Essay

Word count: 1503
Student number: 607t4000

In this essay web 2.0 will be introduced and briefly discussed in relation to the what it offers to the art world.  This discussion will also be related to which parts of web 2.0 benefits artists. To develop this discussion more thoroughly 3 different art blogs will be discussed: 1 International, 1 African, and 1 South African. In order to link these three blogs together the cohesive theme in each one is the marketing of artists and art events. Each blog’s style, culture and writers will be discussed in terms of the similarities and differences in each of them.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee created web 2.0, and with this new development sharing files with other people over the Internet became possible. So basically one can with web 2.0 get information, change it then send it out again to various people or the world, this phenomenon is called: Social Networking. With this facet of web 2.0 comes websites such as Facebook, You Tube, Google and a broader field: Blogs. A blog is basically an online diary owned by either one or a group of people who post comments onto it and can also post their art onto it. This brought about new dimensions in the art world when various individuals created their own sites and blogs and through them became famous artists, one such individual is Robert Sloon. The positive thing about this with regards to art and artists is that it is accessible to everybody; anybody can now put their work onto a blog or website and get global recognition. This is a huge asset to artists and to various art communities that are remotely situated in the world and are not in New York or Cape Town, places such as Grahamstown perhaps. Many artists worldwide chose to exhibit their work on a blog or online because it is cheaper as well as faster and many of them succeed. The three chosen blogs show this very well, each one showcases sculpture artist’s work and are very similar in content. The main similarities between these three blogs is that they are obviously all blogs, they are all written by one person and all have share feeds at the end of each post. Mainly, each of the three blogs are advertising something to do with art, be it an exhibition, a tribe’s artworks, or just upcoming events in the local arts circuit. The discussion will start with the International blog: new-art.blogspot.com.

A writer with the screen name of VVOI updates the international blog monthly (approximately one every month), he is from Warsaw, Poland and has a profile in the top right corner of the blog. He himself is an artists and he puts his own artworks onto the blog as he did on Monday the 16th February post on the blog. He basically advertises his exhibition opening giving the reader opportunity to see what the work is about and also preview the work before going to see it. Other artists he showcases and writes about include Jenny Holzer, Tommi Toijda, and exhibitions such as PastForward. This blog is different from the other two in that the writer does not write so much, it is more image based, with each image having a paragraph or two of accompanying text to explain the artwork. It is great for the art lovers viewing the site to see what different exhibitions are out there and new and upcoming artists and/or events. But it is also very helpful to far way people who cannot physically go and view the exhibition, and this element will be seen in each of the three blogs. So for example the first (most recent) post on the San Francisco LAB’s 25th-year-anniversary exhibition, Pastforward, gives the reader a brief background on one of the artworks, and (another feature of web 2.0) it gives the reader click able links to other websites about the exhibition and about the LAB for example. The curatorial note is also embedded in the text and this to is very helpful to the more long distance art lovers (from Grahamstown for example). This is pretty much continued with the other artists and exhibitions on the blog. This blog has been running for quite a long time, the last click able date for older posts is 2000 and it showcases a variety of art mediums, as do the other two blogs. The African art blog is also very interesting and will now be discussed.

The Africa blog, is much more personalized. It is yet again a single author, but this author is much more personable than VVOI. The authors name is not given and not accessible, so I will refer to him/her as the editor as is done on the blog as well. The reason I say this blog is more personal is because the editor has an option on the page for the reader to send their email so that the editor can send the reader images of artworks that the editor thinks is worthwhile. The editor also promises to soon put his/her favorite artists and pieces onto the blog very soon. This blog is also marketing various African sculptures and other African art forms. The editor gives the reader a background in each post about things like African pottery, African figurines and also what other African tribes are making. This background is indeed crucial because most people who are not from the African tribes etc do not really know all that much about the tribes and the history of African art and sculpture. This is also very intriguing for art buyers, having a ‘piece of Africa’ has become very popular in some regions of the world and this stems out into the history of the world even. But once again it is nice for the people who cannot travel to Africa to be able to view the work online and comment on it ad learn more about it. This site can be seen as marketing sculptures from Africa for home décor purposes, but is that not one main element for all art: most artworks end up being displayed in a home, art gallery, museum or even publicly. Another very important facet of this blog in particular is that it is showing Africa’s culture, and is very much cultural based. The blog is updated monthly by the editor and is powered by Word press, as is the South African blog, which will now be discussed.

The South African blog  is very similar in content to the international blog because its layout is very similar. South Africa blog editor writes it and once again their identity is withheld. But there is another element here of advertising, strangely hotels are also advertised, supposedly for accommodation to those who want to come along to the Heritage awards or for heritage month as the blog says. This blog is also, as in the Africa blog, very much showcasing the culture of South Africa. Showing festivals such as the Oktoberfest in Cape Town. Even though this blog is arts and culture based, this is still a facet in art and is very important in South Africa. Lets face it, the divers and rich cultural climate in South Africa is the main attraction in the country and on this blog it is being showcased. There are a few other features that are interesting on the blog, such as blogs they read, and a blogroll, which are both click able on the blog. Based on the posts on the blog it is updated weekly if not daily and the first post was in October 2005. It has more of a news-like feel and is once again helpful to those people far away who want to see what is happening in South Africa. A difference that sets this blog apart from the previous two is that there is also a competition for artists posted on the site inviting artists to take part (and offering a substantial amount of prize money), and therefore advertising for the people creating the artworks rather that people who enjoy viewing the art and reading about the artists. Thus one can see this blog as more for the artists among us, as well as the arts and culture lovers.

The way each blog presents their views is as follows, the international blog is more of a news cross personal style of writing, where the writer shows his own and his favorite art as well as talks about events which are up and coming or sometimes already past. The Africa blog is personal and also information based, telling the viewer more about what he/she is looking at. The South Africa blog is very much news feed, telling the viewer about up and coming events and competitions. But the common thread in all these blogs is that they advertise artworks, artists, exhibitions and events in the art and culture world. Each one has its own very important role to play in the very wide world of the web 2.0.