I also use theoretical perspectives for analyzing the case studies and curation as a larger phenomenon (see below on theory as “medium”). In this respect, I employ the art sociological perspective of “artification”, which is suggested by Shapiro and Heinich (2012), to describe an ongoing process of expanding art-related tropes to an increasing array of social fields. This expansion develops by partially extracting objects from previous contexts and subsequently re-classifying, individualizing, and intellectualizing them in contexts traditionally associated with art (Shapiro and Heinich, 2012). To give some examples of artification, museums artify archaeological or heritage objects, which once had a functional usage, by putting them on pedestals accompanied by conceptual-historical reasoning, or Instagram users can artify food by posting unique and individualized photos of dishes. The idea of artification does not entail assuming that “now everything is art” or “now everyone is an artist” but points to a value enhancing process in capitalism according to which the association with art-related tropes promises symbolic uplifting.
A key reference in this book is the work of the sociologist Eva Illouz on the commodification of emotions in capitalist public spheres (2013). Illouz argues that, rather than abolishing emotions, as is commonly believed, capitalism in fact does the opposite; it constructs public spheres which allow the self to be performed in overwhelmingly afective ways, with anger, happiness, sadness, and frustration being some of the emotions that are regularly shared across internet-mediated publics (2013). This, as we shall see in Chapter 6 in more detail, compels people to discover and perform their emotional selves in front of audiences as a vehicle for self-validation. However, while contemporary capitalism releases an “unprecedented intensification of emotional life, with actors self-consciously pursuing and shaping emotional experiences for their own sake”, at the same time it makes “rationality into a pervasive feature of human action” (2017: 5). “Emotions”, Illouz continues, “have become smoothly imbricated in rational modes of conduct promoted by everdeepening grip of economistic forms of thinking in various realms of life” (2017: 6). As emotions become public, emotional reactions become data used by corporations, while, as we shall see in the chapters that follow, various online entities perform specific emotional tinges to curate atmospheres around them (we will elaborate on the concept of “atmospheres” in Chapter 4), including the atmospheres of coolness, authenticity, and inspiration. Furthermore, Illouz’s idea highlights the market rationalization that is a constitutive element of contemporary public spheres, an idea that helps to look at how art-related tropes in the curatorial imperative are undergoing similar rationalized routes in order to achieve particular results instead of being free-floating (similarly to Illouz’s argument about emotions). The artified restaurant dishes shared on the social media accounts of everyday users and especially restaurants, for instance, as we shall see in Chapter 5, are not spontaneous reactions but calculated forms of self-presentation.
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Homo Curatorius