Above are three (admittedly blurry) snapshots from the art blogging==global.exhibit(local); panel held at the Dallas Contemporary gallery on 2/21. We had a good audience - about 40 to 60 people showed up for the presentations. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it! (and if anyone has additional documentation images of the panel, please share!)

I think it is really fascinating to get a sense of how many different approaches to “art blogging” there are out there. Just google artblogging, “art blog”, “art blogging” and you will find a great wealth of material and dedication existing on the subject - and that’s just limited to those using “art blogging” as their terminology. It was interesting to me when I was going through the process of assembling this panel a few months ago when the November 2007 issue of Art in America was released. Admittedly, it is not usually on my monthly reading list, but I was aware that they were in the midst of putting an article together on the subject of art blogging, so I kept an eye out for it.

I was very pleased that an article on this subject was getting attention within a major traditional publication as an additional confirmation that this is a pertinent and challenging topic within the arts. The article appeared as “Report from the Blogosphere. The New Grass Roots” by Peter Plagens and features a group interview/roundtable with some very impressive individuals whose blogs are well known and highly respected. Specifically included are Regina Hackett (Art to Go), Tyler Green (Modern Art Notes), Jeff Jahn (PORT), Roberta Fallon & Libby Rosof (artblog) and Edward Winkleman (edward_winkleman).  I thought that the article raised some interesting questions,  likely introduced a good number of individuals to the bubbling cosmology which is the art blogosphere and generally did a great service to the practice as a whole.  That being said, I should like to draw attention to the following passage from the introduction to the article itself:

 “…there are dozens of art blogs out there - perhaps hundreds, depending on how loose your definition is. They range from merely more-frequent-than-usual opinion columns attached to commercial print publications, through virtual exhibitions and endless debates about art theory, to on-screen kaffeeklatches for the naive undergraduate…”

To me, it seemed clear that while this is a very inclusive list, it tends to favor the topics of art criticism, art appreciation and art dialogue.  While these are important areas and I do not fault the article for not touching on every flavor of art blog, I could see that within our own roundtable we might be able to concentrate on two areas left out of the focus from the article, namely: art practice and artist communities.  Of course, I myself began to worry that perhaps I was establishing too narrow a focus of my own - or that I had overlooked some core aspect of the article itself.  As I pondered these issues, I was reminded of a particularly articulate description of the culture and energy that emanated from the Internet in the early 1990’s.

Peter Morville, in his 2005 book “Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become“ opens chapter 6 “The Sociosemantic Web” with the following:

“In 1988, sociologist Susan Leigh Star coined the term ‘boundary object’ to describe artifacts or ideas that are shared but understood differently by multiple communities.  Though each group attaches a different meaning to the boundary object, it serves as a common point of reference and a means of translation. A dead bird may be the catalyst for communication between amateur bird watchers and professional epidemiologists… The magic of the boundary object lies in its ability to build shared understanding across social categories.” (Morville, 119)

Morville continues by explaining how the Internet in the early 1990’s could in  itself be considered a boundary object. For the vast majority of the chapter he focuses on how this has shifted, but what I am curious about is if perhaps within this passage there is a model upon which to examine the potential for the (art) blogosphere as it exists at this moment.  Rather than search to embrace a fixed definition, I wonder: do art blogs offer a means of translational tool among and beyond the facets of the art world?  If so, what art blogs are achieving this - or at least, approaching this ideal?  If not, what other models can be posed that allow for a highly flexible, more inclusive topology of the neighborhoods of art blogging?

So yesterday, about 30 photographers braved snow, plummeting temperatures, and circling MTA police SUVs to defend the right to sidewalk photography in Brooklyn and document neighborhoods disappearing through eminent domain. Maybe most importantly, bloggers and neighborhood activists and gardeners and artists who knew each other from a loose network of blogs met up in person, forming the Atlantic Yards Camera Club.

It was fun and inspiring and made clear that photographs - and most importantly, a walk around the footprint - offer a totally different perspective from idealized developer visualizations.

Atlantic Yards is a real place, with a historic neighborhood around it, that will soon become a complex 1.5 times the size of the WTC. Literally, a stadium across the two lane street from single family houses.

check out the flickr pool.

so, my run-in with the MTA police officer got posted on some Brooklyn-based blogs - and fellow photographer/bloggers organized a collective photo outing for today. I sometimes wonder about how real online communities/relationships are, so this is a nice example. Do other folks have thoughts/experience with this?

if you are in the neighborhood, here’s the details of the photo outing.

Since my arrival in Brooklyn, I’ve depended on a fantastic subway map overlay for google maps, available on the onnyturf blog. To my shock, my MTA story was front-paged there.

Sometimes I get busy/lazy/etc., and go to blogs that provide *me* with an immediate service: help w/ subway, .mp3s, “insider” political junkie news. (Am I the only one?) It takes more time to really participate - ultimately the premise/promise of blogging, versus just web-paging.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for putting up your introductions over the last week as a way of kicking off getting into the swing of using this blog. I know that while some of you are old hats at blogging, for others this is really the start of a new space of discourse. Also, even for those that have blogged a great deal before, this format, with its multiplicity of authors may likely be a shift in terms of how one approaches the space. I hope you find it exciting, but I wonder did you also find it a bit nerve wracking to send up that first post into the world?

I started thinking about this when explaining to another new media professor a few weeks ago about this project and in the process of saying that the panel was going to experiment by trying to start our conversation beforehand via a blog, the other professor let out a little sound. It was kind-of like “eeyh” or perhaps “eesh” – either way it was completely involuntary on his part and was followed up with “wow, that’s intense”. I began to wonder, how intense is this thing that I have wished upon us? Could that sound, that “eeysh” be the sound that one might hear in the background when considering using the web as an open sketchbook – or do you hear some other sound? Does it take nerves of steel to push that button, or will just a few ounces of pressure on the mouse button do the trick?

So I’ve been in Brooklyn just over a week. I kept seeing signs in the neighborhood that said “No Stadium!” or “No Atlantic Yards!”. I ask around a bit, and it turns out that Atlantic Yards is a huge Frank Gehry stadium/mall/condo complex being built in what was a residential neighborhood.

Sunday was really warm (ok, 50 degrees!) and so I walked all over Brooklyn, taking pictures for my blog and testing out my new video camera. I was taking pictures from the sidewalk at the Atlantic Yards site, when I was stopped by an MTA police officer. First he gave me the anti-terrorism speech. I pointed out that I was on the sidewalk and that the rail yards were getting torn down anyway. He started asking if I was part of any “organization”, demanded to see my camera, and ran a “security check” with my ID. Finally he asked me if I was part of any organization opposing the stadium project(!).

my pics are here.

more about Atlantic Yards.

Here I am! Taro Hattori is writing. I am an artist. Well… I do many different things, as every artist does (I guess). My work is often sculptural based installation, sometimes using video, photography or sound elements. I am a sarcastic person, so my work always has bits of spice/irony, criticizing social conditions we live in. Please take a look at my website (http://www.studioislander) which I share the space with my collaborator Mayumi Hamanaka (she is also in our comrade here). I curate exhibitions in the Bay Area (e.g. Mission 17, The Lab, Kala Art Institute, ProArts). The themes of two exhibitions I am curating at this point are; Recreation of Destruction, and Musicality in Visual Arts. Also, I still haven’t started but I am trying to start a blog based project or a project which starts from blogging with this British artist (yes, it’s remote… that could be the whole point…). This project could be a part of my presentation as well as the one Mayumi mentioned, Klog, the blog of Kala Art Institute, where I work as computer center manager and media art instructor.

I’m Mayumi. I am an artist working in photo-related installation, sometimes straight photography, sometimes more in 3-dimensional installation. My work explores the image and history, how the individual experiences an event in his/her real life in person or via the medium of image. For some of my work: http://studioislander.com/

I work as the Communication Manager at a non-profit art organization, Kala Art Institute based in Berkeley. I am also a teacher in photography and digital media.

I was excited to join this panel as an artist and as the Communication Manager of an art organization. In our time, we are so accustomed to using the internet media as the most convenient way of communication. I am interested in how we can build a dynamic community by mixing on-line and off-line audiences.

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Kala Art Institute offers Artist-In-Residency and Exhibition programs. Since 1974, Kala has provided professional working facilities to artists in all forms of photography, printmaking, book arts, digital media and installation. By offering access to a wide array of equipment, Kala encourages artists to explore untapped possibilities of combining various techniques. The Institute supports emerging and established artists with opportunities to develop and exhibit new artwork, and serves as a forum for cross-cultural dialogue.

For more information about Kala, http://www.kala.org, and Klog! (Kala Blog) at http://www.kala.org/wordpress/

My name is Duncan MacKenzie and I am the Director of an arts and culture media blog/podcast called Bad at Sports Podcast (BAS) and an adjunct professor in the Art + Design Department of Columbia College.

About Bad At Sports:
Bad At Sports is a weekly podcast about contemporary art. Founded in 2005, the show focuses on presenting the practices of artists, curators, critics, dealers and various other arts professionals through an online audio format. Some of the program’s guests include Rodney Graham, Kerry James Marshall, Francesco Bonami, David Robbins, Carol Becker, James Rondeau, Jeff Wall, Hamza Walker, Lane Relyea, James Yood, Michelle Grabner, Gavin Turk, Dominic Molon, and Julian
Myers.

In addition, contemporary art exhibits - and frequently books and movies – are reviewed on the program. Contributions come from Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Cologne, Switzerland and Tokyo. Bad At Sports believes that podcasting brings a certain spontaneity and raw dynamic quality to the art interview and review - that feeling of casual conversation and spirited debate that is often lost in the print format is fully present in the podcast.

The participants in Bad At Sports see their relationship to the blog and podcast as another aspect of their art practice. Most of us have a traditional and formal object oriented artistic practice, but Bad At Sports’ projects are used and developed as community tools for informational dissemination and reception, not to leverage our own personal artworks. It is an accessible community-oriented project that sees its role as a service organization and a roll player in the Chicago, San Francisco, and New York art information and criticism systems.

Bad at Sports is a non-commercial project enabled by the relatively affordable nature and accessibility of web oriented communications. In any other mass medium this work would not be possible primarily because of the massive overhead costs. Brian and I are representatives of the 20 or so participants in the Bad at Sports project, every one of us is a volunteer.

That is me, more or less… Artist, Educator, and Critic. Brian Andrews and I will be presenting on behalf of Bad at Sports.

I think I’m an artist.  I work with radio in a collaborative, technical and social way.  Most of my work for the last 4 years has been with the collaborative group that I founded in 2004,  Neighborhood Public Radio.  Our archive of sound files is made searchable and kept organized by date, because it is maintained through a Wordpress blog.  We have used the blog as a way to document our ephemeral work, a way to document our travels, and promote ideas. When we have veered away from pure archiving we have pointed to issues of censorship, copyright, FCC regulation of free speech, National Public Radio’s continuous capitulation to right wing pressures, the very notion of “what is the left” in this country….etc.

I want to talk about the compulsion that can be associated with a blog.  The obsession with web traffic that sometimes occurs.  Is that a good thing for art..or is it another soft way that artists inadvertently choose to bring “market” forces to bear on their public expression.

Neighborhood Public Radio will be testing it’s left credentials in the coming months as we blog about our radio adventures from a storefront on Madison Avenue and 75th streets during the 2008 Whitney Biennial.