Bad at Sports 2019/2020
Internship
Internship
http://badatsports.com
One of the roles that I was assigned during my work placement year in Chicago, consisted in assisting Duncan McKenzie, the Chair of the Art and Art History Department with the work that he produces together with other artists, through Bad at Sports, an online platform for interviews about art and the art community in America.
My main job at Bad at Sports involved the editing and cleaning of the interviews. This consisted of eliminating background noises, tongue clicks and other unwanted glitches from the recordings. There were also times in which the participants in the interview would say things like "cut this part" or "I would like to express that idea again" and I would edit the track to adapt these changes.
I would then hand my work back to Duncan for him to add music and an introduction, getting them ready to be published.
One of the roles that I was assigned during my work placement year in Chicago, consisted in assisting Duncan McKenzie, the Chair of the Art and Art History Department with the work that he produces together with other artists, through Bad at Sports, an online platform for interviews about art and the art community in America.
My main job at Bad at Sports involved the editing and cleaning of the interviews. This consisted of eliminating background noises, tongue clicks and other unwanted glitches from the recordings. There were also times in which the participants in the interview would say things like "cut this part" or "I would like to express that idea again" and I would edit the track to adapt these changes.
I would then hand my work back to Duncan for him to add music and an introduction, getting them ready to be published.
Screen capture of an editing session using Adobe Audition.
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Screen capture of Bad at Sport's webpage.
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Even though this was possibly the most intellectually captivating part of the placement, I will also admit that it was probably the most tedious one. Editing audio requires to work in real time, which means that in order to edit an hour long interview, I would need to work between 3 and 5 hours, depending on factors like the quality of the recording, and the background noises, amongst others.
The amount of knowledge that I was acquiring through this job, was terribly compensating, though. It included information about art fairs, museums, artistic organisations and collaboratives, as well as the art world in America and American culture in general. This was inspiring and it encouraged me to want to travel and learn more, which I managed to do, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
One of the aspects that I found most captivating about the interviews, was learning how different artists and different collectives had managed to make their practice into a sustainable and ongoing enterprise. As an art student about to enter his graduation year at university, this feels like an important subject to address.
Collaboration with other artists and participation in events and initiatives, seemed to be key elements to the success of these ventures and reflecting upon this, made me understand the value of networking and engaging with other artists.
Editing interviews was not the only work that I undertook for Bad at Sports, and Together with Duncan and the Broadcast Staff of Bad at Sports, I attended the 80th Birthday Gala of the Hide Park Art Center, an exhibition and production space located in Chicago, which promotes community engagement, dialogue about contemporary art, networking, and social change.
At this event, Bad at Sports was presenting a selection of mad libs in the library of the Center. This was a site and time specific intervention, that invited the audience to engage in a relaxed and fun atmosphere with a piece of art. The mad libs were printed on a series of coloured pieces of paper, which were available for the audience to fill out. Once completed, one of the members of Bad at Sports would read them out loud and would hang them on the wall, resulting in a collectively produced piece.
The artistic value of this activity seemed to be rooted in the engagement potential of the activity undertaken, which required a collective effort, as well as the creation of a light and distended atmosphere that suggested a fun and attractive activity.
My job at this event was to visually document this intervention with photographs.
The amount of knowledge that I was acquiring through this job, was terribly compensating, though. It included information about art fairs, museums, artistic organisations and collaboratives, as well as the art world in America and American culture in general. This was inspiring and it encouraged me to want to travel and learn more, which I managed to do, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
One of the aspects that I found most captivating about the interviews, was learning how different artists and different collectives had managed to make their practice into a sustainable and ongoing enterprise. As an art student about to enter his graduation year at university, this feels like an important subject to address.
Collaboration with other artists and participation in events and initiatives, seemed to be key elements to the success of these ventures and reflecting upon this, made me understand the value of networking and engaging with other artists.
Editing interviews was not the only work that I undertook for Bad at Sports, and Together with Duncan and the Broadcast Staff of Bad at Sports, I attended the 80th Birthday Gala of the Hide Park Art Center, an exhibition and production space located in Chicago, which promotes community engagement, dialogue about contemporary art, networking, and social change.
At this event, Bad at Sports was presenting a selection of mad libs in the library of the Center. This was a site and time specific intervention, that invited the audience to engage in a relaxed and fun atmosphere with a piece of art. The mad libs were printed on a series of coloured pieces of paper, which were available for the audience to fill out. Once completed, one of the members of Bad at Sports would read them out loud and would hang them on the wall, resulting in a collectively produced piece.
The artistic value of this activity seemed to be rooted in the engagement potential of the activity undertaken, which required a collective effort, as well as the creation of a light and distended atmosphere that suggested a fun and attractive activity.
My job at this event was to visually document this intervention with photographs.
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Photographic documentation of a participative event by the crew of Bad at Sports at Hyde Park Art Center. December 2019. 2/3 digital photographs.
This was a non object based artistic intervention, where the context and the participants themselves were to become the materials of the piece and both the occasion and the space in which it was happening, the canvas for the work. It heavily relied on the participation of the audience.
Much of this scaped to me at the time, but during the lockdown months, when face to face contact with people was not possible in the same way that it had been before, it became clearer.
As part of my visual work for Bad at Sports, I also shot some product photography, mainly in order to create online shops at Amazon and Big Cartel, an online platform similar to Amazon, but geared toward artists and their production.
I also did some online research about the conditions that Bad at Sports would need to abide by in order to use these platforms, be able to accept payments, and ship their goods.
The articles to be sold would be quite varied and would include enamel pins, books and t-shirts, amongst others.
Much of this scaped to me at the time, but during the lockdown months, when face to face contact with people was not possible in the same way that it had been before, it became clearer.
As part of my visual work for Bad at Sports, I also shot some product photography, mainly in order to create online shops at Amazon and Big Cartel, an online platform similar to Amazon, but geared toward artists and their production.
I also did some online research about the conditions that Bad at Sports would need to abide by in order to use these platforms, be able to accept payments, and ship their goods.
The articles to be sold would be quite varied and would include enamel pins, books and t-shirts, amongst others.
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Documentation of merchandise from Bad at Sports. November 2019. 2/3 digital photographs.
This job helped me to learn how to properly document works to be displayed for sale, with attractive and professional images that that invite the audience to buy the products, as learning the requirements to set up an online shop, providing me with ideas to fund my own practice.
It also made me appreciate the amount of decision making and meetings that are involved in a project like this.
It also made me appreciate the amount of decision making and meetings that are involved in a project like this.
