Art world and Artistic Fields
5 important questions on Art world and Artistic Fields
What can you tell about Peterson's definition af the production of culture perspective.
- Looks at how symbolic culture elements are shaped by the systems within which they are created, distributed evaluated, thaught and preserved.
- 4 facets:
- Gatekeepers: who filter who gets in (publishers, A&R managers).
- Reward systems (money; recognition; prestige; oscar).
- Market structures (concentrated market dominated by few powerful players, independent structure wit many smaller firms, for- or non-profit).
- Artists' careers (labor market organization; networks; permanent or freelance).
What can you tell about the Arts Worlds perspective of Howard S. Becker?
- Art production is a collective activity.
- Focus on collective not individual.
- Focus on activity, not the final product.
- This has a division of labor, with roles and role overlap.
- Bundle of tasks: individuals who take on more roles.
- Core/support personnel.
- And has conventions that guide how people can work together.
- "Rules of the game' for each artistic field.
- Genre conventions, how to convey emotion/meaning, how is labor divised.
- Enables collaborations but also constrains the artist.
Can you describe the two poles of artistic fields?
- Autonomous pole (small scale).
- l'art pour l'art.
- Cultural capital is domimant; prestige.
- No interest in making money.
- E.g., art house films.
- Heteronomous pole (large scale).
- Criteria of other fields (economic field) takes over --> commercial considerations.
- Economic capital is dominant.
- E.g., Hollywood blockbusters.
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What are the three similarities and two differences between Becker's Arts World perspective and Bourdieu's cultural fields?
- Similarities;
- Both world & field are social domains in which actions and actors combine to make art.
- Domains are structured by conventions/ideologies
- Domains are plural and overlap.
- Differences:
- Which level of dynamics:
- Becker: micro-level dynamics/networks.
- Bourdieu: macro-level dynamics.
- Conflict:
- Becker: plays out in different layers of the art world.
- Bourdieu: Analyses bigger issues (class and power struggles.
What are the three most pervasive criticisms of Becker's and Bourdieu's theories regarding the artistic word/field?
- Little attention for special nature of art.
- Treated like commodity goods as cars or shoes.
- Little attention to the meaning of art.
- What people do with art; how it conveys meaning.
- Positivist character of research.
- Distanced, disenchanted.
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