The Art Car Spectacle: a Cultural Display And
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THE ART CAR SPECTACLE: A CULTURAL DISPLAY AND CATALYST FOR COMMUNITY Dawn Stienecker, MEd Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2012 APPROVED: Rina Kundu, Major Professor Nadine Kalin, Co-major Professor Connie Newton, Committee Member Denise A. Baxter, Interim Chair of the Department of Art Education and Art History Robert W. Milnes, Dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Stienecker, Dawn. The Art Car Spectacle: A Cultural Display and Catalyst for Community. Doctor of Philosophy (Art Education), August 2012, 231 pp., 11 illustrations, reference list, 120 titles. This auto-ethnographic study focuses on Houston’s art car community and the grassroots movement’s 25 year relationship with the city through an art form that has created a sense of community. Art cars transform ordinary vehicles into personally conceived visions through spectacle, disrupting status quo messages of dominant culture regarding automobiles and norms of ownership and operation. An annual parade is an egalitarian space for display and performance, including art cars created by individuals who drive their personally modified vehicles every day, occasional entries by internationally renowned artists, and entries created by youth groups. A locally proactive public has created a movement has co-opted the cultural spectacle, creating a community of practice. I studied the events of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art’s Art Car Weekend to give me insight into art and its value for people in this community. Sources of data included the creation of a participatory art car, journaling, field observation, and semi-structured interviews. The first part is my academic grounding, informed by critical pedagogy and socially reconstructive art practices. The second part narrates my experiences and understandings of the community along with the voices of others. Dominant themes of exploration include empowerment, community, and art. I examine the purposes for participation by artists, as well in the practices of audiences and organizations that provide support for this art form. My findings have significant implications community-based art education and k-12 classroom educators. Relational and dialogic approaches to making art, teaching, and researching are tied to problem-posing education as a recommendation for art education. Copyright 2012 by Dawn Stienecker ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................. vii NOTE TO READER ...................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 MY CONNECTION TO THE ART FORM ................................................... 1 Spectacle and the Display of Art Cars .................................................................. 4 Aligning a Cultural Investigation of Art Cars with Art Education ........................... 7 Questions and Study Overview ............................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 2 CULTURAL CONTEXT ............................................................................ 16 History and Development of the Art Car ............................................................. 16 Cultural Antecedents................................................................................ 17 Historical Antecedents ............................................................................. 18 Cars as Art Forms .............................................................................................. 20 Cars as Art ............................................................................................... 23 Aesthetic Framework for Valuing Art Cars .......................................................... 25 Dialogic Aesthetics .................................................................................. 25 Relational Aesthetics ............................................................................... 26 Aesthetic Value through Participation ...................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3 MEANING OF ART CARS ....................................................................... 31 Semiotic Meaning of Art Cars ............................................................................. 31 Semiotics ................................................................................................. 31 Social Semiotics ...................................................................................... 33 Art Cars as Symbolic Meaning ................................................................. 36 Understanding Art Car Culture and Community ................................................. 37 Art Cars and Cultural Display ................................................................... 38 Exhibition as Cultural Display .................................................................. 38 Festivals as Cultural Display .................................................................... 40 Cultural Display of Art Cars ...................................................................... 42 Rethinking Art Education .................................................................................... 44 An Introduction to Community-based Art Education ................................ 46 iii The Historical Role of Community in Art and Art Education ..................... 48 The Artist as Educator ............................................................................. 50 An Empowering, Inclusive, Democratic Art Education Based on Community ............................................................................................... 53 Democratic Approaches of Art and Art Education .................................... 56 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 59 Understanding My Role in Relationship to the Roles of Others in a Complex Community of Practice ....................................................................................... 59 Paradigmatic Assumptions ...................................................................... 59 Arts-Informed Educational Research .................................................................. 61 History and Development of Arts-Informed Educational Research .......... 63 Design of the Study ............................................................................................ 65 Auto-Ethnography: A Literary Approach to Arts-Informed Research ....... 67 The Appeal of Auto-Ethnography as a Method ........................................ 70 Exploring Self and Other .......................................................................... 72 The Flexibility of Auto-Ethnography ......................................................... 74 Narrative Inquiry ...................................................................................... 75 Participants and Location of Research ............................................................... 77 The Art Guys ............................................................................................ 79 Drew Bettge ............................................................................................. 80 Kelly Blakley and Kelly Castator .............................................................. 80 Suzanne Theis ......................................................................................... 81 Barbara Hinton ......................................................................................... 81 Bryan Taylor ............................................................................................ 82 Tara Conley ............................................................................................. 82 Dia Stewart .............................................................................................. 83 Marilyn Brooks ......................................................................................... 83 Methods of Data Collection................................................................................. 84 Artistic Production .................................................................................... 84 Journaling ................................................................................................ 86 Participant Observation............................................................................ 86 Semi-Structured Interviews ...................................................................... 89 Method of Data Analysis ..................................................................................... 93 iv Narrative Inquiry ...................................................................................... 93 Representation of Experience .................................................................. 94 Validity ................................................................................................................ 96 Uses and Limitations .......................................................................................... 98 CHAPTER 5 EMPOWERMENT ................................................................................. 100 Empowerment to Disrupt and Create Dialogue ................................................ 105 Empowerment to Create and Display Art ......................................................... 111 Empowerment to Join In ..................................................................................