“Publication is a creation of a public” (Stadler) By simply uploading an information on the created website, it creates the “circulation of text, discussion, and gathering which creates conversation.”(Stadler) I created www.byeongsunglee.com where people gather who are interested to hear stories from a contemporary artist, Byeongsung Lee. www.byeongsunglee.com is an online public where the artist, Lee, introduces his artworks with images and descriptions of the idea. The contemporary art is complex in the way which the idea is hidden from the cultural, political, and personal context of the artwork. Often times, the audience could not catch the idea or misunderstand the idea of the artwork. In order to deeply understand the idea of the artwork, the audience requires to understand the cultural background of the artist. Not only the cultural background of the artist, but the audience also has to consider the materiality of the artwork, the historical concerning, and the national notion. www.byeongsunglee.com opens a public for the audience who is willing to learn and discuss the idea of Lee’s artwork. The artist’s online publication gives me the “agency and control”(Watters) especially when I am communicating with people on personal artworks.
The online publication is not the “objects of education technology software”(Watters), but the “subjects of their(self) learning”.(Watters) I am not only posting my artwork in order to inform the audience my artistic idea, but I also re-discover the unperceived idea from my own work. The act of textualizing the idea aims me to re-organize the idea in which I unconsciously re-generate a creative idea in my mind. On “Why We Need Social Paper”, Erin Glass describes that people are “hunger to find a space and a culture which promotes the practice and exchange of reflective thought.” I, as an artist, was always willing to expose my artworks and the idea to the world. Creating an artwork is essential for the artist, however, a publication is as valuable as the artwork in order to deliver the idea to the audience. www.byeongsunglee.com becomes an artistic publication in which the artist and the audience gathered for transmitting information. The website is not only a place for the transmission of information. www.byeongsunglee.com provides me a “digital citizenship.”(Campbell) By simply uploading artworks on my website, I “present (the artistic idea) to the world.”(Watters) I leave a footage on the online world in which personal identity is established in the online society. Earning the citizen of the digital world, the personal publication connects the artist with the audience.
Creating the personal publication in online is a complicated gesture in terms of a value of the contents, and the connection to the visitors. The information that is provided on my website is easily accessible to anyone. The information has to be accurate and firm. The incorrect information and unrelated content would result in the loss of the number of visitors. The distinctive feature of www.byeongsunglee.com is that the website does not only contain the image of the artwork, but also the processing image and the description of the idea. Many artists do not want to show the processing image because it is not artistic. However, I decided to exhibit the processing images for building a strong association between the artist and the audience. Mattew Sadler speeches on the Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference that “the publication requires a good host (who is) willing to change depending on who is there and what their needs are.” Listening is an essential attitude for the host of the website, and the website should be encouraged by the visitor. “The publication requires consistency.” It is a role of the host to consistently share information with the public. A lack of communication would disconnect the audience from the artist. In the past time, I understood the publication as speaking. I considered the host as a speaker and the audience as a listener. After becoming a host of the publication, I realized that the host does not only speak but also listen to the public. The transmission of information is not one-way dialogue, but the conversation is circulating. Moreover, I learn that the publication is not only the exchange of reflective thought. The publication leads the culture in which people are socially influenced by the public conversation. The online publication is a contemporary platform in terms of socially, politically, and culturally. I am not creating the publication by myself, but I create the publication with the audience.
Encouraging is the goal of www.byeongsunglee.com. I would like to inspire the audience differently. I would like to communicate with people who are not interested in contemporary art. Many people are interested in visually aesthetic artworks that capture audience’s eyes. However, the idea is the most important element in art, not the visual pleasure. Many contemporary artworks are visually disagreeable which people are not interested. However, the beauty is inside of the artwork. I would like to introduce the beauty of idea by specifically narrating the idea of the artwork. From my online publication, my goal is to create a connection between contemporary art and people. I would like to create a culture on the online publication. I am willing to develop an artistic movement starting from www.byeongsunglee.com. The concept of de-materialization is been introduced by several artworks on the website. I would create a number of critical analysis of the de-material artworks that I made, and I hope it would lead to the new concept of the artistic movement.
References:
- Erin Glass. 2015. “Why We Need Social Paper.”
- Matthew Stadler. 2010. “What is Publication?” Talk from the Richard Hugo House’s writer’s conference, Seattle, WA. May 21, 2010.
- Gardner Campbell. 2009. “A Personal Cyberinfrastructure.” EDUCAUSE Review 44 (5).
- Audrey Watters. 2015. “The Web We Need to Give to Students.”
