The Cultural Diamond
Adapted from
pGs. 60-63
Victoria Alexander's
Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms, 2003
"...Images [and objects] are made and used in all sorts of ways by different people for different reasons, and these makings and uses are crucial to the meanings an image [or object] carries. An image [object] may have its own effect, but these are always mediated by the many and varioususes to which it is put." Gillian Rose, 2001: 14 (in Sociology of the Arts).
Objects are subject to social and cultural forces
"...objects are made, and may be moved, displayed, sold, censored, venerated, discarded, stared at, hidden, recycled, glanced at, damaged, destoryed, touched, reworked..."
"If art reflects society it is a fun-house mirror." -Alexander
Art reflects society in complex ways.
Alexander, V, Sociology and the Arts, 2003.
Why a cultural diamond?
In 1994 Wendy Griswold developed the idea of the cultural diamond and Alexander used her diagram to further develop ideas around distribution systems and specifically and Victoria Alexander adapted the diagram into what you saw in the previous slide. Alexander states: "[Material Culture] does not reach 'society at large. Instead, it reaches a particular public made up of individuals embedded in a social system..."
How consumers use [material culture], what meanings it elicits in their minds, and how it eventually penetrates the general society is mediated by these individual and is affected by their attitudes and values, their social location, and their social networks."
How to read and use the Cultural Diamond
It is important to consider all the facets of the diamond when considering material culture and its curation, exhibition, and collection/preservation. All of these are implicated by social and cultural systems.
Consider the following questions in relationship to the diamond:
What is remembered?What might be forgottten? How did it arrive to its location or collection? Who chose it and when and why? Why was it deemed valuable?
Relationships exist between the points
Art and Material Culture are Communication
Audiences vs. Society
Production and Distribution
Cultural products are received by a varitey of audiences, not by "society". Meaning making and what cultural products are consumed are similarly varied. But there are social ways of looking at material culture.
"Many forms of art [and material culture] become divorces from the artist(s) [and culture(s)] that created them." It might benefit us to recognize the makers and receivers and the systems that support both in examining how material culture works in society.
The Diamond points out that relationships exist between the points, but what are those relationships and how can we explore them?
Alexander reminds us that art is comminication. Material culture can be viewed that way as well. Daniel Miller wants us to imagine our stuff as creating our reality and directly contributing to our cultural values and beliefs.
Cultural Diamond
Alisa Cunnington
Created on September 9, 2021
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Transcript
The Cultural Diamond
Adapted from
pGs. 60-63
Victoria Alexander's
Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms, 2003
"...Images [and objects] are made and used in all sorts of ways by different people for different reasons, and these makings and uses are crucial to the meanings an image [or object] carries. An image [object] may have its own effect, but these are always mediated by the many and varioususes to which it is put." Gillian Rose, 2001: 14 (in Sociology of the Arts).
Objects are subject to social and cultural forces
"...objects are made, and may be moved, displayed, sold, censored, venerated, discarded, stared at, hidden, recycled, glanced at, damaged, destoryed, touched, reworked..."
"If art reflects society it is a fun-house mirror." -Alexander
Art reflects society in complex ways.
Alexander, V, Sociology and the Arts, 2003.
Why a cultural diamond?
In 1994 Wendy Griswold developed the idea of the cultural diamond and Alexander used her diagram to further develop ideas around distribution systems and specifically and Victoria Alexander adapted the diagram into what you saw in the previous slide. Alexander states: "[Material Culture] does not reach 'society at large. Instead, it reaches a particular public made up of individuals embedded in a social system..."
How consumers use [material culture], what meanings it elicits in their minds, and how it eventually penetrates the general society is mediated by these individual and is affected by their attitudes and values, their social location, and their social networks."
How to read and use the Cultural Diamond
It is important to consider all the facets of the diamond when considering material culture and its curation, exhibition, and collection/preservation. All of these are implicated by social and cultural systems.
Consider the following questions in relationship to the diamond:
What is remembered?What might be forgottten? How did it arrive to its location or collection? Who chose it and when and why? Why was it deemed valuable?
Relationships exist between the points
Art and Material Culture are Communication
Audiences vs. Society
Production and Distribution
Cultural products are received by a varitey of audiences, not by "society". Meaning making and what cultural products are consumed are similarly varied. But there are social ways of looking at material culture.
"Many forms of art [and material culture] become divorces from the artist(s) [and culture(s)] that created them." It might benefit us to recognize the makers and receivers and the systems that support both in examining how material culture works in society.
The Diamond points out that relationships exist between the points, but what are those relationships and how can we explore them?
Alexander reminds us that art is comminication. Material culture can be viewed that way as well. Daniel Miller wants us to imagine our stuff as creating our reality and directly contributing to our cultural values and beliefs.