Who is your Audience? Synchronous Seminar 2

Who is your audience?

Synchronous Seminar 2 – 18^th April 2011

Professional Context Lecture Notes

Audience – Conform, ritualistic, traditions and culture, convention and conformity, tribal instincts, accepted norms,

Common understanding rules of behaviour, football match, church

As artist need to consider audience especially with Art, position yourselves with your art

Spencer Tunik – Aletsch – Artist and audience with this work is taking part, observing work as well, duality, perception.

Pyhllida Barlow – double act 2010, recycling avante-guarde experience of art work can a relationship be formed with the artwork within a gallery setting. She has only recently been represented more distanced from viewer. She is represented product and commodity artist is hidden, money into mix shift of expectation, Industry growing away from the artist and audience.

Range of people that connect the work, ie, catalogue, tour guide, interest view and engagement

Paying audience  - theatre performance, film alter expectation put onto artist, pronounce whether acceptable or not.

Commission work alter expectations untold pressure on artist will commissioner like work – who holds power in that relationship.

Look up quote…….. The need for exchange

Interaction work artist face to face with tattoo palour – action hero live art

Agreement between artist and recipient, unknown response, shared experience, unknown quanity

Gypsy and the cat 2010 – growing audience because of utube staged video before the tate, live audience targetted – live art, clearly defined plan, as result have followers.

Own practices who have we have chosen for our work

Group 1: Jonathan, Molly, Hisami

Does the artist have a responsibility to the audience?

i think as artist we have responsibility because some political issues

but is it a responsibility, or an artist´s choice

 

If you choose to do that, you can.

Particularly in an exhibition - to put your point of view across

Engaging with issues

Commissions give a huge responsibility - but you shouldn´t  be tied to that or you are just a designer?

You are responsible but you have to be true to yourself

You are responsible to a critique

You have to think the consequences how audience reflect and response

Group 2: Eleanor, Amelia, Jennifer

How does the artist diversify and widen audiences?

Artist

- change the location for the presentation of your work

- a different community, or environment, or with different types of artists

- translate the work into different media to relate to more people

- use "marketing media" to discuss and promote artwork in order to find a larger audience (cast a wider net)

- change the language you use to describe your work (more accessible descriptions, make connections between different areas of interest)

- Include all language and writing including labels, text, how you as the artist frame and present your work.

- change the location (context) for the placement of work e.g. nightclub, street,

- collaborate with other creative practitioners who have different audiences, channels, work in different mediums

- Placement of leaflets and promotional material

- Intention of the artist (what audience does the artist want to reach, should or does this inform/direct the work itself?)

Curator

- Personal networks and professional networks (other curators, academics, art historians)

- redefining the work (story about the work) in an academic or historical context

Programmer

- tie efforts and exhibition ideas to current events and cultural or social interests

- making artwork relevant for a contemporary audience through interpretation

- communicating to a chosen/desired audience (the goal might not to be entirely inclusive)

   Group 3: Sarah, Jo Keeley, Alexa, James

Does an audience need interpretation of a work?

Group 4: Does an audience need interpretation?

This could be via catalogue, blurb.

Audience may need information given to them to help them to appreciate the work if they are unfamilar with the territory.

Do we need to interpret our audience?

Sometimes we can be too blatant in our interpretation (as artists)

Tate Liverpool, silent disco, stereotypical audience, however, engaged audience through entertainment factor.

Francis Bacon - background knowledge can help interpretation.

Fine line between what is intended and what isn't.

Audience has power when the artist doesn't declare intentions.

Potentially everyone could be the audience, it depends on how actively the audience engages with the work.

Who is intended to be the audience? narrow the audience, people who can personally relate to it.

Curators could be the audience, they chanel work to a wider audience becoming the middle man.

People who don't view art, work taken to school/college students to educate. Intention of the work is to educate and expose individuals to work they wouldn't usually see.

Opinion of the artist, open minds to looking at and engaging with work, audience does sometimes need interpretation.

Does it matter what the audience gets out of your work? Any response can be positive rather than what the artist intended.

Riley needs some context to fully understand the work.

Group 4: Clare, Emma, Sue

Who are the performers, the artists or the audiences?

Group 5: Who are the performers, the artists or the audiences?

Clare: blurred boundaries, depending on artwork, eg recent/current show with The Girls - live tableau, left feeling exposed as audience, unsure if you are audience/participator. etc.

Emma: almost like a reaction to history of waht art has been traditonally - art has to now stop the viewer being passive?

Sue: does this stop the viewer seeing because they become too self-conscious?

Clare: difference between how live art and 'innert' work is viewed and how they relate to each other

Sue: has been trying to photograph work in sea - daughter and other people appear as reflections - unaware audience...

Emma: we make quite traditional work - what does that mean -audience makes up the art work through interpretation - we live in complex society in terms of technology and art market - asks us to position viewer/audience to read our work in the way that we want

Clare: something to be said for leaving interpretation open to extent

Sue: objects viewed over time,

Clare: meanings mediated over time?

Sue: at a performance, need to have reaction at that time, with objects can revisit, reflect more, can touch the work? Needs space around in some circumstances eg depending on material

Emma: physical space?

Sue: yes, encourage people to explore on tactile basis, harder if lots of people around. Can have pressure to move on.

Emma: changes things if able to touch things - galleries etc often touch is prohibited - changes how work is experienced

Clare: living tableau - people unsure how to engage at first

Emma: like Yoko Ono piece - scissors, invite audience to do what they want - they are nervous, start cutting off bits of her dress. When someone cuts off a lot, very violent looking. 1964? Cut away dress, left in underwear, camera fades, very tame compared to today.

Clare: yet still uncomfortable - could stab, cut off hair etc.

Emma: The whole time feels tense, uncomfortable. Also Marina Abramovich did a similar piece.

Clare: with live art easier for boundaries to be blurred? With traditional art objects, everyone more clearly positioned in their roles?

Sue: except for with commission - ppl expect to have input into how work will be. Possibility for negotiation.

Clare: with traditional work, less chance of performance - although can be done performativity

Emma: everything around it that engineers how it is seen becomes the performance - who work is shown beside etc.

Clare: thinking about trying to develop audience at moment

Sue: thinking differently about galleries - creating additional distance between artist and audience. Awareness of choices re exhibiting and audience - good to think about these in advance. What about the financial element?

Clare: would be nice to make some money!

Sue: Feels more nervous about making money since on course. Luck - right piece in right place at right time? Feel embarrassed about the financial aspect - finance over quality?

Emma: too dependent on people buying it?

Sue: not sure how other artists would view it

Emma: think about which artists