The Potential Benefits of Taking Introduction to Art for Non-Art Major College Students

This research was conducted to discern the potential benefits for non-art majors taking a general art course based on the perspectives of both discipline-based art education (DBAE) and visual culture and art education (VCAE). The research also attempted to ascertain the impact of DBAE and VCAE on the students. DBAE considers art an indispensable part of general education and supports a broad educational mission that promotes building minds and cultivating problem solving, VCAE stresses “meaning making” and active learning. This study demonstrated how the goals or objectives of art education promoted by both DBAE and VCAE are beneficial and crucial for the development of college students. A survey questionnaire was used to obtain qualitative data related to students’ learning outcomes. The researcher first identified the themes prominent in both DBAE and VCAE and then translated those themes into survey items. This study was conducted on the campuses of one college and one university in the southern district of Taiwan. Both are technology schools and award bachelor degrees. After data were cleaned, there were 189 valid questionnaires. In addition, textbooks frequently used by art educators to teach Introduction to Art were analyzed. This research concluded that student participants have benefited from most of the learning outcomes. Based on their answers to the closed-ended questions, students benefited equally from DBAE and VCAE themes. But in responses to the open-ended questions, participants acknowledged more benefits from DBAE outcomes than from VCAE outcomes

미술 소비에서의 유창성이 지위 유추에 미치는 영향

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 미술대학 협동과정미술경영, 2019. 2. 김상훈.역사적으로 미술은 부의 상징이었으며 그로 인해 호화를 내포하게 되었다 (Mandel, 2009). 이러한 연관성은 주로 원본 미술 작품의 소비에서 파생되었는데, 최근 연구에 따르면 원본의 소비뿐만 아니라 미술 작품을 상품에 적용하는 경우에도 지각된 호화가 높아진다고 한다 (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008a). 이러한 결과는 미술의 다른 소비 형태도 과시적 소비로 이어질 수 있음을 암시한다. 이에 본 연구에서는 미술이 언제 그리고 왜 과시적 소비가 될 수 있는지를 탐구한다. 이를 위해 두개의 미술 소비 형태, 즉 미술의 인쇄본 (art print실험 1) 과 전시 관람 (실험 2) 이라는 두개의 맥락에서 가설을 확인한다. 본 연구는 낮은 유창성 (i.e. 처리하기 어렵고 이해하기 어려운) 의 미술을 소비하는 것이 소비자에 대한 특정한 자질들을 암시한다고 제안한다. 구체적으로, 소비자가 낮은 유창성의 미술을 소비할 때, 관찰자는 그에 대해 높은 취향과 높은 지위를 유추할 것이라는 가설을 제시한다. 이는 문화적으로 공유되는 취향 (Reber, 2012)에서 비롯된 논지로, 같은 사회 계급의 구성원들이 특정한 취향을 공유하고 자신에게 가해지는 기대치를 이해하고 있다는 점에 근거한다. 높은 사회 계급이 고상한 취향을 갖고 있다는 것은 (Bourdieu, 1985) 널리 알려진 신념이다. 따라서 유창성이 낮은 미술을 소비하는 것은 미적 감상에 있어서의 숙달을 의미하며, 높은 취향과 그에 따른 높은 지위를 암시한다. 또한, 이 효과는 관찰자가 자신의 미적 능력에 근거하여 비교하여 유추하는 것으로, 관찰자가 높은 미술 전문 지식을 갖고 있을 때 약화될 것으로 예상한다. 제시된 가설은 두 번의 실험을 거처 입증되었다. 실험1 (N = 140) 에서 실험참가자들은 미술 작품이 포함된 한 개인의 인스타그램 게시물을 보고 그에 대해 지각한 취향과 지위를 판단했다. 실험 결과는 제시된 가설과 같이, 낮은 유창성을 갖는 미술 작품의 소비는 더 높은 취향과 지위에 대한 유추로 이어짐을 증명했다. 그러나 관찰자가 미술 전문 지식 수준이 높을 때 이 효과는 줄어들었다. 실험2 (N = 72) 는 본 효과에 대한 대안 가설 두가지를 확인한다. 개방 결합 실험에서 많은 실험참가자들은 유창성이 낮은 미술을 소비하는 개인에 대해 창의적일 것이라고 유추했다. 이런 현상에 대응하여, 실험2에서는 지각된 창의성을 확인했다. 분석 결과, 창의성은 제시된 모형에서 유효하지 않게 나와서 대안 가설을 기각할 수 있었다. 또한 작품 별 친숙도에 따라 결과가 다르게 나올 수 있다는 대안 가설을 확인하기 위하여, 실험2에서는 단일 자극물을 사용하여 유창성을 다르게 프레이밍(framing)하였다. 본 실험은 미술 소비가 언제 그리고 어떻게 지위를 나타내게 되는지에 대한 새로운 결과를 도출했다. 미술이 일반적으로 호화롭게 지각되는 것을 고려하였을 때, 본 실험의 결과는 미술을 마케팅에 활용할 때 각 목적에 더 걸맞는 미술의 형태와 특징을 제안할 수 있다.Art has historically been a signal of wealth and therefore gained a connotation of luxury (Mandel, 2009). While such connotation stems mainly from purchase of original artworks, recent studies have shown that incorporating art in a product increases the perceived luxury of the product (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008a). Such finding highlights the potential of different art consumption modes as a means of conspicuous consumption. The current study investigates when and how art becomes a form of conspicuous consumption. In doing so, two modes of art consumption, possession of art prints (study 1) and exhibition visit (study 2), were observed. The current research proposes that consuming art with low fluency (i.e. difficult to process and difficult to understand) could imply certain attributes about the consumer. Specifically, it is hypothesized that when a consumer consumes fine art of low fluency, others will infer refined taste and high financial status of the person. Such is hypothesized, because there exists a 'culturally shared taste' (Reber, 2012), indicating that members of the same social class share certain taste and understand what is expected of them. The fact that members of the upper class have "refined" taste (Bourdieu, 1985) is a widely accepted lay belief. Thus, consumption of fine art of low fluency will imply proficiency in aesthetic comprehension, thereby implying taste levels and respective status. In addition, this effect is expected to be attenuated when the observer's expertise is high and the consumed art is of low fluency. The proposed mechanisms were tested in two studies. In Study 1 (N = 140), participants rated perceived taste and status of an individual based on the individual's Instagram post of an art print. Results support that low fluency art consumption leads to heightened inference of taste and financial status. However, when observer of high expertise observed art with low fluency, the effect diminished. Study 2 (N = 72) addressed two alternative hypotheses. In an open association study, many participants inferred higher creativity for lower fluency art consumption. To address this phenomenon, creativity measure was added in study 2 and was proven as insignificant. In addition, to rule out an alternative hypothesis of familiarity, a single stimulus was used with different framing in study 2. This research provides novel findings on when and how art consumption becomes a status signal. Regarding the fact that art has been associated with luxury perception, the results of this study reveal which art is more suitable for such purpose and why.I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3 2.1. Art 2.2. Fluency 2.3. Taste and Status Inference 2.4 Expert vs. Novice III. RESEARCH MODEL 14 3.1. Hypotheses 3.2. Study Overview IV. STIMULI PRETEST 20 4.1. Design and Procedure 4.2. Results and Discussion V. OPEN ASSOCIATION PILOT STUDY 24 VI. STUDY 1 26 6.1. Design and Procedure 6.2. Results and Discussion VII. STUDY 2 33 7.1. Design and Procedure 7.2. Results and Discussion VIII. GENERAL DISCUSSION 38 8.1. Theoretical and Managerial Implications 8.2. Limitations and Further Research IX. REFERENCES 42 X. ARTWORKS 50 XI. APPENDIX 51 국문 초록 53Maste

A study on the application of contemporary visual art into flagship stores of luxury fashion brands

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Luxury fashion brands face a new challenge as to how to sustain brand growth while maintaining the exclusivity of brands due to the democratisation of the luxury phenomenon which is mainly driven by the emergence of ‘new luxury’ and changes of consumption style ‘trading up’. Luxury consumers are becoming disillusioned with the vulgarisation of luxury goods and prefer exclusive luxurious experiences. In order to keep pace with the changes in luxury consumer needs and promote an image with creative and luxurious connotations, luxury brands increasingly associate with contemporary visual art through diverse kinds of channels. Among the channels, great attention has been given to contemporary visual art exhibitions within a flagship store due to its benefits: geographical location, cutting investment cost and offering direct art experience to consumers. However, there is no theoretical research investigating the main points to be considered in applying contemporary visual art exhibitions to flagship stores of luxury fashion brands. Moreover, there is a need for a systematic approach in applying contemporary visual art exhibitions to flagship stores of luxury fashion brands as relying mainly on a designer’s intuition might pose a problem: delivering different messages from those intended. Through the research, four main propositions were identified which need to be considered when luxury fashion brands apply contemporary visual art exhibitions to their flagship stores: 1) brand communication with consumers, 2) the fit between brand identity and that of an artist, 3) consumers’ value/benefits in the way that enhance consumers’ aesthetic experience of art and 4) artists’ value/benefits. Models including a conceptual model and a design tool kit were developed and tested with experts in this field. The proposed models are decision supporting tools which provide a comprehensive overview regarding the main points to be considered as well as support finding a high fit artist to brand identity. They offer advantages as follows: 1) the conceptual framework improves understanding of the needs/values of the three main stake holders such as luxury fashion brands, consumers and artists for this practice and provides an insight into how to address them in applying contemporary visual art exhibitions to flagship stores of luxury fashion brands 2) the tool kit assists in making a decision when selecting artists or artworks and offers benefits to all the stake holders: 1) luxury brand value by managing their touch points effectively that ultimately lead to enhancing brand communication, 2) consumer value by preventing confusion caused by disharmonious messages from all the touch points within flagship stores, and 3) artist value by finding a matched brand for synergy between brands and artists

Metropolitan landscape and urban art. The case of Tehran

Paesaggio metropolitano e l'arte urbano. Il caso di Teheran Il paesaggio urbano di Teheran attualmente presenta problemi significativi connessi con un rapido sviluppo dell'arte urbana contemporanea. È quindi parso necessario analizzare approfonditamente il ruolo che mirati progetti di urban art possono avere per superare tali problemi contribuendo al miglioramento del paesaggio urbano nel suo complesso. In questa tesi, l'arte urbana non è quindi considerata come un fattore decorativo, ma è una parte del progetto di paesaggio urbano che coinvolge la dimensione soggettiva, “rispetto all'impatto positivo sui cittadini” e la dimensione oggettiva, “la qualità del paesaggio urbano” studiando il contesto urbano e sociale dell'area/quartiere. Questa ricerca mira, per tanto, a definire un progetto di arte urbana esplicitamente finalizzato a migliorare il paesaggio metropolitano. In particolare, la tesi inizia con una panoramica sull'arte urbana e il suo background in rapporto con i paesaggi metropolitani, per approdare a inquadrare la problematica scientifica. Uno sguardo più da vicino, ai casi di Berlino e Roma ha evidenziato che esistono progetti di arte urbana che apportano benefici significativi a paesaggi metropolitani. Infatti, negli ultimi venti anni sono state messe in campo sia la formulazione di progetti di arte urbana come stimolo alla crescita culturale nel caso di Roma, e l'introduzione dell'arte urbana come vera e propria strategia di sviluppo metropolitano nel caso di Berlino. In parallelo, la ricerca è stata condotta attraverso la raccolta e l'analisi dei dati utili a mettere in luce le problematiche più critiche del paesaggio urbano di Teheran. In questo quadro, l’obiettivo del lavoro è stato quello di definire un piano per determinare un metodo, classificare i problemi ed effettuare confronti mirati anche sulla base dei dati forniti da Roma, Berlino e Teheran. Si è quindi proceduto descrivendo le diverse problematiche di Teheran, e si è valutato il modo di usare gli apprendimenti derivanti dall’analisi dei progetti di arte urbana a Roma e Berlino. Il risultato del lavoro include strategie, linee guida e indicazioni operative. Le strategie evidenziano come l'arte urbana potrebbe aiutare a superare i problemi del paesaggio urbano di Teheran e in quale modo potrebbero essere utilizzati. Le strategie si dividono in: 1- Rigenerazione urbana: Spazio urbano abbandonato, Area degradata, e Spazi perduti: rilancio dell'identità urbana e leggibilità; 2- Creazione dello spazio aperto dinamico e creativo; 3- Comunicazione tra cittadino e città; 4-Funzione culturale e sociale: hotspots criminalità urbana e disuguaglianza spaziale/ingiustizia spaziale; 5- Benefici economici e turistici. Le linee guida descrivono il modo di utilizzare le opere d'arte urbane e fanno riferimento a: 1-Approccio sistematico del posizionamento, 2- Caratteristica di comunicazione, 3- Qualità del progetto e procedure di selezione, 4-Necessità amministrative: Concorsi e Commissioni, 5-Creazione dell'identità, 6-Attuazione della conservazione e della manutenzione. I suggerimenti proposti sono due metodi che potrebbero essere di supporto nella pratica dell'arte urbana a Teheran e contengono: 1- posizione di muri legali 2- progetto Co- creazione. Infine, è stata anche elaborata una simulazione di un progetto di arte urbana nel quartiere studiato Pamenar, di Teheran costruito con riferimento alle conoscenze acquisite

Identifying Professional Photographers Through Image Quality and Aesthetics in Flickr

In our generation, there is an undoubted rise in the use of social media and specifically photo and video sharing platforms. These sites have proved their ability to yield rich data sets through the users' interaction which can be used to perform a data-driven evaluation of capabilities. Nevertheless, this study reveals the lack of suitable data sets in photo and video sharing platforms and evaluation processes across them. In this way, our first contribution is the creation of one of the largest labelled data sets in Flickr with the multimodal data which has been open sourced as part of this contribution. Predicated on these data, we explored machine learning models and concluded that it is feasible to properly predict whether a user is a professional photographer or not based on self-reported occupation labels and several feature representations out of the user, photo and crowdsourced sets. We also examined the relationship between the aesthetics and technical quality of a picture and the social activity of that picture. Finally, we depicted which characteristics differentiate professional photographers from non-professionals. As far as we know, the results presented in this work represent an important novelty for the users' expertise identification which researchers from various domains can use for different applications

Facility managers’ perceptions on building performance assessment

During the operational phase, building performance may decrease in various areas, so that the end users’ requirements are no longer met. Consequently, indicators are useful to assessand improve the performance of existing buildings. In this study, we carried out a literature review and organized a focus group with facility management experts to gather and analyze facility managers’ perceptions on operational indicators that could be used to assess the performance of buildings. The results revealed that the core indicators used to measure a building’s operational performance are related to safety and assets working properly, health and comfort, space functionality, and energy performance. The findings also revealed that these indicators can be obtained from three sources: a) facility managers/operators, who carry out corrective maintenance and perform technical inspections, b) regular users, who report complaints and fill-in satisfaction questionnaires, and c) sporadic users, who also fill-in satisfaction questionnaires. These indicators and their sources can contribute to a better analysis of building performance and the definition of measures to improve performance during the operational phase of a building.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

How does contemporary artists consolidate their success and achievements through social media platform such as Instagram? : Case study of successful co-existing relationship developed between contemporary artists Ai Weiwei and KAWS with their Instagram account

In the following thesis, I would compare and contrast the two art world phenomenon:Ai Weiwei and KAWS, whom have very distinctive artistic focus and style. And how the two artists utilize their social media platform to achieve different purposes and reflect different values. In the past few years, due to internet accessibility to the art world, online and social media platforms have become an intermediary between the art world and the masses, giving everyone access to art. Being household names from the art world, both of the artists generated a large number of fans on their social media platform of Instagram. However, the two artist’s content display, communication methods and viewer’s feedback are completely different. For each artist, I would focus on the following three aspects: Market performance over the past decade, commercial impact through brands collaboration, and socio-political impact to analyze the root causes of different content presentations. Through the same platform: Instagram, both artists amplified their success by reaching a wider demographic and greater global social influence. Ai Weiwei further realized his socio-political values by drawing more attention and awareness for global crisis on a grander scale through the platform whereas KAWS promoted his artwork and collectibles to collectors and consumers worldwide

Pathway to Future Symbiotic Creativity

This report presents a comprehensive view of our vision on the development path of the human-machine symbiotic art creation. We propose a classification of the creative system with a hierarchy of 5 classes, showing the pathway of creativity evolving from a mimic-human artist (Turing Artists) to a Machine artist in its own right. We begin with an overview of the limitations of the Turing Artists then focus on the top two-level systems, Machine Artists, emphasizing machine-human communication in art creation. In art creation, it is necessary for machines to understand humans' mental states, including desires, appreciation, and emotions, humans also need to understand machines' creative capabilities and limitations. The rapid development of immersive environment and further evolution into the new concept of metaverse enable symbiotic art creation through unprecedented flexibility of bi-directional communication between artists and art manifestation environments. By examining the latest sensor and XR technologies, we illustrate the novel way for art data collection to constitute the base of a new form of human-machine bidirectional communication and understanding in art creation. Based on such communication and understanding mechanisms, we propose a novel framework for building future Machine artists, which comes with the philosophy that a human-compatible AI system should be based on the "human-in-the-loop" principle rather than the traditional "end-to-end" dogma. By proposing a new form of inverse reinforcement learning model, we outline the platform design of machine artists, demonstrate its functions and showcase some examples of technologies we have developed. We also provide a systematic exposition of the ecosystem for AI-based symbiotic art form and community with an economic model built on NFT technology. Ethical issues for the development of machine artists are also discussed

An Airport Experience Framework from a Tourism Perspective

This study, by integrating the perspectives of sociological, psychological, and service marketing and management, all of which affect the passenger experience, proposes a theoretical framework for the creation of the airport experience in relation to tourism. This research responds to the current phenomenon in which airports are offering other types of experiences within the airport terminal, expanding the role of an airport from being a utility for transportation into a place where various and different values can be offered. This research explores the current airport experience and adds to research on airport experience by clarifying ten key components necessary for airport passenger experience propositions based on existing research, the current industry phenomena, and the empirical study. The paper also underlines those components that can enhance passenger experience in relation to tourism and highlights the role that airports contribute to a destination

Smart Cities between ethics and aesthetics

Smart cities are systems of knowledge. If on the one hand they maintain an identity that prevents repetition - given the uniqueness of their historical-evolutionary path – on the other hand they can be classified according to the criteria of representation adopted for interaction with the urban reality. However, rather than adhering to a single paradigm (modernity, postmodernism or complexity), it may be useful to develop an “eclectic” perspective, in order to identify the conceptual intersections that show the existence of areas in which it is important to intervene, regardless of the diversity of paradigms. In this context, researchers and practitioners can help in establishing a link between the development of collective identities and activities of public institutions interested in activating participatory decision-making processes. Thus, it is possible to appreciate geographical scales and elements of scarse interest at an institutional level, which, however, may prove to be of great value in citizens’ individual background. Citizens become “daily life explorers” who can communicate with the institutions or share contents with them on the web. Instead, geographers and institutions have the task of integrating the individual opinions in order to produce “ethical frameworks” which are responsive to the living experience of people that animate everyday life. On the basis of these premises, the aim of this work is to research an equitable and sustainable pattern of development, in the ambivalent tension between ethics and aesthetics of the urban contexts, “mediated” by the system of knowledge that characterises the smart cities