Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.
Today I held the first of four workshops on magazine journalism at Nottingham Contemporary. One of the opening tasks was writing for a specific audience. The class had to write a review of the building for the Sun, Mail or Guardian. In preparation for this I gave them an extract from each paper reviewing the Turner Prize and we selected certain phrases that captured the style of the publication.
The Sun focussed on Rebecca Warren’s ‘display of litter’ that ‘was picked up from the floor of her studio’ suggesting a flippant, casual uneducated piece, subtly rubbishing modern art in the process and telling us what we all like to think – it’s a load of pish made by workshy middle-class dropouts. The quote they pulled from Rebecca made her sound completely incompetent ‘for somebody it could mean one thing and for somebody else it could mean something else’. As much as I detest Murdoch’s runt of a child, you can’t help but admire the Oxbridge journos that pen these words. Absolute genius. Allowed the artist to hang herself whilst opening up the high/low culture debate without a sniffle of pomposity.
The Mail managed to hype things up to boiling point by focussing in on the ‘ripped paintings’ and ‘serial killers’, using the coveted art prize as yet another vehicle through which to scare the living shit out of the population and demand the return of the birch to restore order. But boy do they do condescension well. They managed to make Susan Philipz sound like a cross between an escaped X-Factor convict and a troll. ‘A woman known for singing through a PA system at a branch of Tesco… and under bridges’. Hilarious. And not a mention of her art.
The Guardian offering was as liberal as ever, promoting ‘culture from below’ by asking ‘Wot, no Bansky?’ and giving a more balanced appraisal. It was great fun deconstructing language and reminded me how easily you can build up a profile of someone through just a couple of carefully constructed sentences. Odd that in teaching this it suddenly hit home.
In preparation for writing their own pieces, the class wandered around the building taking notes. The corrugated panels to the exterior of the building (or the Anderson Shelter as locals refer to it) is partially covered in lace. It made me think of an old tart pissed up around town, necking back her WKD in ripped tights and mini-skirt. Then when you realise that the gallery is next door to the Pitch ‘N’ Piano, a church converted into a pub, it suddenly becomes a place where everything is trying to be something it’s not. Nottingham could be accused of a similar form of deception, thinking it can accommodate this cultural behemoth into the landscape. Whatever our interpretations, the point is there is detail everywhere. The key is finding the correlations and then putting it in a style that will appeal to a particular readership.
I should note here that the reason I am so fascinated by detail at the moment is because last week I attended the Stanley Middleton Celebration, the Booker winning Notts author who died recently. The former teacher was a master at small detail who would often ask students to look out the window and describe what they could see. ‘Look at the wind, what direction is it moving in, what’s it doing to the tress, what noise does it make, look how it’s blown that woman’s hat into a puddle, look at her reaction etc. Gawd bless him.
The main function of this blog though is not to give away free journalism workshop ideas to them that can do me out of work. It’s a test. After discussing the importance of writing a blog to gain an online presence and to discipline yourself to write, I wonder how many have checked this out – to see if I’m good to my word or simply to do a bit of prying. If you are one of my students reading this then you can successfully tick off ‘intrigue’ as one of your essential journalistic traits.