http://glocalconference.wordpress.com/
Blog as space for alternative cultural critique:
Creative collaborative/collective practices
Space is a resource, plain and simple. We all need it sometimes and in most contexts it is contested who and for what it will be used. In contemporary art and cultural production it is generally one element needed to facilitate community development and building (space for gathering). It can also be a site of production and distribution of cultural work and products (space for making/showing/sharing). When screen is used as site and a collaborative blog is created, it becomes even more evident that the creators (in this case bloggers) need to build upon itself experience and openness (institutionalize a kind of memory) that helps others to know what has happened in the past, in order to carefully and critically forge a path for the future.
The blog as space in its essence bares the factuality of exchange, collaboration and collective memory. Moreover, in the era of hyper mobility, these kinds of spaces for cultural critique could just be a flashing moment of youthful tinkering on a passageway to the next destination. The university system, the culture industry, and the service sector – these large industries of today are the economies that many artists and cultural workers are directly wrapped up in. They often urge people to move around a lot, to avoid being rooted, and to imagine community through a lens, which is about affinity and shared interest rather than geography. We can live anywhere at anytime. We can pick up and go freely. This can feel liberating at times. This dynamic can also present challenges for the creation of local culture, which needs to be cultivated and fostered over time. The question remains: How the blogs as space for cultural critiques can be used to foster a online commonality, that will make an impact on the local community?
My paper is a dialogue between different participants in creative collaborative blog practices. I am looking at the collaboration between 16bever group and Brian Holmes on the blog “Continental Drift – The other side of neoliberal globalization” (http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/) and try to engage them in a conversation about the meaning of the blog as a space for alternative cultural critique.
