{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","uuid":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","normalized_title":"curationintheageofplatformcapitalismthevalueofselectionnarrationandexpertiseinnewmediacultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","isbns":["9781032023007","9781032023014","9781003182801"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":177,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Curation%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Platform%20Capitalism%20%20The%20Value%20of%20Selection%2C%20Narration%2C%20and%20Expertise%20in%20New%20Media%20Cultures","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/search"},"page":{"printed_page":30,"pdf_page":40,"physical_index":40,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"ca614b11583198588c15671bf3641420ddba8d15fd34e9de20c66120fa36ac93"},"chapter":"CURATION IN THE AGE OF PLATFORM CAPITALISM","content":"This brings me to the discussion of the readymade and the “contingent object of contemporary art” (Buskirk, 2014: 5), whose value relies even more profoundly on expert curatorial mediation as it often does not carry visible traces of style, technique, or skill (that is, features through which people are socialized to understand art). In a context where mediation becomes an arbiter of artistic value, art curation develops into a practice mediating increased symbolic capital, which can elevate individual curators to the status of auteurs, that is, authors of original works of art in the literary and (later) cinematic tradition (Lubar, 2014). The rise of the independent curator to a creator is attendant on the conceptual moment that “liberated” the profession in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly via the biennial circuit. In the final section, I discuss digital curation practices, arguing that the popularization of the inspirational and semi-intellectual persona of the independent curator is key for turning curation into an object of desire, investment, and fascination. I also argue that the business appropriation of the term should not be (merely) lamented as a moral aberration, neoliberal abuse, or misrepresentation; instead, the market imperative of platform curation already inhabits the entrepreneurial figure of the independent art curator.\n\n2.2 Curators from Ancient Rome to Modern Museums\n\nThe profession of curator has a long history, which, for the most part, unfolded independently of the gallery and the museum—the institutions with which curating is mainly associated today. The curator’s career as a professional title goes as far back as ancient Rome; etymologically the word derives from the Latin word cura, meaning care, assistance, and guardianship but also treatment or cure. In the Roman Empire, curators were appointed public servants with administrative, caretaking, and protecting duties in regard to humans, objects, and institutional entities (Madžoski, 2013: 13). Curators could be guardians or overseers of minors and lunatics, financial custodians of cities, or overseers of public services such as sanitation and water supply (Hunter, 1803; Peachin, 2005). Throughout Roman history, their titles and roles were in a state of flux, a fact that signifies the richness and multiplicity of the term from its early uses. For instance, curators were appointed by an oficial to protect a person past puberty, who was declared unfit to manage their civic matters, including spendthrifts, minors, the mentally ill, and even “the deaf, the dumb, the incurably diseased” (Hunter, 1803: 732).3 In turn, a figure like the curator rei publicae was an appointed, and later elected, government oficial of relative prestige, whose main function was to “investigate and supervise, on a short-term basis, the finances of individual civic communities” (Mennen, 2011: 69). The work of a curator rei publicae was mainly administrative, involving “the investment of town funds; the retention of public assets within the public domain; the prompt execution of bequests to the town; the integrity of town lands; and the application of grain funds to their intended purpose” (Duncan-Jones, 1987: 253). Other curatorial titles were curatores annonae, who were caretakers of food supplies, curatores regionum, who were overseers of Roman city districts and curatores aquarus who were in charge of water supplies and aqueducts.4\n\n30\n\nHomo Curatorius","previous_page":29,"next_page":31}