Website building
https://thattravis.hotglue.me/
Starting to build a website as a central hub for my artistic presence online, I used Hotglue.me as a platform to share everything I don’t already have on my Instagram.
It is tough to start thinking about what to put up there, cause most of my stuff is already on Instagram and doing this requires me to re-organise all the works I have done and which one I would like to put online as a portfolio almost. I have done a lot but not enough things I would like to share online I think, especially with a few projects on-going, it is weird to put old works up there to represent me when I’ve moved on long ago. How do you represent yourself through your website? How do I find a balance between not wanting to put old works up and the new works aren’t ready? There are also some works that stand alone from the rest of my work (which means it doesn’t just fit into an easy category), so how do I fit those works in as well when my practice is just starting out?
I started by thinking about the pages I wanted after creating a home page, all the handles to insta and Bandcamp and then a bio. Then I started to populate the home page with stuff that I want people to immediately know from me, like videos and pictures from different projects. For the assignment in mind I will also put in a CV and some sort of an artist statement.
It took a while to figure out how this platform works and what icon/tool does what. But it surprises me as it turns out to be quite easy to use and implement pictures, videos, links, etc. It is also free so it makes me quite happy that I can just spam a bit on a page and make it as messy as I want without a template like on WIX or Squarespace. It also feeds into a sense of style with the newer websites having a modern look compare to the early 2000s website aesthetic. This also reflects the sound art medium as well as quite a bit of sound portfolio or artists around in the London scene plays into this early days internet style. How do I contextualise the website with the physical spaces that I engage with (venues, cities, etc.) and to show my character so quickly you can tell from the home page of my site.
What is the reason to have a website when I am a ‘singer-songwriter’ and the default move is to have an Instagram? I think the most helpful thing for me if I am really going for the singer-songwriter route is to really build on my Instagram and engage with it a bit more. I think being indecisive right now and calling myself both a singer-songwriter and a sound artist is making my job very difficult. I feel constantly flipping between them and it makes everything I do a bit split and not focused enough to be seen as really professional. It makes sense to have a website as a musician, everyone does with merch or music videos or tour dates.
I now have decided to keep the website very much about my art practice, to separate from my musician persona and showcase all my sound work and so on. This feels like a good opportunity for me to really compile the work I have done on the course and just make a platform for them to exist for people to read and listen.