Like any passion, blogging (and art blogging in particular) makes me feel like I’m cheating on my boyfriend with a lover that attracts and repels me at the same time….here are some thoughts on that mercurial relationship that I manifest in front of my laptop…
WHAT I LOVE
- Art blogging is to art criticism & art journalism what hip hop was to the music industry in the 1980s;
- The free form of blogging allows unfiltered reactions to appear without the calcifying touches of some editors;
- Art blogs tell me about the art world right now more than art magazines or newspapers ever could;
- The integration of multimedia (Flickr, YouTube) into the blog makes print and even video mediums appear passive, archaic and inflexible;
- It always surprises me who reads blogs and which ones they read;
- Art blogs are going to endow the voice of the art public with a new power;
- Art blogs will (and have) diversified the art public (if it got any whiter or blonder, the art world would be a country in Scandinavia);
- Art blogs will wrestle away the power of galleries to represent art and its quality (maybe that’s why they are so afraid of letting us take photos of their shows);
- People who comment on posts (no matter how asinine) always inform blog debates, irrespective of the bloggers perspective or beliefs-even stupid comments tell you something;
- Blogs are instantaneous…the rapidity is sublime;
- Blogs rock!; and
- Blogs are well positioned to speak truth to power.
WHAT I HATE
- Art bloggers are far too nice to one another, we need more flaming, but then again it is such a lonely process that most bloggers probably need as many friends as we can muster online;
- Some bloggers don’t realize that the blog form strains under the weight of long verbose rhetoric, which coincidentally has long crippled the field of art criticism…least we forget that Denis Diderot–that great 18th C. French art critic–was often at his best when he offered short quips about paintings that would be interpreted as conversational nowadays;
- While artists can make great bloggers they should NEVER blog about their own work unless it is predominantly to reveal issues of process or to give us a sneak peak of new/evolving work (otherwise it’s BORING!!!!!);
- Art blog commentators can at times respond brainlessly, preferring knee-jerk reactions rather than thought-out remarks;
- Bloggers that don’t take the time to consider the user’s experience peeve me off;
- Many bloggers don’t consider the issue of typography and layout (of images in particular) on their blogs and feeds;
- No one has figured out a way to make a living off the medium;
- Bloggers can be clannish and hermetic and stranger still, try to recreate the “A-lists” that drove many bloggers away from the traditional arts media (like the recent list of art blogs posted by Modern Art Notes, and another by the MetMuseum via Art21); and
- I wish there was more diversity among art bloggers, and by this I mean ALL types of diversity (cultural, economic, political, etc.)…our homogeneity in terms of politics or cultural identity just proves that so many other potential readers don’t care about what we write. Any healthy field of endeavor needs diversity to evolve.
Feel free to comment and flame me for my list.
8 responses so far ↓
1 BP // Feb 18, 2008 at 2:04 am
Interesting comment about the homogeneity. I have often felt that the “annointed” artworld was too politically homogenous. I was given the opportunity to curate a show during an art fair as part of a curatorial group. My suggestion was to go out and find right-wing (or right-leaning) artists who were working in portraiture and do a group show of portraits of President Bush. I believed it would be an interesting show of art being made today in honor of a president that, in our little NYC artworld, is regularly maligned. And I thought it might be eye-opening to see work that, by its conservative nature, would appear transgressive via context. Needless to say, my suggestion was shot down immediately and I was considered a heretic for even suggesting it. I still want to do it, although it seems the appropriate time has passed.
2 Carol Danvers // Feb 18, 2008 at 6:58 pm
That is the worst idea I have ever heard in my life.
3 peacay // Feb 19, 2008 at 5:46 am
-Bloggers that don’t take the time to consider the user’s experience peeve me off-
And I hate bloggers who don’t realise hypocrisy when it bites them.
Let’s take for example the picture accompanying this entry. The actual image is 720px (from clicking and then right clicking and choosing properties) wide yet you have the temerity to stuff it into a space that is only 493px wide.
Don’t you see that the art you suggest you support is done the greatest of disservices by being presented in such a distorted manner??!!
You either have to make 2 images : one that displays on site at 493px wide and clicks through to a second image: the 720px wide original; or you have to open the 720px wide one, reduce it in size to 493px wide and use that alone.
(well you did ask to be flamed and to me, this is a first principles/number ONE priority - I turn off listening when I see this unnecessary phenomenon, which is, I might add, fairy rife among the artsy blogger world. WTF?!)
4 hv // Feb 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
RE: Peacay
WOW! That’s why I love comments on blogs.
I admit I can be a little lazy when it comes to formatting image sizes on my blog. I insert larger images and shrink them so that readers can click to see details, I never realized it would piss people off…now I know!
I know the best way would be to link directly to Flickr but I refuse to litter by photostream with EVERY image I post (some, I admit, are just fun and whimsical).
Having said that I think I’m going to take your advice and either post the exact size I post or else upload two sizes. Thanks for sounding off on this….and feel free to let me have it if I diverge from my promise.
5 Blogging about Images « Mindtracks // Feb 19, 2008 at 4:12 pm
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6 Dimitrios // Feb 19, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Okay, so you want to start flaming about art? let’s start a hefty discussion about this art: http://www.thousandlotsofsand.com it’s a conceptual art project. Or is it?
7 Charlotte // Apr 4, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I agree whole heartedly that blogging and the internet in general is helping artist connect to the world without a gallery interpreter.
Unfortunately while all artists are being told “Get on the Internet..write a Blog!!” what we are not sure about is what about us is interesting beyond our art. How much can we share (”cultural, economic, political, etc.”) without interfering with the viewers perception of our art?
8 Accessible Art Criticism is a Canard // Apr 17, 2008 at 9:03 pm
[...] One of the reasons I began to blog was because I was searching for a new medium to convey ideas about culture and art. With video, photos, hyperlinks and other tools at my disposable I thought I could get closer to my goal–I posted about this a while ago. [...]
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