An ominous post title, but really just a lighthearted jab at the kind of work that I'm currently involved in - the curating of the entire studio stock. No small task when you include all the digital files and data accumulated over the years, and the editorials and random notes that have gone flying into digital shoeboxes for future examination - and the future is here. Along with this mammoth task is the actual sorting and organisation of years of sketches, half-finished works, a thousand scribbled ideas and late-night mutterings that have no listing, no order - and I can't always be sure where anything is. Especially after having moved house twice in the past couple of years. Now the plan is to have everything completely set in its place within the studio, clearly labelled, indexed and filed.
To that end, I found a method of creating simple keycards for use in both my filing and my social media, to keep images and data together - one of the greatest difficulties that I've experienced in keeping digital records was having an image to relate to a text document without having to create an enormous file. Another solution that was needed was a way for clients to be able to easily refer to works that they had seen, and a method for them to easily share information with someone else. Enter the keycard - a simple text reference to the status of the real artwork, with an image to let me know which piece it's referring to.
At this stage, there are still well over a hundred works to catalogue in this fashion, and that's not including the work that has yet to be photographed - it's all very much a work in progress. But the simplification of the process was the ultimate goal, and that's already begun to occur. Now the specifics of a work are immediately communicated to the audience, and further conversation can be had about the art itself.
Which is where we all really want to be.
The backstage is never as pretty as front of house, usually covered in the detritus of all the preparation and the labour that comes before the curtain goes up, but it's all essential to the performance.
To that end, I found a method of creating simple keycards for use in both my filing and my social media, to keep images and data together - one of the greatest difficulties that I've experienced in keeping digital records was having an image to relate to a text document without having to create an enormous file. Another solution that was needed was a way for clients to be able to easily refer to works that they had seen, and a method for them to easily share information with someone else. Enter the keycard - a simple text reference to the status of the real artwork, with an image to let me know which piece it's referring to.
At this stage, there are still well over a hundred works to catalogue in this fashion, and that's not including the work that has yet to be photographed - it's all very much a work in progress. But the simplification of the process was the ultimate goal, and that's already begun to occur. Now the specifics of a work are immediately communicated to the audience, and further conversation can be had about the art itself.
Which is where we all really want to be.
The backstage is never as pretty as front of house, usually covered in the detritus of all the preparation and the labour that comes before the curtain goes up, but it's all essential to the performance.