..on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 11:34:56AM +1200, trudy lane wrote: > In response to Julian's last point I'd say I have to agree that > getting to know people and sharing ideas in person is ideal. Though > as great as it would be, the expense of sending everyone out is part > of what made developing something like SCANZ seem like a good idea. > Bringing people here also means that visitors can understand > something of our fuller context here, and NZ practitioners can > network from a position of strength. Hopefully this might also then > lead to greater ease in finding good networking and working > opportunities internationally. >
one reason i'm not especially /confident/ about investment in sites that promote "New Zealand Media Art" is that based on my experience very few people in the media-art scene care at all where a person is from in the context of discovering and engaging with a work. if anything the "where are you from?" question is either a personal aside or is asked to determine whether they can afford to fly you to their gig.. when discovering new media art i myself simply don't search within windows like "Estonian Nanotech Art", "Irish Hardware Hackers", "Lithuanian Game Art". i'm sure the odd art historian would group their investigations under such umbrellas but does anyone else? this perhaps is a symptom of the cultural 'global village' that late nineties net-culture so heavily idealised anyway - the idea that it's one's contribution to culture that's important, regardless of creed or origin - a strategic levelling of geographic feature under banner of a humanist egality. this is further represented by the free-market for many country TLDs (.tv, .at, .cx), the last reliable placeful index within a trans-geographical network. international webhosting too dislodged the idea that the work itself was 'coming from' the place in which it was made. for these reasons (among a few others), people generally don't look for - let alone expect - representation of a geographic essence in media-art as they might with painting or music. as such they don't /typically/ group media-art within a geographic space. i consider myself an "artist from NZ" more than a "NZ artist" - and as anyone that knows me will tell you, i'm certainly very proud to be a Kiwi. as NZ'ers we tend to assume that our relatively extreme geographic circumstance will be a primary feature, and thus a filter, in discovering and engaging with us and our work. i think this is the case far less than we, at times, would desire. cheers, julian Zagreb > > > On Sep 23, 2008, at 11:26 PM, Julian Oliver wrote: > > > ..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/ > > _______________________________________________ > Ada_list mailing list > [email protected] > http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/ -- julian oliver http://julianoliver.com messages containing HTML won't be read. _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
