By JAMES NADEAU
Blogs are a dime a dozen. They are ubiquitous reminders of the human desire to connect to the world and other people. They are evidence of Habermas’ public sphere, the space where dialogue and conversation between private citizens coalesce into a “public.” Blog unite (or divide) people of like minds. It is with this in mind (uniting or dividing – take your pick) that we have created Our Daily RED. Is there a need for an arts blog, especially one based in Boston? There are other blogs that talk about the arts here. They serve a purpose, ones that we are not diametrically opposed to.
We see Our Daily RED as a compliment to Big Red, an expansion of the main site. The blog allows us to create a dynamic conversation space not just centered on the arts in Boston (although that is a large part of it) but on the arts world as a whole. We see the blog as a nexus or a convergence point of arts, pop culture, and news - anything that really captures our fascination – that can inform or expand the possibilities of art in our time.
To flesh that out a bit, we see the blog as an opportunity to explode the Boston-centric approach that we all too easily fall into. Our mediated and interconnected world has made localities meaningless. What occurs in Portland, Providence, London or Mumbai has repercussions here. We as artists navigate both the local and international. Our culture(s) have increasingly grown global. To ignore that is foolish; to feed off of it is what we should be doing. We envision the blog as a liminal and a discursive space where we feed off of ideas and conversations in a visceral manner that the static zine-ness of Big RED Shiny cannot allow for. We hope that Our Daily RED can also serve as an information hub, where you read about art events, engage in a dialogue with the writers and think critically about what we are doing (certainly challenge us). And perhaps use it to think critically about what you all are doing?
Our Daily RED has already begun. It is now just about three weeks old. We have compiled a group of writers/artists to post whatever they want: things they find interesting, shows that are coming up and – hopefully – articles and debates that question the current state of the arts.
Click here to visit Our Daily RED now.
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