Blog 4&5

1/ Field observation on 27-Mar, 2016 The number of visitors: ~450 Activities in CDAV: 90% art event 10% historical building experience The number of exhibitions and performances in a day: 2 exhibitions & 2 performances Social group: 20% Individual: 80% Specific gender: More Female than Male Age group: the most: 21-30 years old; 2nd: 31-40 years old; 3rd: 11-20 years old; a few: below 10 years old Ethnic group: Local, Chinese, Taiwanese, European, Black Specific fashion style: Simple, causal, decent with sneakers or flats Behavior pattern: Most of them were with mobile phones on their hands to explore around and take shots. Some of them were with notebook for drawing.

2/ 8 visitor semi-structured interviews onsite: What bring them to visit CDAV? 80% Exhibition/show 20% around the neighborhood How do they feel about the reason which brings them to CDAV? Explorative, enjoyable, entertaining Do they have any unforgettable experience in CDAV. Work at CDAV, remarkable show How often do they visit CDAV? When there is a show they would like to join, work Do they join different events held by various organizations in CDAV? Yes Do they like CDAV? Yes Do they love art? Specifically, which type of art? Dance, music, media art, visual art What can art bring to them? Knowledge, entertainment, peace, an unspeakable feeling What do they usually do in their daily life other than work/ studying? Galleries, PMQ, JCCAC, home, travel What would they identify themselves? Most of them answered with their occupations. What is “art geek” in their perception? Quiet, love to go to galleries and cafes, take a lot of selfies Do they think they are one of the art geeks? No, they just do what they like and want to do Do they have any friends act like an art geek? Similar thinking of the above, yes, but not “art geek” What do they usually do together relate to art? Where do they usually go to seek for art? Galleries, organization office/ center, K11

3/ 2 organization interviews: What is the mission of their organizations? Promote their interests and contribute to communities What do they do to achieve the mission? Experimental performances, exhibitions, fairs, festivals, workshops, artist residency, dramas Do they think that what they have been doing can gather audiences together? Yes Do they think that the standard of quality of works increase by audiences’ expectation throughout the years? No What do they think of art geek? Same as the one described by media Do they identify their audiences as art geeks? Some of them yes, some of them are in this field Do they think that the increase of standard of quality of works caused by more audiences became art geek? Not sure Any facing issue which limits to archive their mission? Financial difficulties, HR, location

4/ Detailed description of the subcultural group by focusing on a single event: to record environment, behaviour and my feeling before the event, during the event and after the event. I have joined a sonic art performance called Spaces, Traces, Places organized by The Modern Academy on 27-Mar-2016 from 3pm to 4pm. It was an event explored indoor and outdoor spaces, mixed-media experimentations and specialized musical works which visitors can freely enter or leave the venue anytime. Before 3pm, there were lots of visitors in CDAV, walked around, took photos and entered to different units to join the different exhibitions. Some of them peeked the performing venue to take a look of preparation of the performance. At 3pm, the behavior of some of the visitors got my curiosity up that I entered to the performing venue with them.  In the beginning, several musicians were playing some sound from unknown instruments. There were footstep stickers on the floor which shown the best-listening-spot. Then, I entered to another space in the venue where performers were playing songs with their instruments: cello, violin. The lighting of the venue is quite limited, only spotted on the performers and the wall to show the relationship between performers and the internal space. And other lights were spotted on the wall to allow audiences to pay more attention to this historical building and sound. The looks of audiences were focusing and feeling the sounds/music quietly. Within this hour, there were over 100 audiences and 90% of them were individual and 10% of them were with friends or family. Local female aged from 20-30 are the majority. At 4pm, some of the audiences left the venue and CDAV, some of the audiences stayed and talked to the performers or other audiences, the rest of audiences went to other units for exhibitions. There was no specific fashion style, causal dressing it was.

Progress report:

8 Interviews with visitors were conducted, 2 interviews with organizations in CDAV were conducted, 2 performances attended.

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. I went for a drama show called “Kassandra oder die Welt als Ende der Vorstellung” on 2-April-2016 from 4pm to 6pm.   Audiences simply went straight to the venue after entering to Cattle Depot Artist Village. There was a portable bar outside the venue and audiences mingled there. When the time came, staff invited us to get in and get ourselves settled. Everyone was very quiet and focusing on the show even the staff mentioned that we can freely get in and out of the venue. The ratio of male to female was equal. Compared with the sonic art performance I attended earlier, audiences dressed more casual. Locals aged from 20-30 are the majority. After the show, some of the audiences stayed outside the venue to have food and mingle while some of the audiences went for exhibitions nearby.

Findings:

-       - 90% of interviewed visitors came to CDAV because of interested event, so CDAV can help to form the subculture of art geek.

-       - Female interested in Arts more than Male.

-       - Locals aged between 20 and 30 years old are the most active in Arts.

-       - Interviewees doesn’t think that they are art geek, but just do what they want to do and go.

-      -  Most of the visitors came alone and some of them like to meet new friends if there is a bar or mingle area.

-       - Most of the visitors came to CDAV because of 1 particular events. Since they were at CDAV, they would walk around and seek for other ongoing events.

-       - There is certain fashion style of visitors who aged below 30. Wearing eye-glasses and sneakers, with a small purse.

-       - Some parents treated it as a family event.

-       - Some visitors think CDAV is not well promoted.

-       - The location of CDAV is inconvenient.

-      -  Opening time of the units is limited to daytime, weekday.

Reference:  

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

Grodach argued that the ability of art spaces to realize such outcomes in linked to their role as a form of public space and that their community development potential can be expanded with further attention to this role at first. Throughout the research and interviews, he proved that art space is a public space and connected with community development by looking into the organizations’ missions to see how they engage communities by activities and service, analyzing the art space and surrounding, exploring the content of events by those organizations as the public spaces roles. Although his argument is proved, there is room for improvement that he listed the strength and weakness of art space as public space and proposed adding childcare service, understanding their visitor demographics and better marketing and surveys.

Grodach and I shared similar idea, but different direction that he inspired me to look more into the events by organization (in term of content, frequency of events held throughout a year and opening time) and analyze the location of CDAV and surrounding which allow me to have information about if they are one of the key point which make CDAV a subcultural space. According to the field observation and my past experience, the outcome is unexpected as there was always fewer visitors in CDAV during weekends.

Student Name: Chan Nga Yin