‘Proles vs. Pros: An Experiment In Curating’

 

General Culture

Here’s an article about a photo show “curated” “by 3,344 self-selected people”. I think the experiment is interesting enough, but the underlying ideas - summarized in “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki - are a nice and inspiring read, but little more. It’s not very hard to see how the theory has tons of gaping holes (if the crowd was really so wise how come that George W. Bush was re-elected president in 2004 when it was already painfully obvious how incompetent he is? if the crowd is so wise how is it possible for stock- (or property-) market bubbles to develop? etc. etc.).