Bad at Sports is ambitious in the range of art world folk they dialogue with and thus there are some highs and lows. However, the highs are worth any amount of getting lost in art speak (note: if you are not familiar with the art world this may be a difficult place to start, but you can still certainly learn a lot if you stick with it), or the ramblings that do eventually lead to wonderful insights. Only a 4 out of 5 for the inaccessibility for some. However, as an MA student in CHI this is ESSENTIAL LISTENING for my daily life and these folks are fascinating, bring on engaging guests, and push the conversation of art and society where it needs to go. Also, congratulations on Say It While You Mean It (their book in collaboration with Open Engagement).
This is the only podcast I've found that covers a range of contemporary artists and theorists while using the wonderful casual podcast interview form. With that said, it is hit or miss depending on the guests. The conversations can go face first into an art speak mess and it results in a kersplatt! It is painful when discussing art becomes a circle jerk of using big words to make boring/obvious ideas seem deep or transcendent. There are episodes that are incredibly interesting/ engaging when the interviewee brings a strong perspective. Kerry James Marshall is a must listen!!
I've been following this podcast for several years and my feelings are pretty mixed. Every once in a while they interview a guest/artist who is incredibly pithy or who articulates ideas which transcend art talk, and it is for this reason that I continue to listen with an open mind. However, a great number of episodes are a morass of patently vague, low-brow intellectual terms which get repeated ad nauseam. At times it seems like every fourth word spoken is either "context/contextual", "discourse/discursive", "engage/engagement" or some other overly-broad buzzword for a) a thing existing, b) things interacting, or c) the general existence of organization and structure.
I think these guys are totally earnest and well-intentioned, but their rhythms often leave me siding with the Philistines.
About half of the time I spend in the studio I am listening to Bad at Sports. Living in the middle of nowhere, it's great to hear art dialogue that is funny, intelligent, and provocative. I can't get it anywhere else. They seem to be a little heavy on the social practice and relational aesthetic type artists but overall cover a pretty broad range of art practice and criticism. When I sell that next big work of art, I'll send these guys some money.
This is a good resource for contemporary art news and interviews. If you are too busy in the studio and don't have time to browse magazines and websites, play this while you're working and you'll feel a bit less guilt and despair for being a shut-in.
Oh, and if you're not academically-minded don't let their vocabulary, obscure references, and frequent use of art theory scare you away - they are funny and rather humble for the loads of wisdom they will spew into your ear.
Bad at Sports is an amazing resource for artists, art students, and any one involved in contemporary art. The interviews are insightful and entertaining, and they cover a broad range of artists from throughout the world. With the volume of past episodes it is hard to recommend any particular epsiodes, but instead I would suggest to start listening now! It is a wonderful way to keep connected to the artworld even if your stuck adjunct teaching in (insert remote location).
I recommend starting from their first podcast in 2005. I also recommend Amanda Browder's laugh to anyone suffering from chronic depression. B@S is very entertaining, educational and accessible. Other institutional podcasts I've subscribed to are so drearily dull I nearly fall asleep before the speaker intro is finished. B@S is the artist's artist of podcast.
There's a terrific combination of irreverence and erudition to this show. They get great people and for anyone truly interested in the Fine Art World, it should be a must hear.
These folks are true believers and it shows. I have listened to every podcast, this is the stuff cults are made of. Well worth the time invested for anyone interested in the arts. Class A community builders bringing it to you on a regular basis. A real service to the art diaspora.
These guys (and girls) rock! Insightful, funny and contemporary criticisms, interviews and reviews of art. Mostly Chi-town but some NYC and international material too. An excellent listen whilst working in the studio. And some great dumb jokes.
I've been listening to this podcast for two years and can't believe no one else has reviewed it. Bad at Sports is the only podcast that I HATE to miss. Although the focus is on the Chicago art scene, as an artist living in Oakland, Ca I benefit enormously from hearing reports and opinions about the art world from working artists, and their casual irreverent, but informed style is definitely welcomed in a field weighed down by the ponderous, stuffy and overly-heady approach that most art coverage takes. Groundbreaking - well yeah, cause the world needs reminding that real people with real lives make art.
