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People are after a mix of three different experiences when they engage with media and culture.
Some of the time people want to enjoy being entertained and served, to listen to a great concert, follow an intriguing lecture, watch a great film, read a good book, be inspired or unsettled by great art. For the sake of short hand call these Enjoy experiences. At their best they are engaging, intense and involving. They make people think and feel strongly. They are passive only in the sense that people do not do much themselves other than watch, read listen. People do not push buttons or make their own contributions. But inside the audience’s head, imaginatively and intellectually, these enjoy experiences can be intensely engaging.
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People are after a mix of three different experiences when they engage with media and culture.Some of the time people want to enjoy being entertained and served, to listen to a great concert, follow an intriguing lecture, watch a great film, read a good book, be inspired or unsettled by great art. For the sake of short hand call these Enjoy experiences. At their best they are engaging, intense and involving. They make people think and feel strongly. They are passive only in the sense that people do not do much themselves other than watch, read listen. People do not push buttons or make their own contributions. But inside the audience’s head, imaginatively and intellectually, these enjoy experiences can be intensely engaging.
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Then there are experiences in which the content provides a focal point for socialising. The value of the content is amplified by the talking that goes on around. I watch football perhaps 90 minutes a week but talk to people about it for at least twice that amount of time. Let’s call these Talk experiences: the value lies in part in the talk the content sets off.
Then there are experiences in which the content provides a focal point for socialising. The value of the content is amplified by the talking that goes on around. I watch football perhaps 90 minutes a week but talk to people about it for at least twice that amount of time. Let’s call these Talk experiences: the value lies in part in the talk the content sets off.3
Finally, some people also want experiences that allow them to be creative. They want to get involved, have a go, do their bit. This does not have to be high tech. My youngest son does this with a pen and paper on the kitchen floor. But he also uses Garage Band to make podcasts. Call these Do experiences.
Finally, some people also want experiences that allow them to be creative. They want to get involved, have a go, do their bit. This does not have to be high tech. My youngest son does this with a pen and paper on the kitchen floor. But he also uses Garage Band to make podcasts. Call these Do experiences.4
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Most media and culture is a mix of Enjoy, Talk or Do. Galleries and museums provide a mix of Enjoy, Talk and Do. The experiences cannot be separated easily. People talk about films that they enjoy watching. The best trips to museums for young people involve searching and doing. For adults these trips often involve a trip to the café for a chat. Online mass computer games such as World of Warcraft are all about socialising and in social networking sites such as Facebook, socialising is the content. The lines between Enjoy, Talk and Do are not rigid.
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Most media and culture is a mix of Enjoy, Talk or Do. Galleries and museums provide a mix of Enjoy, Talk and Do. The experiences cannot be separated easily. People talk about films that they enjoy watching. The best trips to museums for young people involve searching and doing. For adults these trips often involve a trip to the café for a chat. Online mass computer games such as World of Warcraft are all about socialising and in social networking sites such as Facebook, socialising is the content. The lines between Enjoy, Talk and Do are not rigid.5
The web matters, however, because it is shifting the mix of Enjoy, Talk and Do available to most people, especially the young. For my parents’ generation most media experiences were in the Enjoy category, with a limited amount of Talk and a tiny bit of Create. In their lifetime the main innovations improved the quality of Enjoy – for example through the advent of colour and digital television. Till now, the main agenda for most media companies, museums and galleries included, has been to improve enjoy experiences and make them available when and where people want them.
The web matters, however, because it is shifting the mix of Enjoy, Talk and Do available to most people, especially the young. For my parents’ generation most media experiences were in the Enjoy category, with a limited amount of Talk and a tiny bit of Create. In their lifetime the main innovations improved the quality of Enjoy – for example through the advent of colour and digital television. Till now, the main agenda for most media companies, museums and galleries included, has been to improve enjoy experiences and make them available when and where people want them.6
My nine year old son is looking for a completely different mix. He likes Enjoy experiences that are engaging: the Simpsons, Harry Potter, Michael Morpurgo, Traces at Sadler’s Wells, But if the television, film or book he is looking at does not engage him then he is unforgiving. He is off to do something more interesting that generally involves talking to his friends – in person, online, through Club Penguin, telephoning. Or he does something which can range from painting a picture to making an animation or playing a game, in the garden or on Miniclip.
My nine year old son is looking for a completely different mix. He likes Enjoy experiences that are engaging: the Simpsons, Harry Potter, Michael Morpurgo, Traces at Sadler’s Wells, But if the television, film or book he is looking at does not engage him then he is unforgiving. He is off to do something more interesting that generally involves talking to his friends – in person, online, through Club Penguin, telephoning. Or he does something which can range from painting a picture to making an animation or playing a game, in the garden or on Miniclip.7
For my parents Enjoy was the point of culture and it took up about 90% of their cultural experience. For Ned and his generation Enjoy will be at most a third of their cultural life. Talk and Do will loom larger than it did for older generations. Ned’s generation are completely pragmatic about the kind of media they use to achieve their ends. They regard the fierce debates over the relationships between new and old, industrial and digital media as theological. Ned is very happy using very old media: he enjoys reading a good book; likes talking to his best friend who lives across the road; likes doing and creating, mostly by drawing with pencil and paper. Ned is as at home using these very old media as he is using very new media of the web: he enjoys watching video on YouTube; likes socialising on Club Penguin or Bebo; creates content using Garage Band. And he is not averse to using industrial era media – television, the telephone, photographs.
For my parents Enjoy was the point of culture and it took up about 90% of their cultural experience. For Ned and his generation Enjoy will be at most a third of their cultural life. Talk and Do will loom larger than it did for older generations. Ned’s generation are completely pragmatic about the kind of media they use to achieve their ends. They regard the fierce debates over the relationships between new and old, industrial and digital media as theological. Ned is very happy using very old media: he enjoys reading a good book; likes talking to his best friend who lives across the road; likes doing and creating, mostly by drawing with pencil and paper. Ned is as at home using these very old media as he is using very new media of the web: he enjoys watching video on YouTube; likes socialising on Club Penguin or Bebo; creates content using Garage Band. And he is not averse to using industrial era media – television, the telephone, photographs.8
The web’s significance is not just that it allows new channels for people to download Enjoy experiences – the BBC iPlayer phenomenon. The real significance is that it encourages people to adopt new habits and roles, as collaborators, distributors, editors and creators of content. They want to connect with other people and do stuff together, at least some of them do, some of the time. Talk and Do will be much more intimately connected to Enjoy. Different sources of Enjoy experiences – book, theatre, television, video online – are in competition with one another as well as complementing one another. People watch the film of the book and then play the computer game. Different types of talk experiences – face-to-face, telephone, social media, tend to reinforce and complement one another, even more powerfully.
The web’s significance is not just that it allows new channels for people to download Enjoy experiences – the BBC iPlayer phenomenon. The real significance is that it encourages people to adopt new habits and roles, as collaborators, distributors, editors and creators of content. They want to connect with other people and do stuff together, at least some of them do, some of the time. Talk and Do will be much more intimately connected to Enjoy. Different sources of Enjoy experiences – book, theatre, television, video online – are in competition with one another as well as complementing one another. People watch the film of the book and then play the computer game. Different types of talk experiences – face-to-face, telephone, social media, tend to reinforce and complement one another, even more powerfully.9
The table below maps out the cultural and media space that Ned and his ilk graze through everyday.
The table below maps out the cultural and media space that Ned and his ilk graze through everyday.
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It will be vital for arts venues to get the mix right. Only a small percentage of users of an arts institution will want to be participants – have real Do experiences – and even they will only want to Do some of the time. People need easy to use tools, guidance and help to start contributing. Getting people involved is not always easy: they have to feel motivated; get feedback; find easy to use tools to allow them to take part; find people to do it with. Most collaboration, including online collaboration, builds around a core that has been put in place by a small group who have done some of the heavy lifting. Conversations often start around objects or artefacts or events, rarely out of thin air. One of the reasons material objects are so important in people’s lives is that they are reminders and bonds in relationships. Relationships often form around things: one of those things is art. How many people had their first date enjoying some kind of cultural experience together, if only a trip to the pictures? Conversation21 per se cannot be the defining feature of arts organisations. Coffee shops are not art houses. The quality of the conversation that takes place must matter: what it’s about, how it is conducted, what questions it poses. The web is often the setting for conversations among people of like mind or raucous arguments among strangers hiding behind the mask of anonymity. Art should provoke open and challenging conversations, with diverse and surprising contributors. Across liberal societies22 traditional sources of authority are more open to challenge and critique. Authority has to be exercised more openly and transparently. Yet there is still a critical role for skill and expertise to devise and curate engaging experiences. If connection and combination, collaboration and conversation are the watchwords of the new mass culture of the web, then arts institutions must find critical, imaginative, challenging ways to be open and collaborative and ways that produce good art.
It will be vital for arts venues to get the mix right. Only a small percentage of users of an arts institution will want to be participants – have real Do experiences – and even they will only want to Do some of the time. People need easy to use tools, guidance and help to start contributing. Getting people involved is not always easy: they have to feel motivated; get feedback; find easy to use tools to allow them to take part; find people to do it with. Most collaboration, including online collaboration, builds around a core that has been put in place by a small group who have done some of the heavy lifting. Conversations often start around objects or artefacts or events, rarely out of thin air. One of the reasons material objects are so important in people’s lives is that they are reminders and bonds in relationships. Relationships often form around things: one of those things is art. How many people had their first date enjoying some kind of cultural experience together, if only a trip to the pictures? Conversation21 per se cannot be the defining feature of arts organisations. Coffee shops are not art houses. The quality of the conversation that takes place must matter: what it’s about, how it is conducted, what questions it poses. The web is often the setting for conversations among people of like mind or raucous arguments among strangers hiding behind the mask of anonymity. Art should provoke open and challenging conversations, with diverse and surprising contributors. Across liberal societies22 traditional sources of authority are more open to challenge and critique. Authority has to be exercised more openly and transparently. Yet there is still a critical role for skill and expertise to devise and curate engaging experiences. If connection and combination, collaboration and conversation are the watchwords of the new mass culture of the web, then arts institutions must find critical, imaginative, challenging ways to be open and collaborative and ways that produce good art.12
Being open and collaborative is not enough. It has to be done in a way that is engaging, challenging exciting, demanding. That means facing some of the dilemmas that come with being more “open”.
Being open and collaborative is not enough. It has to be done in a way that is engaging, challenging exciting, demanding. That means facing some of the dilemmas that come with being more “open”.13
21. Daniel Miller, The Comfort of Things, Polity Press, May 2008
22. Bishop Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics
21. Daniel Miller, The Comfort of Things, Polity Press, May 2008
22. Bishop Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics
Tags: animation, BBC, Bishop, Daniel Miller, Digital TV, Enjoy, football, head, high tech, industrial and digital media, industrial era media, media, media experiences, Michael Morpurgo, online collaboration, Polity Press, social media, social networking sites, YouTube
Some arts sector examples: San Francisco MOMA encourage visitors to co-produce and participate in the creation of digital content. Visitors can contribute their own podcasts about their visit, empowering them to share what they’ve learnt and experience. The user-generated content is as available to other visitors as the formally produced SF MOMA digital content. SF MOMA value the process of visitors making the content as well as the end product. Dr. Nancy Proctor of Antenna Audio says of the SF MOMA podcasts:
“By equipping visitors with the means to capture their own impressions and learnings from the museum to share with others, we turn visitors into a global teaching force that will act as advocates for the museum for generations to come. ”
The Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2008 premiered the world’s first user-generated feature film, Faintheart – a co-production utilizing the best democracy tools of MySpace. Faintheart embodies a sense of experimentation and exclusive content and focuses on allowing people to share a creative experience of film-making.
Logging On: Culture Participation and the Web , the summer 2007 Demos report by John Holden, finds that culture and technology are becoming more interactive as the number of online users continues to grow. The report looks at convergence of technology changes, the way people engage with culture and the Westminster government’s aim of increasing democratic participation in culture. Holden said:
“What these trends have in common is a movement from passivity to engagement, from uni-directional flows to interactivity, and from the few to the many…Digitisation has changed everything. It has created public expectations for on-demand, constantly available, individualised access to products.”
Looking ahead, Holden predicts:
“ever greater numbers of citizens will have their cultural lives enriched through digital channels, whether through ease of buying tickets, or uploading their own music.”
We will increasingly see more doing – from Ned’s generation certainly but generally across al age ranges.
Why do you put “art” in your title to this essay? It seems to me that you are not very interested in art. What you are really interested in is “connection and combination, collaboration and conversation.” In the last sentence you subordinate art to these principles. Wouldn’t an artist, or somebody truly interested in art, want to do things otherwise? Wouldn’t they want to begin by defining what “good art” is and then decide whether or not collaboration and conversation (or even the web) are adequate means for obtaining it?
“Authority has to be exercised more openly and transparently. Yet there is still a critical role for skill and expertise to devise and curate engaging experiences. If connection and combination, collaboration and conversation are the watchwords of the new mass culture of the web, then arts institutions must find critical, imaginative, challenging ways to be open and collaborative and ways that produce good art.” – now this really reminded me of Zizek: your new boss is still your boss, but he talks to you about sex, invites for a beer, and insists that he’s your friend. And you have to pretend that he is your FRIEND. But in the boss’s head nothing’s changed: he is the BOSS, and if he decides to fire you, no “friendship” will any longer explain why he decided to do this. He IS the boss.
So before we heard that avant-garde is now participatory, and that people can get involved, and that there are multiple interpretations of any artwork. Now we come to see that, actually, authority is still there, but has to be carefully “exercised”. Likewise, skill and expertise are still “critical” to devise “exciting experiences” for people… because people like to “enjoy, talk, and do”, i.e. to be done to and for.
So what the arts organisations now need to do is to devise a strategy that will continue to allow them to do to and for people, but in such way that people do not notice.
And again on the subject of “what is art?” – Art, Media, and Culture are three different things. They overlap, but listening BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall and watching it on TV are two very different experiences. In the first instance, the listener is participating directly in creating their personal experience of the BBC Philahrmonic. In the second, the listener is being “served” a media version of the same, but it is already a second-hand experience: it is the BBC Philharmonic seen, heard and edited by someone else. It can still convey some sort of artistic message that the BBC Orchestra wanted to send, but will invariably be an interpretation of this message. Media and culture can therefore be seen as the interpreters of Art, but not as direct embodiments of Art.
So the business of teaching the histoy of Art and the techniqes of Art creates one who can then wear the badge that says;Artist;.
And that badge may be worn or discarded, but everything created by that person runs the risk of being called Art.
But those that Enjoy and those that Participate are growing and changing, because the opportunities to express that inner voice have grown more diverse and numerous, as has our society.
Old media or New Media, it engages if its good, and good to you may not be good to me. Even our perceptions change as time and age mould our tastes.
Our whole life is a work in progress, our dreams and waking moments all drops on the canvas of life. Is it any wonder that we all find defining art and great Art a movable feast?
Do not try to understand it, but like someone elses culture, just accept it. It does not need you to believe in it to exist, that was the artist’s role..