DigitalCritic

I am a nutter, it’s official!

Over on PhD2Published I have declared November AcBoWriMo! Based on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I have (strongly) suggested that I and my colleagues – both here in Milwaukee and in the wider global academic community – throw on some comfy clothes, shut down our email accounts, and coffee-up our brains for a month of intense writing. That’s right, as participant Bettina Frankham has it, we’re going to ‘write like there’s no December’!

I’ve said that it doesn’t really matter what writing you’re writing for AcBoWriMo, just as long as it relates to academia, and you’re willing to push yourself throughout November to get it done. In a fit of madness, I myself am intending to get as close to 50, 000 words (the remit of NaNoWriMo) as possible. I’d like this to be a good rough draft of my book but some of it might end up in the journal articles I’ve got on the go too.

I do have some form in the writing productivity stakes. When I was finishing my PhD I could churn out a fairly decent 1,500 words a day. That said, I did sacrifice a few things (including personal hygiene), and I think it only right to stay on top of such matters now I’m in a department. (You’ll find I’ve set out a few guidelines in a blog post on AcBoWriMo, as well as suggested the use of a Twitter hashtag, and invited everyone to publicly declare their participation – thus shaming them into definite action).

There have been several blog posts on AcBoWriMo already which I’m excited about, like those by Standardized Teacher,  Finds and Features, Read React Review, Girl in Maths – and I love Emily and the Lime’s progress bar, I used to use jumper-shaped ones of these on my knitting blog! Then there’s Narelle Lemon’s great advice post for Teaching TomTom (a site I didn’t know and I’m really glad I’ve discovered). And lookee, AcBoWriMo even made Prof Hacker!

One of the things I wanted when I this suggested project was to focus in on what academic work actually entails. For example, by pushing yourself to make a crazy word target (aside of possibly making that target of course) you’ll be forced to notice a lot about the way you work. Already lots of people are using the Pomodoro Technique, which is timed writing (and well explained by the amazing Thesis Whisperer here), rather than adhering to a word count. I for one hadn’t encountered the method before, so when I loaded Focus Booster and sat down to write, I was stunned how much I got done this way.

I’m also genuinely interested in having an open conversation about academic work and time. What is academia if not the constant feeling that there’s not enough time to get everything done? But what can’t you rush and why? I regularly say how much I love Twitter for the great people and ideas it brings my way, but does it make me forget how to work at a more considered pace? So I’m glad Vacuous Minx raises these issues too and I hope we can open up more of this debate as the month goes on – or maybe afterwards, we do rather have a lot of writing to do!

I’m happy to see though that most people don’t think I’m suggesting an entire quality academic book can be written in a matter of weeks. And, thus far, all those getting involved are (like me) just hoping a month of working extra hard and alongside others will really step-up their productivity.

Thanks everyone for getting into the spirit of this, it’s already bigger than I ever imagined (talking of not having enough time and I’m really eager to see how it turns out!

Channelling several weeks of culture shock, I wrote a blog post for the Guardian Higher Education Network on applying for academic jobs in the US. I am currently on a post-doc in Milwaukee, arriving just in time to hurtle headlong into my first US academic job season. But while those around me on the job market were planning precision attacks, I was still trying to work out what a ‘rec’ letter was and why I needed to write a covering letter when I was surely going to be using an online application form. Trust me when I say that this was a steep learning curve because I didn’t know where to start; it was like everyone was talking a different language!

So, having quizzed anyone who would talk to me, had the phone hung up on me by a potential employer, read way too many articles and blog posts on the subject (as well as many people’s job application materials which were generously shared) I decided to offer up what I’d learnt so far. The article is in no way definitive, and it certainly centres upon the humanities, but I hoped it would gives others at least a bit of head-start when negotiating this quite alien territory. And I guess I wanted to save people making some of the mistakes I had.

Anyway, no sooner had the article been posted than I was deluged with Tweets, emails and comments providing yet more advice and, rather wonderfully, thanking me for writing the piece. I have to admit I was really touched by everyone’s responses and very glad that people were so willing to share their own experiences. As a result, I’d just like to say thanks right back at y’all and I do promise to share anything else important that I learn over here (like where fabric conditioner goes in a lop-loader washing machine, or what scallions and cilantro are, or how to ask for the check not the bill, or, or, or…)

I hope it’s OK to begin this post by writing: OMG this is so exciting!

Earlier in the year I was commissioned by the Arts Council England to write a document describing the history of media lab culture. Soon after, I discovered this substantial essay was slated to become part of a more major project commission: the World of Free and Open Source Art, produced for ACE by Furtherfield. ACE had asked Furtherfield to put together a comprehensive archive of essays, interviews, artworks, tools and resources and a glossary of terms illustrating and explaining Open Source activity in the arts – and my essay looking at media lab histories and methods was a perfect fit. But then, guess who Furtherfield approached me to help them write more of the content for the resource? Me! (I know, I said it was exciting!)

Now the whole resource has gone live both on the Arts Council website and on the website for the Peer 2 Peer Foundation. It’s fitting that you’ll find this content on both platforms where it can be shared among the two over-lapping audiences. You’ll find a variety of descriptions by myself of artworks like Rob Myers’ Balloon Dog (pictured), as well as platforms for sharing, and of course my downloadable history of media lab culture in the UK.

For too long, Open Source activities in the arts have been over-shadowed by other practices and I’m honoured to be part of this major effort to bring them into the mainstream. I am also glad to have the opportunity to show the role media labs have played in digital innovation over the last 20 years or so – especially as several of them (notably Access Space and Folly) have recently lost their ACE funding. This Furtherfield/ACE project will be a lasting resource and I hope it will convince a broader audience of the value of free, open and shared practices.

Just as I arrived in the US (jetlagged, with a cold, and straight into a major catch-up with one of my dearest pals) I found out I’d been featured on art historian Freya Gowrley’s blog in a post called: Art History and the Digital Revolution. The piece looks at some of the pros and cons of being an art historian and using digital and social media to share your work. I agree with Ms Gowrley, it’s not all plain sailing, but like her, I find platforms like Twitter endlessly useful in helping me meet new people and explore new ideas – even if your subject wasn’t born digital (like mine).

Anyway, I hope you’ll indulge me if I just sneak in sample of what Ms Gowrley’ wrote about me:

“Dr. Frost is very much the face of art history’s digital revolution. Investigating the relationship between technology and the arts, Frost’s research examined the impact of internet technologies on art history. Her blog, Digital Critic contains a wealth of information and practical advice for the art historian, as well as some genuinely wonderful and impassioned writing on her subject.”

I mean, wow, how fabulous is that? I was super-duper chuffed to read this!

Ms Gowrley has also invited me, on behalf of the Association of Art Historians student Members Committee, to speak at the next AAH Graduate Student Conference which will be on art and science. We don’t yet know if I’ll be physically or virtually present, but already I’m looking forward to being involved and discussing some of these digital issues even further.

Ah, I am back in England (and already eating less to talk at Rewire, the Fourth International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology. My first encounter with this conference was back in its Refresh! incarnation when it was held at the Banff New Media Institute. This time it hits lovely Liverpool, hosted by FACT and the Art and Design Academy at Liverpool John Moores University. It has an amazing line up – honestly I’m barely over the brain-food that was ISEA2011, I really don’t have room to cram more thought-stuffs in!

Anyway, I should say that I’m talking on Thursday 29^th in an afternoon session on media labs. Here’s my paper abstract:

Furtherfield, Seeing and Doing

This paper will look at how the socially transformative artworks of New Media arts community and platform, Furtherfield, can be understood and historicised using Gregory Sholette’s concept of art world ‘dark matter’. It will illustrate, through three of their projects (DIWO, Zero Dollar Laptop, Visitor’s Studio), how Furtherfield’s work can be described as ‘dark matter’ in that it is both embedded in established art world traditions and yet somehow generally invisible when viewed from traditional art historical vantage points. However, the discussion will be nuanced towards emphasising this type of work’s unseeableness, which occurs as by-product of its performative elements. It will be argued, therefore, that this artistic practice not only moves away from the production of objects or visuals – focusing instead on technologies, networks and social engagement – but, via an enacted element, towards other sense-making systems. It will find that despite being a useful way of shedding light on work generally over-shadowed by more traditional practice, Sholette’s focus on art as either seen or not conforms precisely the type of art historical discourse that fails to fully confront work characterised instead by being somehow done or not done.

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about my long-time muse, Furtherfield!

I’ll also be representing Arts Future Book, so if you have an idea for a book you’d like to publish with us, do seek me out and ply me with tea, I’ll be all ears!

I’m hosting a fab panel at ISEA2011 in just over a week’s time. It’s called ‘Share Workers: The Techniques and Meanings of Sustainable Digital Networks’. The panel itself is a research project by a-n, the Artists Information Company. Here’s how we’re describing it:

The information sharing abilities of the internet have vastly extended a pre-existing capacity among artists to communicate with each other about their work and lifestyles. With the arrival of social media and the wave of internet use known as Web 2.0, the ability to share has grown exponentially, becoming a subject in and of itself, and generating experts in the techniques and meanings of sharing. And now, with economic down-turn and drastic cuts to funding, these free networks have become invaluable for helping people sustain their practice.

This Twitter-interactive panel at ISEA2011 brings together a set of experts (Ruth Catlow: Furtherfield; Dougald Hine: The University Project; Jack Hutchinson: AIR; Bridget McKenzie: Flow Associates; Marcus Romer: Pilot Theatre) in the practical and theoretical use of digital networks and infrastructures for sharing. Working across a range of areas from visual art to music, performance and beyond, they are united by their use of collaborative digital tools and driven by their propensity for positive social change. From consolidating connections between artists and arts policy-makers to rewiring our educational and economic circuitry, this panel has collectively developed a wealth of skills for reaching out to others through technology.

We will be using a hashtag: #shareISEA on Twitter to drum up questions and discussion before and during the panel, which takes place at 9.00am-10.30am in Istanbul (that’s 7.00am-9.30am in the UK) on Monday 19^th September. So please come (physically or virtually) and share your ideas and experiences and contribute to new working models for the arts…

Oh, and following the panel discussion at ISEA2011, a-n’s website will feature further commentary about this attempt to widely exchange ideas on sharing in the arts. Quite frankly it’s just a total share-fest!

Over on PhD2Published you´ll find my response to the Guardian Higher Education Network blog post by Leonard Cassuto suggesting that academic blogging is pretty much a waste of time. When I read the article I tweeted that my head had “exploded” because there were so many things I thought Cassuto had got wrong about blogging in general, let alone in academia. The main issue with what he says is that he seems to think blogging is just one thing and of course it isn´t. In my own work blogging is both a critical platform (and one which requires deeper critical analysis) and tool for networking and sharing. But of course the irony hasn´t been lost on anyone that Cassuto is bitching about academic blogging on an academic blog!

In a week where some crazy stuff has been said about social media in academia (more on that soon), it is great to see LSE´s Impact Blog creating a list of Academic Tweeters. They´ve broken things down by subject area, which is useful too, and I´m thrilled to be on the Arts and Humanities list with PhD2Published on the Higher Education and Learning list. It´s just such a great resource!

My review of Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook’s Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media has just been published in the latest edition of Convergence. It starts like this:

“Earlier this year, BBC Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, controversially asked after the existence of great works of Net art. Most striking about his query (and perhaps even more so his responses to the many comments he received) was not that he was unaware of great online art, but that he had somehow missed the point of this art field. His enquiry indicated a lack of recognition of the fact that Net art, for example, belongs to a different system and demands a wholly alternative approach to (amongst other things) value judgements in art. Among the responses, Gompertz received an offer from curator Sarah Cook to send him her book written with Beryl Graham: Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media (MIT Press, 2010), as it guides the reader through this and other changes in art thinking wrought by New Media art forms.”

You’ll have to head over to Convergence for the rest…