"...this exhibition aims to disrupt, break down and re-evaluate linear histories. In examining the remnants of time, an eternal present emerges, a collective cultural memory appears, and chronological time becomes replaced with a mnemic delineation of time."

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Weekly Image: 10. Little Movers, Installation To The Nation

Photo courtesy of Robby Ogilvie

The MA CATS would like to thank Little Moves! for all their help during our installation process. Little Moves! is a small, friendly, environmental business. Need help moving flat? Something to pick up/drop off? Artworks, studio moves, office moves?

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Event: 'They Do Things Differently There' Preview Night 4th June, 6-8 pm, Talbot Rice Gallery


Invitation to our Exhibition Preview night, 4th June 2010, Talbot Rice Gallery, 6-8 pm followed by an After Party at the Roxy Art House. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Any queries contact: contemporaryarttheory@yahoo.com


Friday, 14 May 2010

News: Doctor Gramophone To Perform At Our After Party



We are very excited to announce that Doctor Gramophone will be performing at our After Party on the 4th June at the Roxy Art House, 2/3 Roxburgh Pl Edinburgh EH8 9SU
, 8-11pm. See you there!

Playing music you used to dance to

Playing music your folks danced to

Playing music your granny danced to

Playing music you forgot about ages ago


www.doctorgramophone.co.uk

Thursday, 13 May 2010

MA CATs Pecha Kucha

Slight technical issue - presentation will be up asap!

Welcome to our Master Cats Pecha Kucha!

INTRO (first 40 seconds)

Master CATS stands for Masters in and we are a group of eleven postgraduate curators who have come together to curate a group exhibition at the Talbot Rice gallery- our show opens on4th June

Our exhibition is titled “They Do Things Differently There” and ultimately explores the disruption and delineation of time.

Each of us are in charge of an individual part of the exhibition, from head curators to install to education and gallery management.

For this pecha kucha we have each offered a small insight into our unique and diverse roles.

OUTRO (last 40 seconds)

Thank you for listening to our a little bit bonkers, collaborative pecha kucha.

Finally, my role is Education and as part of this position I have organised a series of events to make our curating process more transparent, including forcing everyone to be involved in this pecha kucha.

I think this pecha kucha exemplifies both the beauty and struggles of collaborating! ie getting 11 people to send in high res pictures and audio to a deadline.

Information on all our events and the exhibition itself can be found on our ever evolving blog:

www.macats2010.blogspot.com

We hope to see you all at our exhibition- “They Do Things Differently There” on the 4th June!

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Monday, 3 May 2010

MA CATs @ Pecha Kecha Edinburgh V8


http://pknedinburgh.eventbrite.com/

We will be part of the 8th version of the Pecha Kucha Edinburgh event held at Inspace (1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB) on the 7th May at 7:30 pm. Please join us at what promises to be a very exciting event.

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. It is curated in Edinburgh by Gordon Duffy, Principal of architecture practice Studio DuB. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

Confirmed
Participants: William Tunnell, Architect; Rene Looper, Social Mediaist; Neil Simpson, Architect; Chris Speed, Reader in Digital Space; Lucy Richards, Creative Director; Donald Urquhart, Artist; Angus Reid Writer/Filmmaker; Andrew Stoane, Architect; Andy Peel, Creative; "Masters in Contemporary Art Theory Students" - Laura Edbrook, Louise Thody, Maria Koumianou, Maria Sampedro, Rebecca Gilbert, Rocca Gutteridge, Steven Cox, Robby Ogilvie, Ruta Franke, Sarah Usher and Sarah Morris.

Admission free, donations to PKN Haiti appeal encouraged via website. Advance reservation recommended via venue website as seating limited.

Our presentation will be posted up next week.

Friday, 30 April 2010

FOUND @ GI












Cybrphon makes it's debut in Glasgow this week as part of the GI (Glasgow International) festival. From Friday 16 April – Monday 3 May 2010 Cybraphon will be on display at the Studio Warehouse in Glasgow.



Photos and video by: Robby Ogilvie

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

PodCAT: 2. "Spread The Word"



We present a catalogue of podCAT's in connection to the series of discussion forums which we are undertaking; raising issues pertaining to our curated exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery in June 2010.

The next installment of our podCAT series, in connection to our series of discussion forums in the lead up to our curated show at the Talbot Rice Gallery, 5th June 2010.

This second podCAT is of the "Spread The Word" talk (read review below) which took place at the Wee Red Lounge, Edinburgh College of Art on the 23rd June 2010 and focused on the notion of marketing exhibitions.

Event: "Spread The Word" 23.03.10




“Spread the Word” – in conversation with MA Contemporary Art Theory took place on Tuesday 23rd March at the Wee Red Lounge at Edinburgh College of Art, the second in a series of discussion forums. Six invited guests and eleven MA Cat students engaged in a lively debate on marketing art exhibitions. It served as a useful and creative knowledge exchanging environment whereby we informed our speakers of our exhibition practice whilst we simultaneously garnered professional experience and ideas from experts in the field of marketing the arts and audience development.

Our six speakers included; Louise Anderson – Marketing Manager at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Emlyn Firth – Senior Designer at ISO, Glasgow and consultant at Central Station, Alex Hinton – Marketing Manager at The Audience Business, Sandy Smith – artist, and Jim Wolff – Digital Planner at the Leith Agency.

In terms of structure, the evening kicked off with general introductions and presentations which explored the many ways in which to market the arts. A discussion ensued which focused on agreed topics of audience development, viral marketing and visual identity. We emphasised the importance of identifying target markets and marketing to them appropriately and with relevance. With our exhibition in mind, it was suggested that perhaps we need not focus on quantitative marketing but rather qualitative – in other words, not aiming for maximum gallery footfall but for specific markets that would reap benefit from the show, such as the established art crowd in Scotland and wider areas. On discussing viral marketing, we all agreed that this relatively new phenomena could be amazingly beneficial to reaching arts audiences as it is free and relates to the existing ‘merry-go-round audiences’, or the established art crowd in Scotland. It was agreed that the visual identity of our show should reflect our broad theme and that it wasn’t necessary to have a brand identity since this project is only short-term. Overall, it transpired that we are fortunate in having a certain degree of creative licence to develop this show as students, since we are not tied to any governing or funding bodies thus avoiding the mandatory ‘tick-boxing’ other arts institutions must regrettably follow when serving art publics.

We are very grateful to our six speakers for their time, support and great advice. From their valuable input we will continue to drive forward our creative marketing plan. We will pinpoint our audience, maximise our online presence, and creatively communicate our central mission and theme through means of a strong visual identity. It was great to hear that our guests found “Spread the Word” an interesting evening for them to socially network ‘offline’ and to discuss these pertinent arts marketing ‘hot topics’. It was fantastic to meet these great people and we will most definitely stay in touch. Indeed their invaluable support is still on-going. Thanks guys!

Photographs by Stephen McGarry, with thanks.

www.stephenmcgarry.org

Link: V&A Telling Tales Exhibition and Network Cultures


Link: VandA: 'Telling Tales', 14 July – 18 October 2009

At a time of heightened interest in works of so-called ‘design art’, made in small editions for the collector’s market, Telling Tales featured work by a generation of internationally regarded designers. The exhibition focused on work by designers who explore the narrative potential of objects, connecting the past with the present.

Network Culture: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/

Friday, 2 April 2010

PodCAT: 1. "Show Me The Money"

We present a catalogue of podCAT's in connection to the series of discussion forums which we are undertaking; raising issues pertaining to our curated exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery in June 2010.

It's here at last! The eagerly anticipated first podCAT (podcast) in connection to our series of discussion forums in the lead up to our curated show at the Talbot Rice Gallery, 5th June 2010.

This inaugural podCAT is of the "Show Me The Money" talk (read review below) which took place at the Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh College of Art on the 9th June 2010 and focused on the notion of financing exhibitions.

For a downloadable version follow this link: podCAT

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Reading Corner: What is the 21st Century version of the Grand Tour or the Cabinet of Curiosity?


Link to blog concerning the notion of curiosity: http://thinkingshift.wordpress.com

Excerpt from Alistair Reid's poem on curiosity;

Curiosity
may have killed the cat; more likely
the cat was just unlucky, or else curious
to see what death was like, having no cause
to go on licking paws, or fathering
litter on litter of kittens, predictably.

Nevertheless, to be curious
is dangerous enough. To distrust
what is always said, what seems
to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,
leave home, smell rats, have hunches
do not endear cats to those doggy circles
where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches
are the order of things, and where prevails
much wagging of incurious heads and tails.

Face it. Curiosity
will not cause us to die–
only lack of it will.
Never to want to see
the other side of the hill
or that improbable country

where living is an idyll
(although a probable hell)
would kill us all.

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale
worth telling at all.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

"Show Me The Money" Presentation Slides

Show Me The Money
Presentation slides for "Show Me The Money" (see review below) which took place on the 9th March in the Wee Red Bar located within Edinburgh College of art. PodCAT (podcast) coming soon!

Reading Corner: 'The Cultures of Collecting'

The Cultures of Collecting by John Elsner, Roger Cardinal

Very interesting anthology of essays concerning the cultures of collecting, a major inspiration for our show, in particular Mieke Bal's piece, 'Telling Objects; A Narrative Perspective on Collecting.' (link below)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8ImNb0Gflh0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA97&dq=telling+objects+a+narrative+perspective+on+collecting&ots=3c05PICRrG&sig=QLNRrojIZzN9bmEHXvjMqH-OKgI#v=onepage&q=telling%20objects%20a%20narrative%20perspective%20on%20collecting&f=false

After The News: Design and Communication

Saturday, 20 March 2010

Review: "Show Me The Money"






Amidst candle-lit tables, copious amounts of juice and chocolate cake, and intimate seating arrangements within the snug environment of the Wee Red Bar, a forum was held on the 9th March to discuss the topic of financing exhibition. the dichotomy of a potentially dry subject such as finance coupled with an informal atmosphere invited quite a few guests who were all keen to learn about and provide input on ways in which both private and commercial galleries finance exhibitions shows.

A brief introduction was given by the head of finance on the MA curatorial team regarding the proposed financial strategies put forth for their upcoming exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery. The aforementioned chocolate cake actually served not just a gastronomic purpose, but more importantly was used to represent the ways in which the finances are to be divided up among the different areas of the curatorial planning process.


As this culinary educational tool was passed around the room, Angela Beck from the Embassy Gallery offered her input on hierarchical structures when dividing an exhibitions budget. A dialogue evolved amongst the guests and rested on the issue of paying artists, and whether this was ethical, practical or mandatory.


Direction then shifted to the direction of the Scottish Arts Council. There appeared to be a tension and apprehension within the audience over where the SAC is heading. Many were concerned how this new direction will affect individual artists and organisations.


The evening concluded with informative input from Richard DeMarco, as he gave his opinions on curating from the ground up. As an artist, collector and curator, DeMarco had some insights to pass onto the MA students, and hopefully the audience of gallery managers, tutors and eca students took away helpful knowledge as well.


A big thanks to all who came along to this talk and making it such a success.