1. AUDIENCE IN VIVO A STUDY OF INTERACTIONAL NATURE OF ART AND PROCESSES OF AUDIENCE MAKING Nail Farkhatdinov Higher School of Economics, Moscow farkhatdinov@gmail.com farkhatdinov@gmail.com 1 Communication & Culture: Transitive Explorations April 29-30, 2011, Yale University

2. Audiences Two premises of predominant study of art audiences – Audiences are aggregations of people attending a particular art show (gender, age, class etc); – Perception of art is a consumption process. 2

3. Bourdieu and Art Perception Art perception is a socio-semiotic process; To perceive means to decode; Decoding abilities are socially produced and therefore unequally distributed in a particular society; Education and other institutions play significant role in the distribution of this particular form of cultural capital. 3

4. The Problem Audiences are not pre-given and formed primarily by external social, economic and political factors; (Contemporary) Art is not passively perceived. Audiences are continuously enacted via communication and interaction during an exhibition visit 4

5. Ethnography of Art Perception in Moscow 5 BuildingExhibitions The National Center for Contemporary Arts Former lamp factory Visual Scores, To See the Sound Winzavod Art Center, Art Space Start Former winery PharmaConcert (remake, originally shown in Samara, Russia) Center for Contemporary Culture Garage Former garage Decode: Digital Design Sensations (abridged version of V&A Museum show in London)

6. PharmaConcert Art Show: Setting-1 6

7. PharmaConcert Art Show: Setting-2 7

8. PharmaConcert Art Show: Setting-3 8

9. Taking a capsule and communication The role of communication (with other visitors or with a warden) in the experience of art; It indicates the failure to follow the script and to experience art; With taking a capsule the script starts. Communication is needed in order to facilitate experience of art objects if they are ambiguous. Vice versa: ambiguity of art objects causes communication as a key component of audience making process. 9

10. Decode Art Show: Setting 10

11. Observing Others Perceiving Art Visitors prefer to observe other visitors who are perceiving art; Videogrid (by Ross Phillips) and Venetian Mirror (by FABRICA Group) provided an opportunity to observe and be observed at the same time; This explains high interest and emotional response from the visitors. Audience as a collective acting in a similar way from observers’ perspective 11

12. Concluding Remarks Audience (in vivo) as a communication rather than a stable aggregation of people; Various regimes of interactivity (going beyond passive/active perception) The meaning of art: enchanting technology which brings forth forms of communication 12