Performing the Artist: Expertise and Social Media in Cultural Work

• In Event: Creativity and Creative Behaviors in Media Industries

Abstract

This paper aims to provide new insight into the concept of expertise in contemporary cultural work. In much literature about the media and cultural industries, the notion of expertise is often mentioned yet taken for granted. The experts in these industries are often consultants, intermediaries (Prince, 2014) or critics (Bourdieu, 1996) and their status as experts accepted with little interrogation. What of the expertise of the workers in these industries, such as artists? How can we define expertise in the context of the cultural worker? Using my empirical research on a group of artists in the United Kingdom, I provide a critical appraisal of expertise in contemporary cultural work. I trace expertise through the artistic career - where it originates, how it transforms, how it is mobilised and how it is performed on social media platforms.

Author

• Karen Patel, Birmingham City University