curation, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2019, pp291-305

Marcus Verhagen, Flows and counterflows: globalisation in contemporary art, London: Sternberg Press, 2017

Tim Griffin, ‘Global tendencies: Globalism and the large-scale exhibition’. Artforum International; New York Vol. 42, Iss. 3, (Nov 2003)

Yaiza Hernández Velázquez, ‘Imagining Curatorial Practice’, Curating After the Global: Roadmaps for the Present, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2019, p.269.

Week 9: April 23

Site Visit to White Bay Power Station, the Biennale of Sydney

Project Literature Review due April 22.

Recommended Reading

Biennale of Sydney curatorial essay (yet to be published).

Week 10: May 7

Socially-engaged curating and curating across disciplines

Recommended Reading

2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art curatorial essay (yet to be published).

Week 11: April 30

Collaborative practices and Indigenous knowledge

Required Reading

Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Freja Carmichael, Leuli Eshraghi, Tarah Hogue & Lana Lopesi. 'Preface',  Download Preface', Transits and Returns Download Transits and ReturnsVancouver, British Columbia: Vancouver Art Gallery and Institute of Modern Art, 2018.

Léuli Eshrāghi, Tala Moni [Real Talk True Speech Indigenous History], Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2018, pp217-222

Carly Lane. 'Curating in AustraliaLinks to an external site.', Art Gallery of Western Australia', 2 July 2020 

Further Reading

Stephen Gilchrist and Henry Skerritt. Awakening Objects and Indigenizing the Museum: Stephen Gilchrist in Conversation with Henry F. Skerritt’ Download Awakening Objects and Indigenizing the Museum: Stephen Gilchrist in Conversation with Henry F. Skerritt’Contemporaneity, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, pp108-121

Stephen Gilchrist. Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, Harvard Art Museums, 2016

Lana Lopesi. 'Decolonisation Frameworks: Indigenous Curatorial Practice',Links to an external site. Runway Journal, Issue 27: Outside, 2015

Djon Mundine, ‘The Creature from the Id: Adventures in Aboriginal Art Curating’ Download The Creature from the Id: Adventures in Aboriginal Art Curating’A Companion to Curation, Brad Buckley and John Conomos, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2019, p.277-290

Hetti Perkins. fluent: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997.

Terry Smith. ‘Country, Indigeneity, Sovereignty: Aboriginal Australian Art Download Country, Indigeneity, Sovereignty: Aboriginal Australian ArtArt to Come: Histories of Contemporary Art, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2019, pp156-197

Week 12: May 14

The Artist as Curator and Curator as Artist

Required Reading                                                                                                    

Lilian Cameron. ‘Artists’ Takeover’, Curating Art Now, London: Lund Humphries, 2022

Dorothee Richter. ‘Artists and Curators as Authors - Competitors, Collaborators or Team-Workers?’, On Curating, no. 19, June 2013, pp43-57.

Further Reading

Brenda Croft, ‘Say My Name’, The Artist as Curator, Intellect Books Ltd, 2015, p115-130

Celina Jeffery, ‘Introduction’ The Artist as Curator, Bristol: Intellect Books, 2015, pp7-14

Elena Filipovic, ed., The Artist as Curator: An Anthology. Milan: Mousse Publishing and Koenig Books, 2017.

Alison Green, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Museums and Not-Museums’, When Artists Curate: Contemporary Art and The Exhibition as Medium. London: Reaktion Books, 2018.

Paul O’Neill, ‘Curating as a Medium of Artistic Practice: The Convergence of Art and Curatorial Practice since the 1990s’, The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Cultures, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, MIT Press, 2012

Week 13: May 21

Digital (R)evolutions: Curating and the digital realm

Curatorial Project due May 27

Required Reading

Morgan Quaintance, ‘Remote Viewing’, Art Monthly 437, June 2020 (accessed January 2023) https://www.artmonthly.co.uk/magazine/site/article/remote-viewing-by-morgan-quaintance-june-2020

Michael Connor, ‘Curating Online Exhibitions’, Rhizome, May 13, 2020 (accessed January 2023) https://rhizome.org/editorial/2020/may/13/curating-online-exhibitions-pt-1/

Additional Reading

Sarah Cook and Beryl Graham, Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.)

Annet Decker, Curating digital art: from presenting and collecting digital art to networked co-curation, Amsterdam: Valiz, 2021

David England, Thecla Schiphorst and Nick Bryan-Kinns, Curating the Digital: Space for Art and Interaction, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016

Tim Griffin, ‘Global tendencies: Globalism and the large-scale exhibition’, Artforum International; New York Vol. 42, Iss. 3, (Nov 2003)

Lizzie Muller and Caroline Seck Langill, ed., ‘Troublemakers in the museum: Robots, romance and the performance of liveliness. Anna Davis Interviewed by Lizzie Muller’ in Curating Lively Objects: Exhibitions Beyond Disciplines, London: Routledge, 2021

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. demonstrate an understanding of contemporary curating practices, including the curatorial differences between the spaces, organisations, galleries, and institutions within the contemporary art infrastructure, and apply this knowledge by confidently articulating and contextualising the complex concepts and strategic differences within a peer group
  • LO2. conduct curatorial research through understanding curatorial and art historical research methods, and through practical processes of research and inquiry
  • LO3. engage in experiences that allow them to recognise and value communication as a tool for negotiating and creating new understanding, interacting with others, and furthering their own learning, developing a high standard of oral and written communication skills essential to work effectively in the art industry
  • LO4. respond effectively to unfamiliar problems in unfamiliar contexts; and work effectively in teams and other collaborative contexts.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

'No changes have been made since this unit was last offered'.

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