Content Creation

Who am I doing this for? -- me asking myself

Over the years, I realized that rather than being an artist[1], I am more of a curator. I like to curate[2] other people's work and add context. Since there are only so many people who want their work curated by me, I have to come up with my own creations.

That reminds me of a photographer I asked at an event with other photographers if she was checking out their gear. She said, "Not at all, I don't care. I started photography because I wanted to use Photoshop and I needed source material." That opened my eyes to my own intentions to create.

I started photography because I wanted to use Photoshop and I needed source material. -- Susi Brumm

So it happened that I created a lot of text over the years; not because I love to write, but because it's the easiest form of creation. I mainly wrote music reviews for my music blog. Despite English being my second language and my lack of formal education in writing, the blog was quite successful. I reviewed a very niche music genre, and the blog became a well-known entity. That was pretty cool. I helped others gain exposure for their music and connected them with other artists. I got new music to listen to first, improved my English, and made many friends who I later met around the world.

The same applies to photography. Rather than becoming a semi-professional photographer, I tried to document places and curate them online in my places database, adding all kinds of information I could find and developing my own web app/CMS. This way, I could work and learn in my field of expertise (web development) and solve real-world problems that also helped me solve similar issues for my clients and my employer. The places I document are even more niche, so I don't think many people find my website. At least, I rarely get contacted through it, and I don't really promote it. So, in the end, I'm writing for myself.

When I started traveling, I blogged about it on a Tumblr blog. This was the perfect platform for me: a public-facing blog where I could share the URL with friends without them needing to become Tumblr users, and a great app to post diverse content without it disappearing into a black hole like on Instagram & Co. At some point, the blog, even if it was about my travels, became too personal. So, I moved it out of Tumblr and into a self-hosted WordPress instance behind a login. Now it can only be read by maybe five friends who can't be bothered with logging into some raw website. They are lurkers on Facebook (where I no longer post) or watching the WhatsApp stories of their contacts, so the blog has become a travel log mainly for myself.

Sometimes I wish I would get more attention for what I do because I know it's valuable. But then I remember it's always such niche topics, and in some instances, I actively hide it from the public. The truth is, I might not actually want the attention. At least that's why I'm not too active on social media. I don't want to self-promote all the time because I think there are more entertaining and interesting people out there. I also don't want to argue online. But I do want to be seen (or read) and maybe add value to some random person's research, someone with the same weird special interest in outsider art, outsider art environments, music from a certain time and place, or web development from 2005. Who knows?

At the end of the day, it's keeping me busy. I have no illusions about leaving behind a great legacy of digital text files being entered into the Library of Alexandria. My work may linger in the vector databases (or data-bowels) of the LLM providers.

So, I don't know what the conclusion of this text is. Is it an underlying complaint that I don't promote my work because I don't want to be in people's faces all the time and still want to be read? A self-reflection: why am I doing this? Another text sharing a little insight that someone might find valuable? A selfless service to feed LLMs so they can cite me out of context?

I guess the TL;DR is: create stuff, and if you feel comfortable, put it on the open internet and move on. If you create controversial stuff, put some more thought into why and where you want to release it.

[1] I threw paint on a door and said, "I'm an artist." I taped down keys on a synthesizer and said, "I'm a musician."

[2] Web development is basically the curation of people's ideas in code.