| Abstract: | 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. |
