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Authenticity in the Performing Arts: a Foolish Quest? Maud Derbaix, University of Namur, Belgium Alain Decrop, University of Namur, Belgium

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Authenticity in the Performing Arts: a Foolish Quest? Maud Derbaix, University of Namur, Belgium Alain Decrop, University of Namur, Belgium ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802 Authenticity in the Performing Arts: a Foolish Quest? Maud Derbaix, University of Namur, Belgium Alain Decrop, University of Namur, Belgium This research is about authenticity in the performing arts. Departing from the hyperreal condition of postmodernism, we attempt to argue that some performing arts’ spectators look for and experience a kind of authenticity when attending such shows. Looking at the different dimensions of authenticity, a series of propositions is made about its applications to the performing arts. We namely rely on a “constructivist” perspective supporting that the distinction between the authentic and the inauthentic can be socially or personally constructed. We argue that authenticity in performing arts remains in the communion of honest and true artists with a passionate audience. [to cite]: Maud Derbaix and Alain Decrop (2007) ,"Authenticity in the Performing Arts: a Foolish Quest?", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 34, eds. Gavan Fitzsimons and Vicki Morwitz, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 75-80. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12741/volumes/v34/NA-34 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Authenticity in the Performing Arts: A Foolish Quest? Maud Derbaix, University of Namur, Belgium Alain Decrop, University of Namur, Belgium Although philosophers (Benjamin [1936] 1973), anthropolo- tourism, products such as souvenirs or works of art are usually gists and sociologists (MacCannell 1973) have examined the con- described as authentic or inauthentic depending on whether they are cept of authenticity decades ago, it has been neglected by consumer made or performed by locals according to local traditions (Reisinger researchers for a long time. Only recently did authenticity draw the and Steiner 2006). Hence, in the tourism literature, modernists attention of a few scholars (Arnould and Price 2000, Camus 2001, usually refer to authenticity as something which is perceived and 2004; Cova and Cova 2004; Grayson 2002; Grayson and Martinec judged independently by experts and not by the tourists themselves. 2004; Grayson and Shulman 2000; Rose and Wood 2005). Accord- Tourists sometimes have the illusion they have encountered au- ing to Grayson and Martinec (2004), consumer quest for authentic- thentic things but tourist spaces are often constructed backstage in ity has existed for hundreds of years and still persists today as a contrived manner. This is the origin of MacCannell’s popular reflected by a substantial number of purchase situations and a wide concept of “staged authenticity.” The modernist view of authentic- variety of market offerings. For Camus (2001), an actual culture of ity as something that can be determined objectively reflects a way authenticity only emerged in the seventies. This emergence may be of thinking that is radically opposed by postmodernists. explained by three major factors: nostalgia of the past and of Postmodern researchers argue that “there is no sense in asking elsewhere, the quest for references, meanings and truth (Benjamin what is the original and what is the copy” (Venkatesh 1999, 157). [1936] 1973) and the need for singularity. For them, inauthenticity is even not a problem arguing that people Much in contrast with the idea of authenticity as emerging live in hyperreality (Eco 1986). Whereas modern art is character- cultural framework, postmodern writers have argued that ized by realism and representation (Firat and Venkatesh 1995), technology’s innovations and globalization have undermined con- postmodernism is characterized by the blurring of art and everyday sumers’ ability to assess the difference between the real and the life, high and pop culture, pastiche, irony, etc. (Featherstone 1991). fake, between the authentic and the contrived. Benjamin ([1936] For some postmodern writers like Firat and Venkatesh, 1973) was among the first authors to point at the depreciation of postmodernity should lead to the liberation and emancipation of authenticity in the arts. In his “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical consumers as opposed to the highly pessimistic view of other Reproduction”, he observes a shift in the status of traditional art, in postmodernists. For Baudrillard (1995) and Featherstone (1991), a period where technical means of art reproduction such as photog- life is becoming more aesthetic, more like the arts: ephemeral, raphy and film increasingly dominate the imagination of mass experiential, image- and style-based. Postmodern performance public. Similarly, for Baudrillard (1983), authenticity has been theorists such as Kaye (1994) show that postmodernist–or more replaced by copy and nothing is real though those engaged in the accurately anti-modernist–projects seek to disrupt any illusion are incapable of seeing it. For others, as Belk (1996), foundationalism or essentialism and question the very concepts of consumers now prefer the easily accessible replica to the more authenticity, wholeness, meaning and originality. He isolates three inaccessible original. Moreover, as far as museums and historic unifying elements in many of the postmodern works he approaches, sites are concerned, Belk (1996) underlines that consumers are no i.e. (1) the deflation of the art object as an autonomous whole in longer interested in history, art and culture as such but in fantasy favor of an emphasis on the spectator’s construction of that object and spectacle. In the same way, Benjamin quotes Duhamel “the as an image in the mind; (2) the shift from art as object to art as masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from receptive event; and (3) the upsetting of the hierarchies and assump- the spectator” (232). In summary, in a cultural world of hyperreality tions that define and stabilize the formal and thematic parameters of where the distinctions between real and unreal are blurred, the the performance work (on that point, see also Auslander (1992) and search for distraction and entertainment appears to prevail over the his analysis of the Wooster Group’s work). quest for authenticity. Recent studies in consumer research, supporting the perspec- This paper is about authenticity in arts and more precisely in tive that the distinction between the authentic and the inauthentic the performing arts. Our research was guided by an attempt to can be personally or socially constructed, pinpoint common cues answer the following questions: are consumers looking for authen- that consumers use to evaluate different kinds of authenticity ticity in their artistic/cultural experiences? Are they looking for (Grayson 2002; Grayson and Martinec 2004; Grayson and Shulman “artertainment” rather than authenticity? Which type of authentic- 2000). In their consumption study about reality television, Rose and ity is relevant when considering different types of cultural do- Wood (2005) even argue that the consumption of reality shows mains? Departing from the hyperreal condition of the postmodern represents a sophisticated quest for authenticity within the tradi- view (Baudrillard 1983; Belk 1996; Firat and Venkatesh 1995), we tionally fiction-oriented entertainment paradigm. These argue that some performing arts’ spectators look for and experience “constructivist” approaches of authenticity contrast postmodern a kind of “authenticity” when attending such shows. The paper is views of hyperreality and even accept as authentic the fantasy that articulated in three major parts. Firstly, we briefly examine the consumers co-produce during recreative experiences. concept of authenticity according to relevant streams of research. Secondly, we propose an extended review of the concept of authen- DECLINATIONS OF AUTHENTICITY ticity and of definitions/dimensions according to different theoreti- The term “authenticity” derives from the Greek “authentikos” cal perspectives. Finally, we consider the extent to which those in which “autos” means self and “entea” refers to tools or instru- definitions/dimensions can be applied to different forms of art ments. Nowadays, “authentic” is generally defined in two different focusing on “high” and “pop” performing arts. ways: it means either “of the authorship or origin claimed, real, genuine” (something which has genuine authority) or “worthy of PARADIGMATICAL SHIFTS acceptance, true” as opposed to that which is false, fictious and MacCannell (1973) is the first to suggest that an object’s counterfeit (Costa and Bamossy 1995; Kennick 1985; Phillips authenticity can be assessed according to certain standards. In 1997). In other words, genuineness and true value are the two 75 Advances in Consumer Research Volume 34, © 2007 76 / Authenticity in the Performing Arts: A Foolish Quest? broadly accepted meanings of authenticity and, as we will see, they technology as distorting a more “authentic” relationship with the often are taken into account in the different approaches exploring natural world. With the new technologies, people observe spectacles, the concept. via control screens instead of living real experiences. Instead of the Following a semiotic approach, Barrère and Santagata (1999) real, we have simulations and simulacra (Baudrillard 1983). So, define a work of art according
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