"curate" = mark of the tosser innit

B

blissblogger

Well-known member
spinning off the vince gallo thread:

a pet peeve, this,

but when precisely did people start using this word to describe:

--- releasing a thematically-connected series of records on a small label

-- selecting tracks for a compilation

-- booking bands for a festival or themed event

????!???!?!

verily tis symptom of the utter tosser-ification of left-field music culture innit
 
M

mms

sometimes
it is talk of the tuss innit, especially as all 'the aritist' has done is mused about it, everyone else does all the hard stuff.
 
A

Andrew

Member
you'd never get away with "Ministry of Sound: The Annual, curated by Judge Jules" would you?

did it not start with meltdown when "artists" like Laurie n Lou got involved: its at the south bank therfore its art
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
that said

of course if anyone actually asked me to "curate" a festival/compilation/themed label, i'd join the tosser massive in a heartbeat
 
A

Andrew

Member
Obviously...its like been asked to make the ultimate compilation tape, for all the girls and boys you were too scared to give tapes to at school
 
H

henrymiller

Well-known member
Vincent Gallo will be BOOKING All Tomorrow's Parties has a nice ring. I can just picture him nursing rolodex-thumb and taking an irate call from an ex-Beta Band as the catering falls through...
 
H

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
blissblogger said:
of course if anyone actually asked me to "curate" a festival/compilation/themed label, i'd join the tosser massive in a heartbeat
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Obviously, each and every one of us know we'll be able to do it much better. Well, I do. When I was younger I used to invent fictive festivals with fictive line ups. Sometimes fictive bands too.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
as much as i am a fan of the man 'curate' is surely a sign of the enofication of things.
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
I would have thought Tim Gane / Stereolab would be obvious candidate to put something like this together. Popular/well-known enough, hipster friendly (still, just), encyclopaedic knowledge of music...
 
P

puretokyo

Mercury Blues
blissblogger said:
but when precisely did people start using this word
Click to expand...

surely sometime after Eno said that all 'art' in the late 20th century had essentially become a task of curating?
 
L

Loki

Well-known member
maybe the word comes from the same root as 'curare' - the word certainly has paralysing qualities, as if anything curated is already ended.
 
Chef Napalm

Chef Napalm

Lost in the Supermarket
Enocentric

jenks said:
'curate' is surely a sign of the enofication of things.
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This surprises me. Personally, I've always thought that Mr. (is it "Sir" yet?) Eno was a bit of a pretentious git, but I was under the impression that he is highly regarded by Dissensus illuminati.

Am I mistaken?
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
eno

eno wrote a piece in artforum in the early 90s i think it wsa -- and probably he made this point in lectures and interviews too -- but in this specific piece he made a distinction between the creator and the curator, saying that modern artistic activity resembled curating, making an attractive arrangement out of all these sounds and elements from the past -- can't remember the examples he gave but obvious ones would be Stereolab, Beck, Spacemen 3, anything that has a citational aspect to it

obviously curating in the museum/art gallery, is creative, a form of active criticism...

i'm just curious about how it crept into left-field music discourse...

the first time it really hit me in the face was a few years back when some email press release came about thurston moore and byron coley i think it was doing a special label/record series of 7 inches obliquely connected to the War in Iraq i think it was -- at any rate there it was, the verb "curate", they were "curating" this series

after that i started noticing it everywhere

it seems part of the same syndrome as all those events you see in the back pages of the Wire, museums and art galleries and the like in Europe that put on events with all the usual suspects, scanner, spooky, fennesz etc etc, but occurring in institutional contexts, government-subsidized etc

i guess it makes sense given the crossover over between the art world and the abstract end of electronica

still it does emit intimations of vibe-death doesn't it
 
H

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
blissblogger said:
...modern artistic activity resembled curating, making an attractive arrangement out of all these sounds and elements from the past -- can't remember the examples he gave but obvious ones would be Stereolab, Beck, Spacemen 3, anything that has a citational aspect to it

i'm just curious about how it crept into left-field music discourse...
Click to expand...
I have the theory that it have something to do with music journalists problem of getting into electronic music in 90s. Most of them, rock based, actually didn't like rave culture, but they still had to react to the enormous amounts of music put out by these scenes. And then it became very convenient that they could claim that it's all just about old stuff in new patterns, nothings really new, Beck actually doing the same thing as 'ardcore (samples=rearranging the past), because both are just hybrid music.
 
matt b

matt b

Indexing all opinion
just to be cynical.


the term has come into wider useage because it allows organisations to use an artist/band as a 'brand' for the event, rather than to attempt any fundamental change in how such things are experienced. this, therefore plays with our hopes and dreams as we read the latest update on the line-up for the upcoming 'slint curated ATP'.
 
M

mms

sometimes
i personally blame robin rimbauld aka scanner

i wonder if he has ever scanned a conversation and it was two people talking about how his last record was crap or something like that. that would be interesting
 
R

Raw Patrick

Well-known member
I've always wondered how Scanner gets away with it. Has anyone in the history of the world ever enjoyed a record of his ever? I've never heard of them if they have. I suppose he's gathered together an impressive looking CV and is good at pitching for work.
 
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