Rachel Burnham writes: I recently read ‘Curation: The Power of Selection in a
World of Excess’ by Michael Bhaskar.
Published in 2016, this is an exploration of the very wide way in which
‘curation’ as an approach is being used.
In L&D, many people will be familiar with the concept of curation
being applied to how we select, manage and share resources for learning. You may also have come across the term
curation in relation to content marketing, in the context where a marketing
strategy makes use of content created by others which is selected and used to
promote a particular business – you may even use this yourselves. And of course, curation, has its origins in
the world of museums and art galleries.
Bhaskar looks at
curation in many different fields, as a business strategy, in retail, music and
many other fields, in governmental regeneration and planning policies and in
how we present ourselves as individuals.
He looks at how curation is being used to create value in fields, such
as food retail, through specialist food retailers who bring together small
niche providers of particular high-quality foods all under a single roof or
fascinatingly in the way that a new city is being planned in Abu Dhabi, by
curating a cultural district with top museums, art galleries, theatres and
music venues. The book is full of examples of curation permeating all sorts of
aspects of life – I think he sees curation everywhere – I wasn’t always
convinced, though he does a great job of presenting examples to illustrate.
And I found the
opening chapters with their emphasis on the abundance of everything for
everybody, rather sickening and infuriating – you don’t need to look further
than our city centres to see people living without a roof over their head, or
open a paper to see the growing demands on foodbanks and that is within the
wealthy UK. But the book did make me
think wider about what curation is and how it can be used.
He describes curation
as ‘using acts of selection and arrangement (but also refining, reducing,
displaying, simplifying, presenting and explaining) to add value. I found very helpful some simple diagrams he
shares which describe different ways that curating can add value.
 |
| Diagram from Pg. 166 |
He identifies a
number of benefits that curation can bring through the way it adds value
including:
·
saving
time
·
freeing
cognitive resources
·
sparing
us anxiety
·
cutting
down complexity
·
finding
quality
·
overcoming
information overload
·
creating
contrast
·
redefining
creativity
·
channelling
attention
·
providing
context
·
beating
overproduction.
One of
the most interesting aspects of the book is that looks at both curation through
the use of algorithms and also human curation and so it provides insight into
our very current concern about how can humans and technology work together. This
is sometimes described as ‘thick and thin’ curation. Where ‘thin’ curation is the network of cataloguing
and filtration mechanisms, recommendations and discovery algorithms found
throughout the Internet and 'thick' curation is done by humans 'based on detailed personal choices, often for smaller audiences; it discuses its choices and comments on them, adding extra spin to its decisions' (Pg. 233) Algorithmic curation can keep costs down and make curation scalable, but it is human curation that makes it personalised and personable. I like this quote from Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at Oxford University
'Curators are experts
- you have to have a say to be a curator. There is a practical side to
curation that means algorithmic curation should be joined by a sense almost of
ownership or custodianship. The ability to intervene, to follow on, to
ensure your curation has an impact is key. It is a pragmatic
relationship. ' (Pg 229)
What shines through is that effective curation
is a highly skilled process. Bhaskar
says in the context of content curation in marketing 'But the term is often used
weirdly. Websites advise people to 'curate in the morning' or curate
their way to success. Curation is seen as a shortcut, a defined thing, not
a process. … Good curation is more difficult and subtle than that.' He
sees expert selection as at the start of good curation and quotes from Maria Popova, curator
of the highly thought of ‘Brain Pickings’:
'The art of curation
isn't about the individual pieces of content, but about how these pieces fit
together, what story they tell by being placed next to each other, and what
statement the context they create makes about culture and the world at
large. This is, she argues, a process of 'pattern recognition'. Seeing
how things fit together, understanding connections (which multiply in a
networked environment), but then also, crucially, creating new ones by
recombining them, is a massive part of curation.' (Pg 125)
I love the sense of patchwork which her words
evoke, making something new and fresh from scraps of the old or the familiar. Another word for this would be ‘bricolage’
which Andrew Jacobs has written about.
Bhaskar argues that there are no shortcuts to
becoming trusted as a curator – it is about ‘Authenticity, consistency,
excellent selections - it is very hard to fake.' (Pg. 210)
I think curation is a useful skill for us to
develop both as individuals to aid us in managing the huge amount of
information we now need to navigate daily as professionals and also as a skill
for us in L&D to share with others and use in our professional
practice. Bhaskar puts it like this:
'The more we
understand how curation coheres with a network of new skills, strategies and
capabilities, the better prepared we will be for thriving in the age of excess
that is changing forever how we live and work.' (Pg. 165)
Rachel Burnham
7 July 2019
I help individuals and organisations to work and learn
more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the
curation of resources. I make use of
Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and
learning. I help people to manage for
themselves the information they need to stay up-to-date in their professional
work.
