Artistic research on two galleries in the periphery of the art world (original) (raw)
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During a long period, sociology of art has been divided mainly between two major directions. Both show art as a social reality but they do so from quite different points of view: one is frontally critical and aims at revealing the social determination of art behind any pretended autonomy (be it the autonomy of the works, following the objectivist aesthetics, or the autonomy of the taste for them, following an aesthetics of subjectivity); the other is more pragmatic and, without pretending to make statements about the works or aesthetic experience, procedes through a minutious reconstitution of the "collective action" necessary to produce and consume art. Against a purely internal and hagiographic aesthetical commentary of art works, sociology has thus filled back an "art world" which formerly included only very few chefs-d'oeuvre and geniuses. Mainstream productions and copies, conventions and material constraints, professions and academies, organizations and markets, codes and rites of social consumption have been pushed to the front of the scene.
Sociology of Art: New Stakes in a Post-Critical Time
The international handbook of …, 2000
During a long period, sociology of art has been divided mainly between two major directions. Both show art as a social reality but they do so from quite different points of view: one is frontally critical and aims at revealing the social determination of art behind any pretended autonomy (be it the autonomy of the works, following the objectivist aesthetics, or the autonomy of the taste for them, following an aesthetics of subjectivity); the other is more pragmatic and, without pretending to make statements about the works or aesthetic experience, procedes through a minutious reconstitution of the "collective action" necessary to produce and consume art. Against a purely internal and hagiographic aesthetical commentary of art works, sociology has thus filled back an "art world" which formerly included only very few chefs-d'oeuvre and geniuses. Mainstream productions and copies, conventions and material constraints, professions and academies, organizations and markets, codes and rites of social consumption have been pushed to the front of the scene.
Artistic Operations in the Formation of Contemporary Community
University of Saskatchewan Electronic Theses and Dissertations -Samsara Unlimited - Towards an Ecology of Compassion, 2006
This paper is intended as a preliminary foray from a sociological perspective to provide a contextual map of the function of art in society, to explore the artist as change agent and to identify areas for further research into the topic. The scope of the present research is limited to an investigation of the nature of artists engaged in production of fine and media arts in contemporary society as agents of change."
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In the introduction to this issue of Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej, we undertake an attempt to characterize the contemporary field of the sociology of art in Poland. For the point of departure, we took four generations of the sociology of art as defined by Nathalie Heinich as well as the identification of the following four elements: an artwork and its reception, an artist and a creative process, an audience, and a social-institutional framework. We try to draw the timeline of this sub-discipline by means of indicating works of Stanisław Ossowski (the sociology of art sensu largo) and Florian Znaniecki (the sociology of artist) as its beginning in the country. We also define the unique status of art sociology in Poland as a sub-discipline of the sociology of culture, as well as its mutual relations with different sciences. We analyze the emergence of scientific communities and the appearance and disappearance of research specializations during the period of over 80 years. Addition...
The Relevance of Artistic Research in a social context
Artistic research is a relatively new form of research that makes use of the attitudes and methods of artists and designers during the research process. This simply implies that researchers work from a visual and associative perspective and have an open attitude that makes it possible for them to notice that which others may fail to see. For a better understanding, we will place artistic research next to three other research paradigms in this text: design-oriented research, practice-oriented research, and academic research. We do this in order to make the social relevance of artistic research visible, a notion that stems from the direct ambition to create a space for artistic research in which the elderly, caregivers, and researchers can gather new insights. Not only does this topic require extra attention because artistic research has a different social value, but also because it is still relatively young: artistic research needs to develop its vocabulary to make itself intelligible towards the already more developed forms of research. This article is an initial attempt in doing so.
Drawing insights from sociology and philosophy, particularly the work of Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas, this paper proposes a theory of art as a mode of communicative action which plays a vital role in the symbolic reproduction of social life. The focus is on autonomous art in the context of modern society. The analysis touches on art’s significance for individual identity formation; the interdependence of the intellectual, moral and aesthetic dimensions of culture; and the relation of moral consciousness to art which accounts for the historically specific societal significance of art, e.g., art and industry in first half of the 20th century, and art and ecology in the late 20th century. As a mode of communicative action, first, art assumes the outcome, but also marches ahead, of the process of socialisation, opening up and exploring new sensibilities and competencies. In so doing, it serves the formation of identity, displays individual competencies and a style of life practice, and contributes towards the maintenance of both culture and society by generating interpretations and motivating actions. Secondly, as regards cultural reproduction, art while basing itself on cultural resources, at the semantic dimension at the same time renews valid cultural knowledge by interpreting subjective experience in terms of cultural values, thereby serving the continuity of tradition and the coherence of knowledge. But it also explores and proposes new cultural values, and contributes towards the maintenance of both society and personality by legitimating existing institutions and providing models for the acquisition of generalised competencies. Thirdly, as regards a process of social integration, art while assuming certain action patterns and basing itself on stabilized group identities, at the dimension of social space co-ordinates actions and stabilizes group identity, thereby contributing towards the maintenance of both personality and culture by creating legitimately regulated social or interpersonal relations and generating normative or moral obligations.
Authorship, Criticism and Participation Between Contemporary Art and Sociological Theory
The paper presents some recent transformations of contemporary art by showing the implications for sociological theory. In particular, relations between the ethnographic turn in contemporary art and the transition from the concept of society as totality to the idea of society as a process of which the work of art itself is part, are discussed. The consequences of this transition emerge in three directions: in the interest of the artists-ethnographers for the use of the methods of social research in their creative work; in the changed conditions of artistic social criticism, and finally in the development of participatory art according to Post-Fordist conceptions of participation. The aim of this essay is to show how these conceptions of social criticism and participation, recently established in contemporary art, show some similarity with categories and methods of contemporary sociological theory. Foreword What do the transformations in contemporary art tell a sociologist? Sociological analysis is fuelled and carried on through tools that could, by right, appear totally alien to those of the artist. Fundamentally, social differentiation processes have outlined different fields in which art can only be of sociological interest in the form of a social object, in the same way as other spheres with different functions, such as the economy, politics and science. The reasons behind this essay are different. The initial idea is that, in contemporary art, transformations have taken place in the last thirty years that form fresh proximity between artistic work, its forms of justification, the logics activating various types of public, and categories of sociological theory, which appears to provide fertile ground for future developments. It is not yet a matter of an actual sociology of art, namely of studying the social conditions in the production, legitimation and circulation of art. What I would like to propose is a reflection on the forms of sociological interest that have characterized the work of numerous contemporary artists and some currents of contemporary art in the last quarter of a century. By so doing, it is possible to outline a parallel course between sociological theory and artistic change that could unearth very fertile cues for sociological reflection on social change. Three dimensions seem interesting in this light. The first is the conceptualization of society in artistic products, in particular the transition from the idea of society as a totality or historical background to a work of art, to the idea of society as a set of processes of which the artistic work itself is a part. It is a transition that has notable consequences, both owing to the changed conditions of social criticism and to the interest paid by artists to social research methods for their creative work. Second, the changes in the relationship between author and audience are worthy of attention. Following on from the processual idea of society, the creative process is also rethought as a social process, a significant expression of which are tendencies towards distributed authorship rather than authorship focused on an individual artist. What conditions are at work so that this can happen? I will try to show that these are not always accessible, even when the artist is working in and for a community. But what happens when public/citizen participation in the creative process is real? The topic of participatory art, the third dimension, is connected to the social conditions presiding over transformations in social and political participation. However, at the same time, artistic work can make sociologically significant aspects of participation emerge that often escape a sociologist's studies. Art, in particular public art, is interlinked with forms of urban planning and social participation policies, giving rise to phenomena of change of great sociological interest.
2005
The belief that art stands independent of the social process and that the artist is free from the obligations and standards that are part of the cultural ethos is both misguided in theory and false in fact. Yet the claim of freedom for art, not for artists alone but for the functioning of the aesthetic sphere of culture, captures the vital core of that activity. This is because the arts have the ability to engage us in experience that is rich in perceptual awareness and in resonance of meaning, and such experience always has a social aspect and social content. What the arts offer society in achieving this experience, however, can only be realized when artists are free to pursue their own course, to explore their creative perceptions and to embody them in their work. The value of a work of art, then, has a social dimension, yet it leads to a paradoxical conclusion: Only when art is free from social constraint can it make its unique social contribution.