Week 8: Class, Cultural Capital, Taste and Power dt 21st Jan 2014

Class

Karl Marx defines class as: determined entirely by one's relationship to the 'means of production' i.e. Land, machinery, material access. the classes in a Capitalist society:
Proletarians: those who work but do not own the means of production, e.g. factory workers making but not owning the machinery used for making.
Bourgeoisie: those who live off the surplus generated by the Proletarians. The means of production belongs to them.
Aristocracy: those who have land as means of production.
www.marxists.org/glossary/index.htm
 Class was determined by occupation, wealth and education.

A major survey conducted by BBC suggests people in UK now fit into seven social classes.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22007058
The new research suggests that class has three different indicators:
Economic, Social and Cultural.

1. Elite: most privileged group with highest level of all three capitals( more cultural, social and economic engagement, wealth and education)
2. Established Middle class: the largest group of all, second wealthiest and second highest for cultural capital and high on social engagement.
3. Technical Middle Class: low on social engagement and lack of interest in culture.
4. New Affluent Workers: young class group which is socially and culturally active with middling level of finance..
5. Traditional Working Class: low on all forms of capital but not completely deprived. Members of this group have the oldest average age of 66 and reasonably high house value.
6. Emergent service workers: new , young urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital.eg areas like Stokes Croft, Montpelier-Bristol.
7. Precariat or Precarious Proletariat: the poorest, most deprived class who score low on social, cultural and economic capital.

Class distinction is more fluid in contemporary society. This new model suggests we have some control over them.

Taste

Taste is understood as an indicator of class( the kind of things you choose to engage in or avoid).
According to Catherine McDermott taste: 'involves the critical judgement of human objects and culture and it suggests a well-trained appreciation of what is aesthetically pleasing.' ( McDermott, 1994,p195)
In other words taste is based on knowledge, connoisseurship and critical appreciation.
In cultural context it can be determined by makers, critics, media, everyone.
Our tastes are learnt and hence taught.
They are not natural or neutral.
Their learning starts the moment we are born.
They reflect our value system. ( family, culture, religion)
Our tastes in clothes, food, cars, art, design, position us within our culture's hierarchies.
They demonstrate our 'Cultural capital'.

 Cultural Capital

Pierre Bourdieu 91979) Distinction: Asocial Critique of the Judgement of Taste.

• interested in construction and performance of class
• interested in roles that education, consumption and cultural capital play in its formation.

Cultural capital is a form of value associated with culturally authorised tastes, consumption patterns, attributes, skills and awards.
Webb.J.Schirato,T.(2002)
Within the field of education , an academic degree constitutes cultural capital.

For Terminology refer to http://faculty.smcm.edu/Inscheer/mce.html

Interesting fact-In the Renaissance period the hierarchy in art was :
Highest- art showing religious and historical themes
Middle- portraiture, paintings of women.
Lowest- Still life.

Essay question

I've decided to do a critical analysis of the painting 'the Mona Lisa' by Leonardo da Vinci. I will be particularly looking at mechanical reproduction of art.
 I researched online to find out more on anything relevant to my subject.I came across this article written by the curator of Louvre on the Mona Lisa.
The Faces of the  Mona Lisa
 by Vincent Pomarède
 Curator in the Paintings Department of the  Louvre Museum
The  Mona Lisa is beyond doubt the best known painting in the world, today completely identified with the Louvre Museum and even with the general notion of art.
Technique:Painted on a thin backing of poplar wood, which is now extremely fragile (this is why it is today preserved behind a glass case) the  Mona Lisa is an exemplary creation, thanks to the subtle effects of light on flesh and the panache of the landscape in the painting's background. The modeling of the face is astonishingly realistic. Leonardo executed the painting with patience and virtuosity: after preparing the wooden panel with several layers of coating, he first of all drew his motif directly onto the picture, before painting it in oil, adding very weak turpentine, which enabled him to paint on innumerable layers of transparent color, known as glaze, and to endlessly remodel the face. The glaze, skillfully worked, heightens the effects of light and shade on the face, constituting what Leonardo himself called “sfumato”.

Week 7: WHOSE REALITY IS IT ANYWAY? 9th Jan 2014

How do we relate to the world and how we position ourselves in it.

1. Context: we live in a post modern , post industrial society- communication and information technology has made everything more accessible resulting in 'shrinking' of the world, collapsing and condensing.
2. Fusion and Homogeneity: we are part of this 'Global village' which has its benefits of cultural fusion. But there is also a risk of homogeneity( uniformity) and 'cultural imperialism'( where two cultures meet and one dominates ,discarding the cultural significance and hammering in our own dominance)E.g. British Empire, Contemporary American cultural imperialism.
3. Reality? we can communicate , send and receive messages, images, film with people across the world. Risk- believing that we know and understand what's going on, when we stop seeing images we risk thinking that they are no longer important or an issue of concern. We are at risk of confusing what we 'see' with 'reality'.We see what is shown to us, hyper real,from another's view point
4. Conclusion: our understanding of the world is mediated i.e. interpreted and framed for us, the representation that we receive are selective, edited and sometimes created anew for specific consumers, seeing translational cultural form walk a fine line between cultural fusion and cultural imperialism, so how should we define what is real today.

Prof Practice 6: Research & referencing for the ESSAY Question

Content: Plan for Research on essay question

• The question
• Planning your research
• Referencing: Academic integrity
• Prep task

My chosen subject is The Mona Lisa
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
It was painted in his studio in Florence, Italy and now resides in the Louvre museum, Paris.
 
In the book ' Mona Lisa the picture and the Myth ' by Roy McMullen I read that much of the earliest information on this subject comes from Giorgio Vasari's biography published thirty-one years after the artist's death as part of the author's best-selling 'Lives of the Most Excellent painters, Sculptors and Architects'.

I looked up the website of the Louvre for more information on the Mona Lisa
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/mona-lisa-%E2%80%93-portrait-lisa-gherardini-wife-francesco-del-giocondo

It was painted between 1503-1506.
It is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco Giocondo, a cloth merchant.
 There is a bibliography on the website which might be useful to research.

 Whilst there are a number of  questions around this subject like  the identity of the sitter, who commissioned it, why it took so long for da Vinci to complete this painting, the explanation of the Gioconda smile, the landscape in the background or how it came in the possession of Francis 1, I am going to look at the enigmatic smile depicted in this painting.


 This image is taken from the following website:
http://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Mona-Lisa.html

Week 6 - 5th Dec 2013 : Creativity- Definations & Histories

What is creativity? or to be a creative person?

The different models of a creative practitioner are:

• Collaborator- a group event
• a celebrated sole author- individual with extraordinary talent
• facilitator- creating a space
• consumer - to consume something is to create
• hybrid manager- multi practitioner
• conceptual thinker- not making
• maker- materiality of making
• culture jammer- intervening corporate messages

Creative industries have been the fastest growing sector of the UK economy in the last 10-15 years.
Creativity is an important part of what makes us employable.
Creativity is a complex term, it is used by many different people like chefs, sports professionals, tourism managers, and the understanding changes historically.

Ways of creating has been understood in art over the centuries: the 18th century saw art being recognised as a separate activity and lots of museums were built.
Romanticism- quite a lot of ideas about creativity were taken for granted. To be creative meant to be progressive, somebody can do something that not everyone can do, an artist with insight and imagination.
Modernism-late 19th to early 20th century when an attempt was made to deny history and move forward with the belief that art and design could make a better life and result in technological progress. Distinguishing art from popular culture was the Avant-garde movement.
Post-Modernism- not just a style but a way of thinking, a set of ideas. It refers to a borrowing of previous styles, historical ( neo+ retro designs)mixing up of different time periods, a melting pot of styles.

Recent idea of creativity- combines creativity with commerce and the marketplace.


 So what does culture industry mean?

During WWII, many German intellectuals emigrated to USA . Some like Horkheimer & Adorno went back to Germany after the war was over. They were very hostile to American culture; the Hollywood movies, music, magazines. They argued that these products of the culture industry were homogenous and predictable. In their opinion the culture industry continually reproduced the same thing. It encouraged people to conform, which made them less likely to revolt to social inequalities in their life.
This theory was challenged by Walter Benjamin who believed that merging culture and industry would open  arts to a wider range of people. For example where painting were reproduced in books or as postcards made it accessible to more people  who didn't have to go to the art gallery to view it. Benjamin argued that meanings changed when we consume things. This resulted in the emergence of the ' Creative Industries'.

Recent idea of creative industry combines creative arts with culture industries.