4 things about The A List’s first issue

SINGAPORE — So have you gotten your copy of The A List? After the official launch on Friday, it’s now available for download on their website (https://a-list.sg/). They’ve also been doing the rounds this whole weekend with roadshow to spread the word (and copies of the first ish). Big boss Michael Chiang and his team are actually also keen to get some feedback and have a chat with the arts community, and will be at Goodman Arts Centre on Oct 21 and 23 at 2.30pm. In the meantime, here are some of The RAT’s thoughts on this new player in town.

1. IT’S MORE 8 DAYS THAN FOCAS. If you were expecting something like the defunct contemporary arts journal FOCAS, or even the Esplanade’s previous Arts Magazine, then this isn’t what you were looking for. It’s really more like 8 Days, which is perhaps to be expected since you’ve got Chiang helming it. Catchy visuals, bite-sized articles, “jargon-free” writing, it feels even more mass than Time Out or I-S.

2. WILL THERE BE SPACE FOR EXPERIMENTAL OR UNDERGROUND ART? Since it’s a mass-oriented publication catered to the broadest public, I rather curious if it’ll embrace the more niche forms and scenes, and to what extent. Will we see features on performance art? The underground punk scene? Will conceptual art be featured on the cover? We’ll just have to wait and see.

3. THE PRINT MAGAZINE IS JUST A SNAPSHOT OF THE ONLINE SITE. The portable first issue is around 24 pages, half devoted to features and half to listings. Obviously, seeing as how crazy Singapore’s arts calendar is, they won’t all go in print. But once they get the listings going, it’s all going to be on their website — they’re really planning to go big online and on social media. The website looks promising. They’ve got a video section and a calendar section, which let you see what’s going on during any particular day. One thing I’m kind of 50/50 about is how film is subsumed into the visual arts. Technically, it is lah, but my initial instinct was to look for a separate category. A change in mindset perhaps?

4. ONLINE REVIEWS WOULD BE NICE. There’s this little section online called The Verdict’s Out. It looks to be one-line blurbs of reviews (right now, it’s Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake). Why not expand this to connect with other local arts websites and blogs (*cough*ForArt’sSake*cough). Joking aside, Centre 42’s website does that. The Flying Inkpot does that, too. Whether it’s a list of links, more substantial and varied pull-out quotes, whatever strategy they employ, creating connections with other literary, performing or visual arts-related online sites and blogs that offer what The A List can’t would be a healthy thing for the arts scene.

For more info on The A List, you can check out our story here: http://bit.ly/1t27inA