Curating Interactive Art for Online Conferences: Artist, Curator and Technologist Experiences in Gather.Town

ABSTRACT

We present the results of a reflective, practice-based study with creative practitioners who contributed to the Art Track at Creativity & Cognition 2021. We investigate curating an interactive online gallery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the opportunities afforded and design constraints imposed by the Gather.Town platform and the experiences of the participating practitioners. We present auto-ethnographic reflections from Author 1, who created the online gallery space. We draw on the experience of Author 2 in curatorial research to analyze the experience of emerging practice through interviews with participating artists and curators. Results show that many of the artists were positively surprised by the platform engagement opportunities and conference attendees' engagement with the artworks at the gallery opening, and appreciated the equitable, global reach. Further analysis reveals a desire for future iterations, and an exploration of the platform in a hybrid context, alongside an in-person exhibition. © 2022 ACM.