Art and Perception is being visited by more and more people, presumably looking for thought-provoking conversations about art. Many of them come back for more(!), so by that measure we’re creating interesting content. And when I say we, I’m counting commenters as well as post contributors. The comments are, in fact, the life-blood of the site, in my opinion.
So it may be time to think about ways to make more of the most interesting content more easily accessible to everyone. That would require some change to the site, so everyone’s input is needed, including any readers who haven’t posted or even commented before. We do have a category system, which could use some work to improve its visibility and usefulness. But that seems to work better for narrow topic areas, whereas people coming to the site may be more interested in some diversity and serendipity potential within broad topic areas. Think of a well-honed medium like newspapers with sections for main news, local news, sports, classifieds, etc.
So to give us something specific to consider, I’m throwing out the following very tentative proposal. Possible broad topic areas might be:
Painting | Drawing | Photography | The Arts | Artist’s Life | Notable
They could be presented this way under the blog title, each being a link to a set of posts, presented like an archive list. Selecting posts to include under each heading could be done by a rotating editor who would receive suggestions from anyone. Or there could be such an editor for each topic. Or each “editor” could be a team of two or more. Other arrangements are possible and your ideas are invited.
I had fun looking over the posts in the last month or so, thinking of where they might be placed. Here’s what I came up with in a quick first pass as my recommendations:
Painting
Juxtaposition (art about art part II)
Purple grapes (continued)
Drawing
Photography
The Arts
Chatting among the frames – art that talks to art
Isn’t Criticism a ridiculous stupidity?
Artist’s Life
Notable
Visualization aids in the artistic process: an experiment
Words of Artists
Well, what think you on’t? Would something like this be a good addition to A&P? If so, are we ready for it? I would like to hear your comments, refinements, topic ideas (especially a better whatever topic than miscellaneous or notable) or counter-proposals.
Unfortunately the left side of my brain seems to be taking a vacation, so I am unable to lucidly analyze the category breakdowns, but I do agree wholeheartedly that you have suggested the best general approach. I well recall Karl’s tree type organization and was much impressed.
I would suggest that if you are willing to do the work involved, you should have the privilege and the rights to make the effort. We can all then see how the site works with this or a similar organizational scheme. After all, things like this have to be tested and used by our readers; then we’d get lot’s of really useful feedback.
I trust that others will be more capable than me to hammer out a starting order though.
Steve,
Could I be so bold as to ask for a main heading for textiles. I think of them as a medium like paint or photography or drawing. I know that some would disagree, but I also know that there’s at least one other textile artist who comments occasionally. More may show up, who knows? I keep telling my cohorts about A and P.
June,
That’s a good suggestion, assuming we are likely to have content to back it up. We had some great posts from Lisa Call in the past, and two exciting posts from you more recently, plus one from Birgit (sorry if I’m forgetting any). Can we hope for more, hint hint hint???
The suggested categories are not only open to suggestions now, but could also be revised in future. I see no need to set anything in stone, I only hope to get some agreement to move forward with. The genre categories suggested in the post are perhaps the dominant ones at present, but that could be partly historical accident. How many do we want to include? In any case, I think we should have some collective category for things that don’t fit others.
Rex,
I am willing to work on this myself, but I’d be truly happy if anyone else wants to do it instead or wants to play any other role. The main thing is, I don’t want to pursue something that others don’t want or wouldn’t appreciate.
Steve,
I know I’d appreciate it. This is a great way to access of lot of our content, and as you’ve noticed, we do have Content. We’ve had some truly superior posts and some truly enlightened comments. It’s a waste to see them dissapear. It’d be great to keep some threads alive forever.
Also, this solves the whole tagline thing. The content itself determines the words.
Steve,
Is it the case that you are blackmailing me — that I have to become a regular contributor in order to have my chosen medium represented? <snort>
I’m teasing a bit, but I actually can’t commit until I get some other aspects of my life sorted out, including the Art Blog that Karl has set up. It’s lots easier to comment than to post, as I’m sure you know.
But if you’ll be patient with me, I think you’ll find that there will be more posts from me in the future. The conversations here warm the cockles of my heart — not a bad thing when it’s raining and 35 degrees.
Perhaps we should put off that category until I commit to posting more regularly — but then again, we have Birgit to contribute also and perhaps this would encourage her to talk about what she does with the medium.
I also wondered about other media, like sculpture and clay, but the same caveat (you need posts) would apply. Would a general category of “Art Practice” or some such work better? Some of Karl’s posts dealt with ancient pots either reworked or worked into his thinking —
I’m just brainstorming, mostly to avoid stitching.
Steve, I’m definitely commenting from the cheap seats, as I find myself w/ little time these days to make much of a contribution (a show coming up in 3 weeks and a busy day job). Though that will hopefully change. But here are some thoughts.
I like the idea of the categories. And as we’ve been doing, most posts could fit into several of them. But as you suggest, it would be good for people to now be able to access them. Here are a few other ideas for categories:
theory & philosophy, business, process, materials, books, collaboration, technology, community, crossing boundaries, history, gossip, whinging, motivation
I also think it would be cool to have categories based on contributor, so someone could find all of Karl’s or Leslie’s or your (Steve’s) posts. And of course a chronological option, by month.
Steve,
I see a hole is this site. The clue is in your category, “Artist’s Life.” Steve, where is the part for “Dealer’s Life” or “Collector’s Life”? Are we not interested in these topics?
To leave out a discussion of art collecting and art dealing is a mistake in two respects. The first reason is practical: artists need to understand dealing and collecting if they want to have a chance to survive as artists. The second reason is more philosophical, but no less important: dealing and collecting are not supplements or annoying side shows to art; they are central to the art process itself. To ignore dealing and collecting would be like a painter ignoring pigments or painting grounds — yes, one can get away with it, but one has a limited understanding of painting if one does so.
I don’t think that we ignore these topics out of an intentional bias. I think the problem is that, as a group, we don’t know very much about them, compared to what we know about making art. Your post is called “Building on our strengths.” I find that a fantastic idea. I think we should also be aware of our weaknesses and try to fill in the gaps, either by sharing more of our knowledge in these areas, or finding people who have more of that knowledge than we do. If we can’t provide content on this site about collecting and dealing, the least we could do is provide excellent links to sites that do have something to say about these things.
A separate issue has to do with comments. As you and others have said, the comments are one of the best things about this site. The question is, how to bring these more to the forefront? Perhaps a category “notable comments” which gives a sample based on a particular theme could be useful.
Karl,
When I woke up this morning, I realized that I wanted to recognize comments in a more explicit way. As has been said, some comments are long and thoughtful enough to be posts in themselves. Sometimes they change the direction of conversation in a post. I think the links could be not only to posts, but to key comments, from which one could of course scroll up to see the initial post. On the topic page, one would see something like “Recent Comments” in the sidebar, with links to both post and comment. I think this could allow broader recognition of comments than putting them into a single category of their own.
Excellent suggestions about the “Artist’s Life” topic. Would it be good to call it “Art Life”? I think dealing with galleries, collectors, or selling in general would fit fairly comfortably into “Artist’s Life”; as you say, the impact is great. But that title does imply a single perspective, so I’m more than happy to see this or any topic area broadened.
June,
Me, blackmail? Arm-twist a little, perhaps…
In all seriousness, it’s the accumulation of content that counts. You’ve provided some great content through a guest and a collaborative post, not to mention many thoughtful comments. We’d definitely be interested in guest posts from anyone testing the waters, or perhaps with a single burning issue in their mind they’d like to air and get comments on. I’d love to see more on textile arts. I think it should certainly have a regular category of its own right away.
In general, I think we need to keep “commitment” flexible; we don’t want contributors feeling it as too burdensome. I note on the Schedule that David has apparently requested “Occasional Correspondent” to describe a level he’s comfortable with for now. That may change again in future, depending on what works for him.
Steve,
If no one objects, I’d like to set you up as an admin so you can experiment with this.
As any observer who actually observes will have seen, Karl has a superior organizational mind, so please confer with him on the categories. This will benefit everyone.
Steve,
I am happy that you are enthusiastic about putting your effort into making posts and comments more accessible.
My two opinions
1) Make textiles a category on the same level as painting, drawing and photography.
2) Make the ‘occasional contributor’status more popular so that people who cannot commit themselves for regular posting feel more comfortable joining A&P.