« Censored sex and the city paper | Main | Considering the hybrid »
May 16, 2006
It all matters
byBlogs just might be the best thing that could happen to us. Anyone who has had to explain to an editor why, say, Duchamp is not an obscure reference in an art review, knows how limited traditional print journalism can be as an environment that promotes critical (let alone historical) thought. We, in printdom, have some advantages in terms of quality control but our filtering system is flawed. I’ve often wondered what would happen if arts journalists were allowed to write with the same level of authority as sports writers. Would we gain back readers? Is possible that in a quest to chase down the mythical “everyreader” with bite-size bits of info we’ve actually ended up alienating them?
Column inches in the blogosphere are infinite and, for those who need to weigh in and for readers hungry for something uncensored, it’s a bonanza. Our mission may be different, but maybe we can learn to do things differently. Instead of catering to people who don’t read, why not try going after those who do? Call it an experiment. And let’s not get caught up in the legitimacy game of who is the real critic and who isn’t. For now, it’s whoever has the gumption to write and post their opinions. Several months ago, I participated in a series of events on the state of art criticism at the School of the Art Institute that began with lectures by academics and ended (or devolved depending on your point of view) with a panel of local arts journalists. I was in the latter group and it had been made clear to me by more than one person that “real” criticism did not exist in journalism. (Academics? Dwindling readers? Please). Well, we already know that what we do is much more than purely criticism--we preview, review, feature, profile. Receptivity to the arts can be measured by our ability to do the work we do. What we choose to write about is a form of criticism—and our work is like meat tenderizer. Our work allows critics to go in deeper and readers to get why it matters. And without bloggers, we might not even be having this conversation.
Posted by at May 16, 2006 7:20 AM
COMMENTS
"And without bloggers, we might not even be having this conversation".
Amen! And the print media would show less and less interest in covering the arts. Blogging has proven there is an audience for a wider more indeph coverage.
Posted by: Mark Barry at May 16, 2006 7:39 AM
Re:
And let’s not get caught up in the legitimacy game of who is the real critic and who isn’t. For now, it’s whoever has the gumption to write and post their opinions.
So many of these posts allude to the idea of authoritative criticism like a poobah decrying what's good and bad or merely passable. A sense of the meaning less often attributed to the idea of criticality is that of something crucial or vital that cannot be done without. Your use of the word gumption gets at it and it is palpable in good criticism wherever you find it.
Posted by: J@simpleposie at May 16, 2006 8:00 AM
I’ve often wondered what would happen if arts journalists were allowed to write with the same level of authority as sports writers. Would we gain back readers? Is possible that in a quest to chase down the mythical “everyreader” with bite-size bits of info we’ve actually ended up alienating them?
You've nailed it. We'd agree that the pseudo-neutrality and dumbing down of criticism in the journalistic press has hurt it. One can look to the fall of the Democratic party as following a similar trajectory - try to take as generic a stance as possible. Meanwhile the Republican media machine is pounding away with very specific and charged opinion. This is not to say arts journalists should emulate Republicans (how depressing), but as you mention, art critics in the press should speak from "somehere," not from nowhere. Or to continue with the sports analogy, as Jim Rome says to his callers - "Have a take and don't suck."
Posted by: LeisureArts at May 16, 2006 9:24 AM
Yeah! And don't fan on it.
Posted by: J@simpleposie at May 16, 2006 9:49 AM
Tell A Friend