Blog 3

What is the refined research question that you are setting out to answer? (Please be specific in your research topic)

How does Cattle Depot Artist Village help to form the subculture of art geek?

How does this develop themes and debates explored within the lectures of this module? (Please put down the revised short introduction to your project based on the one in blog 2. Remember that the introduction should include the purpose of your research project, significance and key concept(s) that may be useful for your analysis.)

A Chinese word of “Art geek “ comes around a lot in the past few years, what exactly is “art geek”? This research allows me and people to learn about what this subculture is and subculture identity are with subculture theory.

What critical methodologies are you going to use? How are you going to produce the evidence you’ll need to answer your research question?

1/ Field observation: the number of visitors, the number of exhibitions and performances in a day, social group or individual, specific gender, age group, ethnic group, any specific fashion style and behavior pattern

2/ 10 visitor semi-structured interviews onsite: What bring them to visit CDAV? How do they feel about the reason which brings them to CDAV? Do they have any unforgettable  experience in CDAV. How often do they visit CDAV? Do they join different events held by different organizations in CDAV? Do they like CDAV? Do they love art? Specifically which type of art? What can art bring to them? What do they usually do in their daily life other than work/ studying? What would they identify themselves? What is “art geek” in their perception? Do they think they are one of the art geeks? Do they have any friends act like an art geeks? What do they usually do together related to art? Where do they usually go to seek for art? Other questions will be asked based on the response of interviewees.

3/ 2 organization interviews: What is the mission of their organizations? What do they do to achieve the mission? Do they think that what they have been doing can gather audiences together? Do they think that the standard of quality of works increase by audiences’ expectation throughout the years? What do they think of art geek? Do they identify their audiences as art geeks? Do they think that the increase of standard of quality of works caused by more audiences became art geek? Any facing issue which limit to archive their mission?

4/ Detailed description of the subcultural group by focusing on a single event: to record environment, behavior and my feeling before event, during event and after event.

5/ Research on how media construct art geek

6/ Interview with media-called art geek if they visit to CDAV or not

Now you should have some references in mind. If so, please put down a short reference list at the end of this blog so that you have a better plan of what articles that you are go to read for the project.

Golitsyn, G. (2000). "High" Art and "Low" Art: The Systemic Role of an Elite Subculture. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 38(3), 28-44.

Grodach, C. (2009). Art spaces, public space, and the link to community development. Community Development Journal, 45(4), 474-493.

Grodach, C. (2010). Art Spaces in Community and Economic Development: Connections to Neighborhoods, Artists, and the Cultural Economy. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 31(1), 74-85.

Hebdige, D. (1984). Subculture. the meaning of style. London.

Jenks, C. (2005). Subculture: The fragmentation of the social. London: Sage Publications.

Morgan, G., & Ren, X. (2012). The Creative Underclass: Culture, Subculture, And Urban Renewal. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34(2), 127-130.

Sheridan, Dougal (2007) The Space of Subculture in the City: GettingSpecific about Berlin’s Indeterminate Territories. Feild Journal, 1 (1). pp. 97-119.

(Please also complete the following parts in the hard copy of your research proposal if you are going to do ethnographic study and interviews in a location where you may encounter potential dangers. Otherwise you can leave the following parts blank.)

What physical resources (e.g. camera) will this primary research require?

Yes (Please specify): Voice recorder, camera, mobile phone, paper, pen, question paper

Where and when exactly is this primary research going to take place?

(NB for health and safety reasons, we need to know the EXACT locations at which this research will take place and the EXACT times that you’ll be working there)

Place(s):	Cattle Depot Artist Village
Date and Time:	19-Mar, 24-Mar from 12pm to 6pm

Which key persons (e.g. family members, trustworthy friends, business owners, etc.) have agreed to help and support you in carrying out this research?

No

Self-assessment of risk:

Is this research exercise likely to expose you to any health and safety risks or any risk to property? (If the answer is yes, please specify the risks)

(NB these might include: exposure to theft by using a camera in a public place; journeying into an unknown area of town; entering into people’s homes; carrying out ethnographies in places in which excessive alcohol consumption or drug use takes place; etc.)

No

Name: Chan Nga Yin

HKU SPACE Student Number: 10349986