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Electronic Village Galleries (pilot)

‘Electronic Village Galleries’ (EVG) is an ongoing research project enabling rural engagement with international contemporary art. The pilot phase provided conceptual, local and online platforms to support rural arts communities in Cornwall to host new media art events in their village halls.

Five new-media art curators shaped collections for non-gallery contexts; local ‘hosts’ select from these works to curate displays community-relevant exhibitions. A modular catalogue was produced for hosts to download and print information on the works they select. Three such events were organised in April and May 2011. Visiting speakers were invited to stimulate dialogue around the works shown. A website (evg.dematerial.org) was developed to promote and document the events. Over 150 people attended the events and some were invited to provide feedback through a ‘vox pop’ stand. Experiments with collaborative interpretation of the artworks were undertaken: a London-based new media art practitioner and theorist engaged in email dialogue with participants.

The pilot tested distributed curation enabling local meaning-making within standardised protocols agreed by the project’s stakeholders. EVG builds on previous work by refining models and protocols of distributed curation. The project generated new questions and further research is planned.

Arts Council Funded (through managed funds).

• Paper on EVG delivered at Digital Economy – Research In Practice – Lecture Series, University College Falmouth, May 2011.

• Paper on EVG delivered at The Cornwall Workshop 2011 initiated by the independent curator Teresa Gleadowe and developed in collaboration with Tate St Ives’ Tate Research Centre: Creative Communities.

• Paper on EVG delivered at Rural Connective Workshop 2: Inspirations of the Rural (Rural Connective is a partnership between Falmouth University, dot.rural (The Rural Digital Economy Research Hub) at The University of Aberdeen and BT and AHRC-funded).