The Sunday News
Arts Focus with Raisedon Baya
FOR years now local artists have been reluctant to go digital with their work citing quite a number of reasons. Most of them very genuine. Many artists have cited lack of resources and technical know-how to produce quality digital content as reasons for their absence on digital platforms.
Others have said they are waiting for the right equipment to record quality content first. Yet digital content is not about quality only and besides the world is not waiting for anyone.
Everyday people across the globe are going into digital spaces looking for content and they will always consume what they find there, whether it is local or not – quality or not. So many our people have come back from these platforms complaining about the near absence of local content in those spaces.
It is unfortunate that many local artists still want to be pushed to have their works on digital platforms yet ordinary people have realized this already. If you look around everyone is so much under pressure to be visible on social media. Just look at the number of ordinary people paying for photoshoots.
And so, if ordinary people who are selling nothing are seeing the importance of investing in a photoshoot so they have nice pictures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram what more of artists who need to be seen and sell their work.
It just means artists need to go an extra mile in creating digital content that will get people excited and themselves noticed. Simple. And no excuses.
In 2020 Covid-19 came and disrupted our world as we knew it. Its effect has been devastating. With it came lockdowns and restricted movement and bans on gatherings. The arts sector has been one of the most affected sectors, with many artists finding themselves unable to tour and perform in public spaces. This saw a lot migrating their performances to digital spaces. Shows were done virtually.
It is now the norm. Festivals were curated online. Many are being curated online and with so much success. So, with Covid-19 not going away soon many local artists have no choice but to go digital. It is the only way they will survive.
They need to create and package their content for digital platforms. It is either they adapt or die – and their death will not be from Covid-19 but their reluctance to migrate to digital platforms.
In many conversations we have had on why local artists are reluctant to utilize digital spaces the question that always arises is: so how do artists monetize? This is an important question which however, needs to be asked when half the work has been done and the content is on various platforms. Artists need to embrace the digital world – there are no two ways about it now.
Digital platforms are now some of the biggest markets for the arts, if not the biggest. Once artists have their digital footprints the question about monetization becomes necessary and very relevant. So once again we say artists should get as much of their work as possible onto the many digital platforms available to them.
Flood the spaces and then we can address the question of monetization. Not before there is content to talk about in the first place.
For performers creating work for digital spaces may not be a problem. The problem is recording it and posting it. However, we see some challenges especially for the like of visual artists and writers/literary artists. The option for writers at the moment are limited to digital copies (soft copies) and audio versions of their writing. We see challenges to do with IP arising.
But this is the time to face those challenges and avoid being left behind by this digital revolution that is take place currently. The focus for every artist should be on how to get their work into the many digital spaces available. Other issues will follow.
