Regular readers of this blog may not know that one of the many hats I wear is as a writer. In fact, it is a new hat that I am trying on for size. I just had my first book review, of Sam Lipsyte’s novel, The Ask, published by Slant Magazine. Started by a former Times writer, Slant is a pop culture criticism magazine and I’m in exceptionally good company. It is a total honor to have my writing alongside the writers there.

If you have any interest, be sure to check out the piece, here is an extract to whet your appetite:

Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask: A Novel is exactly the kind of book one expects to be churned out of the academy these days: It’s swift, entertaining, technically perfect, and full of the kind of verbal pyrotechnics that apparently audiences don’t want. As A.O. Scott mentioned in a recent New York Times article: “Since its publication in March, The Ask has sold around 7,000 copies. Disappointing? Of course. Our generation wouldn’t have it any other way.”

For a certain kind of writer, and a certain kind of audience, this fact is less a failure than a badge of honor, mortgage payments and college tuition be damned. In fact, Generation X loves and requires this kind of commercial apathy. It secures them in a safety field of narcissism and rejection of all things mainstream, even though it’s the culture that has passed them by and not the other way around. Celebrating their own failure is the only kind of victory they can achieve.

Nic Rad is a Brooklyn-based artist. He is about to be very important. There are several reasons.

People Matter is the First

People Matter is an art series that, in the words of the artist, is

comprised of 99 paintings of traditional and new Media personalities to be exhibited, and then given away at the opening in April, to those in attendance at Rare Gallery.

This gift experiment is conducted in response to the impact of technological advances that allow for increased sharing of information and content. The project will survey distorting effects of this transition on emerging and developing ideas.

Subjects were chosen based on personal Googling, Twittering, Hyperlinking, Facebooking, RSS culling and otherwise staggering around the internet and media cyberscape.

Recipients of the work will be encouraged to participate in the on going gift actions of the PeopleMatter community as well as setting the second hand value of  art works as conversation vessel, novelty, or digital and physical barter.

I’ve been familiar with People Matter since Nic and I met over the summer while he was planning the first step of his multi-tiered agenda. That step consisted of Nic giving away 99 copies of the Lewis Hyde’s seminal book on creativity and gift economies, The Gift. Yes, he gave away 99 copies of a book that influenced him. Nic Rad is a Romantic after all though I am sure he’ll disagree.

The artist also “rebranded” the books by painting every cover with a unique design. Every single book was snatched up. The only payment Nic requested was that those who received the gift leave their email address for Nic to stay in touch with them.

People Matter: Stained Glass and Iconostasis

The Power of Free

Is Nic the first artist to give his work away? Of course not. But Nic is the first artist I know of to take on the subject of Free so boldly. Adding another layer to this project is the subject matter of Nic’s art; media personalities of every stripe, level of achievement and cultural influence. From the lowliest Gawker Media bloggers to Malcolm Gladwell and the friggin’ Pope!  The ONE thing that binds these disparate voices is that they exist in a cultural milieu and/ or industries whose business models have either been turned upside down or been the cause of that flip.

But it wasn’t until several things happened that I recognized the importance and power of Nic’s project. First and foremost I was able to visit Nic’s studio on several occasions to see the works in progress. I’ve spent about 8 hours in their presence so far. It took me 5 hours before I could even really respond to what I was seeing. For someone who never shuts the fuck up, this alone let me know I was in the presence of something powerful. I usually only get quiet confronted with artistry greater than the volume of my own self-consciousness. Slowly I began to find the words to articulate in formal terms what I was seeing.

The other events took longer to percolate. Since Nic put me on this path with his conversation, his friendship (full disclosure, we buy each other dinner’s frequently, though I think he owes me one at this point. Beyond that I have a full-on boy crush on him. So yeah, I know him and I am championing his work. Am I compromised? Possibly, but as Miles Davis said so eloquently, “So What?”) and his support, I’ve cast my net out into the wider world looking for other examples of similar work.

What was I looking for?

I was looking for social media artists. But then, what is a social media artist? I am not sure yet. But I have a pretty good idea what a social media artist is NOT, and perhaps by winnowing down what social media artists are not, we can begin to arrive at a place close to what a social media artist, in fact, is.

A Social Media Artist is Not..

One who looks to broadcast their art using the tools of social media exclusively to sell their art

Sure, selling is an important aspect of social media engagement by ANY content producer, but for an artist to truly be a social media artist, it cannot be the fundamental reason for their engagement. Nic’s social media engagement turns this on its head. In fact, because he has almost nothing to sell (Nic is, in fact, putting several larger works up for sale as a part of his show) Nic’s engagement with social media is more about inspiration, curation and conversation.

This gives us a peek into what a social media artist is. A social media artist is one who uses the tools, philosophies and instruments of social media to affect their work, to find sources of inspiration, both visual and sub-textual, to join the community of artists, to build and strengthen that community.

What else?

A true social media artist is one who uses those very same tools to listen. That is perhaps the striking feature of Nic’s enterprise. He self-consciously used tools such as Twitter, RSS feeds, Facebook, blogs and new media websites to sense that “internal hum,” the conversations, issues and problems unique to content creators. And his work reflects this artistically.

Social networks cost us nothing. Except perhaps that most precious resource: time.

Modernism and Social Media

Clement Greenberg

Clement Greenberg, in his seminal essay Modernist Painting, wrote:

Modernism includes more than art and literature. By now it covers almost the whole of what is truly alive in our culture. It happens, however, to be very much of a historical novelty. Western civilization is not the first civilization to turn around and question its own foundations, but it is the one that has gone furthest in doing so. I identify Modernism with the intensification, almost the exacerbation, of this self-critical tendency that began with the philosopher Kant. Because he was the first to criticize the means itself of criticism, I conceive of Kant as, the first real Modernist.

The essence of Modernism lies, as I see it, in the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its area of competence. Kant used logic to establish the limits of logic, and while he withdrew much from its old jurisdiction, logic was left all the more secure in what there remained to it.

Social media might be the most alive part of our culture right now. Clem goes on to talk about how modernist art is that art which employs the demands of the medium to criticize itself. And Nic holds true to Clem’s contention that modern art does this not as a way to diminish or “subvert” that art, but as a way to strengthen it.

To know something of the way Nic views and uses blogs and twitter, rss feeds and the conversations that run like electric strands through our cutlure, is to know that Nic adheres to Greenberg’s strictures. Nic is a Modernist and a Romantic now.

My formal analysis of Nic’s work will follow in a subsequent blog post. But I think that is enough for now. Don’t you?

Blair Prentice is a Canadian artist and graphic designer living in New York City. He posts items of interest related to art and culture on his site iheartmyart.com. For more information about his art you can visit his personal art blog at or his flickr account.

1. How are you and what do you do?

I am a Canadian graphic designer and artist working in New York City.

2. How long have you been engaging social media and what platforms or networks do you most commonly use?

I have been engaging in social media in some form or another for about 5 years. I frequently use my accounts with Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and multiple accounts with Blogger.  I have had several incarnations of blogs  that I have used as digital art projects, as a tool to promote my own art and finally in my latest incarnation, iheartmyart, which is a site to archive and share the art I discover on a daily basis.

3. How would you describe your behaviors and interactions with social media? Are you a curator? A community builder? A pimp? A conversationalist?

I wouldn’t define my role with iheartmyart so much as curator, but more of explorer. The site is meant to be the repository, museum and archive of my art discoveries. It is more of a forum to celebrate the incredible bounty of art that lays in wait to be exposed and appreciated. I hope to help to provide some sort of platform for these projects and artists to begin to reach a larger audience.

4. What are your views on the interaction between the art world and social media? Any projects that straddle the two that capture you in any meaningful way?

Blogs have proven to be an incredible asset to the art world. The art world has begun to embrace the incredible power of blogging because they realize that through the portal of the blog they can reach new audiences and stimulate dialogue surrounding both new and old art projects. The greatest part about these sites is that for the large part they are subsidized by the endless curiosity and passion that these bloggers have for art.

5. Is there a lot of potential for interaction between social media and the larger art world, either galleries, museums, auction houses, events?

I believe a large portion of the users that are engaging in the use of social media technology and applications are younger generations. It is this audience that the art world needs to engage and convert into art enthusiasts. Using tools that attract and engage the younger generations, the art world may be able to ensure that art increases its supporters in the future.

6. Can social media be an art form?

I definitely believe that social media can be used as a medium for the creation of art. There is interesting potential for artists to raise questions about identity, security and human interaction.

7. What would you like to see develop in the next year between art and social media?

In the next year, I would love to see more artists and museums embrace and share their art and projects through social media applications. I believe this collaboration and exposure can only stimulate the art industry and ensure that it remains and increases its impact on all of the worlds everyday lives.

For previous posts on the intersection of art and social media, please click here

Image Source: Harrier on Flikr

The past couple of days have seen me extend my blogging reach into the art world with a series of posts that are definitely striking a nerve. As much as I like and need to criticize, I think my critique is worth more when I praise and offer assistance as part of my writing. That will be the purpose of this post, at least in part, because the balance between being positive and negative is a delicate one.

How Can An Art Gallery Use Social Media?

Before we get to the meat and potatoes, I think that galleries need to recognize something they may not. In a world where Content is King, they have a lot of high quality, extremely specific content. Certainly, art galleries’ content is not for everyone, but the people who it IS for would be extremely appreciative and loyal to a gallery that gave them more. Imagine having 500 brand evangelists privy to your content, running around town telling all their friends and loved ones about it, your gallery, the artists you represent and champion. Imagine them sharing your articles and videos on Facebook, checking into your gallery on Foursquare or Gowalla, linking to your blog from their own.

What kind of content do I want and what kind do you have? Here is 6 things you could be doing right now:

1. Use a blog and tell us what goes on day to day at an art gallery: Are you preparing for an opening or an event? What kind of work goes into something like this?
2. Who are the artists you represent? What are they currently working on? Can you show us some of their work and link to articles, essays or blog posts about the art? The references that art makes? Where did the artist study? What is their project about?
3. How about a weekly video chat with the artists to talk about the gallery? Why they chose this gallery to represent them? A conversation on trends in the art world? Perhaps mix in some more general information like what mediums the artist is using and why they’ve made those choices.
4. Who works at the gallery? All those pretty gallerinas and interestingly dressed gents must have something to say? Enable them, who are they, where did they study, what did they study. How did they get the gig? What are THEIR hopes? Their ambitions?
5. As a gallery you know a lot about the community of galleries and artists, museums, auction houses and the various goings on in this world. It would serve as well as help build the community to talk about events at other galleries. Remember to promote others more often then you promote yourself. This is how you build trust.
6. What else do you know? Good restaurants or bars in the area? Why not link up with area restaurants for Tweet Ups? Offer your space on off nights to local arts or culture groups looking for space? Help them with their sponsorships if you can. These are the people who are active in this new world, show them a little love and it WILL come back to you in spades.

How to be Transparent?

This is the part that, I suspect, galleries are going to hate. But it is absolutely essential in the world of social media to be as open, transparent and authentic as possible. Find the person in your gallery who knows your business, who understands the community and who likes to write. Get them going. Urge them to start blogging. Require them to meet the community both online and off. There are tons of arts meetup groups. Find the one in your area and engage them. Invite them to the gallery for a private tour. If there isn’t a group, start one! Get to know the people who are interested in your gallery, even if they aren’t likely to buy art. Why?

Imagine inspiring people again

Because selling art is not your only goal. And if it is, it shouldn’t be. Did you get into the art business to make money? Or because art spoke to your soul, because it moved you, because it changed you.

But most of all, be transparent. Develop the voice. I want the gallery to speak to me. I want them to listen as well when I have concerns or criticism.

From some of the criticism I have received of late, and I am extremely interested in listening to more, galleries won’t see the point of social media engagement. Why? Because their business doesn’t depend on social media users. It depends on a handful of collectors and consultants. If the only reason you are thinking about getting into social media is to improve the bottom line, then don’t. Just stay away. We are a sophisticated audience and we’ll sniff you out. There is no problem with promoting yourself, your business or your services. But that cannot be ALL that you do. It shouldn’t even be a majority of what you do.

I’ve just laid out several months worth of social media engagement for you. I told you, I don’t fear giving away my strategies. The only question is, will you do it?

Image Source: Mind Luge on Flickr

When it comes to social media engagement, the art world has been rather slow to adapt. Just another 20th century industry that believes itself immune to the disruptions that have rocked every single other industry in America. Of course, the art world has nothing to fear, they are safe in their cocoon.

I kid of course, but what I am not kidding about is the static posturing that many entities in the art world embody. It’s funny that a world known for their progressive nature would be so slow to engage social media, one of the most powerful, democratizing forces that our culture has seen emerge in decades. Social media is a vanguard movement and there is still plenty of land up for grabs. If there were ever an industry that could benefit as much from jumping out ahead of the wave beyond the hospitality business, I am not aware.

As far as the information revolution goes, social media is the tip of the spear and it is disappointing to see galleries and artists confounded by the opportunities inherent in social media. That is not to say there are not exceptions to the rule, in fact, a brief perusal of Twitter and the blogosphere informs us that there are tons of artists, galleries, auction houses and museums embracing social media. Future posts will highlight successful integrations so that others can be made aware.

That being said, most of these entities are still conducting static 1.0 messaging, basically broadcasting their services and offerings but not really engaging in conversation or community building. Even more than that though, I am basically unaware of anyone using social media as part of their offerings. Either an artist crowd sourcing their work, or an art gallery engaging in authentic personal outreach via blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

And that is what I am waiting for. I want to see artists and galleries using social media in their art and outreach. I want to hear about projects that incorporate the great power of social media. Criticize it, deplore it, acclaim it! Whatever, just start using it. Start experimenting, start brainstorming. For an industry built upon creativity, how about you start using some of it!

Well, in fact, this is what I have been doing, and as I continue to shift my focus onto the art world in general (see here for why I am doing so) I’ll be brainstorming aloud ways to do so.

Social Media Challenges Art Galleries to Confront Exactly What It Is They Do

Are galleries only purpose to make money? Or is their a nobler end?

What has become of the art world? A handful of rich collectors, a sprinkle of wealthy gallery owners (some more famous and wealthy than the collectors in their rolodex) all involved in a closed loop of dealmaking and privacy? I thought art’s purpose was for good of the society at large! Well, social media is going to help us segregate just which art galleries are interested in community and conversation and which ones are interested in their own profit potential. It’s going to be a rough road, and I fully expect many galleries to fail miserably at this test. But in the end we shall all be better off.

How An Art Gallery Could Use Social Media

Last weekend Nic Rad and I had a long discussion in his Brooklyn loft where we bandied about ideas on how art galleries could potentially use social media to promote themselves, their artists, their community, but also, and this is where things undeniably get tricky, how to embed social media into the very fabric of what they do, which is promote, share and eventually sell art.

One legitimate question that continues to come up is why or how social media can become a prominent aspect of their activity, when galleries sell mostly to older, wealthier collectors? What is the point of being public and transparent? What is the point of asking the community to engage with a gallery or artists if that community won’t ultimately participate in the final resting place of that art? As a follow-up, an art consultant based here in NYC wrote me the following:

I’ve been mulling over your idea in my head of social media tools for art galleries ..the main question I guess I have is…if art galleries are in a high margin business that only appeals to a very small group of people..how would twitter drive its business? Would the idea be to make the gallery like an artist– cool to the masses and then hope that the elite buyer catches on?

A legitimate question for sure. And one that I imagine won’t be answered, at least not in full, for some time to come.

Well first off, even if an art gallery is only facilitating the transfer of art from producer to consumer, there is still a public role to fill.

Let’s map out just one example that emerged from the talk with Nic last week.

Let’s say an artist has an upcoming show and wants to use social media to talk about the work as it being conceived and executed. Maybe that artist starts a blog and twitter account dedicated to the project and commits themselves to writing 3 posts a week for 3 months. The blog posts could be highly focused formal discussions of the artists experience as he executes his work. Perhaps it could be ruminations on inspiration for their work, other visual or performance artists, what music they listen to in their studio, other artists who are helping out, even the food they eat.

Taking this a bit further, what if the artist self consciously used his twitter account to solicit feedback on his work, share his blog posts, as well as pictures, interviews, video chats and podcasts with the community. Anyone who wanted to, and who became aware of the project, could participate: by retweeting blog posts and content the author shared, by offering advice or associations that perhaps the artist had not thought about previously. There is so much to work with once the full power of social media is taken into account. The hive mind is ready and willing to engage.

But ok, what now? At some point, that work will be executed, the show will open, and if its successful that work will be bought and belong to someone, and most likely, not someone involved in any of the community discussions that helped the work reach its final phase.

Well, what if a gallery owner said to their potential clients that, on top of you owning the art work itself, you also get a digital download of all the conversations, recordings, blog posts and even the analytics that this project generated. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

A collector could get a “sack” of rich data

• How many times the blog was viewed?
• How many retweets or mentions the post or account received?
• A chronicle of all the conversations (blog comments, links, twitter conversations, facebook comments and “likes”)
• A listing of other blog posts that picked up and discussed the work
• A list of everyone who commented including links to their twitter account or blog

This is really rich stuff and would undeniably enhance the piece of work. Imagine going to an art show and next to a hanging piece of work having a presentation that discussed all this in a legible manner. I think it would increase its value because on top of actual ownership, the collector, for the first time as far as I can tell, could own or at least see what went into the work. The blood, sweat and toil. The long nights in the studio. The depression and suffering, or the joy and happiness the work brought to the artist and to a wider community.

And the gallery could manage this whole campaign with a small budget. Let’s say 3 months and less than$2500. Now THAT would be an appropriate first step for the art world to integrate social media into a campaign. And by virtue of it being the first of its kind, it could potentially garner all sorts of attention in the press, in the art world and the social media community. I think its clear by now that when you engage social media authentically and with good intentions, the community will reward you for that engagement.

So how about it? Anyone out there willing to experiment?

Remember, we are all cartographers in the new world of social media.

Image Source: Martin Beek on Flickr

Is Social Media a form of artistic expression? Is it just a set of tools with no implications beyond messaging in new ways? How are artists using social media? And are any self-conscious artists looking at social media the same way they look at their chisels, brushes and cameras?

This shall be the launching point of a discussion that I know will take some time to develop. For the record, I should point out my abiding interest in “Art.” I studied Art History at Tulane University and though I had the full survey courses like any other student, which means I know of the Venus of Villendorf as well as Georgia O’Keefe (interesting that my mind went there eh?), my main focus was on three areas of art: Dutch Art of the 17th Century, French Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism and finally, Abstract Expressionism. Pretty awesome stuff to study, but I came to art late, and even though as a child I loved nothing more (and by loved I mean harassed my parents and rotating list of housekeepers and nannies to constantly take me to the Met to see the mummies, medieval armor, tapestries and in particular the Temple of Dendur, which is still to this day friggin awesome) it wasn’t until late in my college career that I found the intellectual side of art so appealing. The ‘twain met.

Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In fact, I remember a short art history course in high school where I was so appalled at the work of artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, that like a nincompoop I parried about  the cliche that “a child could have painted that.”

Of course, like the proper idiot that I am, and I hope one day to reacquire that precious outlook, it was only because I hadn’t learned anything about the painters, the history of art and the issues, both formal and non-formal, that the painters of that generation were concerned with. Once I had the vocabulary and background information, that magic time in the history of art opened up to me. And now I will have an abiding interest for the rest of my life. I am thankful for that, for as a writer, I am inspired by other art forms and have the utmost respect for artists. I give artists the benefit of the doubt.

The Intersection of Art and Social Media

For a few months now I have had my radar screen focused on this intersection to see what kind of artists, both progressive and more traditionally-minded ones, are engaging with social media, and how they are doing so.

I am interested in finding out about projects that I may have missed, so please leave your links or projects in the comments section and I promise to check each and every one out, and write about the ones I like.

What I have found, thus far, is disappointing. But more than that, you may be wondering why I am interested in exploring this issue on this blog. Well the truth is I’d like to one day work in the art world and am, in fact, in discussions with several artists and galleries about what a social media strategy looks like in the art world. I hope to move forward fairly quickly on these plans in January.

I mean, I’ve adapted my standard social media strategy to several different industries at this point, and I find the basic principles, activities and the philosophies that underlie my strategies to be extremely fungible. By that, I mean they work in different settings and with different sorts of businesses. Of course, aside from the standard strategy there is a lot of customization so that each strategy I develop and deliver is tailored specifically for that business. Ok, phew, enough self promotion markety speak. So, where were we? Ah yes…

Who Should Use Social Media in the Art World?

Well for one, artists, without a doubt, should be adopting and learning everything they can about social media. They should be engaging social media. They should be finding or creating new ways to use social media in their art. I am sure there are projects that I am unaware of, and in fact, I look forward to being pointed to those so I can read up and support them. I should say that a lot of museum’s seem to have gotten the gist and there are some great Twitter lists and accounts that do a great job of tracking them. But social media, and the wave of user generated content that it unleashes, is as potentially disruptive to the art world as it has been to other industries like print newspapers, magazines and the like.

As a democratizing agent and flattener, whereby anyone can get their opinion out, I would think that many artists would be looking with zeal towards the social media space to see what they can dig up. Other artists that inspire them, social trends unreported in mainstream publications etc.

Who else?

Galleries should definitely be ramping up their social media engagement. I am developing a suite of strategies for galleries right now, so if you want to talk, send me a note.

Auction houses? Consultants? Other Art world businesses and brands? Absolutely, because as more and more artists look to social media to inspire and house their work, or look for collaboration and most importantly, incorporate social media into their work, you are going to want to be there, educated and ready to take full advantage, when these great art experiments emerge. But first thing’s first. Are you ready?

Image Source: Photo by Rosemania 2.0 on Flickr