AUDIENCE PLEASURES: DISSEMINATION AND EXHIBITION

From teaching media I have an appreciation of audience pleasures in a text both as individual and as a group. Mass audience theory is a tricky concept as even though art and media texts can be experienced in a group environment such as art gallery or cinema the actual reception whilst it can be influenced a little by a group environment is a very personal one. No two people will get exactly the same thing from a piece of art as previous experience, background, world view, upbringing and context of it within their lives will effect their reading and consumption of it.

I am going to research into this area and do an overview of key issues and debates as regards the areas I am working in with my own practice. I did work in the medium of video installation on my last major piece but one area I feel I did not explore enough was the audience interaction and dissemination of the piece compared to film and TV where I have previously worked. I also want to use this as an avenue to reconsider how I will present my work in a gallery and installation environment. My work has been stand alone in its own space up until now but working more closely with sound this time and impact sound what are the issues I need to be aware of?


AUDIENCE RECEPTION ANALYSIS
This deals with how an audience respond to the "preferred reading" of the author of the text or what exactly it is that they are trying to communicate. The four established types of reception analysis are the following.

• DOMINANT READING: The viewer accepts the preferred reading.
• NEGOTIATED READING: The viewer partly accepts the preferred reading.
• OPPOSITIONAL READING: The viewer disagrees with the preferred reading.
• SUBVERSIVE READING: The viewer creates their own unexpected reading.

This is a real area of interest to me as I feel in a gallery environment this can become very blurred depending on how you approach the work and the information portrayed and communicated to the audience. I feel it is almost possible to have a variety of these in a gallery environment whilst experiencing a piece of work. First impressions may be any of the above readings except the dominant reading. However if the audience member then reads the information or even the title next to the piece or listens to the gallery guide their understanding of the preferred meaning changes. It becomes contextualized with the creators intentions or by a gallery description of the piece and it's intentions. Exploring this is an avenue I am interested in and want to look at the "revelatory moment" when the audience has read a text one way and then through explanation enables them to see it with fresh eyes and understanding. They may disagree with the preferred reading and it may not accept it deciding instead on negotiated, oppositional etc but I like the fact that their reading can change.

PASSIVE AUDIENCE THEORIES

The passive audience follows the theory suggests art and the media “injects” ideas into a passive mass audience, like a drug and they simply believe what they are told.

The most common theory mentioned in this area is the "Hypodermic Needle Theory" which assumes that messages are injected straight into audiences. This theory can be backed up by examples such as WW2 and the Nazi party used the media to inject information (propaganda) into a mass audience. Another example is Orson Welle’s 1938 “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast about alien invasion started with a news flash and people began evacuating their houses believing it was real.


Another is the "Cultivation Theory" which follows on from this but assumes that through repetition attitudes, ideas and values may become normalised or naturalised and they are accepted rather than considered. Through repetition the audience may become desensitised towards negative and/or violent representations. Video "nasties" and video games are examples here that the tabloid love to herald as being behind cultivating some audiences to a blurred view of the world and often atrocities.


A last example could be the "Two-Step" theory that argues whatever our experience of the media or art, we are likely to discuss it with others. If we respect their opinion (the theory calls these people opinion leaders, gatekeepers, taste-makers), the chances are that we may be affected by the opinion leaders’ responses as well as by the text itself. Opinion leaders can come from groups or people we admire such as critics as well as friends, teachers or family and social groups. This is obviously hugely applicable in the art world where critics, gallery owners and art dealers are the opinion leaders in communicating to the audiences.






As far as my work goes passive audience theory has to be considered but I would argue that most people going into a gallery environment are there because they are an active audience and have made the choice to be there. I feel that using music in my Amen piece goes they may subliminally pick up the connection of all of the track passively. Aurally there may be a connection made and this will be reinforced by the visuals used to communicate a message and idea. This is something I need to develop as this was not being communicated in my first trial piece of this work.


For the anonymous piece I want to be a lot more subversive in my creation of "The Ecstatc Truth" and a representation of the characters, narrative and subjects of the piece. Visuals, voice over and representations will me more contrived to create and form the subjective message and ideology.

ACTIVE AUDIENCE THEORY

Active audience theory suggests that audiences are not mass BUT individuals that interact with media texts differently. It argues that that audiences are active and use art and media for a variety of different reasons gratifications and pleasures. As with all theories I feel it is possible to agree that audiences may be a little passive but as they are more aware and connected the active audience theory carries more validity. In a gallery environment it doe as mentioned earlier suggest that they made a decision to go there for a reason making them active. However they could have a passive response to the works. With art works in the home or on TV etc this does leave the door more wide open for passive audience theory.

The "Uses and Gratifications" theory is an active audience theory suggests that audiences use and interact with texts for four possible reasons. these are predominantly used in media circles and as I am working in potential TV documentary form hold true. But I would argue apply equally to artworks and installations specifically.

• DIVERSION: Use texts to escape from everyday life. EG. Looking at art, photos, listening to music & film.
• PERSONAL COMPANIONSHIP: Audiences become attached to art and texts and certain forms of them. People in the texts, the subjects of them, locations, narratives and characters etc.
• PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION: Audience identifies with the creators or characters of artworks, TV shows or films.
• SURVEILLANCE: Art and media can act as a window into worlds, characters and the opportunity to study them. this can be in an interpretive or representational form. Audiences love people watching as it can often make them feel more normal about themselves.

Within the context of my own work I feel it could act in a lot of these areas. Amen could certainly be an interesting and fun AV diversion especially as it uses captivating images and visuals. Anonymous too could work in this way as an exploration into interesting characters outside of the audiences everyday world. Personal companionship would be less applicable to Amen but anonymous would try and create a representation of a character and insight into their lives, narrative and ideology. Again personal identification may work here even though they may not identify wholly with the subject they may be able to identify with their character or motivations. Personal identification within Amen is less obvious but due to the music, bands and images and sound of them this is likely to tap into identifications with these in the audience. Surveillance again less so in Amen as only really surveying the acts and bands and their severe representations as brands I their music videos. However obviously much stronger in getting a privileged look into the "walled city" world they inhabit.

AUDIENCE CONSUMPTION AND INTERACTION
This theory assumes that audiences react and use texts differently depending on the environment. For my works one hopes for primary consumption but in a gallery or home environment efforts will have to be made to engag, interest and get the audience interacting with the work to get there.

• PRIMARY CONSUMPTION OF TEXT: The sole focus of the person consuming the text. looking at art in a gallery or watching a film at the cinema is a good example.
• SECONDARY CONSUMPTION OF TEXT: Consuming a media text but doing something else at the same time. For instance having art displayed around your home or watching a film on TV but also surfing on a laptop.
• TERTIARY CONSUMPTION OF TEXT: The text is occurring around the person but they are busy doing other things. Artwork around a house  and music and TV are examples where they may be put on for background noise whilst you are primarily engaged in other activities.

AUDIENCE PLEASURES

As with all the other audience research a lot of this thinking is borrowed from media analysis but s my work crosses between film, art and media I decided to apply it as an investigation tool of my own practice. the following are all potential audience pleasures that audience can derive from texts or artworks that I can consider utilizing in my own work.

• EMOTIONAL PLEASURES: Important when art and films generate a strong audience response. Horror, drama and comedy in particular are designed to manipulate audiences emotions.
• VISCERAL PLEASURES: Art or films that create a physical effect on the audience. This includes the “roller coaster ride” of action adventure films, revulsion at gory horror, shock at the sexually explicit.
• INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES: Films and artworks containing a puzzle, enigmas and “whodunnits” that offer the audience and intellectual challenge. Typical detective and crime movies.
• GENRE COMMUNITIES Genre criticism suggests genre is there for mass audiences to recognise art or film types. However each genre may have it’s own very specific audience or “cultural community”. For instance specific art movements such as installation or video art or horror or sci-fi film fanboys.
• COUNTER CULTURE ATTRACTION This argues that a primary pleasure offered to audiences of certain films is that they provide escape for political correctness and cultural rules and regulations. Eg. gore, scenes of a a sexual nature and extreme violence.
• COUNTER-READING OF FILMS Generic pleasures can be there for an audience through the counter reading of a “repertoir of elements”. For instance train enthusiasts create their own “train genre”. Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid, Great Train Robbery etc.