O Michelle Kasprzak

Michelle Kasprzak jest kuratorką i pisarką mieszkającą w Edynburgu. Pracuje w Scottish Arts Council , instytucji wspierającej rozwój szkockiej sztuki, gdzie zajmuje się sztukami wizualnymi.

Za swoją działalność Michelle otrzymała wiele stypendiów, nagród i grantów. Wygłaszała wykłady w Ameryce Północnej i Europie. Jej projekty kuratorskie obejmują tradycyjne wystawy, projekty wideo i prezentacje online, pokazywane w przestrzeniach galeryjnych, ale również w Internecie, na stronach artystów, portalach i międzynarodowych przeglądach filmowych . Jej prace krytyczne publikowane były w antologii, czasopismach kanadyjskich i europejskich, i na wielu stronach internetowych poświęconych kulturze. Oprócz pracy zawodowej na rzecz kultury, Michelle udziela się w sferze kultury jako doradczyni, konsultantka, jurorka i członkini wielu organizacji na całym świecie. Należy do IKT, Międzynarodowego Stowarzyszenia Krytyków Sztuki Współczesnej (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.).

Od 2006 roku Michelle publikuje na swoim blogu Curating.info artykuły na temat krytyki sztuki współczesnej.

Poniższa rozmowa pomiędzy Michelle Kasprzak a Annette Wolfsberger została przeprowadzona 8 luty 2009 roku z użyciem Skype Chat, i jest dostępna tylko w języku angielskim.

I would be interested in your background and when you started blogging. Was there a specific incident or reason that led you to begin your blog?

I was trained as an artist, and gradually started to move more and more towards writing and curating to fulfill my creative aims, rather than making my own art work. After finishing my Master’s in Visual and Media Art in Montreal, I really began to focus my efforts more resolutely on curating and writing.

And then you moved from curating to the funding side, at the Scottish Arts Council?

I moved to the funding side of things, to the Scottish Arts Council, just under a year ago. As always, I maintain many side projects.

Is Scotland a good place for simultaneous project work?

Yes, Scotland’s a great place to multi-task! There are many sources of inspiration, not the least of which is the enormously active art scene. I mainly started the Curating.info blog because I was doing a lot of research anyway, for myself, and saving these bits of research as bookmarks on my computer or making short notes. I thought there was no reason not to share that, open it up. I also thought by giving my research some public exposure it would enforce a bit more diligence on my part about researching regularly!

That’s an interesting point... Is your blog a platform to combine your different jobs or strictly an extension of your curatorial interests?

The blog really operates outside of my jobs. The work I do from 9-5, Monday to Friday is completely separate, but when one is lucky enough to work in the cultural realm, this daily exposure to the arts cannot help but inspire.

Do you or have you ever considered collaborating with co-writers (i.e. using the blog as a platform)?

I think it’s still too personal a project to do that, but I would consider it for the future. I collaborate a lot already. It’s nice to have one or two things that are just my own!

Which year did you start your blog, and have there been certain phases when you look back? Have there been any changes in your blog environment that have influenced the nature of your blogging?

I started it in mid-2006, so I had been in Scotland for nearly a year – and there have definitely been phases in its development. At first it was literally a place for me to dump research links and thoughts. After a time, I started to see it more as a community resource and give it more structure, and include things like more job opportunities, because I knew that these would definitely be of general interest.

I also wanted to highlight different kinds of content, so that is why I used the Diffusion e-book format to publish the interviews with curators. I thought presenting the interviews in a different way would make it stand out from the rest of the content.

Have you experienced an increase in readership/community since you’ve introduced the resources? And how much do you know about your audience or community – not only size-wise, but their background? And how much does it influence the format and content of your blog?

It’s interesting... I don’t know very much, generally speaking, about my audience, because web stats don’t tell me much about them except where they are from. So from the statistics, I can definitely say I have a global readership. But in terms of demographics, that gets harder.

Would you describe them as rather active?

They are usually quite publicly passive, the blog rarely attracts comments. However , they do write in from time to time, which is quite nice! It’s really lovely to get an email from someone telling me how much they appreciate the resource, or asking for advice, or letting me know that they appreciate my blog and thanks, but hey, a link is broken!

How would you describe your focus? Contemporary visual/media arts? And how do you decide what to cover (or not)?

My focus is definitely on contemporary visual art. I wanted to expand beyond my own personal expertise in media arts, to cover the widest possible range of topics in the contemporary art world. I choose not to cover many aspects that have to do with curators, for example, their roles in natural history museums and the like. Though curators have an even wider role in society, I prefer to keep the focus on the contemporary art world.

From what I’ve seen, it’s rather international and not too UK focused – that probably also reflects your scope of work?

I try to keep it international, although I’m increasingly aware of the limits of this as I post only in English. As a simple consequence of where I live, and where I have lived, I also can’t help but be more plugged into what’s happening in the UK and Canada.

How do you think people (your future audience) find out about your blog? I guess there are rather subtle ‘marketing’ techniques that you employ? What tools do you use – such as lists etc.?

I probably owe a lot to Google! The strict focus of the blog has meant that it ranks pretty highly in Google results for searches about curating. Also I started a Facebook fan page, which I think has really helped bring in new readers. On Facebook, Curating.info has over 1,000 fans now!

Wow!!

It's unbelievable! So I think that has encouraged traffic to the blog. I also experimented very recently with a Facebook ad, just to see what it was like. I was able to get $100 free advertising on Facebook, and I have to say not many people have clicked on the link yet, but I will wait and see how it performs.

How would you describe the status that blogging has in your daily life? You finance yourself by your regular job(s) and blogging is a ‘spare time activity’ (though spare time is probably not a very suitable term)?

Yes, for now blogging is definitely my evening and weekend activity. I have not fully explored ways I could ‘live’ off the blog – I am not sure it’s even possible.

How would you describe the economic model behind it? For example, your blog is currently ad free, isn’t it?

I have conducted a few very small, very un-scientific experiments. I ran Google AdWords for a short time, and was part of a more focused ad network for a short time as well. Neither approach generated any money for the blog. I still occasionally contemplate what might be the ideal arrangement. Perhaps that would be one or two aesthetically pleasing ads on my blog that generate enough money to make the whole idea of having ads at all worthwhile, and that advertise companies or institutions that I believe in!

I also wondered if you knew of any blogs in the UK (and beyond) that have received public funding...) Not that I think that that should be the only viable way of income. Or is the quality and joy of it also that it’s NOT a paid-for project?

I can’t think of any blogs that get public funding, though of course I can think of some organisations that have blogs, which might use some of their public funding to fuel that type of activity. I believe it’s important for organisations to think about different ways to engage with their audiences, and blogs might be one good way for them to do that.

On one hand, it would be fabulous if I could live comfortably off the blog, and I think there are other bloggers that do, but I would want to re-think the whole thing to do so. I’d have to consider what would attract solid, consistent advertisers, or a steady stream of donations. I feel I’m part-way through an experiment I’ve started and so it remains ideal to keep it as a side project, and save major re-thinking for later. I can tinker with Google AdWords and if it makes me a few quid, great, but if not, I also don’t depend on it.

Would you describe your blog as belonging to a certain ‘scene’ and if so, how would you describe it? You have quite a few links on your blog leading to other blogs. Are there any you would specifically recommend regarding other voices of cultural blogging in Europe?

That’s an interesting comment, regarding the ‘scene’. I think that the delivery of information from the internet via RSS feeds is so personalised for everyone, it’s hard to know what a scene is! Your point about the links I have is a good one... it may be the only indication of a scene, to see what others link to!

I understand that the notion of a ‘scene’ is a difficult one. Was one of the main reasons for you to start your blog also because there was a lack – in your case a lack of pooled online knowledge and resources regarding curating?

The thing about the web is that there is always a ‘lack’ if you are willing to get drawn into ultra-specific niches. Blogging styles are also so radically different. I think I provide a certain perspective, and also differentiate between news and announcements, while also presenting my personal views, opinions, etc. So for example, some European bloggers, like Francis McKee, a Glasgow-based curator create blogs that are relatively unannotated lists of links. Others, like Regine Debatty, a Berlin-based writer are more editorial. Francis and Regine are very different, and I’m different again, and yet perhaps we all merrily co-exist in someone’s RSS reader!

Geert Lovink in his book Zero Comments (2007) states that blogging is practically non-existent in the visual arts and new media arts sector, as opposed to, for example, (popular) music. What’s your take on that?

Not knowing the popular music field particularly intimately, it’s hard for me to compare the two but I can speculate on a relative lack of visual arts blogs. I think it could have to do with a certain timidity in open criticism, though the few bloggers who are openly critical are praised for it. And there is also the ‘what do I get out of it?’ factor, as the rewards are not always apparent. For example, Edward Winkleman is widely admired for his very informative blog that is a good source of news and also helps artists and dealers understand each other, but perhaps no other art dealer has done it before him because they didn’t understand what they’d get in return for that time investment. What he gets, of course, is street cred and respect... not money, but of course you can’t buy respect. However, that said, it’s not as cynical as that – I don’t know him, but I’d be willing to bet he also simply enjoys it!

Have you had any job opportunities, offers or similar as a result of your blogging?

No job offers have come my way, but interview opportunities like this are nice! Recently I went to an artist/curator mixer event in London, and met a woman who got a job because she saw it first on my blog... which made me feel really proud and happy for her!

Another point that came up in a previous interview was that existing mailing lists were perceived as difficult to engage with (rather closed) – and blogging was a nicer (maybe safer) way of building up your own environment for opinion?

Yes, I agree. Where mailing lists can get taken over by a few inconsiderate voices, or seem really ‘dead’ if no one is posting any more, you can maintain a blog and have complete control – and also freshen it up with incomplete thoughts, questions, polls, even images, whereas on discursive mailing lists a new argument, thought, or act of moderation needs to happen. They’re different animals.

On a more general level: What would you consider as the role of blogging in the cultural sector?

I think it’s an excellent way of establishing several streams of discourse. It’s not just about the art critic in the newspaper anymore – though of course that’s obvious. As Clay Shirky has said: “the question today is not ‘why publish’ but ‘why not publish?’” – and people are publishing more than ever before.
Blogging becomes part of personal branding, establishing an audience, establishing something that will be an interface to a public without an intermediary – which is what makes it slightly dangerous, and is why people have lost their jobs over what they blog about. Our lives are still organised very hierarchically and yet blogging allows us to jump over these hierarchies, which can make people nervous. I’m lucky to have great employers and friends!

A bit ‘Wild West’ at times? It seems that it takes people quite a while until they grasp the full extent of the ‘publicness’?

Yes, it’s still Wild West in a number of ways. People are still figuring out where the ‘gold’ in it is and asking themselves why they are settling there! But I think it’s the immediacy, the you-push-the-button of it, and the lack of intermediary that makes it attractive. It’s you, typos and all.

…which is why it must be quite liberating to regard it as a non-income generating activity at times, I guess?

Yes, if I really had to try to generate money from my blog, it might not be as difficult as I imagine, but at the same time I am happy (for the moment) not to have to find out.

So going back to the beginnings of your blog… is there anything you would do differently if you could?

I think the only thing I might have done differently would be to find a way to encourage more dialogue and comments between readers. I didn’t try to cultivate that, and my blog layout doesn’t encourage it, either. However, that said, people seem to get value out of what I do anyway. It is fulfilling a mission and perhaps heavy user interaction is not necessary at this stage.

Are there any other culture blogs that you would recommend that I should not miss on my viral journey?

Check out the Relevant Links section on Curating.info for a few key ones!