Live Journal 2012

Thanks for reading the Live Journal. While the “live” element of this blog has now ceased, the journal will continue to stay online as the legacy document of the LUX/ICA Biennial of Moving Images. Comment threads at the bottom of the writers’ posts will remain open for further discussion.

The Live Journal – comprising writers Amy Budd, Thomas Morgan Evans and Jonathan P Watts – has responded to the 2012 biennial directly from the space of display. Our production has been mobile, immediate, and often written in parallel with the biennial’s screenings, performances and panel discussions. Our interviews have been conducted in the ICAs offices and cafes, recorded in the cinema auditoriums between screenings, while other reports have been written and filed directly from our seats in the audience.

This close proximity to our subject matter has produced a type of writing and reportage noticeably different in tone and texture from criticism that acquires distance afforded by time. This is to say that these writings are reactions as opposed to reflections. The blog emphasises the intensity and often collaborative nature of reactive writing. From our embedded situation, we have given multiple accounts of the biennial. Some are celebratory, others critical. We have worked collectively, discussing individual blog posts, themes and artworks, extending one another’s commentary, and at time contesting our own individual arguments.

This now-static blog is a survey of the diverse comments, ideas and responses that come not only from the Live Journal team, but also from the artists and curators we interviewed or who have chosen to respond in their own words. Thus, there is no one voice that offers a primary narrative of the 2012 biennial. And for our differences, the Live Journal is richer and, we would argue, a true reflection of events as they happened.