Weeks 1-3: "Which Culture?"

Review of Reading Assignment: Which Culture chapter from Greenwich Village 1963 by Sally Banes

Warm-up exercise: Emmett William's Ten Arrangements for Five Performers.

How does Sally Banes define 'folk art' in the context of this chapter?
• art by the community for the community
• work that integrates art and life (the everyday)
• functional art
• low-budget
• made by the untrained or non-professional
• handmade and unique (not mass produced)
• recycles the world around the artist
• crudely constructed

To what factors does she attribute the rise in 'folk art' attributes in the avant-garde work of the 1960s?
• Rejection of previous generations values -- European Art is high art; American Art is low art; the fear of communism and the association of folk tradition with totalitarian regimes."A generation grown old before its time."
• Desire to create a uniquely American art form.
• Interest in egalitarian values (accessibility).
• Increase in leisure time.
• Refusal to participate in mainstream culture of corporate production and consumption.

Why does she imply that Pop Art was related to American folk art?
• Its uniquely American quality.
• Because of its relationship to crafts and decorative arts.
• Because of its use of the venacular (commercial arts, commonplace images, domestic and thow-away culture is recycled).

How did the new avant-garde affect audiences?
• audience was activated.
• sometimes given a role in the production or presentation.
• audience related to peformances more readily: remniscent of popular entertainment: vaudeville, church plays, pageants, children's theater, circuses...

What was happening in artist-made cinema?
• home movie quality; handmade; handheld.
• everyday life becomes the subject. (Warhol's haircut or sleep)
• live soundtracks are created by the artist and sometimes the audience.


What as happening in dance?
• Pedestrian movements are incorporated into choreography.
• Games, tasks, and sports are incorporated.
• Irony: how to dance is explained.

What everyday items were incorporated into Fluxus?
• Games, puzzles, rubber stamps, recipes, jokes, parlor tricks, magic tricks.
• Fluxus' printed matter predicts the coming of zines.

What did critics of the time, like Clement Greenberg think of the new avant-garde?
• They saw it as vulgar (pg 104)
• Kitsche

Read Folk Art Makes a Community on page 95
• Relationship to user-generated content (Myspace, Flickr, eBay, Facebook, Amazon) (Learningtoloveyoumore.com)
• the DIY movement
• the craft movement
• the print on demand self-publishing movement

Alter egos mentioned:

Allan Kaprow: page 87
John Cage: page 92 and page 95

Reading of Manifestos

Assignment #3: Bring a helpful gift, book, material, or object related to your peer's manifesto to next class.