MA PLACEMENT REPORT

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MA PLACEMENT REPORT

:

BRAND, ARCHIVAL AND CURATORIAL INTERN AT IMPAKT

From April 23 to July 23, 2020 Utrecht, The Netherlands

by

Jia Huey Toh (Phoebe)

S3973476

LAX000M10 MA Internship Arts, Culture and Media Supervisor: Prof. Dr. B.P. van Heusden

10 ECTS 17 August, 2020

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Studying Arts, Cognition and Criticism, I have been given the opportunity to obtain 10 credits in the form of an internship at any cultural institution that is relevant to my studies. This has proven to be a difficult feat, as I started searching for internship placements since December 2019. After a few months of endless searching, I turned to Googling cultural institutions such as museums, galleries and festivals in the Netherlands to see whether they have any internship openings on their official websites. I ended up with two interviews at Massive Music in Amsterdam (but they chose another candidate), one interview scheduled with FIBER Festival (but was cancelled due to Covid-19). Finally in April, I had a last-minute Skype interview with the director and student programme staff of IMPAKT and was immediately given the job. This internship opportunity was a very fruitful experience and honed my curatorial skills as well as giving me a lot of exposure to experimental cinema and media art – developing my interests in this genre and medium of art. Through this internship, I have also uncovered strengths and weaknesses in myself that I have never seen before, which provided me with an opportunity to utilize my strengths and improve myself further as a person.

EXPECTATIONS BEFORE INTERNSHIP

Before the internship, I was expecting to have one role in the organisation. On the application form, there were several roles listed and I was told to put them in order according

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to my preferences. But the roles I took up in the internship are not just one role, but a combination of the several that I picked in the application process. This was surprising for me, yet I found this experience fruitful as I gained work experience in several “departments” of the organisation. From a Master’s student’s point of view, I expected this internship to be heavily curatorial research-based, as one of my roles was to assist the curators of the upcoming festival as well as curate my own programme for the Impakt website. I also hoped to network quite a bit in the office to get my foot into the experimental art scene in the Netherlands and Europe at large.

IMPAKT, TASKS AND STRUCTURE

IMPAKT is a media arts organisation based in Utrecht and founded in 1988. They present critical and creative views on contemporary media culture and arts, in an

interdisciplinary context. They aim to identify emerging paradigms in trans-global culture, by focusing on the relationship between society, media, technology and arts. They organise exhibitions, events and artist residencies throughout the year and present their curated Channel programmes and festival archive online. Their main project is the yearly IMPAKT Festival, a five-day event that includes exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, panels,

performances, and artist talks.

The roles that I took in the internship is a blend of a few: Assistant Curatorship, Brand and Content Management, Channel and Archive. For assistant curatorship, I was tasked to contact various artists who are aligned to what the curators are looking for in terms of projects and themes these artists are tackling. Researching for various artists and related works are also on my task list.

For Brand and Content Management, my tasks were to draft up social media posts for Channel programmes, which is an online curated programme on the IMPAKT website. Some

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of these channel programmes are from old IMPAKT festival programmes, whereas most of the recent ones are curated by the many interns that curated their programmes at IMPAKT over the years. My job was to create both Instagram/Facebook and Twitter posts, move the content of various channel programmes from the old website to the new website as well as update IMPAKT’s Instagram account from time to time to promote exhibitions and events.

For Channel and Archive, I was tasked to do deep research on a topic I've derived from IMPAKT’s extensive archive and create a channel programme out of it. From April to July, I participated in various meetings discussing with the director and fellow interns about research progresses, writing multiple reports and drafts about the theme of my programme as well as generating engaging yet comprehensible texts for the wider public. I also had to communicate with artists about including their works in my programme. Other than curating my programme, my job was also to update the new IMPAKT website with archive content from old programme catalogues. Sometimes I had to scan old booklets or schedules, convert them into text files and organise them into various pages on the website.

Other than the few main tasks I had to do, I also volunteered to do some video editing for some old festival videos. I was also tasked to go through and rate around 40 to 50 videos submitted to IMPAKT for a special Corona open call programme. I also had to help out in the office from May to July, doing a few simple chores here and there around the office.

REVIEW OF LEARNING OUTCOMES

The internship proposal written before the start of the internship listed a few potential learning outcomes from this placement experience. I have written that the internship would allow me to develop a deeper understanding of how an art festival is organised and run: from planning to production and execution. The internship would allow me to try different roles in the organisation and act as a supporting role as well as the role of a curator for online archive

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programmes. I might also enhance my research skills and implement such skills in a professional work environment. This internship would also serve to be a venue for me to explore and see a lot of diverse works and increase my frame of reference for film and media art. To summarize, this internship would help me develop a sound portfolio for my future career as well as sharpen my perspective in the world of arts and media culture, as well as gain valuable work experience in the art industry. As seen the following, I think my internship experience has done more than what I had listed in the proposal and enriched me in both hard skills and personal developments for my future career in the arts sector.

EVALUATION AND REFLECTION Writing for Social Media Channels

I have been a social media guru for the longest time: I have multiple accounts for various purposes, one for personal use, one that acts as a photography portfolio and another that I maintain for content creation. I have always wanted to utilise my hobbyist social media skills in a professional work environment – and I got to do it in this internship. Writing texts for social media was not as easy as it sounds. I had to turn complicated artistic concepts to general phrases and words that echo with the general public, yet I cannot “dumb” the tone down too much to offend the original curators or artists. Achieving a balance between abstract concepts and terminology that abides with the wider public was a fun process because I had to go through texts and programmes, understand them myself first before creating a draft that is suitable for IMPAKT’s tone of voice and reach potential audiences. Through this process of constantly going through old channel programmes, reading old catalogues and watching works within programmes – I am proud to say that I have deepened my understanding in experimental media art: it's potential to shape perspectives and experiences is very impactful.

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Archiving Old Festivals and Programmes

Growing up while witnessing the fast advancements in technology, websites have been a constant in my life. I remember browsing through websites and commenting on bugs or design defects they may have – and this internship has shown me the backend side of things, revealing how complicated maintaining and updating websites could be and teaching me how to appreciate organised and well-designed websites even more. I’ve learnt about the WordPress content management systems (CMS), the ways that content could be posted through it without any coding knowledge and how to organise them that engages and catches the eye of the audience. Other than this learning experience about CMS, archiving festivals 1997 and 1999 have also revealed to me something new about the history of experimental cinema and media arts in the Netherlands. Digging deep into festival archives, moving content to the website and organising them according to programme themes and categories has given me a realisation. In this act of putting old physical and tangible things into today's technology and context, how do we display archival content on a website where today's audience have constant access to? How should we tackle or discuss content from the past into the present and the future? Archiving old things on digital websites are immortalising programmes, concepts and ideas: which will perhaps serve as a rich collection of the discussions of the past when we access them today.

Curating an Online Programme & the Role of the Curator

The process of curating a programme took longer than expected. I did not expect to use the entire internship duration to work on only one channel programme (I even proposed to curate two programmes at first). But this long duration has proven to be the best at pacing myself in terms of research – going step by step has prevented me from jumping to conclusions and launching a programme that would be filled with holes and gaps between concepts, ideas

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and themes. This is perhaps one takeaway from being a curatorial intern: the pace is more important than the speed of things.

In the process of research and curation, IMPAKT has invited a curator to talk to us interns about our programme focus and gave us advice on curating experimental cinema. This is perhaps one of the most fruitful meetings out of the rest because Florian, a seasoned curator, brought up issues such as discussing curatorial themes after a screening: that this is an important step in helping audiences comprehend and understand the curator's vantage point. Being at the screening physically is crucial for this to happen. In the form of a screening, curators can also control the breaks in-between each work as well as the sequence, which may bring a big impact to the overall programme. Curating an online programme, however, forgoes all these important aspects of what a screening would need. But of course, there are still advantages to curating online programmes: the convenience of it is one of them. Anyone could access the programmes anytime from anywhere, where physical location and time is no longer a constraint or a concern. The complications that arise, however, from curating an online programme is that I cannot control how much audiences watch – will they watch the entire programme from the first work to the last? Or will they skip and jump from work to work without regards to a specific sequence? These reflections and questions made me more mindful of audience reception and adapt my programme accordingly.

Another topic that arose during a channel programme meeting was about the role of the curator. Arjon, IMPAKT’s director, talked about the responsibility of the curator: the curator should be able to strike a balance between a) discounting a work and disregarding the many themes a work reveals and b) focusing on a specific theme that connects the entire programme. The role of the curator is to exercise the responsibility of guiding the perspective of the audience, as well as not disregarding other themes that the works included in the programme

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may touch upon. Such discussions have taught me more about the role of the curator and how challenging it can be.

Rating works for an Open Call

During an open call for channel programme Love in the Time of Corona, interns were tasked to watch and rate around 40 to 50 works and choose top 3 choices within the selection. This was all done within a few days, and was proven to be a difficult task as many of the works are more than 10 minutes long – questions started to fill up in my head as I watched these long works and questioned my intention of watching: do I have to watch everything from beginning to the end? In a casual conversation with one of my colleagues in the office who happen to have worked in an international film festival previously, I found out that I did not have to force myself to watch everything – I just have to decide in the first minute or two whether the work is engaging and interesting enough for me to continue watching, then rate accordingly.

This, thus gave rise to another question: what if a work is not interesting to me, but interesting enough for others? Will it be unfair to some artists if I happen to dislike certain styles, concepts or themes? In the same conversation with that colleague, I realised that objectivity in the humanities and the arts are no longer sought-after – in fact, subjectivity is the key to appreciating works and having a critical eye. This realisation has made me question my position and role in the arts sector: who do I want to be in this scene? In what ways do I want to contribute to the arts and society? I have yet concluded these questions about my future, but through this internship experience, I have an inclination in working in art curation and the communications side of the arts and cultural sector.

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Other Thoughts and Remarks

Working as one of the few non-European interns at IMPAKT has given me a chance to understanding Dutch working culture in the arts industry: they mostly consisted of freelancers and part-time team members. This revelation has made me think more critically about the path I am about to take as well as geared myself up to be open to voluntary positions in non-profit spaces and projects to better connect with other curators, artists and project workers in the art scene.

Working remotely in the time of a semi-lockdown due to the COVID-19 situation has also made me reflect deeply about work productivity, concentration and the aim of getting things done. Sometimes being more mindful of one's state and attitude is more important that speedily going through the task list – being mindful makes one more productive, achieving things in a shorter amount of time as compared to working while feeling stressed and confined. Doing an internship alongside my master's thesis was also extremely stressful, yet at the same time it made myself busy enough to distract myself from the dire situation that we were (and still are) facing. I have learnt more about myself, my coping mechanisms and what I need to work productively at home – still striking a work-life balance during these difficult times.

After the lockdown and during the remaining three months of working in the office once a week with social distancing measures gave me access to IMPAKT’s physical archive. I found this opportunity very eye-opening and fascinating as I flipped through old leaflets, catalogues and posters. I have learnt to appreciate previous festival editions in terms of design, layout as well as programme content.

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CONCLUSION

Working at IMPAKT during the time of Corona has given me a precious opportunity for growth, insights and a time of self-reflection. Through this internship, I have not only learnt about the ins and outs of working in a media arts festival organisation, but I also took this chance to network with other like-minded interns, colleagues and developed a deeper interest in experimental cinema. Learning from experience is different from learning through academics and books – it’s given me a real-life situation communicating and working with people who have different approaches and thoughts about art. I think this internship

experience was very fruitful to me both academically and personally, sharpening my career goals further to which organisations to look and work for in the arts and cultural sector in the Netherlands and Europe at large.

MA PLACEMENT REPORT

MA PLACEMENT REPORT

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