Keywords such as “globalisation,” “demographic shifts,” and “digitisation,” alongside changes in everyday work and life and the crises of the climate, the EU, and the democratic order as a whole, encompass the current upheavals facing society. Against this backdrop, the roles of cultural institutions, cultural policy, and cultural work are also changing profoundly. This research cluster investigates the connections between these societal developments and future potential forms of the production, distribution, and reception of the arts and culture.
How can cultural policy and cultural organisations react to the fragmentation of audiences, that is, of the public sphere? What challenges and changes do cultural organisations, institutions, and networks face, and what roles do they play in society in the wake of the current upheavals? Which forms of interpretation and action are being concieved by those involved in the production of art and culture under the current pressure to change? How are the self-understanding and working methods of artists and cultural managers shifting, and how is cultural policy being adapted in turn? To what extent is the “cultural audience” transforming? The ACPT cluster addresses these and other questions in various research areas. It analyses practices and formats of arts production, cultural organisations, and cultural-political discourses and their institutionalisation, as well as the reshaping of audiences and the cultural public.
Cultural institutions, their visitors, and cultural policy are interdependent and intertwined. The questions addressed in the cluster therefore require complex, multi-perspective approaches. Accordingly, the cluster operates internationally, interdisciplinarily, and across generations of scientists and practitioners. Subproject sponsors include the Volkswagen Foundation’s Off the Beaten Track initiative, the EU Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.
What effects do presentation formats have on various types of visitors? Which factors influence aesthetic experience? Is it the work and its appearance, the visitors with their prior knowledge, preferences, and expectations, or the curatorial or dramaturgical framing that decisively shapes the aesthetic experience of an artistic work? We investigate the complex interrelation of “subject,” “work,” and “form of presentation” in this ACPT research area on the basis of two multi-year international research projects: eMotion – Mapping Museum Experience, and Experimental Concert Research.
Tröndle, Martin Prof Dr
WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
Weining, Christian MA
“(Concert) Audience Typologies”
In the changed geopolitical world order of the 21st century, artistic modes of production and work as well as artistic self-understanding have changed. Since the beginning of modernity, art theory and aesthetics have described the role of the arts in society as largely linked to the project of social emancipation, the self-reflection of the individual, and a specific concept of civil society. However, according to the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, this connection, which developed in the “functionally differentiated society” of the 18th century, seems to be eroding in the 21st, since the relationships between art, politics, the economy, and the public sphere are shifting.
In the course of these upheavals, profoundly contradictory developments are emerging. We can observe a growing market orientation of art production and a repositioning of the arts in an explosively growing cultural economy, as well as the so-called social turn in art. The latter describes the phenomenon whereby more and more artists are considering the shaping and transformation of social relations to be the most important aspect of their practices. They deal with social justice and politics, and have thus established a field of action commonly described by the terms “art activism,” “new genre public art,” “social practice art,” and “socially engaged art.”
The ACPT research area described here examines how new pathways, novel career paths, and alternate working environments emerge for artists through their studio practice within these upheavals. The focus here is on the rapidly growing large-scale production facilities of market-related art—the fabricators—where more and more artists are having their works produced, as well as the managerialisation of artistic work in large-scale studios, and, thirdly, the work designs of artistic collectives operating in an activist manner that strongly differentiate themselves from these fabricators.
FEINART is an extensive collaborative project between degree-awarding research centres in political philosophy, art theory and practice, curatorial studies, and cultural management on the one hand, and arts institutions—mainly from the European independent arts sector—on the other. This collaboration marks the first interdisciplinary and holistic investigation of the democratic role and function of socially engaged art in Europe. As part of this aim, FEINART will train 11 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in the relevant academic and non-academic skills required to engage with the challenges of this changing artistic and cultural landscape. The 11 ESRs will be spread across four academic beneficiaries (University of Wolverhampton, England; University of Iceland; University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Zeppelin University, Germany) and seven partner organisations (Tensta Konsthall, Sweden; BAK—basis voor actuele kunst, Netherlands; State of Concept Athens, Greece; W-Est, Italy; tranzit.ro, Romania; Teatr Scena Prezentacje (Biennale Warsawa), Poland; and Icelandic University of the Arts). The selected partner organisations represent an exemplary cross-section of small-scale and larger independent spaces—project spaces, cultural centres, art labs, and research hubs—working under different demands and expectations and all providing invaluable support and resources to artists working in the area of socially engaged practice. As such, the FEINART training programme will provide invaluable data about the distribution, impact, and role of socially engaged art in Europe that will contribute to future funding policy recommendations, in particular in relation to state support of art beyond the traditional museum and various debates on art and public culture.
van den Berg, Karen Prof Dr
Chair of Art Theory & Curating
Schultheis, Franz Prof Dr
Senior Professor for Sociology of Art and the Creative Economy
Rosenkranz, Marie MA
“Artistic Strategies in Brexit”
Brusa, Francesca MA
“Invisible Production”
Karen van den Berg / Ulrike Shepherd (eds.) (2022): Art, Science & Society. The artsprogram of the Zeppelin University. Berlin, DISTANZ Verlag.
Changing audience formations, audience fragmentation, changing habits of use and behaviours, new types of tastemakers, new categories of (non-)visitors, novel habits of use, new cultural publics—all are sub-areas that touch on the question of how the transformation of cultural production affects the establishment of cultural publics with their audiences.
(22–27.07.2019)
Göttlich, Udo Prof Dr
Chair of Media & Communication Science
The question of the transformation of publicly funded institutions is addressed in two ways. Firstly, we ask: What challenges are (publicly funded) cultural institutions confronted with in regard to societal transformations, and what are their responses to these challenges? These questions touch on aspects of organisational learning, leadership, evaluation, and the strategic management of cultural institutions. Three current doctoral projects dedicated to these topics in the field of culture-specific organisational research consider these questions further.
Secondly, to accompany this internal perspective, we are examining an external one, namely the influence of cultural policy on cultural institutions. The question of which function culture should fulfil for society is negotiated in political agendas, funding guidelines, and position papers. Additionally, since the 1970s, Germany has developed various temporary funding formats, projects, and programmes that have clear objectives and require justifications for funding. This approach has led to quantitatively evaluated topics such as “audience development” becoming guiding principles in official cultural policy. Such issues are discussed at length in policy papers and funding guidelines, but how are these official guiding principles actually implemented in institutions? What changes in organisational structure and self-perception have they brought about? Individual case studies are used to examine which organisational challenges and social transformations institutions are responding to and how they are responded to them, as well as whether the dispositif of political “guiding formulas” and “institutional anchoring” is really consistent across publicly funded institutions, or whether breaks and opposing movements can be seen among them.
Tröndle, Martin Prof Dr
WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
DeVereaux, Constance Assoc Prof
University of Connecticut
Stahl, Julian MA
“Organized (Dis)Order: Cultural Organizations within the Network Society”
In some nation states (e.g., the US, Poland, Hungary, Italy, the UK, Israel, and Greece), populist and nationalist political movements are questioning the value publicly financed art and culture has for the community today. How is the (radical) political repositioning of these countries affecting their cultural policies? How are budget cuts, censorship, media control, a narrowed concept of culture, and attempts to politically control the management personnel of cultural institutions influencing cultural creation in these places? What influence do right-wing and left-wing populist parties in these countries and beyond exert on cultural-political discourse and artistic and cultural creation? This ACPT research area also examines opposing movements—in particular civil society–centered arts and culture initiatives—that may offer alternative governance formations.
A further part of this project is devoted to the emergence of cultural-political metadiscourses, such as “new cultural policy,” “cultural education,” and the “cultural struggle”—or the “Resistance against Modernity and Western Decadence,” as the slogan of the Polish right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party puts it. How are these metadiscourses produced, and how do they become effective in the field of cultural politics? What influence do they have on funding decisions?
In 2020, the research cluster hosted two international working meetings with the title “Cultural Policy Transformations: The Rise of Illiberalism”, which tool place in March 2020 at Zeppelin University and in October 2020 online. The conferences addressed issues of current international cultural policy and transformation, and in particular the increased presence of illiberal, populist parties and movements in this field. Together with our international guests, we discussed ways of dealing with corresponding developments as well as possibilities for research cooperation.
Tröndle, Martin Prof Dr
WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
DeVereaux, Constance Assoc Prof
University of Connecticut
Zeppelin University
Preservation of culture and of cultural diversity are central policy aims at the international and national level. These dual aims have been connected to both economics (tourism, creative industries) and politics (local cultural development, empowerment of marginalised groups) as means to achieve positive governmental aims. The international organisation UNESCO, for example, has articulated cultural diversity and preservation of culture as central to their global mission.
Critics of these policies maintain that cultural preservation impedes the development of culture, retarding the natural dynamics of aesthetic processes present in society. Similarly, critique of “diversity” as a policy aim argues that it constrains and impedes beneficial social and artistic exchange by limiting creative innovation.
“In contemporary society we are all more prone to live hybrid lives in culturally hybrid spaces.”
With these realities as a backdrop, we look at cultural hybridity through policy, philosophies of art, and the aesthetics of everyday, practical life. A central argument is that in contemporary society we are all more prone to live hybrid lives in culturally hybrid spaces. Evidence may be seen in the fact that many global cities have come to be described as “hybrid” societies where cultures mix, almost seamlessly in the aesthetic realm. Identity, art, culture, and social engagement should operate differently, it seems, in culturally hybrid spaces.
Cultural hybridity is also the focus of challenge. Many people see its manifestation as a remnant of colonialism—the physical signs of cultural dominance and repression written in the art and architecture of a city.
Some questions to be answered is whether cultural hybridity requires policy support, and if so, what kind, precisely? Is it to be preserved and supported, or discouraged and eradicated? Is cultural hybridity an inevitable part of contemporary, globalised living that needs no policy intervention? Given cultural economic development in the 21st century, one could also ask if hybrid cities are necessarily and inevitably neo-liberal no matter where they exist? Finally, how do we understand artistic production in the context of cultural hybridity? How is it both supported and contested in political, social, and economic contexts.
DeVereaux, Constance Assoc Prof
University of Connecticut
Zeppelin University
Speaker of the Cluster
Professor | WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
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Since 2015, Prof Dr Martin Tröndle has held the WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production in the Faculty of Communication and Culture at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. His work deals with a large variety of topics, all revolving around the production, distribution, and reception of the arts. Tröndle was the principal investigator of eMotion – Mapping Museum Experience (2008–14), supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. eMotion experimentally analysed the experiences of museum-goers, looking primarily at the museum architecture, art objects, and curatorial design and how these effect and affect the behaviour of museum visitors. Tröndle is now principal investigator of Experimental Concert Research (2018–), supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and others, a project that experimentally analyses the concert experience. Since 2014, Tröndle has been Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement: Kunst, Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft / Journal of Cultural Management: Arts, Policy, Economics, and Society. Among others, he is the editor of the two-volume concert studies reader Das Konzert: Neue Aufführungskonzepte für eine klassische Form (2011, 2nd ed.) and Das Konzert II: Beiträge zum Forschungsfeld der Concert Studies (2018).
Professor | Chair of Art Theory & Curating
Karen van den Berg is Professor of Art Theory and Curating at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. She studied art history, classical archaeology, and Nordic philology in Saarbrücken and Basel. Her doctoral thesis on Matthias Grünewald was supervised by Gottfried Boehm and received support through a Friedrich Naumann Foundation stipend. Van den Berg also earned the Max-Imdahl-Stipendium für Kunstvermittlung in 1994–96. From 1993 to 2003, she was a regular lecturer and research fellow for art history and theory at Witten/Herdecke University, and research stays and teaching posts have brought her to numerous internationally acclaimed institutions, including the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas; Bauhaus University, Weimar; Parsons New School for Design, New York; and Europäisches Kolleg Jena. She was also a visiting scholar in the Department of Comparative Literature at Stanford University in California and a fellow at Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie (IKKM) in Weimar. Her research focuses on the theory and history of display, museums, educational architecture, art and politics, artistic epistemes, art market studies, and studio practice.
Udo Göttlich is Professor of General Media and Communication Studies at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. His main areas of work and research are media, communications and cultural sociology, reception and audience research, cultural studies approaches, theory of public sphere, and sociological theory.
Senior Professor for Sociology of Art and the Creative Economy
Franz Schultheis is Senior Professor of Sociology of Art and Creative Industries at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. He received his doctorate from the University of Konstanz, followed by his habilitation at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, under Pierre Bourdieu. Prior to his professorship at Zeppelin University, Schultheis held posts at the universities of Neuchâtel, Geneva, and St. Gallen in Switzerland. He was also Research Councillor at the Swiss National Science Foundation (2000–10) and Vice President of the Swiss Science Council (2010–19), both in Bern, and has been President of the Bourdieu Foundation, St. Gallen, since 2007. Schultheis is a member of the editorial board of Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales; co-editor (with Stefan Egger) of Pierre Bourdieu’s collected writings, published by Suhrkamp; editor of the series Questions sociologiques, released by Edition L’Harmattan, Paris; and Vice President of the publisher Les Éditions Raisons d’Agir, Paris.
Research Associate | Research Cluster Arts Production and Cultural Policy in Transformation
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Constance DeVereaux is Associate Professor and Director of the MFA program Arts Leadership and Cultural Management at University of Connecticut. She studied political philosophy, public policy, and legal theory at Claremont Graduate University in the US, completing her doctorate with the thesis: Artist, Citizen, State: A Theory of Arts Policy. As a Fulbright Senior Specialist, she has provided expertise to universities, municipalities, and organisations in South Africa, Romania, and Finland on matters of cultural policy, cultural management, and culture-led development. She is a member of the international research team UNESCO and the Making of Global Cultural Policy funded by the Australian Research Council. She serves on the executive editorial board of the Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement: Kunst, Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft / Journal of Cultural Management: Arts, Policy, Economics, and Society.
Her research interests include culturally sustainable entrepreneurship, cultural hybridity, and the use of narrative for cultural policy analysis. Recent published works include Arts and Cultural Management: Sense and Sensibilities in the State of the Field and Narrative, Identity, and the Map of Cultural Policy: Once Upon a Time in a Globalized World. She has also published articles in Journal of Cultural Management and Policy, the Annals of Tourism, the Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, Kultūros Barai, and Philosophia.
Post-Doc | Research Cluster Arts Production and Cultural Policy in Transformation
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Before joining academia, Leticia Labaronne studied performing arts in the United States and worked as a professional ballet dancer in Europe for over 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the United Kingdom and a Master of Science in Public and Non-profit Management from Switzerland. Since 2009, Labaronne has been working with the Center for Arts Management at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. In 2019, she became a Head of ZHAW’s Center for Arts Management and currently directs its executive Master of Advanced Studies in Arts Management programme. Between 2015 and 2019, Labaronne completed her doctoral thesis, “(Re-)presenting Artistic Performance: A Contextualized Framework for Evaluating Performing Arts Organizations,” at the WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production, Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. Her consulting and research focus is cultural policy, fundraising, and evaluation in the non-profit and arts sectors. The research focus of her doctorate—evaluation practices in the performing arts—was motivated by her previous artistic career, and Labaronne continues to apply her working knowledge of the field to the exploration of new research paradigms that can better capture the complexity of artistic activities and shed more light on creative processes in the performing arts.
Graduate Assistant | Research Cluster Arts Production and Cultural Policy in Transformation & WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
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Nico Stockmann completed his bachelor’s degree in Communication and Cultural Management with a minor in Corporate Management and Economics at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, and the University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia. Since 2015, he has worked in different functions at the WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production at Zeppelin University, and also held a position as a process innovation and quality manager at CODE University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. Supported by a graduate scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Stockmann is currently completing a Master of Social Sciences in Global Politics and Communication at the University of Helsinki.