Sunday, February 27, 2011

Supply/Demand Cont'd

A must-read from Scott Walters, in the room with the heavy-hitters of the art world. Here's a key paragraph:
The one thing I heard that did make me cock my head to the side, however, was the way that bloggers and tweeters were talked about by the assembled leaders. It wasn't good. Many of them seemed to see the whole on-line conversation as airing dirty laundry and working against the field, as people just speaking off the top of their heads and engaging in crazy talk. This came up again and again. And that's when I became a more confirmed blogger and tweeter.

These leaders are used to controlling the conversation from their privileged positions. If they think it ought to be talked about, it will be; if not, it will be silenced. Things should be decided behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of the public and preferably not within earshot of artists. All this on-line democratization of conversation just works against creating a unified message to the general public.

I did a round-up earlier of ways to make the case. The idea, however, that we should all make the same case, is a pretty sad one.