What is mainstream?
Considered normal, and having or using ideas, beliefs etc that are accepted by most people.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mainstream
What is taste culture?
A subculture that reflects the preference of a group for a particular cultural product. Membership of the group may be determined by many factors including ethnic origin, social class, age, gender, and country or place of residence. In sport, preference for particular activities often depends on the taste culture with which a person identifies. For example, polo and boxing are the preferred sporting activities of particular social classes
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803102158981.
Imagining the Mainstream
What do we mean by popular culture and the 'mainstream'?
To me, this is all about being popular and going along with the crowd. It's what most people do and is seen as the norm. It's normally all about money.
What are these ideas based on?
Artists new style of work and products.
Collective Consciousness
“The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness.”
- Emile Durkheim
What does she mean by this quote?
Determinate System - If you grow up in a certain time and place then you will probably do as you have learnt throughout childhood, we will grow up with certain things and ideas.
Collective Consciousness - A fundamental sociological concept that refers to the set of shared beliefs, ideas, attitudes, and knowledge that are common to a social group or society.
What is popular culture and how might it impact my practice?
Everyone thought that it was going to be a fair representation because popular culture is a culture which is based on the tastes of ordinary people. I think this hasn't been the case as much as people thought because everyone has their own opinion. This is one way in how it could effect my practice.
Another way it could impact my practice is by being influenced subconsciously by the people we see. I personally look at social media a lot which influences the work that I make a lot.
What do we mean by the mainstream?
The "mainstream" is:
Widely consumed; popular
Represented by mass media
Mass produced; not independently produced
Reflective of broad cultural practices
Reflective of broadly accepted thinking
Taste Cultures: Theorising the Mainstream
We looked at a quote by Pierre Bourdieu. Distinctions: A social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. The quote is very long but in a few words broken down the quote basically means dominating vs dominated. It looks at different class judgements as taste cultures are determined by class.
Taste Cultures: Low Art vs High Art
What do you think determines high vs low?
Popularity
Education - if you went to see Shakespeare on stage it takes a lot of knowledge to understand what's happening but for example Wicked doesn't take as much knowledge as it's more straight forward
Media - another example is if you listened to Ed Sheehan compared to Mozart there's a big difference. I can imagine the difference in the people.
Authorship: Conceptualising the Visual Voice
Contemporary Ideas about authorship and visual media originate from film studies. The idea is that the director is considered the film’s ‘author’. Film authorship is usually determined by a filmmaker whose body of work is accomplished, has a clear signature style, and has a thematic unity. Tim Burton is a good example because there are similarities in all of his movies.
The Visual Voice in other media
A lot of companies nowadays are trying to make products that are similar to Apple.
We then looked at a few artists who have used other media to show the visual voice:
Thomm Moore
Apple
Robert Mapplethorpe
Georgia O'Keefe
The Agitators: Theorising the Avant Garde
What is avant garde?
new and experimental ideas and methods in art, music, or literature.
“The avant-garde is an ‘artisanal’ or ‘personal’ mode. Avant-garde films tend to be made by individuals or very small groups of collaborators, financed either by the film-makers alone or in combination with private patronage and grants from arts institutions. Such films are usually distributed through film co-operatives, and exhibited by film societies, museums, and universities.”
- Murray-Smith, 1998
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