Theories about the relationship between Art & Society (Socio-historic dimensions)

1. Theories about the relationship between Art & Society(Socio-historic dimensions) References to Readings Today: Becker, Howard. “Art Worlds", and Bourdieu, Pierre. "Who Creates the 'Creator'?” & "The Circle of Belief” Inglis, David. “Thinking ‘Art’ Sociologically” Mitchell, W.J.T. “Offending Images..” Recommended: Becker “The power of inertia” Bill Viola “Crossings” (detail)

2. Course Organization • Handout 1: Syllabus and Preliminary Reading List • Resources (on web) • http://webdav.sfu.ca/web/cmns/courses/2011/488 • note • Importance of attendance & participation • Proper use of citations to acknowledge sources

3. Finding out about artistic events & issues • Library Resources: • Music : http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/subjectguides/fpa/music.htm • Dance http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/subjectguides/fpa/dance.htm • Visual Arts http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/subjectguides/fpa/visarts.htm

4. Other Sources Cultural Sections of papers like The Georgia Straight broader: Sunday New York Times -- Arts and Leisure Section (in library) Other magazines and journals devoted to the arts Web sites, blogs etc… showcasing art, ex. http://www.agitart.org/

5. A few events in Vancouver this week: “art, revolution and ownership”

6. Swarm 12– Public Open-house of Artist-Run Centres—Sept 8 & 9 http://swarm.paarc.ca/ “The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres will hold their annual festival, Swarm, to mark the kick-off of Vancouver’s artist-run centre programming season. Two nights full of gallery hopping, public projects, and artist collectives will leave you feeling inspired. Swarm is always a fun party and a great way to connect with our alternative art scene.”

7. Some “Common-sense” approaches to Art (Artist)/Society Relations • Art as • historical record (events, practices, values)-- notion of Zeitgeist (spirit of the time) or mentalities • Measure of civilization (with predictable stages of “development”) • Predictor or instigator of socio-political or cultural change (theories of the avant-garde)

8. Some “Common-sense” approaches to Art/Society Relations Art as historical record (events, practices, values)-- notion of Zeitgeist (spirit of the time) or mentalities

9. Measure of civilization (with predictable stages of “development”) Ex. representation of perspective in neo-classical painting. Jacques Louis David c. 1889. The lictors bringing to Brutus the bodies of his sons

10. Predictor or instigator of change (theories of the avant-garde) Pink Bloque (2001-2005) Dancing in Dissent protesting racism & sexism at street danceshttp://www.pinkbloque.org/

11. Disciplinary Differences: Internal vs. External Approaches • “internal” (humanities) -- arts outside social processes • Artist=solitary creator, exceptional genius (humanistic approach) • Arts, aesthetics as “universal” • “external” (social sciences & interdisciplinary approaches) --art world(s) socially constructed • importance of social context, processes & structures for understanding the production/creation, mediation & reception/consumption of the arts, recognition processes, their uses, functions, meanings

12. Theories of Art and Society (Different Intellectual Traditions & Roots) • Humanistic disciplines (history, literary studies) • Formerly --great events, individuals, canons • Some interdisciplinary (ex. Cultural studies) • Iconographic & formalist frameworks • Visual and Performing Arts • perspective of art-makers & critics • Anthropology • functions of the arts & symbolic representations, “others” • ex. Religious, ritual • Psychology • cognition & perception • Philosophy • Aesthetics, knowledge etc. • Sociology & Communications –many approaches (focus of the course)

13. Some “Internal” Debates: “What is Art? Who Are Artists?” • emphasis on • Gifts, talent, innate characteristics, vision (of Artists) • expression of eternal “truths” (artists, publics) • Ex. Notion that Greek Aesthetic Values (like Ideals of Beauty& Bodily Proportions) express universals • Relations to natural world or “real) through material or embodied practices • Mimesis (representation) • Imitatio (simulation, copy)

14. Artists presentations of the relations of their work to social issues & institutions Three examples: • Cai Guo-Qiang interview: Art:21(Art in the 21st Century) PBS • If time: Olympic Ceremony Controversy (enhancement of Cai Guo-Qiangs’s Footprints of History” firework performance • http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/22/cai-guo-qiang-responds-to-olympics-fireworks-controversy/ • Olafur Eliasson • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKl0tb3VmfQ • Taryn Simon on her creative practices • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKl0tb3VmfQ

15. Internal Approaches -- • Systems of ranking art forms: • avant-garde vs. traditionalists etc. • Subjects or content (ex. French Academy rankings by categories: history of religious, landscape, portrait, still life, genre) • Medium (ex. visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, performance art, conceptual art etc.) • Styles, tastes and genres • Socio-political or ideological criteria (art for art’s sake, social realism, arts activism etc.) • Canons –essential components of dominant art system, influential artworks that participants must know & understand • More recently: place of social & historical processes in defining art & what/who gets included in canons

16. Internal Approaches -- • Genres, stylistic movements, forms of expression • Canons –essential components of dominant art system, influential artworks that participants must know & understand • More recently: “The New Art History” & cultural studies in the humanities (differs from social scientific interpretations • place of social & historical processes in defining art & what/who gets included in canons

17. What is art? Who decides?Ex. Marcel Duchamp--Readymade Sculptures vs. conventional techniques (challenging definitions of what is art and who decides) Fountain, original (left) and recreations of lost 1917 “Original” Who decides what is art?– the artist, experts, publics??

18. Other Examples of Challenges to “the Canon” & Authority (l.)Leonardo DaVinci’s so-called Mona Lisa c. 1503; (r.) Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q, 1920 for a Paris Dada show.

19. Non-western cultural traditions (l.)Leonardo DaVinci’s so-called Mona Lisa c. 1503; (r.)Book cover from Cultural Studies for Beginners by Sardar & Van Loon.

20. Rethinking institutionalized exclusionary practices: “Differencing the Canon” • Guerilla Girls poster

21. References to Artistic Canons as way of establishing credibility & authority within art worlds Jean August Dominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque (1814), oil on canvas.

22. Manet Olympia 1863. Another Example

23. Yasumasa Morimura—Appropriation art Twins

24. “External” Approaches to Thinking about Art/Society Relations • art should be contextualized (situated in social, political & historic contexts) • search for patterns rather than exceptions • What do successful artists have in common? • What characteristics do fans share? • How do artistic institutions or networks function? • What do the arts have to do with economics, politics and culture? • Can the arts redress injustices, help people recover from trauma, communicate values that change the world?

25. External Approaches • Often a wider range of art forms studied (not just high culture but also pop culture, folk culture, outsider art, etc..) • Stronger focus on institutions & processes of • Production-creation • (training, collaboration networks etc.) • Mediation • (gatekeepers, facilitators etc.) • Reception, consumption • (tastes, audiences, publics, markets)

26. Importance of social processes for recognition of the arts & artists: Visitors to the Louvre Museum in front of Mona Lisa (old hanging)

27. Artists, the arts and society—Recognition processes • Banksy & museums as authorities • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW-rt3jyZU8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZK7D6WqzR0

28. Early Social Scientific Approaches to the study of Art/Society Relations • Art and Society • Art History & Criticism (Interpretation of artworks as symbolic forms with cultural meanings) : Erwin Panofsky, Arnold Hauser, Pierre Francastel, John Berger, etc.. • Marxist Traditions : T. Adorno, W. Benjamin, Heidigger (Francfort School), H. J. Jauss (School of Constance), Janet Wolff, Lucien Goldmann, • Art in Society • practices & institutions such as patronage, connoisseurship, publics, fans (M. Baxandahl, T.J. Clark etc.) • styles as social networks (M. Schapiro, C. Ginzburg) • Art as Society

29. Variety of “external” approaches • Different degrees of importance of “social construction of reality” • Debates about symbolic vs. material dimensions • Varied assumptions about society & how to study it • Examples: two different approaches Becker & Bourdieu

30. Pierre Bourdieu— 1930-2002 • Marxist, critical theorist • Emphasis on • Social and political structures & material conditions as limits to freedom of agency • Power relations within the field of artistic production • Creation of belief in the power of symbolic goods (art, artistic reputations etc.) and their conversion into economic and socialcapital • Core notions: Habitus, field of cultural production (history & position in it), domination, distinction (taste & class), praxis, doxa • hierarchical model • Relationships marked by class conflict and power struggles

31. Howard Becker • Symbolic interactionist • http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/ • Early work on labeling theory and social actors(a different way of thinking of agency) • Emphasis on • Sense-making (interpretive) • Human interaction & identity-formation • Consensus & conventions • Art-making as a collective activity • Notion of different types of “art worlds” • Strong sociological background but also a performing artist (jazz musician)

32. “Many people know that I used to play the piano for a living, in taverns, for dances, weddings, bar mitzvas, Safeway employees Christmas parties, and so on. Here is a picture of the Bobby Laine Trio, circa 1950 (Bobby Laine, tenor; Dominic Jaconetti, drums; Howie Becker, piano), performing at the 504 Club, which was located at 504 W. 63rd St. in Chicago” from Howie Becker’s homepage

33. Art & Political Representations

34. Debates regarding what art is considered to “represent” • Example related to History of Visual Arts • rendering of “reality” (nature), mimesis • as world view in a specific place & time • as product of solitary genius (Renaissance) • made by “system” of production & reception • as social process (symbolic & material)

35. Critiques of Externalist/Internalist Stances • extreme reductionism vs extreme formalism (Scylla & Charybdis metaphor) • reductionism • art reduced to social process (ignores specific characteristics of aesthetic forces) • Formalism • focus on limited range of aesthetic qualities --ignores importance of social processes & context

36. Recent Controversy over what art represents (EU public art project--Brussels) L-“The sculpture resembles a giant model kit with snap-out pieces.” (CBC) R-“Romania is depicted as a vampire theme park.” (CBC) See also CBC coverage (link) Jan 14 2009 British (Telegraph) coverage and video Bulgaria as a toilet link

37. Theories about changes in ideas about what art represents over time (Jurt) • rendering of “reality” (nature), mimesis, imitatio • as world view in a specific place & time • as product of solitary genius (Renaissance) • Artists’ vision (19th romanticism) • made by “system” of production & reception • Socio-political processes (symbolic & material)

38. “Externalist” Views • art should be contextualized (situate in social & historic contexts) • search for patterns (regularity) rather than exceptions • What do successful artists have in common? • What do fans share? • How do institutions function? • wider range of art forms studied (high culture, pop culture etc..) • Stronger focus on institutions & processes of • Production-creation • (training, collaboration networks etc.) • Mediation • (gatekeepers, facilitators etc.) • Reception, consumption • (tastes, audiences, publics, markets)

39. 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.

40. If time….

41. Art & Society example • Videoclip: Excerpt from Cai Guo-Qiang interview: Art:21(Art in the 21st Century) PBS • Olympic Ceremony Controversy (enhancement of Guo-Qiangs’s Footprints of History” firework performance • http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/22/cai-guo-qiang-responds-to-olympics-fireworks-controversy/