Materials in the Field: Object-trajectories and Object-positions in the Field of Contemporary Art

Abstract

The paper explores the central role of artworks in the field of contemporary art. It is based on an ethnographic study of the conservation laboratory at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and draws from three detailed case studies where the temporal and spatial trajectory of artworks led to processes of competition, collaboration, and repositioning among the agents involved in the acquisition, exhibition and conservation of these artworks. The study demonstrates the importance of artworks qua physical objects in the field of contemporary art, claiming attention to materiality in field theory and engaging with an object-oriented methodology in field analysis. Artworks are shown to intervene in field processes, both reproducing divisions and re-drawing boundaries within and between fields, and actualizing positions of individuals and institutions.

Boundary Objects and the Technical Culture Divide: Successful Practices for Voluntary Innovation Teams Crossing Scientific and Professional Fields

“…In service of our goal of extending the boundary object concept on its own terms, we also used an object “stabilization” lens (e.g., Dominguez Rubio & Silva, 2013; Power, 2015), noting how objects gain stability as they become translated into specific organizational practices (Power, 2015). This compatible lens enables deeper engagement with Star and her collaborators’ theory, because as noted, “tacking” back and forth between the global and local form was an essential part of Star’s conception of how boundary objects worked (Griesemer, 2015).…”

“…Work might go more smoothly with internal consultants to coordinate (Power, 2015), and collaboration and work can be enhanced when individuals can draw upon a shared identity (DiBenigno & Kellogg, 2014). For example, museum conservators are key actors in the physical stabilization of art objects, but importantly, conservators “who can collaborate and work across conservation boundaries and varied artistic mediums are better positioned in the field than those traditionally trained in one medium” (Dominguez Rubio & Silva, 2013, p. 170). This suggests divergence from single, traditional fields as a characteristic of successful marginal people.…”

Dead Logics and Worlds: Sound art and sonorous objects

“…The question of the transferral of meaning, of referentiality and of what comes from the ‘field’ is noted by Dominguez Rubio and Silva in their work on exhibited artworks. They argue against the ‘inert’ nature of objects as vehicles of meaning and for a vision of objects which themselves determine interpretation, how the field itself is organised, and the whole nature of ‘the enacting of field practices’ (Dominguez Rubio and Silva 2013: 162). The power of the material object is therefore central to understanding the narrative composition of sound art where those materials are not just inert objects waiting to be disciplined and re-ordered.…”

Making Evaluative Judgements and Sometimes Making Money: Independent Publishing in the 21st Century

“…Fifth, with its focus on the interplay between habitus and field, field analysis often reduces cultural objects to little more than symbols in a wider game of power (Hennion, 2001(Hennion, , 2007. It is important, therefore, to consider the dynamic interplay between individuals and cultural objects as well as the materiality of the objects (Stewart, 2012;Rubio and Silva, 2013;Savage and Silva, 2013). Finally, and most relevant to this article, field analysis does not tend to give an adequate account of the evaluative judgements, whether ethical or aesthetic, that are made by individuals in the course of their everyday practices (Stewart, 2017).…”