Saturday, June 30, 2007

The Blogger Show - dates and titles

Blogger Show (working title)

Pittsburgh (Digging Pitt and Digging Pitt Too)
November 10 - January 12
Public Reception: December 8

Pittsburgh (Panza Gallery)
Dates TBD

New York
November 1 - 30
Public Reception:TBD

Did you notice the show title? We've been kicking around a few ideas, but wanted to see if any of you have suggestions. Send your suggestions to us or leave them in the comments stream, and we'll post them here and in Digging Pittsburgh Arts. Here are the submissions we have so far --

Dashboard

Blog/Artifex

Powered by Bloggers - an exhibition of work by artists who keep web logs

Blogospheric Art - an examination of connectivity and creativity on the Internet

Portmanteau

Shifting Discourse

Split Discourse

Schizophrenic Discourse

We'll be leaving announcements about the upcoming exhibits, news and links to our artists on-line projects here, so keep checking back.

32 comments:

Steven LaRose said...

The Society

Anonymous said...

Blart

Steven LaRose said...

Hah!
I like "Blart"

Steven LaRose said...

Sorry for grabbing three out of the first four comments, but hey, I should also say:

"Dashboard" - cool

"Blog/Artifex" - what does "artifex" mean?

"Powered by Bloggers - an exhibition of work by artists who keep web logs-" - The safe way to go. . . which might be fine. Who is the audience anyway?

"Blogospheric Art - an examination of connectivity and creativity on the Internet" - I like this, I'd give it a 7. "Blogospheric" is kinda wonky but there is a psychedelic nature to bringing us all together so maybe wonky is ok. AND it has a subtitle. . . I'm a sucker for subtitles and yet this one seems a bit safe. It should be even more hardcore artspeak/science to balance "Blogoshperic"

"Portmanteau" - blink. . .blink. . . over my head. . . which doesn't make it a bad choice. . . help me out here

"Shifting Discourse" - Mmmmyeah, could bee. I'd buy it more as a subtitle to Dashboard - Shifting Discourse. I'd give it a 6 on its own.

"Split Discourse" - Where is the split?

"Schizophrenic Discourse" - This seems a bit negative. Why not "Multiple Personalities" instead? I'm wondering, don't we all see this as a good thing? We are all part of a whole, no? That is the whole point as far as I'm concerned. There should be no blogstars. . . no identity that rises to the top. No two schizophrenic extremes that battle it out. But the idea is cool.

What describes all of us? What are we a reflection of?

"Blart" is still a goofy and creepy word that is universal, truthful, and timeless like the passing of gas.

Anonymous said...

Happy Medium

Anonymous said...

It Came From the Ether

Anonymous said...

I like Dashboard.

John Morris said...

I like Blart. I also think Portmanteau relates really well.(I think Blart is a portmanteau.

I never heard of the word-- and it's french, which gives it several extra points.

"A folk usage of portmanteau refers to a word formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words (e.g., spork from spoon/fork, "animatronics" from "animation" and "electronics", "blog" from "web" and "log", or "blaxploitation" from "black" and "exploitation"). Typically, portmanteaux are nonce words or neologisms. Portmanteaux are commonly used in scientific literature for a wide variety of technical words, for example cyborg"

Steven LaRose said...

Thanks John, old lazy butt here could have looked up "Portmanteau" for himself I suppose. But what a tonar (totally/gnarly) word. Those French. . . its like they have a different word for everything! Still, Blart still wins for descriptive simplicity and onomatopoetic beauty.

Blart- an exhibition of work by artists who keep web logs

w said...

Blart or Happy Medium sound great.

Susan Constanse said...

Artifex is latin for artist. I thought it had a lot of really cool connotations.

But I like Blart.

Waht if we did it like this --

BL/ART

Mary Klein said...

or like this? --

Bl'art

either way - I really like the sound and simplicity of it

Susan Constanse said...

Bl'art is cool

oh, by the way, I like Dashboard too.

highlowbetween said...

If I may, I have to say that Bl'art
is quite fetching

Tracy Helgeson said...

I like Bl'art also.

Anonymous said...

Blart.

Anonymous said...

Is the premise that art by artbloggers is a kind of underground art category?

"Look, Mom, it's ART!"
"No, Jimmy -- that's BLART."

Then you might find "BLART" attractive because of the feel it gives that seems to emerge directly from other underground art categories such as underground comics and things you might find in JUXTAPOZ magazine -- true?

I think that proposition is moderately interesting and could work well.

It's not highbrow in any sense. It puts us off on a par with graffiti artists during the early '80s. Moderately threatening edge, which I guess becomes humorous as we swap spraypaint and knives for keyboards. Advances the importance of a kind of street cred.

Interesting idea.

You could even put the word BLART in big comic text in sort of a big cartoony splatter. Make a big banner and plaster it across the building where it's being shown.

I could see it going on for years -- BLART 2: "THE WRATH OF BLART" -- BLART 3: "REVENGE OF THE BLARTISTS" --

One major problem I see with that would be that unlike graffiti, BLART seems to have no stylistic or medium distinguishers whatsoever.

The only thing that links all these artists is that they happen to blog also.

There's some cohesiveness between some of us, but it's flimsy in nearly every case -- virtual communications.

Sure, I'd fall on a hand grenade for any of you, but, you know -- that's not likely to happen. Ever.

I think this lack of any link beyond blogging could very well discredit the proposition implied by a name that -- intentionally or otherwise -- appears to strive to set out a new art category.

And that's how I see BLART.

Would BLART attract a lot of initial attention, but quickly turn sour once anyone with a critical sense -- and you need these people, folks, if this is going to be more than a flash in the pan -- realizes that the only link is that we blog?

Keep in mind that blogging itself is a (distant and bastardized, in the estimations of many) subcategory of journalism.

Steven LaRose said...

Bill, that is why I was thinking of something like "Society" as in the Secret Society of Openness. I'm not saying that I like "Society", but I couldn't come up with another word that describes all of us. Because you are correct, the show itself is going to be rather chaotic, with only the umbrella of blogging to define the rain shadow. I also assume that that is the ultimate lesson too, bloggers are a subcategory, and yet are made of an incredibly diverse population. If we zoom in, what do we get? More of the same. . . people being people.

Mary Klein said...

The Rainshadow* Group

*from Steven's comment above, "...with only the umbrella of blogging to define the rain shadow."

Anonymous said...

For whatever it's worth I put up a premise idea at this url -- check it out if you have Word and see if it makes any sense --

http://www.billgusky.com/a_thought.doc

Anonymous said...

well, i like blart - and happy medium - precisely because there is no word that describes all of us. we are not a group, we are not a society, many of us have never heard of each other before, and we are most likely not across-the-board fans of each other's work. even the blog connection is tenuous, with our different artblogs doing very different things.

i definitely don't intend or see blart as something seeking to define a new category, or anything like that.

bill, are you thinking of this show as some kind of movement? are others? blart is just a goofy word, because it is going to be a goofy show. i mean that in a fun goofy way.

i'm happy to embrace the goofy mixed-bagness of us and have fun with it, but beyond that, to try to seek out some consensus, or an imagined discourse... that is hard.

but, i will go read your link now, see what that is about.

Susan Constanse said...

Bill, you make a very convincing argument. We aren't a society and the works all of us create are very different from each other.

I think that this exhibit will exemplify the attitude and diversity of artist bloggers. So with that said, I think Dashboard might be a good alternative to bl'art.

Anonymous said...

Martin, I'm concerned that it will be easy for those who see blogging as a kind of cheap expression -- read "many people of all stripes" -- to trivialize us for using it as a show premise.

One step further, I think it could then be a big mistake if we make it easy for them to do so by trivializing ourselves.

For me BLART and the idea of being a big goofy mixed bag would go some distance toward trivializing us.

That would be my argument for a premise of some sort that at least obliquely suggests some thinking behind the show, and then a title that originates within that premise.

Re: do I see us as a movement --

What I see is that the portion of the discourse that once took place in bars and, so far as writing is concerned, almost exclusively in a very few publications, has now shifted to a very broad and easily accessed medium.

I think it would be an interesting premise to suggest that this somehow affects what's happening in art nowadays, and that this show is an examination of the effect of this shifted discourse on art.

There's more to it. We should talk if it's of interest.

Marc Snyder said...

I've found that when I've encountered people who for one reason or another are hostile to contemporary art, a typical response is "Why do they think this is important?" (especially from undergraduate students forced to take an "art appreciation class"). To argue that the nature of art is a dialogue of sorts between artists, collectors, critics, gallerists, curators. . . "the art world" - still raises their hackles, as there is often a feeling that these are people that are in some privileged position that is inaccessible to "normal" folks.

One of the beauties of blogs, to my thinking, is that they illustrate, at least on some small level, that the quality of a person's thinking, and that person's investment in the subject at hand, are the main requirements to be taken seriously and to perhaps make some contribution to the dialogue that is contemporary art. Though perhaps self-contained, the blogosphere is a nifty little meritocracy.

So, I guess I'd like a name that reflected that, somehow. I like Bill's essay quite a bit. I haven't clue one what the name that would reflect what I like about blogs would be, though.

Eva said...

Dashboard. It conjures up many things besides what we use to get our writings and images up.

I am not wild about anything with BL as just the word blog took me years to get used to (and I guess I'm still not). Plus I think there might be threshold of interest to that word. Just my two cents.

John Morris said...

I will admit that my show sort of opens a big can of worms, which was sort of it's intent. It seems like a lot of folks have thought about doing a survey show like this but found the field to be too broad and diverse to be contained.

For the record, I don't love Blart as a title for most of the reason's Bill stated.

Shifting Discourse is a very good one.

Steven LaRose said...

Sifting Dialog

John Morris said...

What about 2.0 or something?

"a social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and "the market as a conversation"
enhanced organization and categorization of content, emphasizing deep linking "

Steven LaRose said...

Rising to my top:

2.0

(Is "Dashboard" Blogger-brand-centric?)

Casey Klahn said...

I suggest Blogger Biennale!
(Cue the laughter)

John Morris said...

I kind of wish it would develop into something like that. Some kind of very large suvey show that might explore the whole area of art and technology every few years. One cool thing about this concept is that it could always involve more than one city and be endlessly extended via the internet with extended online projects.

Marc Snyder said...

How about something like

2.0: We are They

Blog Archive