I believe that artists no longer simply make images, they make discourse – they ask us not only to “look,” but to “look again,” to re-examine.<\/p>\n
Art is always dialogical \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I mean, simply, that it is in dialogue: with history, with other art and artists, with current events, with politics and pop culture and more. Most of all, it is in dialogue with people, with real people.<\/p>\n
This is not the same as the en masse, people-powered internet – the democratic, vote yes or no, argue over at Wikipedia, digg this, intelligence of crowds we keep hearing about.<\/p>\n
Because while I like LOLcats as much as the next guy, I’m interested in more depth.<\/p>\n
I’m interested in people speaking to one another on a personal level, working together to create and change ideas, to make things, and to make things different.<\/p>\n
I believe in the artist as public figure, as both engaging and engaged; because the only thing I appreciate as much as a beautiful and provocative work of art, is the discussion that can grow out of one.<\/p>\n
Given that, I also believe that generosity is key to contemporary practices of art. If art is a conversation, you gotta make people want to talk to you; you gotta be nice, you gotta ask questions, you have to not only be interesting, but interested \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in other work and what others say and do.<\/p>\n
I believe in chit chat, in discourse, in studio critique, in humanity; I believe in art karma, in goin’ around and comin’ around, in sending folks to see things and meet people, and in sharing my tricks and my code and myself.<\/p>\n
Teaching is a part of my practice, and a part of my work. Writing is a part of my practice and a part of my work. Collaborating is always implicit in what I do, and often explicit towards the end of a given piece.<\/p>\n
I like to make and share and talk about stuff, and I like people who do said same.<\/p>\n
I speak back to artists who came before, and converse with my peers about what we’re all trying to do. I hope others want to do the same, want to be in dialogue with what I do and make and say.<\/p>\n
For me, generosity is essential to the contemporary practice of making art….<\/p>\n
– slightly edited introduction to my artist talk, posted by request. the slide images I usually show are also fun, but in blog form (as opposed to live performance) they took away from, rather than added to, the text. comments welcome.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I believe that artists no longer simply make images, they make discourse – they ask us not only to “look,” but to “look again,” to re-examine. Art is always dialogical \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I mean, simply, that it is in dialogue: with history, with other art and artists, with current events, with politics and pop culture and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,7,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-me","category-stimulus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-ye","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":753,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/06\/artthrob-and-the-south-african-arts-media\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":0},"title":"Artthrob and the south african arts media","author":"nathaniel","date":"06 September 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I think it may have been yesterday that I posted the available job at artthrob. Admittedly, I've already heard a few comments about it (but none online), and just this morning I received an email from sculptor Sean Slemon (now overseas) on the rampage. Like myself - and many other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1217,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/23\/icommons-isummit-first-session\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":1},"title":"iCommons iSummit first session","author":"nathaniel","date":"23 June 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So this is the opening talk I gave as part of a panel of speakers at the iCommons iSummit, alongside the likes of Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture, Brazil, Paulina Urrutia, Minister of Culture, Chile, Larry Lessig, Chairman, Creative Commonsm Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia. WOW! Between being a bit rushed,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"gilberto gil, larry lessig, joi ito","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/63\/173255516_75c2e227e0_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1350,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/08\/saarts-emerging-exhibition-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":2},"title":"SAarts Emerging Exhibition, 2006","author":"nathaniel","date":"08 October 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The SAarts opening, walkabout and panels went extremely well - the former attended by at least 150 people through the course of the evening. There are walkabouts every weekend (see schedule) for the next three weeks, and the show and catalogue look great, so I highly recommend your chaecking it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bronwyn lace describes rat western's work. from left, Simon Gush, Bronwyn Lace, Koulla Xinisteris, some guy from the press","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/bronwyn.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1578,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/21\/ten-cubed\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":3},"title":"ten cubed","author":"nathaniel","date":"21 January 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm involved, via Haydn Shaugnessy (my Irish gallery) in a funky new project, where he's hired a 'Real World' architect to build an astonishingly beautiful gallery out at sea in Second Life: Ten Cubed (pictured). Via some of Haydn's blogging on the subject: About a year ago I decided to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1403,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/15\/ncad-joburg-art-media-art-calls\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":4},"title":"NCAD, Joburg art, media art calls","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 February 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the lack of postings lately, but as promised before the move to Dublin, that's just how it's gonna be (until such time as Bronwyn and Rat do the regular blogging they tentatively offered here; like most Joburgers, they're busy with more than a handful of things, so...).OK, catch-up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"a-beeld.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/a-beeld.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/08\/lomo-show-at-photoza\/","url_meta":{"origin":2122,"position":5},"title":"LOMO show at photoza","author":"nathaniel","date":"08 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Above is a pic from Kathryn Smith's evil twin dyptich, at the photoza group exhibition of lomo photography. Nice show, and the highlight is probably stephen hobbs' work, which makes a small sculpture that feels as if it were moving, out of street scene snaps. Also opened yesterday in Johannesburg\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"LOMO_KATHRYN_SMITH_1.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/LOMO_KATHRYN_SMITH_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}