Curating one-Self: A liberal act of self-development

Reflecting on the intimate link between the creator ‘s identity and his/her creations this paper moves away from curating sole material objects. It instead analyses methods of curating as a process that is conductive to creative identity development. Curating in this sense happens in multiple levels and for diverse reasons.

In this context I refer to cases in which artists and designers have been positioned as curators of their own work and analyse how this had impacted on their perception of themselves as artists/Designers/ human beings. I also analyse how in a meta-level the curated human forces (e.g. selected groups of people creating collectively) and their creations had been considered as a solid ‘artwork’ that its curation and exhibition challenges notions of Design, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and freedom.

The methods and materials are heavily based on spontaneity of play. Allowing the participants to be lost in the flow of playful creation (role play, stories, performance) this paper discusses how the final ‘artwork’ is people-stories and object-memories that narrate the development of one’s creative self.

images from: PhD thesis, Besides the Screen Conference workshop - Brasil 2015,  Creative Identity and Innovative thinking Course

Automatic drawing, writing and making as well as conversations with personified objects enabled students to surrender in moments of serendipity, become lost and develop greater clarity and criticality about themselves and their socially mediated, political, creative practice.