But why has the concept of curation risen to such prominence beyond the museum, and why now? For Steven Rosenbaum, curation “addresses two parallel trends: the explosive growth in data, and our need to be able to find information in coherent, reasonably contextual groupings” (Rosenbaum, 2011, 5). This latter need, to be able to find information,... See more
Technology treats the process of consuming and the process of creating as distinctly different, when the reality is that for our brains, the process of absorbing a book is not all too different from the process of producing one. We are always seeking new connections, combining and recombining old ideas to produce new ones. So why is it that we... See more
our digital environments have turned us all into curators. Not just of aesthetics, but of inputs. What we consume, what we follow, what we amplify—it all becomes a mirror of how we think.
But taste requires subtraction. It means not participating in every viral moment. It means not resharing something just because it’s getting attention. It means opting out of the churn.
That doesn’t mean being contrarian for the sake of it. It means noticing when the culture’s default setting no longer reflects what’s true for you—and walking away.
CFC: What advice would you give to aspiring curators just starting their careers?
JA: I would say: cultivate a practice rooted in curiosity, listening, and long-term commitment. Curating is not only about articulating ideas, it is about building the conditions for others to create, experiment, and be heard. This requires patience, care, and the... See more
Curation as a Service (or CaaS) - I believe, as the amount of content on the web increases, there will inevitably be a need for more human curators. People who are domain experts (or have an obsession with a topic) that can sift through the garbage and collect the gems.
Armed with a traditional film background, we faced a dilemma: shed the principles of our training to feed the algorithm's insatiable appetite for content, or hold fast to our ideals and risk missing out. Multiply output for likes and follows, or cultivate vision for something that seemed very distant, unpredictable, and way harder to reach. It was... See more
Posting endless ‘favorite reads’ lists composed entirely of current bestsellers. Ticks the boxes, but doesn’t quite reveal taste. Reposting LinkedIn hot takes, adding cute hashtags but not really contributing much commentary