A platform for promotion

what an mission to put this up online. the one problem i have with the internet is you have to be invited onto a blog like this and trying to find the person responsible for that took a few days to track down. none the less rather late then never i suppose.

Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way in which we, as the digital generation, communicate today and it is hard to escape. The internet, created by Sir Berners-Lee, has developed in a way in which we can send messages almost with in a split second and can share information without much hassle. In just over decade the world’s knowledge is just a click of a button away, figuratively speaking. In these up and coming times people are adapting to the ways of faster communication and ways of promoting themselves. Most people that frequent the internet would be familiar with social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and most instant messaging programs, all of which are available due to Web 2.0 and all of which have changed the way in which we communicate. More time is now spent looking at a screen talking to people then actually talking to the person face to face. Despite the repercussions it holds for personal relationships and social skills these communication tools can be greatly beneficial as the bridge between countries is getting increasingly smaller and as said knowledge is more accessible to more people. In relation to the art world, the World Wide Web can be a major asset and be used to an artist’s advantage. Some artists even use the web as their canvas to their art works and purely by the amount of views that their site has received have become known for their works.

The topic which I find interesting and I wish to address in this essay/blog is that artists can now use the internet as a tool for promoting themselves and their works. They can expose themselves to the world at a low or no cost at all. Not only can they promote them selves via the web pages but can also find other sites that are looking to promote and broadcast up and coming artists. For an artist that wants to discover what the market would be for their works, this could be a very exciting prospect. There is a huge scope for individuals, which are unsure of how to start and build a name in the art world, by using the tools given by Web 2.0. By just creating a website or setting up a blog page, any one from around the world that comes across the web site will be exposed to that artists work. By looking at three different blogs from around the world, namely South African, African and international blogs respectively, I wish to explore and discuss the different ways in Web 2.0, and mainly the use of blogging could be used to promote or encourage the promotion of local artists.

The ways in which people blog is not necessarily dependent on to their location in the world but rather the reason for the blog. When looking at the ways in which people promote their local artists around the world depends on what aspect of promotion they are trying to achieve. A blog which wanted to raise awareness to a certain artist would post pictures and detailed information about the person in question whereas an organisation which is looking for local artists to promote would approach the blog in a different way which I will address a little later. It would be a major assumption to say that an American, for example would blog in a different way to a South African, although some people do blog in different formats and styles, but isn’t that personal preference and style? What would that have to do with where you live around the world..

Firstly I will look at the South African blog, Brand South Africa Blog. It deals with the promotion of a hat/helmet known as the Makaraba which is common in South African sports supporters’ attire. The main contributing factor of the blog is a YouTube clip taken from Business News 2010 CNBC which explains the whole concept and creation process of the supporter’s helmet. These helmets are constructed from normal everyday construction helmets and are transformed into, what some might view as works of art, which could be worn and later kept as a collector’s item. Each one is hand crafted and unique and originally decorated in the fashion of the different soccer teams, now branching into the national market and incorporating different sports, teams and countries. This blog aims to bring awareness to this product due to the up and coming 2010 Fifa World Cup held in South Africa. The blog also provides a slide show with images, of individuals wearing this product, from Flicka, a site devoted to the upload of people’s photographs. Links are also supplied so that one could follow Brand SA on Twitter (a networking blog). By logging onto this blog one would also be able to make and access the comments written about the product and the general hype about the impending 2010 celebrations.

The African blog that I have chosen to look at and discuss, African Art Online Blog, promotes the local artist in a different light to that of the South African. It addresses not only one but a few artists from around Africa, many of which have traveled over seas and done independent exhibitions with great success. This blog highlights the artists and back rounds with a few images of their works. Links to these artists’ main pages are given too making an interested viewer go and look at their work more in depth. Each of the blogs for each artist is written by the managing director of the web site and organisation behind the blog, Tania Bale. The featured artists are updated every month so that new talent is exposed to the viewers of the blog. One browsing through the page can also search for other topics relating to African craft and issues according to the categories which might interest them more then the featured few.

And finally the last of the blogs which I looked at is an individual’s blog from Lexington, Blueline, which appeals to local artists to display their arts and crafts at the Boomslang Carnival, local to the area. The writing of the blog is very colloquial and is written as if talking to a friend. The main point of the blog is to invite artists from the area to apply to showcase their works at the carnival without any cost, the main point is to display their works to the public and hope to make a name for themselves in the process. The intention is purely to promote talented artist despite the alleged “brain drain” that Lexington is apparently experiencing and to prove that there are still talented people within the community. Although the blog does not appeal or apply to anyone out side of Lexington the blog is still there for the world to see. To be able to share the knowledge to the greater playground of what the web has now become. The blog does not contain any special additions of links, videos or slideshows but it is what a standard blog would appear to be, just someone speaking out to the public about what is going on around them. Promoting and raising awareness of artists could be this easy, someone just letting artists know where there is a platform to expose themselves to the general public.

Comparing all three blogs above shows the different approaches to which one could go about promoting artists on the web, or even the different types of formats for blogs. In the case of the international blog it wouldn’t be necessary to add links to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and such sites as the focus is more on the up and coming artist in the community unlike the South African blog which consisted mainly of links, video clips and photos from other sites. In the South African blog this was the appropriate approach in relation to the market in which the product is directed. Its positive attributes would be that one wouldn’t have to read the article but rather just watch a 5 minute clip which explained the product entirely. To the lazy viewer this is ideal. These different approaches are directed to the public which would read or view them in a way which would best put across the message and appeal to the directed market. The ways in which one wants to advertise their art is now entirely up to them with great help from the internet.