INSTITUTIONAL REVERSE SIDE OF CULTURE

Abstract

Th ree attributive aspects are typical for culture and its spheres such as science and art. Firstly, they are formed by the funds of previously acquired achievements. Secondly, means of creative increment of that fund are built into any cultural sphere. In the third place, culture, science and art are subtly structured defi nite social institutions. Th e article examines the third, less investigated aspect of culture which escapes the front side of discursive practice for its reverse side, where unintelligible subjects or things which are not intended for common viewing are hidden. Th e concept of «institutional reverse side» is introduced to reveal a number of factors which infl uence the state and processes of modern culture development negatively. Th e reality presentation technique which has been called «cluster formation» (B. G. Sokolov), «clip formation» (M. Foucault, A. Toffl er), «combinatorics of simulations» (M. Certeau) has obtained marked domination in modern art and mass-media. Here culture is fractured by consciousness lapses, which are being fi lled craft ily with necessary «phantoms» by the means of mass-media, news-makers (P. Virilio). Culture newsmakers, gallery owners and art critics are excessively orientated on the market background. Th ey have broken the artist-customer chain and become a power center in the capacity of manipulating mediator. Th e clusterized reality results in misfocusing of the researcher’s sight. Th e act of exposure of art-object has substituted the processes of its expertise and acceptance. Th e basic criteria of demarcation of the artwork from its imitation have been diff used.

Keywords:

attributive aspects of culture, reverse side of the institutional practices, absence, phantom, newsmaker