MA Week 9 - Published on FCK LDN!

Fame! Well, in my eyes anyway.

 

 

FCK LDN is an online magazine which covers all things cultural outside London. To quote their website, “FCK LDN is an online magazine; a magazine that does to London what mainstream arts coverage does to the rest of the UK. It pretends that it does not exist. We talk about music, the arts, fashion and culture everywhere in the UK, except London.”

Much as I like London and enjoy visiting that city, I am in complete agreement with FCK LDN’s ethos. Too much emphasis is placed on London when it comes to discussing culture, to the detriment of the rest of the UK. I had wanted to contribute to their website for a while and had been thinking of trying to do a gig review, but once I started the MA it occurred to me that I could do some kind of arty review. Let’s face it, I’m much more likely to be downing a pint than taking notes when I’m at a gig. However, the opposite is true when I’m in a gallery.

My chance came when I wrote up the “Linder in conversation” event which was held as part of the British Art Show 8. I contacted FCK LDN and sent them the link to my blog. Their response was sensible and encouraging – basically that it was the right sort of subject matter, but it needed more context and less academic language. I rewrote it, and was absolutely chuffed to bits when they published it – view it here. It may seem like a very small step, but it’s one that I wouldn’t have taken if I wasn’t doing the MA.

The style in which I rewrote the piece is much nearer to my normal writing style than the kind of “academic” style I’ve tried to adopt for the Research Methods blog so far. I also think it’s probably a more interesting style. So this is something to think about over the Christmas break – can I make my blog more interesting – and even get people to want to read it!! - without losing the academic viewpoint? Let’s see.