Flickr Artists....

Artists are using new media in a very very exciting way.  Flickr was started as a way to share digital photos.  Photography is still the basis for the functions of the site (now owned by Yahoo!) but something very very interesting is happening as new media and producers of creative content find and make their way using collaborative/social content venues.

Probably one of the most exciting things I've discovered in recent months in my new media studies is the way artists are using Flickr and I've only bumbled into this in the past week or so.  Flickr is fundamentally a photo site.  Searches are photo- based but artists have found a sub-community on Flickr and post their work and reference the works of others and comment ferociously.   I am excited to showcase some of these artists' works as if you are not a Flickr member, you can't access their work through links.  You might want to join Flickr --even if you have no plans on posting or sharing the digital images -- just to see the work of these artists who are building a community and audience via the Flickr site.

The artists that I have found are phenomenal. Now you don't have to leave your keyboard to access unbelievable creative productions.  Flickr is a tool that allows artists to develop an audience beyond the former limitations of galleries, exhibits and museums.  Geographical boundaries are made null.  The burgeoning capacity for cutting out the middle-man venues for creative productions is a huge phenomenon.  It is happening for artists on Flickr just like it has been happening for musicians who have been able to introduce themselves and build an audience on social online spaces such as MySpace (ranked #2 behind Yahoo! on the internet, based on the amount of time spent on the site online and number of pages viewed).

In developing relationships with these artists, exploring their works, and in obtaining permission to use their work as illustrations with my pieces, I have found that because Flickr requires memberships (a mix of paid and free), it limits me in sharing their work or directing my audience to further works via Flickr links.  It is an inhibition to sharing (and provides an on-line gatekeeping barrier) and causes link-back frustrations.  Behind-a-wall access is one of the reasons I (and other online writers) hesitate to ever link to subscriber sites such as Wall Street Journal articles.  When confronted with providing information from constrained contained resources, writers hesitate to use those sources at all, or just put limited information.  I will quote a WSJ article and name the source information but hesitate to provide a link that will only frustrate readers when they hit the limited-access barrier. Information behind subscriber walls frustrates my audience so I use them only minimally. 

By just referencing a Flickr artwork with its site on Flickr, non-Flickr members who visit my site are not able to freely link and see the work or other works that link might open up.  Some of these Flickr artists have off-Flickr sites and you can freely follow that link to their work.   For example, in the MotherPie post, Three Little Chickies,  you will see the fabulous artwork by Green Kitchen, a creative woman from California.  The links within that MotherPie post take you to her Flickr site where she posts photos as well as artwork.  In working with these artists, I have found that I am shortshrifting my readers by giving you only Flickr information.  For Green Kitchen's work, if you are not a Flickr member, go check out her  non-Flickr blog - Green Kitchen and you will see there that she is a stay-at-home Mom interested in crafts.  Check out her blog and her creativity!  She has a new precious baby and is working on renovating the cutest little house in California.

The gum artist that I referred to in an earlier post last week is quite interesting.  Unfortunately if you're not a Flickr member, you can't link to see these artworks, actually made of real gum.  I would like to direct you to my Flickr Favorites and my Flickr Contacts but I don't want to frustrate my non-Flickr member audience.  These Flickr friendships and social networks are simply amazing.   Online networks and sites are upending gatekeeping mechanisms for information and creative content production.

Even if you are a Flickr member, as I have been for quite awhile, you may not even realize that the creative content digitally has moved way beyond just the "aim and click" photos of yesterday.  Digital images and digital content has a field of players beyond amateur and professional photographers.

Flickr artists are a sub-group within Flickr.  Flickr Community Guidelines is referential to photos : "upload photos that you've taken"  ...."and yes, Flickr is for photos...with some exceptions, it's OK to post other images, but if your photostream contains content other than photographs (like illustrations, screen shots, diagrams, etc.) it's very likely that your account will be marked Not in Pulic Site Areas (NIPSA). "

Many artists have their work  Flickr "nipped" ( NIPSA) meaning their  photos won't show up in photo searches but are visible on their own Flickr member pages and their way of obtaining visibility is through the networks that are developed socially on the Flickr site.

Thanks to the Flickr artists and photographers for allowing me to showcase their works on my site. I will try to give you more information and links beyond Flickr for reference to these artists and their works when possible.   If you are a Flickr member, check out my new artist contacts, my favorites, my tribute and their works and search out artists in these forums.  Follow their links to their own networks. These artists and the forum provided through Flickr for viewing their works are simply amazing.  For artists, putting their work "out there" on Flickr makes them very vulnerable in this new media arena.  Some have had their works freely used by pornographers.   

Everyone is feeling their way through this new "web 2.0" world. (Nicholas Carr talks about companies "making it up" as they go in the new world of Web 2.0 in his article, "There's something here"  based on an interview in Financial Times with e-Bay's Meg Whitman and e-Bay's Skype venture-- a wider look at how things are being upended beyond the artists with these new online ventures).

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. (owner of MySpace) said, "...we are at the dawn of a golden age of information - an empire of new knowledge."  For gallery owners, publishers, museums and others who benefit from having art in a controlled and mediated market, this is a new disruptive road... 

Comments

[Marcelo]

Thanks for your comment and compliments on my photoblog. really appreciated. Loved your blog.. very interesting approach!

Best,

Marcelo

[Naomi Dagen Bloom]

your compliments on my blog are much appreciated over at TGB. no problem with being on the "bordello-sighting" page; someone claims that before urban renewal my current address was the location of an active "house of ladies."

also, been trying to figure out Flick'r, so your comments are very useful.

[Old Horsetail Snake]

I was able to access your contacts. But I don't know if I'm a Flickr member or not. I guess it doesn't matter, huh?

[H.A. Page]

Hoss -- it might not anymore. It might have changed -- I'd have to try it from a computer that doesn't have my membership cookies on it. Thanks for your feedback... I'll look into this and dig deeper.