The Curator is the new DJ

Paul Morley, a journalist and critic that all Northerners feel a subtle twinge of embarrassment when they hear speek made the comment, 'the curator is the artist'. This is certainly a trend. We see many exhibitions now that are for the better and hugely more coherent for having a creative mind at the helm. Indeed the random selections at commercial galleries often make no sense. In my old field, designer made furniture, many shows make no sense as exhibitors are allowed to apply and show any work they want. Cheltenham for example may have good work on show but as a whole the exhibition is incoherent. The reason I curated 'Private Parts' was an attempt to have a furniture show that made sense as a whole.

In the late 1980s when Superstar DJs began to be recognised it became clear that having a vision or the abillity to string a series of tunes together to create a journey or a greater whole was indeed an art. Now, with the advent of Facebook we see people whos pages are marvels of self expression. Blogs too that filter and select from the sheer mass of information are fast becoming the great art of the day. Information is vast, we have access to film and music stretching back till film began at the touch of a button. This is quite over welming and can intimidate to the point of paralisis. The very best sites, blogs, pages are the swiftest way of streaming ideas. 

Computers are great for creating a level playing field for the untalented. Architectural and Engineering drawings were beyond the skill of many, now anyone can aproximate a decent drawing given some learning. Knowledge will suffice where there is no skill. It still remains only the highly skilled who can make great drawings  and the very best I have seen are hand drawn but this leveller that I type on now frees us all up. The blog can be your very own newspaper. The trouble with self publishing is anything can get through. There is no editor maintaining quality. As with self published books, most are crap. This freedom has pitfalls. There are those who have blind respect for the printed word. It is only with the knowledge that most of what you will read on blogs, websites etc. is liable to be wrong that we may procede.