Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
A study of the expected and actual habitus of the general public in the field of art galleries as outlined by Pierre Bourdieu.
Could it be argued that the appreciation of art comes from the development of cultural capital and cultivated taste, or does it simply stem from the implementation of impression management?
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
It is fairly well known in most modern, developed societies that there is a distinct expected form of behaviour one should adhere to within the ‘art world’, and in particular when viewing art exhibitions in gallery spaces. This field within the lives of these modern societies is known for requiring a certain kind of habitus, where the viewer of a work of art has to almost perform a response to what they have seen or experienced. The typical visitors to art galleries generally succumb to behaving in an appreciative way, nodding their head in approval at work or complying with the presumed conduct within one thinks they should act in a gallery space or museum. However, to what extent is this genuine? It could quite easily be said that every person through an art gallery’s doors will fully appreciate the work which they would see there, but on the other hand, is cultivated taste available to all or is it simply a privilege bestowed upon a few select individuals? If this is the case, then why do art galleries have so many visitors? Throughout the past few centuries, and particularly before the influx of the Modernist movement, art and high culture was associated with the rich and educated within society, and members of the lower classes would have had no place within the ‘art world’. As times have changed and art has become more accessible to the whole of society, it could be argued that this distinction between the upper and lower classes and their response to art has disappeared, and art can be appreciated by anyone. One of the main points which has to be considered before looking at the behaviour within art galleries, is who the visitors are. Not every single person to walk into a gallery or museum is of the upper classes, so with the reasoning that only the educated fully appreciate art, many people are entering galleries for the sake of it. Through several different arguments, it is possible to discuss and determine the boundaries between social classes in the modern Western world through their different responses to art, and particularly in the field of art galleries. Also, it can be said that the response of a viewer towards pieces of artwork is dependent on their education and social class, in the way that an uneducated person lacks the abilities to fully appreciate the aesthetics of art, and may in fact be seemingly putting on a performance of understanding and comprehension, while in fact they hold no respect whatsoever for the work on display. There are many major sociology and anthropological theorists whom have commented on this display of behaviour, with the most notable being Pierre Bourdieu, while the theories of Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, Clive Bell and Immanuel Kant can also all be applied to this subject.
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
One important theorist in within the studies of cultural anthropology and also culture in art, is Pierre Bourdieu who developed and applied the theory of field and habitus. The term field is used to describe a structured social space, taking the analysis of societies further than a simple division into the different classes, and fields are generally areas within which one acts in accordance with their moral duties, as opposed to their desires. Fields within the modern Western societies are ones such as arts, education, politics, economy and law, within which individuals and groups alike have different defined systems of dispositions to which they have a moral duty to adhere to. This is where the notion of habitus is introduced. Habitus, the ‘durably installed generative principle of regulated improvisations’ (Bourdieu, 1977, p.78), is the way in which one almost instinctively behaves when placed in different fields, formed as a ‘system of lasting, transposable dispositions which, integrating past experiences, functions at every moment as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations, and actions and makes possible the achievement of infinitely diversified tasks’ (Bourdieu, 1977, p.82). This can be applied to more or less all areas of culture and society, but is particularly relevant in the study of the culture of art. When looking at the cultural responses to art in terms of field and habitus, it is necessary to take into consideration that as the habitus in each field is built up as product of the reproduced history within that field, not everyone in each specific social class would possibly have had the same experiences or had been confronted by the same situations, but that they are more likely to have had similar experiences as the other members of their class than a member of another class. (Bourdieu, 1977)
Bourdieu also applies the concept of capital, as influenced by Karl Marx, to his studies of field and habitus, whereby he states that capital forms the foundations of social life and order, and dictates a persons position within that social order. Along with Marx, Bourdieu also argued that the more capital a person has, the more of a powerful position they hold within society and social life, although where Marx finished his description with economic capital, Bourdieu extended it to cover cultural elements too, and his concept of cultural capital makes a reference to the skills, tastes, clothing, posture, mannerisms, material belongings, and so on that builds up a collection of symbolic elements that a person acquires by being a part of a certain class, thus creating a sense of collective identity. Habitus is then simply a physical embodiment of cultural capital, which can extend as far as to describe ‘taste’ and appreciation for cultural objects, such as art. (Routledge, 2011) So, by this reasoning, it could be said that those with more cultural capital, who adhere to the habitus of the field of art galleries, have an almost innate cultivated taste and appreciation for !
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
artworks, an idea which is backed up in Bourdieu’s findings of museum and gallery visitors in France, as detailed in his works ‘Distinction’ and ‘The Love of Art’. Bourdieu’s findings show that ‘museum visiting increases very strongly with increasing level of education, and is almost exclusively the domain of the cultivated classes’ (Bourdieu and Darbel, 1991, p.14). Although, Bourdieu also states that access to cultural works is not merely a privilege limited to the upper classes, but that ‘only those who exclude themselves are ever excluded’ (1991, p.37) showing the accessibility of art to the general public. Generally, those who are educated hold more of a capacity to understand and comprehend the work in front of them, as Bourdieu observed that when the viewer is faced with an overwhelming message or meaning from an artwork, they cannot cope and will not linger. He noted, also, different habits of behaviour from different museum visitors, such as a typical elderly couple moving ‘scrupulously’ around the exhibition, both having talking in hushed tones despite being alone, seemingly respecting their surroundings and conforming to the expected habitus of the space, in comparison to a typical large family of a lower class, running around noisily, and touching everything, who it could be said had very little cultural capital within the field of the museum. (Bourdieu and Darbel, 1991, p.50)
While Bourdieu argues that any visitor to a museum or art gallery who conforms with the expected habitus of the environment holds more cultural capital than those who either do not conform or who do not even visit museums, it could be said that many of the visitors are complying with Goffman’s theory of Impression Management. Goffman describes the two stages, front and back stage, of impression management as the process of putting on an act in order to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, as in the basics of The front stage could be used to describe the behaviour whereby visitors to art galleries actively adhere to the social rules and morals set out for that field, such as following instructions set by the gallery for noise levels and touching displays, and the back stage is away from the audience, where the person can relax and not have to change the way they behave for the sake of putting on an appearance. Impression management works in a similar way to capital, as the quality of performance is essential to the person’s sense of self, and can be conveyed through not only what a person wears or owns, but also through their body language. (ChristineM, 2008) In places such as galleries, a person may adopt a different style of carrying them self and mannerisms as to give off the pretense that they are more educated or of a higher social class than they actually are. This is considered to be front stage impression management, as in the back stage, the same person could slip back into behaviour which would not !
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
be ‘appropriate’ for an art gallery. Impression management is often an unconscious notion, as Goffman states that humans are under some form of it throughout every field in which they interact. This question of a gallery visitors identity and the way in which they perform within the field of art galleries can also be looked at from a panoptic standpoint. Panopticism, Foucault’s theory of disciplinary methods and power, also influences the way in which one behaves within a museum. Generally, large open spaces and museum workers or guards, along with protective barriers and signs around art works will subconsciously force people to behave in certain ways. It provides the art works on show with a sense of prestige and power, and the viewers generally respect the unwritten rules set out by the panoptic layout of these spaces. The panoptic feeling of constantly being watched whilst in a gallery space also feeds the need for a persons’ impression management. It is not simply the want to appear educated and appreciative of the work on show in the gallery, but also the fear of being seen as not conforming with the social norm in that situation.
Through the use of Bourdieu’s theories and observations it could be said that cultural capital is gained through the practice of visiting museums and art galleries, but also that the only real visitors to these places are those who already posses cultural capital through education and being a member of the upper classes, yet by applying the theories of impression management and panopticism it could be argued that many of these people do not in fact posses cultural capital and are visiting the museums as an act. However, the observations by Bourdieu took place in 1963, and do not take into account the changes that have come about within the art world since then. The period of modern and abstract art which has emerged throughout the last couple of centuries has caused the consideration of art to look at its value. One of the other points Bourdieu makes in his studies of museum visitors is that they ‘bestowed positive admiration’ on paintings due to their age, and that from the preservation and the antiquity of the things which have been preserved should be sufficient to justify their value (Bourdieu and Darbel, 1991, p.48). So, if this is taken to be a justified truth, it poses the question of how audiences respond to more modern abstract works of art, particularly ones which could be classified as sensationalism.
Aside from the question of whether such works are classified as art or even high or low culture, many of these modern pieces have been created with a shock value designed to leave the viewer unsure of how to respond to the piece. One such example of this is in the Danish-Chilean artist Marco Evaristti, who famously set up an installation titled ‘Helena’ in the Danish Trapholt Museum !
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
(see image 1.) in 2000. This installation consisted of a series of ten food blenders, each with a living goldfish inside. The blenders were plugged into electricity and the audience had the choice for themselves whether to switch them on and effectively ‘blend’ the goldfish or not. The piece was designed to test the audience and give them two choices, either push the button to kill the goldfish, or to not push the button and leave the blender as a tank or home for the fish. Evaristti states that the ‘installation puts temptation in the way of the visitor, challenging his/her ethics and morals’ and that if a viewer were to push the button, they would ‘become part of the interactive work, thus breaking one’s own boundaries’ (Evaristti). On more than one occasion, visitors to the exhibition pressed the button, the police became involved and the matter was taken to court (BBC, 2003), yet this leaves the question of whether the act of pressing the button was one of stupidity where the visitor would have been uneducated, or the complete opposite, in that they were so well educated that they fully understood the choice within the exhibit and made the decision for themselves. Not only does it suggest that the responses to art and exhibitions change depending on the content and context of the work, but it could also be implied that without the panoptic gaze and environment of the gallery, many more people could have felt compelled to switch the blenders on. In works such as this where they are created with the intentions of testing the audience and their response, it raises the question of whether the actual response of understanding the work is justified by ‘becoming a part of the exhibit’ or simply by choosing to observe and appreciate from a distance. It is a question of which of these responses gives the visitor more cultural capital.
Another such example of art designed to evoke in the viewer a question of how to respond was the work entitled ‘My Bed’ by Tracey Emin (see image 2.). The piece has been called the ‘most talked about Turner Prize exhibit in years’ (The Guardian, 1999) and was a piece to resemble the time in which Emin ‘almost went out of her mind in for four days’ (The Guardian, 1999), and featured an array of soiled sheets, empty vodka bottles, dirty underwear and used condoms. The installation was an attempt to portray her deepest emotions to the viewer in an attempt to engage them with the intimacy behind the objects used. In October 1999, an incident occurred concerning Emin’s installation. Two Chinese performance artists staged a response to the work by holding a pillow fight on the bed and attempting to drink from the empty vodka bottles. (The Guardian, 1999) It was, in its simplest form, a response to the art movement to which Emin’s work belonged but the question this brings about is whether or not the audience understood that this was not actually part of the original work. According to reports from the incident, one visitor reported, “Everyone at the !
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
exhibition started clapping as they thought it was part of the show. At first, the security people didn't know what to do" (Ho, 2012), thus showing the way in which the majority of people in the gallery space, security guards included, had to deal with a sudden change in their environment and the impression management they were using at the time. In terms of Bourdieu’s statements, this shows that the ‘educated’ members of the audience would have known that this was a performance piece put together as a response to the original piece and would have created their own opinions on this rather than joining in with the crowd.
Another way of looking at the response of an audience is to do so in terms of high and low culture and its effect on aesthetic experience. In Clive Bell’s theories of viewing art, he describes aesthetic experiences as roughly describing the experience of viewing beauty. (Miles, 2011) For theorist Kant, ‘beauty in its aesthetic sense can be defined as the ‘quality’ in an object which when viewed gives pleasure’ (Miles, 2011), thus stating that the audience’s response to art is based simply off what they have been conditioned to appreciate on an aesthetic level, and tied with Bourdieu’s findings, the educated classes have a higher cultural capital when it comes to the appreciation of aesthetics. Bell states that the viewer has to have the capacity and faculty to appreciate ‘significant form’, making his argument impossible to contradict, thus for any attempts to contradict Bell’s claims of the aesthetic experience being about viewing and acknowledging beauty, could themselves be contradicted with a reply that the viewer did not have the sensitivity to appreciate aesthetic form, and therefore holds less cultural capital. (Miles, 2011)
It can be said as a conclusion to the matter, that there is an ‘inevitable multiplicity of functions for art, some of which offer [us] new ways to see ourselves and our communities’ (Cummings, 2002), and that the art world plays a significant role in the way in which a person of the modern Western civilisations presents their self to the community. Art and its appreciation is an outlet for allowing a person to show their social class and educated background through the means of gained cultural capital, yet also allows a person to appear to be of a higher social class than they actually are through the medium of impression management. It is almost impossible to draw a concrete conclusion to the discussion of the expected behaviour of art gallery visitors due to the magnitude of different people who visit the galleries and museums and, as many theorists and philosophers will argue, art is subjective and therefore one does not need to be of a higher social order to enter an art gallery and appreciate the work. Not all visitors do so under the pretense of appearing to have !
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
more cultural capital than they actually posses, and not all do so because they feel as if they should to be accepted into society. Again, as Bell states, it can easily be argued that as art is designed to elicit and induce within the individual senses of personal and emotional feelings, it should not matter who the viewer is or what their background is. However, it can also be said that as art and is place in galleries and museums has throughout history been associated with the upper classes, particularly through the introduction of the period of Modernity, that it will always only ever be the educated members of the population who have the full capacity to appreciate art. This is a slightly different story in terms of the more modern abstract works of art with shock value, as these move the response of the viewer from aesthetic appreciation to conceptual, moral and ethical considerations. It is also possible to say that this style of sensationalist art should not be grouped into the same category as the classical works of art present in galleries during Bourdieu’s anthropological studies. The viewer’s responses to these works , such as the blending of goldfish in Evaristti’s ‘Helena’, and behaviour around them is very different to what Bourdieu would have been commenting on. Therefore, it is possible to claim that Bourdieu’s ideas of cultivated taste not simply being a natural gift, but instead a ‘socially inculcated disposition’ (Bourdieu and Darbel, 1991), with an uneven distribution amongst a population, that allows some to distinguish themselves from the rest of society through their love of art, while others are denied this privilege, is a wide and general statement which does not fully take into account the vast spread of different people from differing backgrounds who visit art galleries, and that cultural capital is not necessary for the experience of appreciating and admiring art; it can instead be put down to individual personal tastes and aesthetic experiences which dictates the way in which people behave and choose to conduct themselves within the field of art galleries and museums.
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
Image 1. ‘Helena’ - Marco Evaristti, 2000
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
Image 2. ‘Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed’ - 1999
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
Word Count: 3,090
Bibliography BBC News (2003) ‘Liquidising Goldfish “Not a Crime”’ [Online] Available at: http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3040891.stm (Accessed 27 January 2013) Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge, England: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction - A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London: Routledge Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice, Cambridge, England: Polity Press Bourdieu, P. and Darbel, A. (1991) The Love of Art, Cambridge, England: Polity Press ChristineM: The Sociology Hub (2008) Erving Goffman, [Online] Available at: http:// sociology.wetpaint.com/page/Erving+Goffman (Accessed 27 January 2013) Cummings, D. (2002) Art: What is it good for?, London: Hodder & Stoughton Evaristti,M. Art work and projects [Online] Available at: http://www.evaristti.com/marco/ helena.html (Accessed 27 January 2013) Fyfe, G. (2000) ‘Reproductions, Cultural Capital and Museums: Aspects of the Culture of Copies’ [Online] Available at: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/museumsociety/ documents/volumes/fyfe.pdf (Accessed 27 January 2013) Ho, Angela (2012) ‘Artist Study: Tracey Emin and Development on my Practice’ [Online] Available at: http://ywangelaho.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/artist-study.html (Accessed 27 January 2013) Miles, R. (2011) ‘High Culture/ Low Culture’ (Lecture Notes) (Lecture 14 December 2011) O’Doherty, B. (1986) Inside the White Cube - The Ideology of the Gallery Space, California: University of California Press Routledge: Social Theory Re-wired (2011) Profile of Pierre Bourdieu, [Online] Available at: http:// theory.routledgesoc.com/profile/pierre-bourdieu (Accessed 27 January 2013) Saatchi Gallery (2013) ‘Tracey Emin - Contemporary Artists’ [Online] Available at: http:// www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.htm (Accessed 27 January 2013) Stuckismwales, ‘Significant Form Theory of Art: Clive Bell’ [Online] Available at: http:// stuckismwales.co.uk/theory/tblast/significant.php (Accessed 27 January 2013)
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Andrea Hannah Cooper OUGD501 - Context of Practice Essay
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The Guardian (1999) ‘Satirists jump into Tracey's bed’ [Online] Available at: http:// www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/oct/25/fiachragibbons1 (Accesssed 27 January 2013) Images: Helena by Marco Evaristti, 2000, Art and Electronic Media, http://artelectronicmedia.com/artwork/ helena-by-marco-evaristti (Accessed 27 January 2013) Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed, 2012, Artist Study: Tracey Emin and Development on My Practice, http://ywangelaho.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/artist-study.html (Accessed 27 January 2013)
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