The Makings of Political Art

Sociological work on how cultural objects are produced tends to neglect the politcal context of such production, whereas work on social movements and art neglects how movement artwork acquires its form and content. This article aims to fill these lacunae by analyzing the protest art of shantytown women against Pinochet. Artists, movement organizers, movement sponsors, and buyers interact to shape political art. The national and international political and economic contexts also play a part in that shaping. Ethnographic data from Chile and Europe, as well as a study of the art forms themselves, form the basis for the article's claims.     

China’s modern image – contemporary Chinese art

Abstract

As a worldwide cultural phenomenon, contemporary art in China has not only been used as a diplomatic language but also a reflection of contemporary Chinese culture. Contemporary Chinese art, as an emerging field to display China’s global role, provides an important perspective to study China’s self-position in global relations, China’s diplomacy in exercising its soft power, contemporary Chinese culture, and the reinvention of China’s cultural/national identity in post-Mao China. Using the 2000 Shanghai Biennale and the Chinese pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale as case studies, this article investigates how the fluid construct of Chineseness is successfully promoted and demonstrated through the government’s support of contemporary Chinese art.     

“See Media”: Coco Fusco’s Direct Address and the Performance of In/Security

Abstract

A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America (2006–2008) is a multi-media performance art piece by visual artist Coco Fusco. In a lecture style performance staged at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of their 2007 symposium The Feminist Future: Theory and Practice in the Visual Arts, Fusco explores the use of women in US military interrogation efforts during the height of the War on Terror and – problematic and violent as it may be – mounts a parallel attack against the art world itself. Although invited to speak, Fusco speaks (performs) out of turn – and out of sync in order to level a critique at the very establishment in which the symposium was held. In doing so, Fusco directs our attention towards the interwoven workings of power, surveillance, silence, and the making and the performances of particular kinds of citizen/subjects/enemy combatants/art objects/interrogators/artists. This article seeks to address how visual culture and US military security discourses are inextricably linked through interwoven histories and unsettling relationships between race and national security, national security and feminism, as well as race and feminism.     

Spatial Barriers and the Formation of Global Art Cities: The Case of Tokyo

This paper addresses a neglected dimension of global cities research: how the idea of economic concentration, its surplus and consequent global influence can be applied to the art world. The research presented here relates to Tokyo as a well‐known example of a global city, advancing existing understandings of Tokyo from the neglected perspective of the arts. Based on qualitative and quantitative research by the author, including cultural and spatial mapping, interviews, ethnographic observations and visual documents, the findings confirm that the role of space and materiality is overlooked in global cities research. The results demonstrate the active contribution and intervention of spatial patterns in the formation of artistic activities. A number of Tokyo's spatial features have an inhibiting effect that shifts artistic activities underground, creating asymmetries in the constitution of symbolic meanings in the city and a failure to openly stimulate artistic practices. As a consequence, Tokyo's vivid art world remains invisible not only to outsiders but to Tokyo itself.     

Fabricating Japaneseness? The Identity Politics of Young Designers and Artists in Global Cities

The present study explores the identity politics of young Japanese designers and artists working across national boundaries today. It addresses the following research questions: (i) Do young designers and artists aim to produce works with “universal” appeal or strategically make use of “Japaneseness”? (ii) Do they develop new transnational identities or regard themselves as “Japanese”? and (iii) Who do they think has the power to label their works as “Japanese” in the art worlds? For this purpose, I conducted in‐depth interviews with professional designers and artists who have migrated from Japan to London, New York, or Paris. The results show that most designers and artists who were interviewed indeed aim to produce works with “universal” appeal, while only a few respondents attempt to strategically express “Japaneseness” in their works. However, regardless of whether they make use of “Japaneseness” or not, all respondents regard themselves as “Japanese” without developing new transnational identities. Even so, they do not search for or hold onto Japaneseness; but rather the media, as well as a certain part of the art world, persistently attempt to emphasize “Japaneseness,” due to the structure of the art world, where whiteness continues to be the “norm.” While designers and artists are increasingly oriented toward creating works with new forms and values through the transnational production system, gatekeepers and legitimators of the art world continue to fabricate “the nation” and reinforce boundaries of national culture.     

FROM PRINTS TO POSTERS: THE PRODUCTION OF ARTISTIC VALUE IN A POPULAR ART WORLD

The activity of a gallery in an art world is centered not only on the distribution of works, but also on the development of a clientele. This involves convincing potential customers that works have both artistic and economic value. The traditional path of valuation of works is through the gatekeepers of the high art world. There are, however, art worlds whose works have not passed through these high art gatekeepers, but which are nevertheless successful in maintaining a clientele. This article examines the process by which this popular art world establishes a positive value for its art when it has no access to the legitimating institutions of the high art world. Data were gathered primarily through interviews with gallery directors, employees, and artists, both from the popular and high-art worlds. The sample includes 18 popular galleries and 10 high art galleries in the Chicago area. “Popular galleries” are defined as those galleries located in the shopping districts of cities or in suburban shopping malls. Many are part of larger chains, and all carry prints by well-known artists, works of lesser known artists, and some posters.     

Migration,International Telecommunications,and Human Rights1

World polity embeddedness has traditionally been measured by state and civil participation in formal venues, including international organizations, multilateral agreements, and world conferences. In this study, we highlight an alternative form of embeddedness found in cross‐national social relations and apply this framework to the human rights sector of the world polity. Specifically, we propose that the international migrant community diffuses human rights values and practices via (1) local performance and (2) cross‐national communication. Using data from the World Values Survey, we first show that immigrants are more likely to embrace, and actively participate in, the human rights movement. Next, using network data that report country‐to‐country bilateral flows, we observe a high degree of correspondence between international migration and telecommunications, confirming previous studies that trace telephone traffic to the flow of people. Finally, analyzing a balanced data set of 333 observations across 111 countries spanning the 1975–2000 period, we use ordered probit regression to assess the local and cross‐national effects of migrants on a state’s human rights record. We find that a country’s immigration level and its in‐degree centrality in international telecommunications both positively affect its Amnesty International rating, and that these effects are robust to a number of alternative specifications.     

清真寺建筑形制中的功能性因素探究

清真寺建筑作为与伊斯兰教密不可分的宗教建筑，与其他宗教建筑相比，具有独特的建筑形制（规划布局、朝向、建筑体型与轮廓、内部结构、建筑用材、艺术表现和附属建筑等方面）。本文从清真寺建筑形制入手，剖析了清真寺与其他宗教建筑的不同特性，阐述清真寺的社会功能与其建筑形制的相关性，并就有关的功能性因素作探究，以此来透视伊斯兰教作为世界性宗教的基本特性。     

ART WORLD CULTURE AND INSTITUTIONAL CHOICES:

This article is based on an ethnographic study of the North American experimental film art world, which established an affiliation with academic institutions in the 1970s. Participant interviews, field observations, and primary written sources are used to examine how the material and cultural characteristics of experimental film influence what art world practices have and have not been institutionalized within the academy. The art world is materially characterized by small size, unprofitability, and lack of prestige in larger culture markets and culturally characterized by the importance it attaches to innovation, expression, and active engagement with art, values associated with its avant-garde identity. Its institutions thus emphasize the fostering of innovation and interactive participation (cf. Gilmore 1988), while de-emphasizing the roles of gatekeepers and critics as arbiters of legitimacy and meaning. Rather than promoting standardization and integration uniformly across art world functions of production, distribution, and evaluation, material and cultural factors interact to differentially support various institutional functions.     

Art dealers as competitors and community builders: Understanding the overlapping social logics of the contemporary art world

Art dealers are often described as gatekeepers who are focused on their own position as well as the status of their artists and collectors. We argue that this is an incomplete account of art dealing. The goal of this article is to explain how art dealing is a “toolkit” that does not exclusively focus on status building and social capital, but also includes behavior associated with accessing the visual arts field and community development. First, art dealers often have a background that has strong social ties to art, which provides them with intimate knowledge of the art world and social connections with artists, collectors, and other art world actors. For that reason, entry into art dealing reflects intimate knowledge of art practices, what we call “proximate connoisseurship.” Second, art dealerships reflect both competitive and communal factors. Art dealers may choose to work with artists based on their ability to generate income, social capital, and prestige (“competitive logic”), but art dealers may also employ a “communal logic” focused on friendships and creating community. This theory of art dealers is illustrated with excerpts from interviews with 34 dealers randomly selected from the rosters of international art fairs such as Art Basel Miami, EXPO Chicago, Aqua, and the New Art Dealers Alliance show.     

THE END OF THE ART CONNOISSEUR? EXPERTS AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION IN THE VISUAL ARTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

In this digital age, declarations surface of the death of the expert and the democratization of information. Crowd wisdom is seen as the new guide in constructing and evaluating knowledge. In the context of the art world, this tension between the amateurs and the experts becomes particularly pronounced as popular meets high culture. Questions arise such as: what is the role of the expert in the evaluation of art in contemporary times? Do social media dismantle age-old hierarchies and established priesthoods in the art world? And can we assume that mass participation in valuation results in better judgments? This article addresses such popular notions of participation and expertise concerning social media in the art world through a historical lens by re-examining and positioning art experts from past to present. Particularly, characteristics of intermediaries in the art market are examined closely regarding their strategies in knowledge production and the establishment of expertise. This historical situatedness enables us to move beyond the hype of new media expectations, generating more appropriate avenues of investigation to better grasp possible changes amongst actors within the contemporary art world. This examination is not just theoretically relevant but practically so, given current pressures on art institutions to embrace and reach out to new audiences online.     

Posing the Question: Visitor Posing as Embodied Interpretation in an Art Museum

This article identifies and explores posing by visitors to an art gallery as a unique meaning making activity. Conducted as a design experiment in partnership with a national art museum, this study builds on theoretical perspectives related to gesture and embodiment. Empirical findings suggest that particular posing activities function simultaneously to mediate internally and externally oriented processes of interpretation in encounters with art. Accordingly, these complex posing practices may be viewed as an integrated part of visitors’ meaning making experiences. Implications for this research include expanding our understanding of the roles of the body in visitor’s museum experiences.     

论民族民间艺术的本土化高校教育

作为民族文化“母性”根源的民族民间艺术,目前在我国的教育传承现状不容乐观,高校教育在其中有不可替代的作用和责任。破解民族民间艺术的教育传承危机以及我国高校艺术教育同质化问题,需要我们从文化传承高度进行两者关系和意义的探讨,建立完善的民族民间艺术高校教育体系是弘扬民族文化的必由之路。     

都市“非遗”创新：堆金织玉话广彩——陶瓷书画家连泽强先生访谈录

非物质文化遗产是一个民族的＂DNA＂,对都市＂非遗＂的淡忘,会造成我国城市传统文化的缺失。保护＂非遗＂,更要在传承中创新,让＂非遗＂活起来,其生命之树才会常青。广彩是国家级的＂非遗＂,是广州的城市文化名片之一,有过辉煌,亦曾走入衰落。在广州推进新型城市化发展的要求下,广彩如何传承创新,焕发生命力,助推文化强市和世界文化名城建设？     

Medals,media and myth of national images: How Chinese audiences thought of foreign countries during the Beijing Olympics

This study examines whether the performance of a country in the Olympics would affect its national image in the eyes of a Chinese audience. Guided by the theoretical perspectives of agenda setting and cultivation analysis, the project intends to test whether the highly publicized Olympic Games have a globally accepted effect of bolstering national image, as politicians and governments claim they do. Based on data from panel surveys and the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Medal Index, this study found that the overall performance of a country in the Olympic Games was positively correlated with both its current and comparative scores of national image in the minds of Chinese audiences. However, an increase in the number of medals collected during the two Olympics by developing countries did not benefit national image. Agenda setting theorizes that only a few top agendas can successfully draw attention from the public. National image is a very stable perception built by macro and long-term factors. For most countries, their overall performance in the Olympic Games varies within a limited range. As long as a developed country can stay within its tier, its national image is not likely to diminish. Meanwhile, as long as a developing country is unable to enter the “elite club” of Olympic champions, winning a few medals will not lead to a positive change in its national image.     

The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Response to Peak Oil

ABSTRACT

After the two-fold crises of the liberal world order in the first decade of the twenty-first century, including the debacle of the Global War on Terror and the global financial crisis around 2008, we are witnessing a combined crisis of US hegemony and the transnational moment, along with the explosion of populism across the Atlantic world. In this context, this research not only analyses how the United States has designed and maintained the liberal interstate order and globalization but also the way the hegemon proactively starts to destroy its cross-national project today. Therefore, I aim to fathom the future of globalization by interrogating the current US state's key strategies that express America's changing national identity and self-role conception under shifting structural imperatives from unipolarity to the emerging multipolar world.     

Courage to Teach for Social Work Educators

Teaching social work is a science, an art form and a passion. Within that context, the purpose of this article is to explore teaching as a science/art, and to integrate the work of Parker Palmer into the scholarship of teaching and learning for social work education. Using the narratives of two ‘still learning’ social work educators, Palmer's work will be described and its application experiences shared. The article concludes by making a link between Palmer's ideas and social work education.     

Combining the liberal and useful arts: Sociological skills in the global economy

The discipline of sociology remains vulnerable in an environment of economic uncertainty and global change. Constraints on higher education are likely to increase and recurrent pressures on traditional liberal arts programs will continue unabated. An older, more diverse, cost-conscious and career-minded student population will increasingly insist on clearer pathways to difficult and bewildering labor markets. But sociology’s weakness as a liberal art may be overcome by combining it with a more applied and practical orientation. The very forces that threaten the discipline’s institutional existence make it profoundly relevant and valuable in an age of social transformation. Based on a familiar Millsian conception of the sociological imagination, this article attempts to combine sociology’s liberal tradition with its role as a “useful art,” honed into the specific features of workplace change and the employment setting. It does so by suggesting five categories of emerging skills in the global economy and ways that sociology has a far reaching claim to their practice and development. The categories are: 1) the skills of knowledge workers; 2) skills in the learning organization; 3) skills in the technological context; 4) skills in the diverse and divided workplace; 5) change-making skills. The article concludes by urging those in the discipline to make sociology more of a useful art that has practical application in a changing world. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Sociological Practice Association 15th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, June 11, 1993.