Marcel Duchamp stated in a lecture in 1957, “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” (Duchamp, 1975) p. 138–140.
Clearly he considered the art to be incomplete without the viewer’s engagement and interaction.
Nick Zangwill disagrees, “Art has nothing essential to do with an audience.” (Zangwill, 1999)
Mmm, who is right? Does it depend on the type of art, or the time the article was written?
Gaertner believes that the artist has something they intend to convey when they make the work, but until an audience is present, the work is not yet art. “It comes with a shock for most of us to realize that without an audience there is no art. There is only the artistic intent of the artist embodied in his work or effort which thus constitutes a stimulus, but there is no art unless that stimulus acts upon an audience.”(Gaertner, 1955). Gaertner cites the example.
“A corollary of the final clauses of the definition is that a language cannot function normally unless there are at least two speakers of it. When only one speaker remains the language may be said to be dead.” (Sturtevant, 1947) p3.
MacDowall and Budge argue that social media, and particularly Instagram, provide a new platform for experiencing and enjoying art, interacting with other people interested in art and forming spatially-separated communities: “Previous to the era of social media photography and especially Instagram, art enthusiasts or even those just mildly curious about art needed to physically attend art spaces – the gallery, the street, the park, the art festival or event – to experience art. This required a degree of cultural knowledge and confidence, and financial capacity, especially for people living in regional or rural areas given cities tend to play host to art spaces in ways that smaller towns cannot. Instagram has changed this dynamic in two ways: it has made art and art spaces visually appealing and accessible through the digital screen, and, in doing so, it has shifted the power balance away from those who own and command art spaces, especially institutionalised places such as museums and galleries with their authoritatively loaded histories and ambiences, permitting more agency for art audiences as they photograph, post and share their interpretations of such spaces. “ (MacDowall and Budge, 2022).
Personally. I don’t like the Instagram interface which forces one to use a proscribed visual format to display the work, but I think it can be used in conjunction with other social media to reach a wider audience. I’m planning to use a hybrid platform to allow an online audience to be able to see (and interact) with my upcoming exhibition in March 2024 at the Riverside Theatre in Coleraine. I’m hoping I can use this also to promote my work to curators of other exhibition spaces too.
Are scientists any better at reaching their audience? According to Sabine Hossenfelder, “If physicists don’t step forward and explain what physics says about the human condition, others will jump at the opportunity and abuse our cryptic terminology for the promotion of pseudoscience. It’s not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy are go-to explanations of alternative healers, spiritual media and snake oil sellers. Unless you have a PhD in physics, it’s hard to tell our gobbledygook from any other” p xii-xiii. I would also add that some academic arts’ researchers seem to have the same failings as physicists (I am a physicist). I’ve been trying to wade through “Practice as Research: Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry (Barrett and Bolt, 2010)” and “Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts (Smith and Dean, 2014)” I had to look up their jargon in every sentence. I gave up after a struggle, particularly when the latter based their conclusions on questionable statistics. Clearly the educated public was not their audience.
References
BARRETT, E. & BOLT, B. 2010. Practice as research : approaches to creative arts enquiry, London, England
Ann Arbor, Michigan, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
ProQuest Ebook Central.
DUCHAMP, M. 1975. The essential writings of Marcel Duchamp : salt seller = marchand du sel, London, Thames and Hudson.
GAERTNER, J. A. 1955. Art as the Function of an Audience. Daedalus, 86, 80-93.
HOSSENFELDER, S. 2022. Existential physics : A scientist’s guide to life’s biggest questions, New York, New York, Viking.
MACDOWALL, L. & BUDGE, K. 2022. Art after Instagram : art spaces, audiences, aesthetics, New York, NY, Routledge.
SMITH, H. & DEAN, R. T. 2014. Practice-led research, research-led practice in the creative arts, Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
STURTEVANT, E. H. 1947. An Introduction to Linguistic Science New Haven, Yale University Press.
ZANGWILL, N. 1999. Art and Audience. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57, 315-332.
