Week 6 : Theories of Reception & Taste

1. Week 6 : Theories of Reception & Taste Mid-Summer Night Swing Dancing at the Lincoln Center, NYC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGx4Rh0Qo8 “Headbangers”--Heavy metal fans

2. Plan for Class Today • Lecture: Introduction to Theories of Publics, Reception & Taste • More presentations of First Short Case Studies • IF TIME: Videoclip from “Breaking Boundaries, Testing Limits”

3. Recall : Last Lecture “Participants in art worlds” Creators/artists art Mediators Audiences/publics/consumers

4. Problems with “Cultural Diamond” Model Source: V. Alexander Sociology of the Arts…(2003), p. 63.

5. Relation to Theories of Communication • Transmission Models of Communication from the Communications, Cultural and Media Studies Infobase expecially: • Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication, • Lasswell Formula,

6. Example of Tranmission Model: Lasswell Formula • Communication as transmission from source to receiver • Research Uses: Study of Propaganda

7. Critique of Transmission Models • Problems with • Conduit metaphor • Needs to be contextualized • Variations with channel/media • Relationships between “senders” and “receivers” • Semiotics • Politics of interpretation • Indeterminency, multiple meanings (polysemy) etc..

8. Maletzke’s Model (More nuanced approach--Mass Media)

9. Other General Models • Braddock : 'Who says what to whom under what circumstances through what medium and with what effect? (subdivision into 84 elements) • McLuhan (7 elements): source of information, the sensing process, sending, the flight of information or transportation of information, receiving, decision-making, the action • Gerbner (10): (1)Someone (2)perceives an (3)event and (4)reacts in a (5)situation through some (6)means to make available (7)materials in some (8)form and (9)context conveying (10)content of some consequence.

10. Communication as ritual (Carey) “Maintenance of a society in time” “Construction of an ordered and meaningful world” • Not mutually exclusive-- how are “significant” forms created, apprehended and used?

11. Another theoretical stream: Communication Studies & Semiotics • To overcome “reductivist” theories of “transmission” • Meaning-making as process, politics of “signification” • Context, content, intentions, media… • Signifying systems

12. Examples of Studies of “Reception” in research on Art Worlds • “Types of Musical Listeners” (Theodor Adorno, and R. Peterson’s work on omnivores/univores) • music as an affordance, a technology of the self (Tia DeNora) • Reception as part of the mediation process in Actor Network Theory (Antoine Hennion) • aesthetics of reception (H.R. Jauss)

13. The Arts & Identity Politics in Studies of of Publics • labeling, status distinctions • symbolic boundaries • taste groups, shared values Elvis Presley Fans & Impersonators: Elvis’n Me website

14. Place of Publics in art-society relations & communications • Publics as part of social processes of creation of belief in art • Impact of the arts on publics • tastes & status, • identity issues, • as education (about social issues) • Terminology (implies different theoretical approaches) • Audience (readership, viewers etc.) • Public • Peers, Connoisseurs, Fans, General Public • Consumer (arts management term– economic connotation)

15. Theories of reception as production or mediation processes • avoid extremes (Zolberg) • audiences not totally autonomous free agents (“Death of the Artist) • not totally “sheep” (theory of the “masses”) • reception part of creation/mediation process (Critical Theory)--horizon of expectations • H.R. Jauss--School of Constance, • Umberto Eco--open work • ‘appropriation’ of art (DeNora)–public transforms the art, an active process (ex. DJ culture)

16. Types of publics • classification according to knowledge & position in art worlds • uninformed (general public), • connoisseurs(fans, experts) • critics (insiders), • peers • other classifications

17. themes of “populism” vs. “elitism” in audience studies • historic conflict between elitism & equality • DiMaggio on Boston “Brahmins” • Theodor Adorno--serious vs. sybaritic • Lynes & Bourdieu-- different approaches to lifestyles & tastes • Herbert Gans-- art as a human right (part of democratization discourse) • blurring of boundaries between high/lowbrow art worlds • but different styles & genres made for & adopted by different social groups

18. Adorno’s Typology of Ways of listening • hierarchy of ways of listening--”Types of Musical Contuct” in Sociology of Music (1962) • expert listener--full awareness (musical logic & technique) • good listener--unconscious mastery • “amateur”-- culture consumer--ex. well-informed collector • emotional listener • resentment listener-- seeming non-conformist (scorns official music) • entertainment • indifferent, unmusical anti-musical

19. Other types of Studies of audiences/publics • Tastes as Status Markers (Demaggio, Halle) • Identity Politics in Context (Ehrenreich & Fiske) • Readings: • DiMaggio, Paul on Cultural Entrepreneurship. • Ehrenreich, et al. on “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.

20. DeMaggio & cultural entrepreneurship • Organizational emphasis • Issues of transformation of arts to High culture model through institutionalization process • status hierarchy in society & status of the arts created by building symbolic capital & economic power (Bourdieu)

21. Ehrenreich et al “Beatlemania” • Publics and fans as part of social & political process of change • Social change & youth movements (British & American Cultural Studies approach) • Reception of art (Beetlemania) in context of change of women’s roles & “sexual revolution”

22. Fiske on Elvis • Draws on sociological notions of Michel Foucault • Body as a site of social control • Elvis’s image/body studied • During lifetime (transgressions of conventional uses of the body by musicians) • After death (Elvis lives mythology & immitators)

23. Halle’s study Inside Culture (audiences/publics, art genres, status) • what art do people have in their homes in different socio-economic neighbourhoods? • Methods: visited homes, photographed them, did floor plans, interviewed people • empirical study with theoretical implications

24. Greenpoint bedroom

25. Greenpoint Living Room

26. Greenpoint Row House Plan

27. Manhattan Den

28. Family Photos by Type of Neighbourhood

29. Definition of art-cultural items (Halle) • High culture—originals of financial or aesthetic value • Middlebrow – reproductions & works of little value in international art markets • Extended—broad range of visual images, including family photos etc.

30. Factors linking art/culture <consumption> with power • identity • status • Ideology • Other?????

31. What Halle described • The House as context– different styles of homes & places art was displayed • Class similarities & differences in different <genres>: • Landscapes • Portraits & family photos • Abstract art • Primitive art • Religious art

32. Landscapes • popularity in all social classes • Class differences in • peopled & not-peopled landscapes • Foreign • Named artist or not • And more

33. Portraits & family photos • Class differences in • Photos of family members (common in middle & working class, rare in upper-class homes)—different definition of what constitutes <art> • Painted portraits, etc.. • Interviews about attitudes towards portraits

34. Abstract Art • Homes with or without it (10 times as many in upper-class neighbourhoods) • Likes or dislikes (twice as many liked it in rich neighbourhoods but still one third liked it in working class area) • Comparison of reasons

35. Another Approach: “Uses” of the arts in everyday life:De Nora • interviews with 52 women • four ethnographies of music in social settings • karaoke at local pub • music therapy sessions • aerobics classes • retail clothing outlets

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

37. De Nora’s findings • 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 • music & identity construction & others • intimate, romantic, emotions, memories • overview-- appropriations of music as a technology of the self

38. Example of Artists Approach to Publics as participants in Art Making: Theories of Reception. • 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/

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

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

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

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

43. Use of art to provoke socio-political actions • Joachim Gerz– Hamburg monument against fascism • Public invited to sign monument– leds to destruction of the work of art • Gran Fury and aids activism

44. Other approaches to Reception (later in course) • Studies of rejection of art & controversies (ex. Mitchell, Gamboni) • Art and Collective memory Studies (monuments & public art: ex. Bologna)