Pre-class 11/14 blog -RS

Bourdieu

I think theorist Pierre Bourdieu is bringing about a fair and pertinent point when he notes that there is a type of classist system in terms of people's preferences in everyday culture. The type of things that people choose to engross themselves in---art, movies, literature, news, sports, music, etc.---are all influenced by social hierarchies. In addition, education plays a large role in this system. The way we are educated and exposed to different cultural systems and practices is largely influenced by how and under what system we learn and gain our education. Once again, this is an example in which an institution governs how we think, act, and express ourselves. There are also different codes for certain cultural activities as well. For example, art, theatre, opera, literature etc. has always been associated with being more "cultured" due to its associations with the upper class. Even still, different music tastes (e.g. rap, pop, hip hop versus classical) have associations to their respective social classes. Although all of these forms of "taste" can coexist, issues arise when people try to deem certain tastes to be more cultured (usually due to social class) as opposed to others.

In addition, Bourdieu states that "A work of art has meaning and interest only for someone who possesses the cultural competence, that is, the code, into which it is encoded" (p. 250). In regards to the contemporary art world, I am highly in agreement of this statement. In the contemporary and modern or "high" art world, there is tendency to exclude certain groups and be inaccessible to much of the population. Especially with the rise of conceptual art, there has been more of an inaccessibility issue with artist's creating "out-of-touch" works and more accusations of people being "art snobs" or in the "cultural elite." Much of the literature on art and theory as well has included exclusive language that is not necessarily accessible to all people. It is language that is confusing, winding, and verbose, that can daunt certain populations from approaching. I think that there has recently been more effort to make artworks that are accessible to all groups, however, the art world has a long way to go in liberating art and becoming an inclusive environment.


On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. -Renee Sang