Before posting something about plausible audiences, maybe it is good to mention the existing audience. Orgacom designed several audience categories based on the question 'are you the art audience' posed to people visiting various art spaces and events in the year 2000. The categories are based on people's descriptions of themselves and other groups they singled out as being art audience. The most funny thing about this project, for me personally, was that so many people (I spoke to them during their visit to some art event or exhibition) actually answered the question whith 'no'. These are the catagories:
Women’s friends club
'I am here with my friends. Cause I'm creative myself.'
Single
'I am looking for a date. Do I get noticed?'
Related field
'To get new ideas. To keep myself informed. It has some relevance to my occupation.'
Organiser
'It is as busy as last year. The weather plays a role in this. Did you see that article?'
Participant
'Security didn’t allow some things. I have to turn on the video every morning.'
Tourist
'We were touring around when my girl friend said: Let’s stop here.'
Outsider
'Arrogant people in the art world are funny but irritating.'
Lucky One
'I just received some money from a sponsor.'
Voyeur
'If it is art it is socially acceptable to look at pretty women.'
Politician
'Target group. Social responsibility and civic interest. Place to network.'
Young person
'Man it was sooo boring. What is it all about any way. School made me come here.'
Security
'You have to keep an eye on them, right. I don’t know about this, ask him.'
Child
'Dad…'
Partner
'We still have to get our groceries and it’s already half past five.'
Art lover
'Single art collector is looking for art loving educated partner.'
Student
'I am looking for my pals. I know what I want to see and then I visit the café.'
Networker
'What are you doing now? You can get info about what I do from my website. Here is my card.'
Wannabe
'I feel like I am always visiting the wrong exhibition.'
Older artist
'I paint and like to see other people’s work. They show very few paintings don’t they?'
Family
'This is the way to meet your grand children.'
Interested visitors
'I am looking for fresh ideas, what is happening now gives me energy. I am a curious person.'
Someone getting out of the rain
'If the weather is bad the museum is a good hideout.'
Occasional
'Sometimes I just drop by and visit to see what’s on. If I don’t like it I visit the café.'
Press
'To be honest I am still looking for a good catch phrase.'
The audience that Orgacom deals with in its own work consists of people
working in companies. The subjectmatter dealt with in art is often supposedly universal human concerns, but there is very little art made about how people relate to working environments etc. The art worlds view on firms, offices and organisations is that it is a right wing world that is positivist, kapitalist and rude. Nevertheless a great many people have little choice other than to work and suprise, surprise even like to work in companies. Artists might not be the most qualified people to express emotions, contexts, meanings and cultural assets of organisational life because they often have made the choice not to work in such environments (especially in the Netherlands where funding makes second jobs unnessecary).
That's a very good work. It
That's a very good work.
It seems like there is the situated audience, and that of a state-of-mind.
Maybe if one is situated, to establish a degree of self-uniqueness, the mind rejects the situation via the peculiarities of circumstances..
Do you think people like, in general, to be an audience?
Do you think people like, in general, to be an audience?
That's a nice question. However I think nobody should say that people are an audience without checking if the supposed audience itself sees itself in that position. Ot at least it is a strange move made on people if they are categorized as audience without their consent. However for the arts, this seems to be the status quo.
I love self-categorisations by groups of people (that think of themselves as a group) although these can be at least as unethical as doing a categorization number on some people that won't agree. The reason is that these categories seem more flexible and renegotiable than top-down categorisations. These narratives are alive and do not hide their dirty laundry behind some polished up versions of reality.
I think, in general, that when someone or some group of people agree to call themselves audience, they like to be it (this definately sounds like the statement that won the open door of the year award, doesn't it?)
Teike Asselbergs
ps:
By the way, once an art critic hated an exhibition we made and her business consultant boyfriend loved it. The critic was so fair to mention in her article she felt left out.
Teike Asselbergs
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