Just posting the note i wrote about blogging, its personal, very general, do post a comment if you disagree with it, its what we handed out to the wokrshop participants as an introduction to the blogosphere, so pitched very much at a beginner.
RLxx
Blogging : An Ideal Recipe by Rachel Lois Clapham
Why blog?
Much of today’s art criticism has devolved away from a removed position of judgement to a more embodied critique. This is (very basically) critical writing where the author (and reader) is necessarily situated in the personal; their body, their opinions/subjectivity and this position is considered relevant and critical. In addition, people nowadays often put as much stock in what their neighbours think of a piece of art as they do in what a professional thinks. Both these factors explain why and how blogging is such a vital, popular and growing phenomenon; its form, design and purpose are all often without spin and are personal i.e. a blogger, whatever they blog about, is telling you what they think.
Your blogging voice
Bloggers need to stay true to the blogger ethos of ‘say it like it is’ and giving their opinion freely whilst maintaining levels of professionalism and being mindful of any important relationships such as funder, artist or friend. The personal touch doesn’t mean a blog is not of professional standards or interest to academics, artists or commissioning organisations. Many individuals and organisations have a vested interest in blogging and many blogs are professional, both in financial terms and content. A growing number of professionals and organisations take blogging very seriously as a genre and pay bloggers to report on much more than just the facts.
Addressing the reader
Due to the blog’s informal origins, blog readers won’t necessarily be expecting large amounts of dense, specifically academic or theoretical language or text in a blog. This kind of content certainly does appear on specialist blogs, and will certainly be beneficial to many visitors to the PERFORMA 07 Live blog, but be mindful that the Performa blog has a potentially wide and varied readership and the content of the work seen may well be unfamiliar, unusual or difficult to many who are not familiar with live forms of art or new media. Any specific content or language will need to be carefully introduced, clearly referenced and explained for the benefit of the reader.
A Good Blog
There is no point writing about a piece of work if you only have bad things to say about the work. Also, you need to bear in mind that Performa is trying to foster a community that will inform artists, future historians but also encourage more people to see and learn about performance art and new media so plainly negative reviews won’t be published. Instead we want critical writing that includes, and works within, the PERFORMA 07 Live blog guidelines whilst maintaining its voice and criticality. A certain level of questioning or negativity is ok as long as you are generous (to the artist, to the work, to your reader), also constructive and balanced in your opinion. A good tip to gage whether or not you think you are being balanced regarding your negative opinion is to ask yourself ‘Would I feel happy as author of this writing if I met the artist or curator for dinner?‘ If the answer is no, it’s perhaps time to re-phrase or put more into the text to explain yourself. Thanks to Joshua Sofaer for that tip, which he told to me and has saved me numerous upset stomachs…
You will distinguish your blog from the majority of vicious, bad or ‘nasty’ blogs (i.e. blogs that are full of typos, unstructured, ill-thought-out or overly negative and viscous) by following the PERFORMA 07 Live blog guidelines, doing thorough copy editing and ensuring the facts (credits, copyright, names, dates, times) are all included and cross referenced. Also make sure you include any relevant links to the artists work.
Happy Blogging!
Rachel Loisxx
