FRANCESCA SERAVALLE CURATOR

THE HANDS OF THE CURATOR
UNSEEN PHOTO FAIR AMSTERDAM 2017
ASMR audio performance 

FOR RADIO POIUYT 

Where is going the photobook market?
How a curator analyses a photobook? By the story? By the editing? By the text? By the sequence? By the subject? By the photographer? By the publisher? By the photos? By the graphics? By the binding? By the paper?

How much attention and time do you give to all these factors when you are turning the pages? Is every hand similar?


The first audio book of a photobook Festival, playing with the limits of photography, joking about the glamour trend of the contemporary photography, and the easy trend of a deictic communication based on the hand fetishism.

Who is the real “author” of the book? The photographer? The graphic designer? The curator? Or the collector, the photobook fetishist?

I selected some books from the Unseen Photobook maket using 2 criteria:
- The book as a body
- The book of body project

I’ve flipped the pages of the book in 30 minutes of sound performance in real time, the half an hour before the presentation of the winner. The sound was transmitted online on youtube by the RADIO POIUYT.  

When you turn the pages of a photobook do you prefer the total silence or a vocal intervention of the author? How many seconds do you dedicate to turn the pages of a book? How much time do you spend in front of a picture?

Are you able to recognize a book by the sound of the turning of its pages?

Actually the sound is the less censored form of expression. This is way the ASMR* is the new trend to spread pleasure online 



 
Unseen, Amsterdam September 2017

Which hands you wish they flip your book? The hands of a curator? Of an important artist that you admire? The hands of a famous critic, a friend journalist, a writer that you appreciate or a very influential international blogger? The hands of a director of a Museum or a Festival who will produce you an exhibition? The hands of the Festival that will ask you to borrow them or realize an exhibition for free? The hands of a photographer that will ask you to curate his book and his exhibition? The hands of a designer who takes inspiration from your layout? The hands of a book distributer or a book shopper? The hands of a local pedestrian market street who honestly tells you what she/he sees free from any professional judgment? The hand of your parents trying to understand what do you do in your life? The hands of a publisher who can propose to you to do the next book together? The hands of your next love when you show yourself to him / her? The hands of your ex boyfriend? The hands of the person who will receive the book as gift? The hands of someone who did a project like your? The hands of a buyer? The hands of a photobook collector?

*ASMR - Autonomous sensory meridian response is a term used for an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia ASMR signifies the subjective experience of "lowgrade euphoria" characterised by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin". It is most commonly triggered by specific acoustic, visual and digital media stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attentional control. ASMR was coined on 25 February 2010 by Jennifer Allen, a cybersecurity professional residing in New Yor. Proposed formal names included "Attention Induced Head Orgasm", "Attention Induced Euphoria" and "Attention Induced Observant Euphoria", whilst colloquial terms in usage included "brain massage", "head tingle", "brain tingle", "spine tingle" and "brain orgasm".