Curatron
Curatron is a web-based system that allows an artist to participate in the selection processes to art exhibitions and other cultural events. The system is designed to aggregate individual user selections into a final group selection. Curatron is an equation that uses artists' input to calculate the most cohesive artist group possible.[1] On the digital platform artists can browse through open calls and apply to exhibitions, residencies and other opportunities posted on the site, resulting in art events at different venues. Curatron is part of a movement developing more web-based and participatory art practices.[2]
How Curatron works
Curatron is an online software tool developed to involve artists directly in the curatorial selection process.[3] On the Curatron webpage there are open calls for exhibitions, artist in residence opportunities and other cultural events that are published continuously. These calls are placed by exhibition spaces, galleries and other cultural operators who are interested in putting together a group of artists using Curatron. Curatron can be described as an auto-curation program.[2] Artists express an interest in the various calls for proposals. Each applicant creates a custom profile with short information about themselves and their art practice, upload a photo and a link to a website or online portfolio. All of these profiles are together forming a web-based archive that slowly expands as the applications to the various calls are submitted. Each event has a defined application period. After the application deadline has passed, all applicants are invited to participate in the selection process. All the candidates can then see each other's profiles via the web interface and are anonymously selecting a group of artists who he/she would like to collaborate with.[4]
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Artist A are connected to the other artist he/she chooses
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Artist A are also creating connections for the other artist he/she chooses
After the selection period, the results are calculated through a specially designed algorithm. Every possible residency group are examined by the system. The final selection is the group with the most reoccurring and consequent relations between them: The group with artists that are most commonly selected together. The system is much more complex than a traditional voting system, as the system evaluates patterns of coherence.[4] Only because an artist has the most votes, or a smaller group is consistently voting for each other, it does not ensure a place in the final group. The system is producing something that can best be described as a collective taste or artistic sensibility. The traditional selection processes of the art world are replaced by a democratic method, where creativity, resourcefulness and artistic quality is in focus. Small jury groups with one or a few individuals are replaced by a group of over a thousand artists from many countries.
Development and usage
Curatron has been used for determining groups for exhibitions at Platform Stockholm in Sweden and for the Artist in Residence program at Flaggfabrikken in Norway The first Curatron-based residency was held in Oct–Nov 2014.[5] Curatron presently has more than 1000 users.[1] The system is developed by Platform Stockholm and artist Cameron MacLeod.[6]