Understanding the subjective art experience

This research is aimed at understanding the subjective art experience through the concepts of attachment and contextuality. Although Pierre Bourdieu and other critical sociologists have fruitfully researched the sociality underlying the art world, the personal experience is still an area that has been underexposed. Through the use of post-critical sociology, of among others Antoine Hennion, I was able to research the how of the art experience. I did so by approaching the art experience as an active and conscious process, and by looking at the particular moment in which it occurs. In this particular moment contextual elements play an important role. In my thesis I have divided contextuality into setting, interaction and materiality. Additionally the connection of an individual to a work of art, or the process of conditioning oneself to this object, is conceptualized with Hennion's concept of attachment. I have researched this empirically by attending to the particular moment of the art experience. Through participant observations of and conversational interviews with visitors of Ugo Rondinone’s contemporary art exhibition in museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam I gained insight into individuals' actions and experiences. When analysing my data I used the above concepts to categorize. This has lead me to the following findings: First of all Hennion's ideal-typical concept of attachment can only be scarcely found. Most of the time people find themselves in a state of wondering, a state in which one could possibly reach a state of attachment, though at the same time this might as well not happen. People express quite a practical outlook on attachment and their overall art experience. Interviewees express to either make an extra effort or accept not being able to. Not being attached can even be used as a tactic to relax during the intensive museum experience as whole. Secondly I found quite a diversity in the experience of the art works. The experience that people have of the works of art is dependent of the experienced intensity and found form. Interviewees could for example differ in interpreting the works of art as very happy (because of the colours) or as sad (because of the facial expressions of the clowns) though both expressed to feel an extensive contact with the works of art. However people that did not value the form distinctly, also expressed a minimised experience of attachment. Ultimately the valuation in form leads to a valuation in intensity, these combined make up the overall art experience. These findings indicate that valuation is much more interwoven in the art experience, it is not only an outcome of the experience but also influences it. Attention to form and intensity of attachment within the subjective art experience can diversify the ideal-typical concept of attachment without losing its subtlety.