The following links lead to three lively online discussions — still active — about the current role of and challenges facing critics of contemporary art. The first two discussions, on New York-based art critic Jerry Saltz’s public facebook wall and the Frieze Magazine editors’ blog respectively, are about the differences in responsibility between newspaper critics and writers/reviewers for specialist trade magazines like Art Forum, or Frieze. The Frieze discussion, however, is a uniquely British one. There is no comparison to the breadth of public exposure art criticism receives in England, even if, as some have argued, that public is a mythical, imagined one. Sure, the U.S. has the New York Times, but large and loud British art shows receive coverage even in the tabloids. Nonetheless, the critical atmosphere in newspaper journalism in England is disdained by some as being classist, dismissive, snarky, and occasionally racist. The discussion on the Frieze blog is in response to a survey of the types of responses British newspaper journalists had to Nicolas Bourriaud’s Altermodern show at the Tate.
The third link is to an April 3rd podcast (about 90 minutes in length (I misuse my time, obviously)) on 1up.com, a well-known videogame review website. Usually these podcasts are a bit too insider-y to keep my attention, which is why I like to listen to them as I fall asleep at night, but April 3rd’s edition revealed the complex, but still fomenting and unresolved though processes game critics have about their responsibilities, their perceived audiences, the increasing legitimacy and variety of formats game criticism, etc. I am a steadfast believer in the future of gaming as perhaps one last distinct artistic medium, in the traditional pre-1970s sense Lev Manovich discusses in Post-Media Aesthetics (I’ll link to that too), so this was an interesting conversation for me. One of the game developers in the discussion is also clearly wasted.
1) Discussion about Art Forum on Jerry Saltz’s insane facebook wall
2) Frieze || Altercritics — scroll down for responses
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