Change

Change in Art Worlds

Howard S. Becker: Art Worlds.

Continuous and Revolutionary Change

There is always some change by drift, but sometimes there are more conscious attempts to bring about modest or fundamental changes.

307: We think of the changes as revolutions when one or more important groups of participants find themselves displaced by t he change, even though the rest remains much the same.

308: Revolutionary changes succeed when their originators mobilize some of all of the members of the relevant art world to cooperate in the new activities their vision of the medium requires.

Birth and Death

310: “An art world is born when it brings together people who never cooperated before to produce art based on and using conventions previously unknown or not exploited that way.” “New worlds form around innovations – technical, conceptual, or organizational changes – but most innovations do not produce art worlds.”

Innovations: Some people experiment with new possibilities. And some art worlds begin with new (a) technologies, (b) concepts, (c) audiences.

Mechanisms that help new art worlds get nationally and internationally known. Important are:

1. Networks of suppliers (Industrialized Production)
2. Distribution facilities
3. Collegial groups (Communication)

As a result of these changes people of that art world share the basic conventions: “Jazzmen, and audiences, had come to share a body of conventions and practice through which they could cooperate to produce the jazz world’s characteristic works.” (Becker: 333).

The role of networks of production, distribution, communication and other institutions that led to the creation and spread of the knowledge of the basic conventions of American Jazz nationwide and internationally.

Art World Institutions

Art World Institutions: Convince that the work done is art and deserve this status.

Limits and Decline

Limits and decline: Art Worlds decline when some groups that knew and used conventions which inform their characteristic works lose that knowledge, or when new personnel canot be recruited to maintain the world’s activities.