The Concept of Artistic Matrices

Abstract

This paper explores an alternative way of conceptualizing artistic processes in their social dimension. In particular, it sets out to redefine notions of different kinds of artistic processes such as those commonly dealt with under such rubrics as high and popular culture, mass and elite culture, folklore and fine arts. The paper begins with an extended critique of three generally accepted methods of defining different artistic processes: the concept of levels of taste and excellence; the idea of distinctive genres; and the theory of cultural evolution. In place of these accepted approaches, the paper suggests that we consider the arts as growing out of a variety of different matrices or patterns of process within the larger culture. The main body of the paper sets out to define the concept of artistic matrices and to present several model matrices based on this construct. Artistic matrices are defined as processes involving four major elements: the creator-performer, the medium, the symbolic structures and conventions, and the audience. Matrices differ in the definition of these four elements, in different distances between them, and in the presence or absence of mediating agencies within the matrix. On the basis of these definitions, four model matrices are presented: the communal, the mythical, the professional, and the reflexive. It is argued that these models provide a potentially more refined means of defining different cultural processes than the traditional concepts of folk, popular, mass, and elite cultures.