Blog vs Critical Writing

Today I was looking through creativetourist.com for some writing about the Liverpool Biennial to see what I should check out in a couple of weeks and I came across an article about a talk called 'The Medium is the Medium' about art criticism, or the lack of it, now that there is an increase in blogging. You can read the article here

I personally agree with some of the points that were bought up. The first point of 'online writers don't know how to write', is debatable. It is true that there are a vast majority of online writers who struggle to get their point across in an engaging way, mainly because they're young and inexperienced (I am both of these things), but in order for a person to grow they have to start SOMEWHERE. It's a good idea for young people to start blogging, start using twitter to network and get their posts out there, start reading other, more accomplished blogs such as the FACT blog, the guardian online or Creative Tourist. Unfortunately everyone can't be born an art critic, but they can grow into one.

Another point I agree with is that 'criticism' is becoming diluted. For bloggers, who are young and want to gain fans instead of offending every artist or curator they've ever seen, find it difficult to actually criticise anything. It is a fact that you can't please everyone, and sometimes you just need to say what you've got to say, but people forget this in a bid to become popular. This leads people to believe that you can't ever be an art critic ect ect ect. It's all a bit depressing for bloggers...

But wait! You then get the bloggers who are overly critical, in a way to make themselves stand out to the professionals, 'look, I can critique!!!'. Normally these overly critical blog posts gain a lost of backlash - people argue that you have taken the art out of context, you have not looked at the history behind the art, the artists life history and lifestyle have been neglected by the blogger. Can a blogger ever win?

I say all this now, but if I ever did become a big wig art critic that gets printed left right and center that I too would be pessimistic when it comes to bloggers. There is some real talent on the internet by people who just haven't been the given the opportunity, but most bloggers do try and keep their head above water by pleasing the masses until they realise that no one is ever happy anymore.

Is that critical enough?