The rise of Art blogs

This week I have been given the privilege of speaking to students in a Fine Arts class taught by MIAD’s Fahimeh Vahdat. A podcast of the lecture will be available and I’m looking forward to again focusing my guest lecture Thursday morning on blogging for Artists.  Podcasting is the distribution of rich media content (mostly audio) but with video iPods look for more video content to arrive soon.

Blogs are an important communication tool for Artists to share their voice and their work with the world. Today blogging is more robust than it was just one year ago. It is a more powerful tool for the Art world to embrace.

The world has changed quite dramatically since 2000, hilighted by Tom Friedman‘s 10 rules for a globalized 3.0 world. If Artists are embracing blogging for the first time in 2006, recognize that blogs has grown more powerful within the last year alone. Blogs have matured to capture the power of RSS feeds, tagging and podcasting. These are very important for Artists to understand and use in their everyday communication. More and more photo blogs, vlogs(video blogs) and podcasts are arriving day by day on the internet.

So how is the world structured today and how does it impact the distribution of Art?
High speed internet access makes citizens in China, India or Russia is just three seconds away from an Art blog…which has already changed the scope of Art exhibitions. The browser window has replace the frame.

Many new faces in the Art community have grown tired of receiving postcards or emails announcing exhibits. Paying postage and crossing fingers that “feet from the street” drop by your gallery is the old approach. To reach new faces interested in Art you have to meet them in their comfort zone…the blogosphere. Their world is digital and way beyond email. This not only includes

Blogs also have pre-built templates and designs, which is great for Artists struggling to massage html like this code:

–Instead WordPress and Blogger supply a number of design options that allow Artists to focus on their work and begin writing and posting content.

Establishing Art blogs moves beyond postcards and prayers, it moves Artists into the Web2.0 world based upon sharing. Today blogging has exploded into Web2.0 with tagging and feeds, so writing a post is not enough anymore. Your blog needs to be “circulated” to gain more exposure with smart tools like Technorati, Del.icio.us, NetNewWire and Feedburner helping your voice be heard by more people searching for Art.

Its your world, you can change it.
Additional links from our discussion: OurMedia.org, Archive.org and YouTube

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web2.0, trends, education, technology, MIAD, art, rss, blogs