Blue Oyster Art Project Space

I just wanted to highlight this exhibition space in Dunedin which is committed to emerging and established, innovative arts projects. The current exhibition is finishing this week and they will be closed over the break but their first exhibition in the new year will be the Grad Show, showcasing some of the work from the 2006 SITE Exhibition at the Art School - Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin. Opens, 23rd January 2007 - 5.30pm
Blue Oyster

use of Flickr for artists...

This is just a quick post (or at least it starts out as quick) in response to the previous comment: 'I was under the impression that all the students used Flickr to exhibit their work online?...' from Leigh.

To be honest, I am not sure that they do - and this is for a couple of reasons...first of all, I find Flickr horrendously difficult to get into and navigate! I even have an account - but can i get my password e-mailed to me to get back in? - not a chance! - so personally i have given up on it (my own use was to keep in touch with family overseas, rather than exhibit work). This added with the fact that it would seem to me that unless i can get in, i can't find people, only random photos under their tags....(houses, clouds etc.) So if I wanted to find a student, and didn't know their personal tags (and let's face it, everybody has their own unique way of organising and naming their own files...that don't necessarily translate...), i can't anyway.

Secondly, (and I have also had this discussion with students) what does it mean then to our 'art' as photographers if we use this medium to get it out there? One of the biggest things a photographer/artist faces is the fact that anyone from a 3 year old can pick up a camera and snap that great shot at the right moment...what makes the artist different? One of the things that makes the artists different is the way they exhibit their work, and in what context they align it, and there is nothing on Flickr to allow an artist to distinguish themselves from general public photography (don't get me wrong - i think there are loads of people out there making great shots). The more that photography is used in this way, the harder it is for artists to get people to understand the difference to the shot that they put on the wall (in a physical exhibition space, for example), where although it might look the same on the surface, look further and it holds the key to extensive critical thinking, and a larger, well developed and investigated body of theory/work.

And so, while I think that the internet is a great communication and potential marketing tool, its use has to be appropriate to the context. I am not going to disagree with the power that it has had in launching/rising some current personalities to fame (K.T. Tunstall, Lily Allen etc.), and I do know a few students who have myspace sites...

(the photograph is for my mum)