African Painters

student number: g07b3434

Tim O'reilly played a vital role in the inception of the Web 2.0 giving us the opportunity to create new web links and for us to have continuous access to websites such as youTube, Facebook, Wikipeadia etc. which are a few examples of Web 2.0. The web is a place in which people can interact, get information for either research purposes, leisure or entertainment. The speed in which the information can be generated in this web of sites is very fast and easily accessible to many in an instant. The introduction of web 2.0 increased the transmittion and generation on information world wide. That is the reason this place of "network-accessible information" is referred to as the world wide web (known as "WWW', "Web" or "W3") .

Within the WWW there are blogs such as the one we are using presently to display and post things ranging from pictures, comments and videos. An artist such as myself that is interested in painting can easily access and gain information from different art blogs from South Africa, Africa and Internationally. This essay will be discussing, comparing and contrasting the styles and way of reporting that is found in these different art related blogs.

The arttimesjournal.com is an international blog which serves as a journal and resource site for all art related topics. It has reviews, art essays and topics posted under different headings such as"travel and culture" and "speak out" etc. This blogsite allows the user to search for any information by simply typing any word in the "search this site" space. The information comes up on the screen and the user is ready to utilise the information as he sees fit. The art times journal has a serious tone such as that of a newspaper, seeming to appeal to sophisticated and well-informed people. The African painters are not necessarily discussed in detail individually in this blogsite. The focal point for the posted blog is African art as a whole even though I had typed in the words "African painters". Olga B. Spencer, the poster of the blog, focuses on the history and stories that led to the influences on African art. He reports in a very personal and expressive manner. He touches on one African painter named Bela whom he terms 'outstanding' since his style of painting reflected the genuine life in African men and nature. The tone in which Spencer reports is also in a factual, informative tone, without intentions to entertain. Spencer appears well -researched and clear on what he is reporting about. This is evident in his display of good historical background, seemingly precise dates and geographies, and good grammar. The art times journal is more of a website than a blog because one can only access information as it as and cannot alter or post new things as they feel. It has a publisher and one can subscribe to it etc. as one can for newspapers or magazines.

Africanpainters.blogspot.com is more specific and particular about the African painter or artist that is being written about. It is an African blog which is about contemporary art in and around the African continent. From merely reading the heading of this blog one realises that the style of this blog is layed-back and not too serious. According to the creator of the blog he mentions that he has created the blog "to push forward the concept of African cultural development...but most importantly than that its a place where we can blow-off steam..." In other words one can post anything and everything they feel like posting either to share their opinion, express their frustrations or joys, or for mere entertainment's sake. Within this blog one can post videos, comments or information. The layout of the blog is long and not quite interesting to follow. The style of reporting is light-hearted and the grammar used is not very complicated or sophisticated. It has a lot of quotations from the artists themselves and also each artist is discussed briefly. Included in the report on the artist is the artist's influences, inspirations and current affairs. The good thing about this blog is the some of the artists' Awards are mentioned and the achievements they have achieved up to date. The videos and pictures work to the advantage of the blog in that it keeps one interested in the blog and provides appealing visual that accompany the sometimes long passages of information.

The South African Mail&Guardian online is an electronic version of the Mail&Guardian newspaper. This to me is a website which includes blogs within it because there is not much freedom to alter, add or delete information. Most of the information on this site, which I will refer to as a blogsite, is fixed. There is also a "search" space in the page which will lead you straight to the place of interest. In this case I entered 'African painters' once again and entered into a page recoving 1-10 pages of search results. The results did not particularly pick out African painters, but mainly wherever there was the words "painter" or "african" in a title there would be highlights. One had to undergo a long process of choosing the right heading to find the right information. Most of the information in thie Mail&Guardian online seems to be very enlightening and deeply informative. I came across information such as names of African painters such as Jessica Webster, Mark Taylor etc. Their addresses were included, work hours, telephone numbers, city and venue names within their individual pages. This shows how specific and helpful the M&G online aims to be. Information on the artist is well reported, in a formal and definite manner. The page also allows one to share the information on Facebook. The style of reporting in this blogsite is factual, informative and descriptive to the smallest detail.

In conclusion, it is clear that these three art blogs, South African, African and International do share a common goal of making information on the artists accessible to everyone. They try to allow people to have freedom of speech by posting whatever views they have onto the blog. However, they differ in that some of them such as the M&G online and Art times journal have publishers and by that the structure and the style of reporting will tend to be on the formal and serious side. Appealing more to those who are keen on researching instead of mere entertainment.