The Presence of the Arts in Everyday Life & Ranking the Arts

1. The Presence of the Arts in Everyday Life & Ranking the Arts

2. Readings: Reception & Taste • Adorno, Theodor. “Types of Musical Conduct”, Introduction to the Sociology of Music. New York: Seabury Press, 1962, pp. 1-20. • DeNora, Tia. “The role of music in intimate culture”, Feminism and Psychology. 2002, Vol. 12(2), pp 176-181. • Hennion, Antoine. “Music Lovers. Taste as Performance” heory, Culture & 8, no. 5, pp. 1-22. • Halle, David. “Displaying the Dream: The Visual Presentation of Family and Self in the Modern American Household” Journal of Comparative Family Studies; Summer91, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p217-229.

3. Recommended • DeNora, Tia, “Music as a technology of the self”, Poetics, 27, 1999, pp. 31-56. • Ehrenreich, et al. “Beatlemania. A Sexually Defiant Consumer Subculture?” in Gelder, Ken and Thornton, Sarah, The Subcultures Reader, Routledge, London and New York, 1997, pp. 523-536 • Fiske, John. “Elvis: A Body of Controversy”, Power Plays, Power Works. London: Verso, 1993, pp. 94-107, 122-3.

4. Ways of studying audiences/reception • survey techniques • telephone interviews, questionnaires at events, etc. • existing records • ticket sales, attendance records, auctions etc. • analysis of posters, programmes etc. • media analysis • Artists’ statements • reviews by critics etc. • Other secondary accounts • Fan clubs, websites • Field research • Participant observation • unobtrusive measures (ex. • Discourse analysis/Semiotics Visitor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, Summer 2002

5. What to analyze • numbers • characteristics of audiences • SES, age, race, ethnicity • practices & responses of audiences • ex. Fans as subcultures • interplay between audiences & art forms • Changing practices & their implications for the arts (ex.Corradi “How many does it take to Tango?”) • appropriation as a “technology of the self” (Foucault) • context • socio-historic ex. Fiske, Ehrenrich • Other • Meanings, agency and identity issues (through testimony of publics etc.)

6. Review of Semiotics & Media Theory Underwood, Mike. Entries on Semiotics. “Code”, “Code and Ideology”, “Introduction to Semiotics”. From Underwood’s website: Communications, Cultural and Media Studies Data Base http://www.ccms-infobase.com/ also in R • The titles (in quotes) are in a database. Use the index of titles on the left side of this web page to locate articles. The link to "Code" is not working but a copy is in the “resources” folder. After reading "Code", go to the website and select "Ia" in the index, and under "ideology" select "codes and ideology". When you get to the end of "Codes and Ideology", select "Introduction to Semiotics" at the bottom of the page. Subsequent sections in the introduction will be found on this page. Read all sections from "sign" to "structuralism and poststructuralism", then go on to "Criticism of Semiotics".]

7. Example: Semiotics & “Aesthetics of Reception” • Literary and visual studies approaches to understanding the “public(s)” intended by the creator Yinka Shoribare, Diary of a Victorian Dandy, 1998

8. Identity, Publics & the Arts • taste communities • Inclusion/exclusion • status distinctions, symbolic boundaries • Labeling theories

9. Choi Seang Rak and his avatar NAME Choi Seang Rak BORN 1971 OCCUPATION Academic LOCATION Seoul, South Korea AVATAR NAME Uroo Ahs AVATAR CREATED 2004 GAME PLAYED Lineage II HOURS PER WEEK IN-GAME 8 CHARACTER TYPE Dwarf Warsmith SPECIAL ABILITIES Craft siege weapons, whirlwind in battle • Other examples from NYT magazine, 2007; Avator software: 12

10. Recall: “Uses” & Lived Experience of the arts in everyday life:De Nora • interviews • four ethnographies of music in social settings • karaoke at local pub • music therapy sessions • aerobics classes • retail clothing outlets

11. Theoretical Basis of De Nora’s study • music as a medium for • “social agency”, “identity work”, constitution of the self • emotional work • Cognition • body, (energy levels, forms of intimacy) • reflexivity (self-monitoring & self identity)

12. De Nora’s “Music Sociology” • knowledge of music & self-knowledge of needs • Choices of music in certain places at certain times (music effects) • active role of listeners (how individuals “configure” themselves) • music as a resource (“affordance”)-- • feeling, desire, action, energy • music & mental concentration • overview-- appropriations of music as a “technology of the self” (compare with Michel Foucault)

13. Videoclip: • Kevin Kline In and Out.

14. A different approach to Publics/Art Relations: “Democratization” • Making art worlds more accessible • Form of activism? • Community outreach • change in actual art • Example • Queens Museum

15. Community-based Art Projects & Recognition of Publics link

16. Another Approach: Publics & Art Lovers (“Amateurs”) as Experts • Antoine Hennion • Complex notions of art-society relations • “amateurs” and taste as mediation • Actor-Network Theory • Human and non-human interaction • The artwork and the publics as networked through mediation process • Ways of studying co-construction of self/art

17. Others Question the Public’s Taste(s)

18. Example of Artists Approach to Publics as participants in Art Making • Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid’s national surveys about taste in art and what art would look like if artists gave people what they say they want http://www.diacenter.org/km/

19. Ex. Use of audiences/patrons by artists • Komar & Melamid-- Painting by Numbers.– publics tastes as sources of ‘inspiration’ but mocking

20. V. Komar & A. Melamid. America’s Most Wanted, 1993

21. Komar & Melamid America’s Least Wanted, 1993

22. Komar & Melamid. Russia’s Most Wanted,1994

23. L. Levine--study of audiences for Shakespeare Socio-historic conditions for emergence of status distinctions of publics (High Brow, Low Brow people) Implications for interplay of ranking publics & ranking art forms “Highbrow/Lowbrow”

24. How does culture become prestigious? Taste & participation in the arts as “cultural capital” (Bourdieu) How “boundary distinctions” between artistic genres were created through institutional systems Use of nonprofit organizational models to elevate the status of theatre, opera and dance (and enhance their patrons’ social status) “The high culture model” (DiMaggio)

25. J. Clifford-- “On collecting art and culture” • collecting • transformation of possessions into meaningful desire, orderly hierarchies • system of objects (Baudrillard) -- • Western identity formation • value partly from making collections “public” • central issue--what criteria used to decide what is kept & what is discarded?

26. Ethnographic Objects in the Art/culture system (diagram, p. 100) • factors in classification of art/artifacts (non-art) • formalist, aesthetic, spiritual/ritual • context (cultural, historical, aesthetic) • commodity, technology • cultural signs vs. artistic--changing categories (beautiful, cultural, authentic) • ethical issues

27. Note to Users of these Outlines-- • not all material covered in class appears on these outlines-- important examples, demonstrations and discussions aren’t written down here. • Classes are efficient ways communicating information and provide you will an opportunity for regular learning. These outlines are provided as a study aid not a replacement for classes.