Beginning my internship with Monkeyhouse along side Laila Fatimi our first day consisted a lot about learning how to conduct and act in an interview. Karen Krolak and Nicole Harris explained to us how interviews can both be helpful to our future as an artist or also portray us in a way that wasn't intended.
How people perceive us is extremely important. It can determine who we meet, the opportunities we have, and even the jobs that we do or do not get. The person that we appear as is not always the person that we are, and sometimes that can be our own fault. Karen and Nicole explained to us that when being interviewed it is important to put your best foot forward, making sure that you are showing the you that you want everyone else to see. During an interview the person being interviewed can have as much control as they are willing to take. As someone being interviewed you can direct the conversation to things that you want to talk about. Maybe your working on a new project or maybe you just received an award or honor. It is up to the interviewed to consistently remind the interviewer of what you want to be remembered by at that time so that it sticks in their mind and there is no way of editing it out of the conversation. On the negative side, getting off topic during an interview can bring up awkward conversations, controversial topics, and a whole bunch of invaluable information that can distract readers from what is important about you.
On another side of interviewing is the actual publication of the interview. Laila and I were taught that an interview should be a conversation. It should give insight into who someone is and what they are doing at one point in time that would interest others. When publishing an interview you do not need to include every question and answer that you have. Interviews are unpredictable and can take many different paths that weren't intended, leaving it up to you to weed out the good information. What you were planing on asking someone may not be what they wanted to talk about and that will show in their answers and the derailment of the conversation. One word answers, or answers that don't stir up a good conversation generally aren't going to spark any interest to anyone reading the interview. As a publisher of an interview it is up to you to help others see the interest and importance in the person you are interviewing.
I look forward in the future to applying this lesson of conducting and acting in an interview myself. Laila and I will first begin our interviewing experiences on each other to try and learn the art form of interviews and how we can use them to our advantage and also how to portray the other in the most effective and interesting way possible.
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