Communicating eco-art 2010: The race is on!

artdesigncafé | Creative Business & Entrepreneurship | Published 27 January 2010
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The opportunities

In considering Lin’s project in the developing age of mass media communications, the messaging of eco-awareness, conservation, and action is media-friendly. It was particularly pleasing to hear Lin answer questions in a way that both specialists—and generalists—could appreciate. One can imagine there were discussions before, and if the artist was spouting heavy theory that the media opportunity would have been lost. In business, often specialists prepare for more generalist communications via “media training”. But how many higher education programs are offering this—and how many emerging artists can afford it? And, how many teams have competitive business-communications in place that are invested in building relationships, etc.? How many are equipped to run out two different press releases and communications—generalist and specialist—or, even more adventurously, multiply-angled ones? Media/Communications 101.

With all sorts of media outlets—print, radio, TV and Internet—plus government and corporate interest via social responsibility programming, the opportunities become too numerous to count. But surprising to some, the ‘media-formalist’ Young British Artists—love them, hate them—their teams, and UK press dynamics may provide a clear, structural reference. This means first doing detailed searches of UK media—print, radio and TV—versus the art trade press indices like Art Index. It also means speculating with a researcher’s acute scrutiny why an artwork or show becomes newsworthy in, for example, the Daily Mail or the Guardian, and thinking about how it got there. (In academia, this is called “content analysis”.) For example, the artwork may be a “cow and calf sliced in half”, but anyone reading a White Cube press release never sees it pitched in those terms. Another element to consider—perfect for a future communications study—is to what extent generalist media “made” certain YBAs by expanding their visibility and, in essence, “encouraged” more art world decision-makers to take another look, amidst popular culture pressure. Further, it means making a serious assessment about the growing, diverse eco-media outlets.

Yes, eco-publicity runs the risk of being propaganda, but then with artists presenting “new work”, promotion of a “new exhibition”, and “new interpretations”, “new academic articles”—and everyone on a production treadmill, this arguably ends up being propaganda for capitalistic production. And while the sensational announcements of the ‘sale’ of Damien Hirst’s diamond skull for £50 million in 2007—and of the record-breaking ‘auction’ at Sotheby’s the following year—steamrolled through international media, it very much ended up showing how thinly researched our fast-paced, “official source” and “announcement-led” mass media has become. Again, Media/Communications 101.



While eco-art mass media can follow in “formalist” diamond skull footsteps, one hopes that mass media eco-art can synthesize the content of the artwork and the sincerity of the artist—with the media/communications ‘form’—to deliver a strong message. It may even be forgiven for fudging the facts with the argument of what audiences actually retain in the messaging. Further, eco-art media hopefully could achieve what some people want. Instead of a focus on the oppressive dynamic of the strengthening artist-brand, the artwork can be emancipated from the brand—and be judged on its own power of communication.

Lastly, on the opportunities front, we must acknowledge the growing publicity gap between more-resourced and less-resourced artists. New media monitoring tools are enabling media coverage to become known as quickly as the same day. This technology should cheapen and become more cost-effective to more companies—including power galleries—and the same-day outputs from various media probably will expand to specialist art magazines and more international newspapers. One key aspect of these tools is that media/communications professionals can search out—and tease out—writers by reading their work—for more effective pitching of stories. Also, with the trend of heavier reliance on PR-generated content, it also enables the media-savvy promoter to keep the story going—with different angles—and going and going.

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