Social Media, expertise and the Art World

There is not much research done on the implementation and the consequences of Web 2.0 on the art world. The research so far has focused on earlier uses of the World Wide Web such as commercial online galleries, digital art as an art form, and museum practices in the online realm. The main focus of this work will fall on the relation between amateurs and experts within the arts and how are these relations impacting the existing expert roles in cultural industries and institutions such as the role of the curator, the museum and the art critic. Curators, art critics and gallery managers have been usually perceived as experts in the field of art and have been trusted with the task of validating and contextualizing art. The museum on the other hand, is still seen as one of the ultimate art institutions when it comes to validating what constitutes as art. Further, social media has triggered talk about greater audience and amateur involvement in art evaluation. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate if social media tools manifest the democratization of the high art sphere? Are cultural institutions such as museums and galleries bending their ear to the public voice on how art should be exhibited and experienced in museums and galleries? Or are social media tools actually reinforcing the existing roles within the art world? Is the role of the expert being challenged or reinforced by the greater involvement of amateurs in the art world? Finally social media platforms will be examined in order to determine to what extent their role as public spaces can foster the process of knowledge creation via the social interaction of the members within them.