Similarities and Differences in the Use of Objects in Films and Exhibitions - Coursework Example

Similarities and Differences in the Use of Objects in Films and Exhibitions A curator is a content specialist responsible for the collections in an institution like a gallery, museum or archive. The object of a traditional curators concern mainly involves tangible objects of some sort, be it inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items scientific collections, digital data objects or bio-curators. A curator may have sole responsibility for the acquisition and care of objects in small organizations. He/she will make the decisions regarding what objects to collect, conduct research based on the collection, oversee their care and documentation, provide proper packaging of art for transportation purposes and share the information with scholarly community and the public through publications and exhibitions. Curators and Narratives In larger institutions, the curators primary function is that of a subject specialist, with the expectation that he/she will conduct research that is original on objects and guide the organization in its collecting. Large organizations can have many curators, each dealing with a specific collecting area like digital images, prints and drawings and often operating under the head curator’s directions1. The collections’ physical care may be overseen by the museum’s collections managers or conservators. Curators are expected to hold a high academic degree in their subject like doctor of philosophy or master’s degree in subjects such as history, history of art, archaeology, classics or anthropology. They are expected to have contributed to their academic field like delivering public talks, publishing articles, presenting at specialist academic conferences. It is of great importance that they have enough knowledge in their area of expertise and are aware of current ethical practices and laws that impacts the organization’s collection. A film director is a person who directs the actors and crew in film making. He/she controls the artistic and dramatic aspects of a film while guiding the technical crew and actors. In other words, they are responsible for overseeing the creative aspects of a film. They develop the vision for the film and carry the vision out in deciding how the film should look. They direct tone of the film, and what the audience will gain from the cinematic experience. They are the people responsible for approving camera angles, lighting, set design and lens effects and will be actively involved in hiring of key crew members. They are the people responsible for the coordination of the actors’ moves and may be involved in writing, editing and financing the film. An exhibition is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items or objects2. Exhibition mainly occurs within galleries, exhibition halls and museums. Exhibitions include art exhibitions, interpretive exhibitions and commercial exhibitions or trade fairs. Of more interest to the curator is the interpretive and art exhibition. Art exhibitions occur in major art museums and small art galleries whereas interpretive exhibitions take the natural history museums and history museums3. Curators are involved as the people who select the items in the exhibition. Films encompass individual motion pictures the motion picture industry and field of film as an art form. They are produced by recording photographic images with cameras or animating still pictures using animation techniques or visual effects. The visual effects of a film give it the power of communication. Films are made of individual images called frames which when shown rapidly in succession creates motion illusion to the user. Before a curator and a film director embark on their work, they have to clearly state their objectives. They have to specifically choose the audience of their work and therefore determine the content and extent to which they will handle the work. A film directed for the viewing by the kids has to be entertaining and involve no adult content. A documentary film for the viewing by the engineers has to impart lots of knowledge in the engineering field so that it can lure more into watching the film. An exhibition is aimed at demonstrating to the public what there is in the museums4. It is aimed at creating awareness to the public what the museums has for the public. It can either be carried out in the open, public fairs or in the museum. The aim of the curator in the exhibition is to relate the objects displayed with a story. Mainly the stories are of historical nature. For example, in the museums in Rwanda there are skulls of the culprits of the Rwanda genocide. In putting the skulls as the exhibition, it serves as reminder to the nationals of what happened during the genocide and inspires them against engaging in violence. Curators serve the practitioners in their field as well as the public at large. Curators therefore are like publishers and must look both ways, be sympathetic in two directions, be loyal to the artist but also to the visitor. A curator will often be required to wok as an editor, aspiring to refine an exhibition or book to the benefit of artist and audience5. Organizing and holding exhibitions is itself a minor art form in relation to the work of the curator. Curators must serve the past, the future as well as the present and must attempt to be fair to all comers and not succumb to prejudice or parti pris. In order to lead the public taste, they should select the artists who bear the creative flame. Its unethical for the curators to work in the public domain as well as privately or as artists. Practicing gin the public domain as well as privately is fatal to the curator’s aspirations like objectivity, independent critic, impartiality and justice in his/her work6. Most of the mission statements of museums include the words enjoyment and understanding to emphasize what the work entails Photography curators need a practical working knowledge of the medium. Most of the curators have photographed with some seriousness and learned how to print. Failing direct experience of cameras and darkrooms, curators need regular access to knowledgeable professional photographers like the staff of the V&As photographic studio. They need good background knowledge of the histories of art and of photography, two separate but slowly converging disciplines. They need to have as much contemporary and historical photography as possible. Their judgements are necessarily subjective, but their subjectivity has to be based on the broadest acquaintance with what is being and has been produced. Curators need to know who originated ideas or styles and who has copied them, which is the great print, which the work print. They must visit the great collections in various parts of the world, meet their colleagues in other museums and universities and art colleges globally and locally. A photography collection needs a library containing not only the standard histories and monographs but also the major periodicals like the History of Photography. These should be augmented by information files on photographers and topics which will, if fed over the years, become a valuable and unique resource. Every collection needs a conservator for planning of storage and procedures in showing the collection in the museum’s study rooms and exhibition galleries. He is also responsible in advising on loans and damages to and from other institutions (Greenberg, 412). In order to deliver the artist to the audience, the curator will work with colleagues of all kinds including donors, educators, auctioneers, archivists, designers, accountants, documentation experts, fund-raisers, galleries, interns, lighting consultants, marketing, journalists, librarians, and press officers, printers, publishers, registrars, security staff, sponsors, technicians, and trustees. To solve conflicts of interest the curator references the code of ethics for museums. It is the curator who champions the medium, with the role of driving forward the program of acquisition, preservation, information provision, and public access. Its wise for the curators to be change sensitive and have the willingness to consult from specialists in case they face challenges in their work. The goal of the job is to share the intense visual experiences available from photography. This has worked as the main inspiration for people to be curators. To share those experiences with as broad a public as possible primarily in study rooms and exhibition galleries, as well as in books, slide lectures, television programs and websites this is the great satisfaction curatorship can bring. The curator of photographs shares activities and functionalities with the curator of art collections. Although premised on different assumptions about importance or value, all are concerned with issues of public service, access, research and preservation. Functional collections are those that developed initially as image banks, assembled for their informational content, although the categories are far from mutually exclusive. While many such collections fulfil their original informational roles, they have been recognized as important cultural artefacts in their own right. The images that comprise them have historical and documentary value of and in them, whether the subject matter is water management in the Netherlands or boundary surveys between India and Burma. The intellectual development and history of various disciplines and use of images is highly portrayed in the way the curator acquires, files, arranges, captions and catalogues the photographs. They must develop strategies allowing multiple approaches. This though, may sometimes be tricky as there is need to balance between the preservation photographic documents history and the picture library requirements. Film Directors and Narratives A good film director makes sure that all parts of a film are creatively produced and brought together in a single totality. He/she interprets the script, works together with the montagist, coach the performers among others interrelating them to create a work of art. The film scholar Eric Sherman begins with a vague idea of the entire film and use the information to determine what is to be done. He gains more when others are given the freedom to show what they know. A film director is always a leader, giving guidelines to the actors of the film. The final output of his efforts is predetermined by the requirements of the script, acting, editing and camerawork. The director provides the organizational context to the picture. The objects of the directors’ narrative are the people or the actors of the film7. Some of the directors concentrate primarily on the structures of the script and therefore if their films are to be works of art, its because of the inherent beauty in the narrative and dialogue patterns in the script. Others concentrate on the performance of actors and according to their view; the beauty of the film is correlative with the quality of acting. They attend not only to the performance of the film as a whole, but to endless minor nuances and gestures by the actor. The other categories of directors concentrate on the camerawork, their chief concern being the pictorial beauty and smoothness of execution. The director is wholly responsible for the translation of the written word or script into specific sounds and images. He/she visualizes the scripts and establishes a point of view on the action that helps to determine camera placements and movements, staging of the action and selection of shots. He/she is the person responsible for the dramatic pace, structure and directional flow of the sounds and visual images. The director works with the talent and crew, refining the master shooting script, staging and plotting action, supervising setups and rehearsals, giving commands and suggestions throughout the recording and editing. The curator creates a story or a narrative from historical events and objects whereas a film director creates a film from imaginary objects, words and images and uses people to bring his message forth8.The narrative of the film director may be fictional or have its roots in a historical event. Most of the curators carry out a detailed research of a past event that they need to exhibit on. Then they endeavour into arranging them so as they can catch the attention of the viewer or visitor according to Chong9. Both the curator and the film director has to work extra hard to ensure their ideas are well expressed in the narrative form. Failure to catch the target groups’ attention signifies failure. Both the curator and the film director must attach an artistic work to their work so that they can deliver their message. In using the historical objects, the curator attaches artistically words bearing in mind the context and objectives of the exhibition. He ensures he delivers the best possible presentation and display to the public. The film director selects persons to take various film characters in the best possible way to deliver his message to the viewers. He ensures that a character’s role is brought forth in the most natural way possible. The main difference in the roles played by both the curator and the film director is that the film director uses persons to achieve his objective while the curator uses historical events and objects like photographs to achieve his aims and objectives in his narrative. The film director highly emphasizes on imagery and motion of pictures in developing his narrative and story. He assigns the characters role in relation to the narrative and story development. Works Cited 1. Macleod S. (2005) Reshaping museum space: architecture, design, exhibitions, Taylor & Francis. 2. Barker E. (1999) Contemporary Cultures of Display, Yale University Press, London 3. Greenberg R. (1996) Thinking about Exhibitions Routledge, Florence 4. Howes D. (2005) Empire of the senses: the sensual culture reader, Berg Publishers, Oxford 5. Rugg J. and Sedgwick M. (2008) Issues in curating contemporary art and performance, Intellect Books, Bristol. 6. Chong D. (2002) Arts management, Routledge, Florence. Read More