..on Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 01:27:31PM +0200, Damian Stewart wrote: > Julian Oliver wrote: >> to seek 'recognition' for what one makes is an empty project in itself >> work must first be 'recognised'. if a work is seen to be transformative >> then those that believe so will take care to distribute that value to >> others without need of any government endorsement, promotional capital >> or even a website. > > i'm going to have to call you on this one, J. i think you considerably > understate the importance of self-promotion. over the last year and a > half here in Europe i feel i have made enormous headway, and have been > very successful in making the kinds of contacts and relationships that > are necessary to actually pull off a career as an artist. but for the > most part this hasn't happened through the strength of my work, but > rather through my willingness to live a kind of crazy, stressful, > confusing, disorientating life, and put myself into situations where > these kinds of meetings have been possible; as you put it to me once, to > get on a plane to another city with 100 euros in my pocket and not have a > clue what's going to happen next. i haven't lived continuously in one > city for more than 2 months, nor slept in a bed i could reasonably call > 'mine', since June 2007.
as i said later in the post it's not that i think promotion isn't important, far from it. what you've been doing however - described above - isn't promotion so much as networking, which certainly counts for far more than indiscrete and unsolicited attempts to promote your work online or elsewhere. i'd say you'll get more gigs because other artists and curators actually like you and your ideas and because they've enjoyed working with you (which i've seen first hand in your case).. as you point out even having an opportunity to network is particularly hard for Kiwis based in New Zealand, which is why i think that cultural funding would be /better/ spent on airfares and accomodation abroad, cultural exchanges and residencies than promotion online. julian Zagreb, Croatia -- julian oliver http://julianoliver.com messages containing HTML won't be read. _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
