Hey Rob:
Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
Being asked to review work for Furtherfield came directly from my
> self-directed blogging. Did your reviewing for Bad At Sports come about
> as a result of other online activity?
>
It did, but in kind of strange ways. I was writing reviews and other simple
things for my own personal blog, and then I was also running a space in
chicago with some other people that focused on experimental film/video, new
media, sound, and performance. Our programming was considered pretty good
at the time and we built up a small reputation for doing some interesting
things. Then I started writing more, and B@S asked me to contribute
something and that went well and turned into a regular thing.
> I think there is a suspicion of non-market-directed criticism and
> non-market-directed art that combines in the perception of net art
> reviewing. Have you found that?
>
Sometimes. I often compare myself (stupidly) to publications that have
sponsors and agendas and how they take angles to - most often - support the
work they are reviewing and not think of it in a critical manner. BUT there
are print publications that have a tendency to do great reviews of shows
involving contemporary technology from an "outside" perspective (although I
have lots of misgivings about using that term). More importantly I think
that because the community is often quite small my writing/criticism is
about people I know pretty well already, or else have had previous
correspondances with. So I think that a lot of times that can come off as
favoritism, but I've made a point to reach out to artists and makers that I
haven't had a chance to work with in order to mitigate my own fear of
seeming nepotistic.
>
> I'm very happy to be able to play a small part in popularising the work
> I like. Marginality isn't a problem for me (although they did also laugh
> at Bozo The Clown...). Do you ever not review work because you would not
> be able to champion it?
>
No, I like challenges, but it's often hard when you want to really take
something to task and have to somewhat pussy foot around your concerns
because you don't want to upset a community of people that have supported
you up until now. For instance I've seen some so-called netart shows
recently that I thought were really disappointing but celebrated within the
community (or at least accepted as "good work"). I've wanted to pick these
apart, but I think I can still do that with the artists and now have to
make public statement about it.
Excellent! Do you have links to those?
>
Yup! Here is a shortlist:
http://badatsports.com/2013/hyperjunk-interview-dissociations-with-harm-van-den-dorpel/
http://badatsports.com/2011/networking-with-andrew-norm-wilson/
http://badatsports.com/2010/in-game-chat-with-jason-rohrer/
http://badatsports.com/2010/a-conversation-with-jon-rafman-nsfw-video/
Thanks for the good questions!
very best
--
Nicholas O'Brien
Visiting Faculty | Gallery Director
Department of Digital Art, Pratt Institute
doubleunderscore.net
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