Professional Communication Technologies

'Hey', 'Hi' and 'How are you?'. I've arrived to this party a little late due to circumstances I'm sure very few people here would like to read about. I plan on being a late bloomer however, so let's get started with a few thoughts on Professional Communication Technologies before we get all reflective...

Ironically, it seems somewhat narrow-minded to assume that Web 2.0 technology will benefit any individual's artistic endeavours. As a performer I greatly enjoy approval from my audiences – be they live or via online feedback – Web 2.0 allows me to promote material or performances I have been involved with easily and quickly - but that bears little relevance to artistic creation, which is something personal, an expression of one's inner self. Art, in a classical sense, is Web 1.0: designed to be consumed. A reaction is desired, although it is at the consumer's discretion as personal opinions should – more often than not – remain just that in order to allow others their own experience.

Many would argue that Web 2.0 allows you as a working professional to open doors, communicate and interact with parties you may not have previously been able to reach, as well as take advantage of the opportunity to display your work to an incredibly large audience – but by definition Web 1.0 allowed you the same platform. Do all the Facebook comments and discussion boards really benefit you as an artist if you are doing something that is personal or something you feel strongly about? If your motivation is internal expression will a battery of varied responses applauding you or deriding you, fuelled by reasons as diverse as culture, religion, race or preference actually aid you in your goal? Or will they cause you to question yourself, to 'dilute' your work in order to make it appealing to the (virtual) global majority?

Web 2.0 has been described as 'emancipatory', 'democratising' the internet. It would seem instead that contrary to liberating you as an artist – which Web 1.0 did adequately – Web 2.0 opens you up to a multitude of limitations. The freedom to express yourself without exposing yourself to every detail of dissension or accolade is something truly desirable. When it comes to democratisation and the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts, I offer these: a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, the lowest common denominator is rarely the best one and never play to the peanut gallery.