The Corsair ’20
Hi, I’m Glenn! I’m an arts cheerleader! In a nation obsessed with STEM, where the president tells people not to get art history degrees, and where arts funding is everywhere cut, I think it’s important to tell artist’s stories. The arts are often marginalized in the short run. Yet in the fullness of time, art and culture are what is remembered.
The Corsair ’20
Photojournalist, Artist & Arts Educator based in Los Angeles. I love long walks on the beach and iced chai-mate-lattes!
During my first semester in college, I took J1 from Marvin Jacobsen at East Los Angeles College. Until The Corsair, I’ve never taken another journalism class. Still, a journalism or documentary impulse has long been part of my work. I hosted an arts interview radio show, Strange Angels, for 22 West Media. With composer Martin Herman and percussionist Amy Knoles, I developed a new music program, Border Patrol, for American Public Media.
Before 2007 I was one of those “Copyright All Rights Reserved” types. In 2007, I met free software movement founder Richard Stallman at BarCamp Los Angeles. And I met Jon Phillips, then a Creative Commons evangelist, at Pixelodeon. I had a Damascene Free Culture conversion. Like so many converts, I became a tedious proselytizer. I also blogged with Blogger at the time. A friend asked me why I didn’t put my money where my open-source-mouth was, and switch to WordPress instead. So I did.
For me, Openness, Transparency, Free Culture and Open Source Software all interact. And they all have a kinship with journalism. With the ideas of democracy and informed citizens.
I read Alan Rusbridger’s (EIC The Guardian 1995-2015) 2018 book Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now. The book covers the details of the transformation from print to digital. Along the way, it thinks through many stories, financial troubles, lawsuits, and reorganizations. It covers the tiny Manchester Guardian’s rise to become a global digital news service. The book shares many depressing facts and frustrating realities. Even so, it’s hard to get through its 464 pages without wanting to subscribe to The Guardian. And launch your own investigative reporting project!
I’m now reading Jill Abramson’s (EE NYT 2011-2014) 2019 book Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts. Abramson looks at 4 publications: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and Vice. She chronicles how each is adapting to our new media landscape. I’ll get back to you after I finish it.
Rusbridger’s book was inspiring! Still, I am not an investigative reporter. I’m more of an "Arts Cheerleader." In 2014 President Obama said, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." Our American culture worships artists like Beyoncé and Scarlett Johansson. Yet we care less about "working artists." If money is an indicator, we don’t care about The Arts at all, at least at an elementary school level. My mission is to document The Arts.
WordCamp Santa Clarita ’20
Photojournalist, Artist & Arts Educator based in Los Angeles. I love long walks on the beach and iced chai-mate-lattes! WordPress is a fantastic tool for art projects! For creating culture! For expressing identity! And yes, if you must, even for making money!
Before 2007 I was one of those “Copyright All Rights Reserved” types. Then in 2007, I met Richard Stallman at BarCamp Los Angeles. And I met Jon Phillips, then a Creative Commons evangelist, at Pixelodeon. I had a Damascene Free Culture conversion. Like so many converts, I became a tedious proselytizer. I also blogged with Blogger at the time. A friend asked me why I didn’t put my money where my open-source-mouth was, and switch to WordPress instead. So I did. And I haven’t looked back since.
OK, I’ve looked back a little. I had a dubious flirtation with Ghost blogging software. And Joomla. And Jekyll. And it’s possible I have whined about Gutenberg more than once. Still, I’m running dozens and dozens of WordPress websites.
The Corsair ’19
Hello! I’m Glenn, a Nonfiction Photographer. In the 1970’s the average American saw about 500 advertisements in a day. Today it’s about 5,000. If "you are what you eat", then our relentless diet of so many fictional images must be poisoning our perception of reality. Fashion, Beauty, Foodstagrams, and more. All of these highly manufactured and highly curated images portray a reality that doesn’t exist.
I love Nonfiction Photography like Photojournalism, Social Documentary, and Street Photography because they bring us a little bit closer to life as it is actually lived. Manufactured images of manufactured lives can create feelings of isolation and depression. Nonfiction images, even if difficult, remind us that we are part of humankind and that we are not alone. It is my great privilege to be a Corsair staff photographer this semester. There are 30,000 stories on the SMC campus. We can’t tell them all in a single semester, but I’m committed to helping tell as many of them as possible.
WordCamp Santa Clarita ’19
Hello! I’m Glenn Zucman, a Free Culture artist. I believe in inclusive, Open Source art forms like Street Photography, Social Practice, and Public Art. Forms that include an active audience as co-creators in works that explore the depth and diversity of humankind.
I’ve created dozens of WordPress "Art Websites". WordPress is the perfect tool for projects like Runaway University, Medici University, Letters to Skynet, Love Beach and others. The technical power and functional ease of WordPress make it ideal for these projects. Perhaps more importantly, as an Open Source platform that respects freedom, WordPress is a tool that is completely consistent with my values as a creator.
I’ve taught art at Long Beach State University for the past 14 years. At the beginning of this year I launched the Nonfiction Photography Workshop, a Meetup group for photographers interested in photojournalism, documentary, and street photography.
Glenn Zucman
TEDxCSULB ’17
Hi! I’m Glenn Zucman, a Los Angeles based Artist & Arts Educator. My work includes Representational-Abstract Painting, Graphic Printmaking, Video Installation, Robot Artists, and Avatar Identity. Most recently I’ve been interested in Public Art, Social Practice, and Civil Rights in Cyberspace. I’ve produced the Arts Interview radio programs Border Patrol for American Public Media, and Strange Angels for KBeach Radio. In the past 12 years I’ve taught 4,695 students at CSULB. Across this time I’ve come to believe that education cannot be taught by lecture, like pouring oil into an engine, but instead must be an individually discovered path.
Jane’s Walk ’17
Hi! I’m Glenn Zucman, a Los Angeles based Artist & Arts Educator. I’ve always been interested in portraits and identity. In the past I’ve made portraits with paint, with video installations, and with radio conversations.
Over time my interest in portraits and identity has evolved into a passion for speech. I’ve come to appreciate how incredibly fragile speech is. When Tehran issues a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, when Beijing imprisons Ai Weiwei, when Moscow incarcerates Nadya Tolokonnikova, when DC sentences Chelsea Manning, how many countless others get the message to self-censor? To never think an unauthorized thought? To accept things as they are? To think twice before telling the truth?
Speech is not only courageous acts on a national stage, it is also small acts of expressing identity. It is the desire to tell your story. The confidence to believe that anyone might care. In recent years I have tried to focus on projects that give voice to as many extra/ordinary individuals as possible.
WordCamp OC ’17
Hi! I’m Glenn Zucman, a Los Angeles based Artist & Arts Educator. My work includes Painting, Printmaking, Video, Installation , Robots, and Avatars. I’m currently interested in Public Art, Social Practice, and Civil Rights in Cyberspace. I’ve used WordPress to support my teaching at Long Beach State University, and to create the alternate colleges Runaway University & Medici University. I’ve helped students use WordPress to create their own ePortfolios.
