Flame Affinity Group Meeting Notes: The Impact of Virtual Communities on the Field of Flameworking

by geexadminin Glass Resource Exchange Archive

GEEX Flame Affinity Group
The Impact of Virtual Communities on the Field of Flameworking
June 20, 2022 7pm EDT
Facilitated by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith

Notes compiled by Amy Lemaire and Madeline Rile Smith.
Entries in quotes are copied directly from the chat.
Each bullet point represents a comment by a participant.  

What virtual platforms do you use to connect with the flameworking community?
  • Tracking independent flame education from the 90s to now:
  • Flame Affinity Group:
    • Connecting with a larger group of people. Allows us all to gather in a way that might not be very practical in the physical world. It is a different group online then in physical space.
  • On WetCanvas and LampworkEtc.com:
    • Faceless nameless people on a forum, people used online names.
    • Scoured glass-bead.org and glasspipes.org for inspiration. Any bit of info was so precious.
  • On self-selecting information:
    • When learning, can be selective in what you choose to learn. That can be empowering to choose your path (as opposed to being tied to whatever info is available)
    • Information overload – too much readily available & rich info out there now
    • The responsibility of having to “vet” information online.
    • “The fascinating thing about the abundance of information is that we’ve become dependent on things like algorithms to “curate” the flood of content, which is a double edged sword due to the biases the algorithms have, as well as the lack of transparency in the algorithms.”
  • On YouTube:
    • Can find high quality videos of almost any technique – great for autodidacts
  • On Facebook:
    • Facebook Groups for a very technical question from veterans
    • For me, the Facebook groups are a lot like what the forums used to be. A good place to go for troubleshooting, to post a question and get a range of answers.
  • On virtual demonstrations and workshops:
    • Virtual demos – much easier to do from your computer than to travel with your whole setup (and having to worry about event/conference hosts having your equipment set up.)
    • When geographically spread out, we can still connect in a meaningful way. A lot of us travel, our equipment is portable, so it suits the community that we are all able to connect in virtual space.
    • I don’t know a lot of lampworkers locally, thankful that [the opportunity to give a presentation online at a conference] happened during covid, or I probably wouldn’t have tried it otherwise
    • Gave a demo for the ISGB, and was able to do that online, and most of the audience didn’t know my work yet. It was when we were super isolated. 
    • Online workshops that are interactive, and not just a presentation still feel relatively new
    • Keep up with what’s going on with the community without risking getting Covid.
    • Took a history of flameworking class online through the Corning Museum of Glass
    • Discord – used it to take a class by Scotty Mickle
      • class platforms used: a mix between Twitch and Discord, interesting that there’s not one platform to support everything yet – it’s still a mix of multiple platforms.
      • day-long class, taught from his studio, students are in their own spaces, can be comfortable talking with the instructor. Other studios just don’t work in the same way, but the format worked well for flameworking. 
  • On Instagram:
    • Use Instagram a lot, as a research tool, to connect with artists and see what they’re doing right now, more behind the scenes stuff
      • Love the instantaneousness on Instagram: less lag time between content creation and consumption as tech develops 
    • In the context of neon/plasma I started using Instagram in 2016, it was the cherry on top of getting info.
      • I learned fundamentals in person, and then added better techniques and tips. Pick up random tricks on social networks. Now I do peer to peer: ask a question, get advice from people I know.
    • With improved quality of tech in IG, can video chat to troubleshoot in real time, peer to peer, great for community. Live tech support.
    • IG to see what techniques are being developed, how something can be made
    • IG Live – in order to boost engagement to get a better place in the algorithm
      • (ex: @bostondistillery – live Q&A for free on Thursday evenings – useful resource, takes requests)
    • Importance of having an IG presence in order to be visible to the (pipe) community.
  • On LinkedIn:
    • Business to business
    • Good for finding jobs, networking with other professionals
What platforms do you use, and for what? Do you go to specific platforms for different things?
  • TikTok to veg out and for visibility, Instagram for inspiration, Facebook groups for specific info because they are easily searchable, but I’ll be a lurker on Facebook. 
  • On FB, lots of people who are very knowledgeable, also people who don’t have experience socializing with people.
  • I have a different relationship with every platform. 
  • I have the platforms linked together for posting
  • I use different platforms to interact with different audiences. IG for peers, FB to interact with knowledgeable makers and get advice from many different people
  • TikTok vs Instagram – videos on TikTok have a wider reach, but I don’t know anyone on TT. Viewers on IG are people I know, so I care more about their reactions.
How can technology address accessibility and equity?
Do online platforms make resources and communities easier to access?
Do we still have the same sort of gatekeeping that can happen in physical spaces?
  • There are grants to support BIPOC now (after [the uprisings for racial reckoning starting in 2020]). I got a shared announcement on IG. Would not have seen the open call otherwise.
  • Equality situation – you might get feedback, but what’s a comment when you’re trying to pay bills, not a lot of value on IG. 
  • LinkedIn – in a professional world – had a show and connected with other people of color, who can buy expensive art.
    • Wrote a story about a piece in the exhibition, great feedback, and hit the target audience.
    • Used the LinkedIn network, resulted in a sale, successfully targeting black professionals who are making money, making change.
  • LinkedIn – I think the algorithm is a little more equal, value does not depend on likes
  • GEEX is a special and unique space – algorithms are not affecting our content in this space
  • I am dependent on social media as a part of my practice.
    • These platforms are “free” and that’s amazing, but what is exchanged – our clicks, our data, our attention, our information.
    • It would be difficult for me to start over and not use these platforms because I‘ve invested a lot of time in the content
  • “Affordability, internships, mentorship, training as a trade”
  • Virtual mentoring
Could your career exist without social media? Could the institutions serving our community exist without social media today?
  • My business does not rely on social media, although I enjoy it, and find it an effective way to keep in touch with friends
  • Because of the age of the people I’m doing business with, I could probably do without social media and still be OK. How big is the role of social media?
  • Teaching a class, and a lot of people know me from social media, brought a new audience to my teaching. This just happened since the pandemic.
  • When the pandemic hit, I made a shift from selling to shops to selling off my own website, and social media has been a big part of that. 
  • Rather than my work being seen in a shop or gallery, my work is seen online. I try to represent myself the best that I can online and in my videos.
  • I’m entering the creator space, and making videos. Now I become the product, when videos attracts enough views they want to pay you to keep making videos of glass.
  • Went from 20K range to 30-40K followers, started getting messages from IG.
    • Set an account up as a business or as a creator and can get monetized status. It starts first with IG Live. I prefer to perform and make a nice video of a product I’d like to sell. @surfratglass
    • What has really helped with boosting that is a combination of TikTok and IG because when something goes viral on TikTok it pushes people to your IG. 
    • You become the product after a little while. 
  • I don’t have a huge IG followers, but I’ve noticed any post or story with my body in it goes to a whole different audience who then want to engage with me. 
  • Having your face in your videos increases your reach.
  • Longer interview style videos don’t get as much of a reach, but when I added food or confusion (ex: ambiguity regarding scale), it attracts a larger audience. Coffee or ice cream, confusion as far as size, what things are for. @surfratglass
  • I feel like “discovery” and “staying in touch” are two very different things.
  • “I use social media mostly for the follow up and the discovery part is something I recently started to experience.”
  • “Word of mouth is super important still”
  • “Great reminder that your target audience might not even be on social media.”
  • “Personal interaction can definitely make more waves than virtual space.”
How has social media accelerated the field of flameworking?
Has social media accelerated the field? What are the downsides?
  • Social media is foremost a tool for visibility
  • “I’m kind of uneasy at how centralized all the platforms are. There’s a lot of influence on the entities that run the platforms that affect the communities, and it’s often done without any awareness for smaller communities like the flameworking community.”
  • “I find that I use platforms out of necessity because so many people are relying on them as a primary source, but I’m anxious to be so dependent on a platform/company that views me more as a product than a customer.”
  • I use social media to raise awareness of flameworking, usually for people who have no idea what glass is or flameworking is
  • My audience is often a non-glass audience, or a beginner studio audience
  • I like the internet because it allows me to see glass through fresh eyes
  • It allows me to stay excited and engaged in the community (through the lens of my viewers)
  • Is it possible to be successful without relying on social media? Has it become an obligation? How do we define success? How can we define success without visibility on social media? Is it worth doing? What are other ways we might define success?
  • Social media has helped accelerate the pipe community. The audience is 18 or 21 years old (let’s hope), but they’re younger and are in a place in life where they don’t have as many bills and are able to buy things, and they are on their phones a lot. 
  • It feels like pipemaking has pushed the boundaries of what social media can do. Capitalized as using the internet for a gathering place and a market place in a way that has given a lot of visibility and also connection which I think makes us stronger. 
  • Success of the flameworking community (visibility) and the timeline of how technology has accelerated seem connected.
  • More ways that people can share their work in the glass community (visibility) 
  • Glassblowers from Blown Away (winners or contestants) have done very well on social media @garmezyglass
  • Flameworking pipemaker situation – at the very beginning I started flameworking with Bob Snodgrass in Eugene, Oregon, in 1994. That’s where flameworking was, for the most part. It was community-centric, in Eugene and also at festivals. Grew to Bellingham WA, and Corvallis, OR. Now there’s a strong presence in Colorado. I think it started in person and then grew.
  • Even before the internet, pipemakers knew of each other, the community was developing in real life
  • Following festivals, there was a whole economy following these touring bands. A lot of glass being sold, and a huge presence of colored glass and then people started showing the glass outside the community. It gave a big bump to the underground community even before the internet. Social media then emerged from that.
  • Boosted visibility through google search engine as a glassblower in Los Angeles (pushing for that boost to feed the algorithm.) Now I’m in a place with a cool physical community with open studios, hangs, etc. 
  • If you put your work online, it encourages friendly competition. They’re not going to be as afraid to respond to it. I have to represent my work to vastly different types of demographics. 
  • Downsides of sharing on social media:
    • Infringement on Intellectual Property:
      • Opens you up to copying — then I have to do my own thing even better 
      • A factory overseas stole the design for one of my pipes — got access to the design through social media
    • Bullying:
      • When a video goes viral, I experience bullying. A lot of mean comments.
      • Impostors, spammers and fake accounts
    • Social media can be a distraction or limit you
    • Clients not all on social media, I have to go to them to find that desired audience
    • Social media does not cover my personality even close – I’m great in person, and I gotta be in the streets.
Do you think virtual platforms have the potential to democratize flameworking?
  • “The field can only be democratized to the extent that the platforms are democratized. I think we need to think about democratizing the platforms/technology in order to further democratize the field.”
  • “Making our own platform?”
  • Getting together with this particular group – what looks to me like a cross section of the flameworking world. This programming is very satisfying. Could we build out more programming to support making work in virtual space? 
  • We don’t have control over the big social media platform, but something like GEEX seems like a safe space with wonderful people. It seems democratized for now.
  • Co-learners have a chance to access a lot of resources
  • As a flameworker, I spent 12 years alone in my studio not talking to anyone — so this is revolutionary. I might see these people once a year, if that, so a virtual community is appealing. 
  • Democratize the platforms in order to democratize the field. GEEX is a startup that we made to function this way. Not all platforms are limited by the algorithms.
  • Could we add more functionality to the programming? How can we build it out? 
    • Discord – a little more unilateral platform. Good place to Push a notification if you’ve posted something online.
    • “LinkedIn is also great because many folx are more likely to moderate themselves in a professional space.”
    • ”Also interesting to throw into this mix the use of glassmaking/glassmakers in promoting sales for other major corps (ex: Cedric Mitchell’s super high profile Nike and Fitbit ads)”
    • “Maybe social media is more useful for maintaining relationships after an in-person or 1-on-1 engagement”
  • “Hard to think of social media as democratizing as its such an influential platform for de-democratization…”
What’s the future of online communities? What is the value of social media and technology in education?
  • Facilitation collaborations to cross pollinate and gain more followers. 
  • How do you integrate technology at the torch? Does this change the nature of torch time?
  • Can you walk through the nuance of using TikTok in the education space? Featuring your students’ products you platform who you’re teaching. How do you reach out to your students to feature their products? 
    • As a teacher, I disclose (about my social media practice) at the beginning of the semester in the education space. Ask about filming in the studio, comfort level – maybe don’t show face, show hands only, video a piece being made in several stages. Ask for consent before sharing. Credit their work, link to school, stages of checking gin at various points. 
    • Student work went viral with 23 million views across the internet. (boosted the student and school’s visibility on IG)
    • This is the landscape we are living in right now. 
  • At school we have an ongoing dialog about Instagram and the value of likes. 
  • Technology in the classroom:
    • Sometimes at school (older generations) require putting the cell phone away. As new people teach, this is a tool that everyone uses, so can we consider how to use social media responsibly (so it is not a distraction)
  • Use social media in a constructive manner
  • Using social media is a professional practice – creating a presence, creating an audience, growing an audience, creating content as a way to bring people into your practice. 
  • For beginner students, social media can be a distraction (selfie at the torch) and also dangerous (safety) how to balance?
  • On marketing/entrepreneurship:
    • Big gap in my education, and was never really taught how to market my work. A lot of people buy consumer direct, and now it’s direct to the artist, it can be a great way to turn someone into a successful artist and keep making money off it. 
    • Business practices class did not cover marketing
    • Professional practice lessons are changing by the year and look different to how they looked maybe 10 years ago
    • Taught Entrepreneurship to artists over the past 20 years, and have only started integrating social media in the past 5 or 6 years
    • Entrepreneurship students use social media to find a specific audience, connect with an audience. Often niche markets (client) who is not easily accessible in physical venues. 
  • I was surprised that my students were able to connect more easily online with their target audience that in person is NYC. The audience can be literally anywhere if you are selling things online. 
  • I think there’s been a shift since the pandemic. Before 2020, in NYC, less so social media, more word of mouth. NYC art community is so small, mostly word of mouth to fill classes. I use social media if the class isn’t filling on its own. I was in the studio every day, and that’s how people found me. 
  • How much do institutions rely on social media?
    • Wider reach geographically and more advanced makers as a result of social media (and I’m at a different school) also depends on what the institution’s goals are with social media.

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Last updated: 8/1/22