Hello everyone,
My name is Milena Placentile and I am a Master of Museum Studies student at
the University of Toronto. I am a curator of contemporary art and an art
gallery educator. My primary interest when curating is to explore ways of
knowing and the subjectivity of perceptions thus I am drawn to work that
blurs assumptions about disciplines and media while generating a desire to
look inward and reveal biases.   I’m very interested in new media work but
haven’t yet had the chance to work with it in any of my past projects.
While participating in the Curatorial Work/Study program at the Banff Centre
for the Arts this past summer I discovered the Banff New Media Institute.
Among other projects and events, they hosted a research summit titled
"Beauty of Collaboration: Manners, Methods, and Aesthetics". I attended as
many sessions of it as I could and was introduced to a number of unique
thinkers and projects. Not only was I thrilled discover new ideas but I was
also very excited to find that many of my own were reflected in the issues
raised over the course of this event. Thus, it’s a desire to pursue these
threads that I’ve joined this discussion list.
On the topic of my interest in collaboration, from a curatorial perspective
I would like to continue developing exhibition/events/projects that engage
others in ways that foster active participation (intellectual,
emotional -and- physical). If I can do this with artists, all the better,
though I’m always interested in exploring ways to do this in other cases,
such as when guest curating an institution’s permanent collection.
My website is sadly out of date but (if anyone is interested) I’d be happy
to provide links to a couple past projects that have served as my initial
explorations into the ideas mentioned above. As one last thought: since I
have a particularly heavy course load ahead of me this year I won’t be able
to attend the conference in April but I do hope to participate in online
discussions as much as possible. Thanks for welcoming me to join the list!
Cheers,
Milena Placentile