Disruption and Reflection: A Curatorial Case Study

Abstract

New Media Curation is a research initiative and small business directed by practice-based researcher, Deborah Turnbull Tillman. In reflecting on past collaborations, she has contributed book chapters on prototyping within museums and curating digital interactive art using Museum, Government and Independent funding models to analyze curatorial processes. This chapter focuses on the processes Turnbull Tillman follows in curating digital interactive art, introducing variables such as disruption and reflection to the traditionally disparate disciplines of fine arts, responsive systems, and business theory. Recent collaborations and a reflective practice case study shows that the New Media Curation methodology takes the interdisciplinary design of interactive art exhibitions outside labs/studios and into institutions and urban landscapes in the form of experimental, often prototype exhibitions. Through an examination of past and current collaborators and influences, and a reflective practice curatorial exercise, collaborating artists and curators are led through critical and creative spaces by speculative design, audience engagement and evaluation, and analysis of Turnbull Tillman’s curatorial experience as a practice-based researcher.