Constructive Criticism

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I recently received a piece of unsolicited gentle criticism and advice that was really well-intentioned, and you know what? The person was absolutely right and it geed me up to do something I'd been putting off for ages. Their words were thoughtful and sent with the sole purpose of helping me because the person - whom I hardly know - believes in me and in what I'm doing. I wish I could send this to every editor or senior academic who ever tore my work to shreds and made it personal while framing it as 'constructive criticism' for which I should be grateful to receive. To be constructive is to build up, not tear down.

I know it will be controversial to say that I am having a relatively good pandemic thus far. Being faced with existential dread writ large has prompted me to confront the things that hold me back. One of those is absolute intolerance for any kind of toxic behaviour. Just no. No more. Life is too precious and short. One of the things that holds me back from trying to publish again is the peer review and editorial process. I have had far too many run-ins with editors who know less about the subject than I do changing my wording in such a way that facts or observations become inaccurate or they impose an authorial stance when I try to be neutral or to compromise between any disparate experiences I present. I've also had the good fortune of working with excellent editors and mentors whose pointers have improved my writing no end. I'm sure I haven't always got it right when I've been on the editorial side, but I strive to make the work robust and foster the good ideas, so I hope that comes through.

In the meantime, I've set myself so many challenges and deadlines that I haven't had much chance to address the matter that sparked this train of thought. I will make a point of it in February, though, because it concerns the branding of Audiovisual Cultures. As the podcast approaches its third birthday in March, a fresh and more permanent look would be good. The current logo was only ever meant to be an improved placeholder and I threw it together fairly quickly on Canva. Feeling creative, I want to do something that befits the do-it-yourself, media-are-fluid emphases and concerns of the show, and the attached image works towards achieving that. Whether it will work out or not, who can say? I always turn to Samuel Beckett at such times: try again, fail again, fail better.

Experiment, 2021

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