Who are we, The Art Life? It seems incredible that in our fourth year of operation some readers are still asking that question, not just in who we are, literally, but what’s this blog all about?
First of all, the “anonymity issue” was never an issue for us because we knew that at some point in the future that question would eventually answer itself. And so it has. It leaves us in the rather unusual and somewhat unexpected position of many people knowing who we are, yet we don’t know who you are. Ah, the irony!
The other question – what’s it all about? – comes amid requests for a closer definition of what we do. That’s easy – this a blog about the Sydney contemporary art scene. A blog is like a diary, a bit like a web site, yet it’s a lot more informal than a magazine, has fewer resources than a TV show or a newspaper, and it’s put together for no other reason than it seemed like a good idea at the time.
There’s an expectation among our readers that we do certain things, do them regularly, and to do them without fail. The Art Life has had three major changes over its life. The first was the switch from twice-a-week publishing to once a week, the second big change was when we went fortnightly, an the third was when we started podcasting alongside our other usual content while adding notices of interesting looking upcoming shows. We’re anticipating a fourth iteration as we start to accept reviews and stories from more guest bloggers and continue to explore the vast content reserves of sites like Myspace and YouTube for interesting material we think you’d like. That’s what a blog is, and that’s who we are.
Our other major feature, which hasn’t changed since we kicked off back in February 2004, was to feature reviews of exhibitions. The frequency and number of those reviews has gone up and down as we have had our time eaten up by other Art Life-related projects, but we’ve stuck with it. Always. The philosophy of this blog has never been explained in detail because we thought it was obvious – but perhaps it isn’t, so here it is in nutshell: we believe in a positive engagement with what’s happening. We decided to embrace the here and now, to find what was worth talking about, the good stuff, to encourage and celebrate it. Our crusade is righteous and yes, God is on our side. That is our mission.
