If you’ve enjoyed Brian Staker’s fluid and insightful prose in the arts pages of the City Weekly, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that in person his conversation can be, well, awkward. Out in public Staker suffers from social phobia, but behind the veil of the written word he can be as suave and charming as any martini sipping super spy. So, the last thing you’d expect him to do is embrace the digital age and start his own online talk show, right? Wouldn’t it be kind of, uhm, awkward?
Yes, but that’s sort of the point. When Staker launched his podcast series in the Spring of 2008, he decided to embrace his own personal discomfort and called it “The Awkward Hour.” Over the past sixteen months he has interviewed local and national artists, poets and musicians, figuring out the interview — and frequently the technology — as he goes. The audio podcast has turned into a streaming video format and last week Staker interviewed Circlegal, a university trained artist who has turned to making paintings of stick figures in unsettling circumstances, and positions, and leaving them around town. This week he’ll be an ’embedded reporter’ with Iao Projects Gallery as they go to San Diego for the Beyond the Border Art Fair. You can tune in live Thursday at 7pm.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Daily Bytes
