One donor egg and ‘a dollop of love’: ART and de-queering genealogies in Facebook advertising

We consider what genealogical links, kinship and sociality are promised through the marketing of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Using a mixed method of formal analysis of Facebook's algorithmic architectures and textual analysis of twenty-eight adverts for egg donation drawn from the Facebook Ad Library, we analyse the ways in which the figure of the ‘fertile woman’ is constituted both within the text and at the level of Facebook's targeted advertising systems. We critically examine the ways in which ART clinics address those women whose eggs they wish to harvest and exchange, in combination with the ways in which Facebook's architecture identifies, and sorts those women deemed of ‘relevance’ to the commercial ART industry. We find that women variously appear in these adverts as empowered consumers, generous girlfriends, potential mothers and essentialised bodies who provide free-floating eggs. The genealogical and fertility possibility offered through ART is represented with banal ambiguity wherein potentially disruptive forms of biogenetic relatedness and arrangements of kinship are derisked by an overarching narrative of simplicity and sameness which excludes men, messy genealogies and explicitly queer forms of kinship. This rationalisation is supported by the simplicity and certainty of the Facebook targeted advertising algorithm which produces a coherent audience and interpellates users as fertile subjects whose choices are both biologically determined and only available through clinical intervention.

The Message Is Seen

Chapter 4 moves from France to England, where the growth of fervent evangelical Protestantism and a massive publishing industry resulted in an exponential increase in the reproduction and adaptation of Doré’s imagery. At the heart of this chapter are the monumental religious works produced for the Doré Gallery, established in London in 1868. By relying on consistent compositional structure and highly legible narratives, Doré’s biblical paintings cohere to evangelical principles and functioned counterdiscursively to the visual cultures of spectacle that shaped much of Victorian experience. While French audiences derided Doré’s efforts at painting, British viewers eagerly consumed these works, which were offered in the heart of the commercial art district and provided wholesome entertainment that counterbalanced the more suspect spectacles of nearby neighborhoods. This was a context in which commercialism and religious experience overlapped and which became, as one commentator put it, “where the godly take their children.”

Producing work-ready commercial art graduates: stakeholders' perceptions

PurposeGraduate unemployment is widely reported not only in Ghana but also across the globe. The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance of the HND Commercial Art Programme, Graphic Design (CAPGD) option, to the graphic art industry and to determine the work readiness of graduates of HND CAPGD at the world of work.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative, evaluative case study research design was adopted to examine the perspectives of stakeholders of CAPGD. It was a multiple case study, which involved faculty members, graduates and industry-based supervisors. The study was conducted using in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to obtain in-depth interpretations and conclusions that reflected the perceptions of the stakeholders.FindingsThe qualitative results indicate that the existing curriculum, based on the old polytechnic educational system, does not provide adequate practical approach to teaching and learning processes. Hence the majority of graduates lack competencies to meet industry's expectations.Research limitations/implicationsThe key limitation is lack of database on the HND Graphic Design graduates at Takoradi Technical University. This affected the data collection process as the HND Graphic Design graduate participants were not easily accessible, and, as such, much effort and risk were required to contact them. Considering the implication for education policy, the findings propose stakeholders' collaboration to ensure cross fertilization of ideas (Nwajiuba et al., 2020). Hence, a compilation of database could engender further study in this area and thus form the bases of a mixed method approach resulting in in-depth analysis for fresh insights into the study.Originality/valueThe findings provide unique insights into work readiness of Commercial Art graduates, specifically in Ghana, as it seeks to bridge a gap in literature.

But is it art? : the construction and valuation of illustration in Victoria's Island Illustrators Society

In Canada, illustration, commercial art, and conservative, traditional art are often spoken of as separate from and opposite to "non-commercial", "contemporary art", a division I argue stems from the older distinction between art and craft but one that can be subverted. Using concepts from Gowans, Greenhalgh, Mortenson, Shiner, and Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, this thesis traces the sociology and art history of the division between traditional and modern art that led to the formation of the Island Illustrators Society in 1985 in Victoria, British Columbia. I argue illustration is an original, theoretical art form indistinguishable from but alienated by contemporary art, that conservative art is neither static nor irrelevant, and that non-commercial contemporary art is a misnomer. I find the Society challenged the definitions of art and illustration by promoting illustrative fine art and by transcending binary oppositions of conservative and contemporary, commercial and non-commercial.

But is it art? : the construction and valuation of illustration in Victoria's Island Illustrators Society

In Canada, illustration, commercial art, and conservative, traditional art are often spoken of as separate from and opposite to "non-commercial", "contemporary art", a division I argue stems from the older distinction between art and craft but one that can be subverted. Using concepts from Gowans, Greenhalgh, Mortenson, Shiner, and Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, this thesis traces the sociology and art history of the division between traditional and modern art that led to the formation of the Island Illustrators Society in 1985 in Victoria, British Columbia. I argue illustration is an original, theoretical art form indistinguishable from but alienated by contemporary art, that conservative art is neither static nor irrelevant, and that non-commercial contemporary art is a misnomer. I find the Society challenged the definitions of art and illustration by promoting illustrative fine art and by transcending binary oppositions of conservative and contemporary, commercial and non-commercial.

Growth of Firms in a Fragmented Cultural Industry: Italian Commercial Art Galleries’ Competitive Strategies

The growth of cultural firms is important in developing local economies, enhancing employment, and improving urban sustainability, but it is difficult to achieve in fragmented industries that are populated by the smallest firms and offer a particularly unfavorable context for growth. The study takes a contingency perspective and contributes to both the literature on business strategy in fragmented industries and that on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by identifying the strategies implemented in a fragmented cultural industry, determining which of them are associated with a firm’s expected growth, and finding the few firm-specific factors that are associated with growth. It also complements the extant literature on art galleries by looking at them from the understudied strategic perspective. Suggestions for practitioners and policy makers are included.

Economic Freedom and Inequality in the Art Market: The Case of the Commercial Gallery

This article aims to consider the contemporary art market vis-à-vis the concept of economic freedom. Drawn from a larger study, this paper offers a glimpse of the political function of the art market, which is essentially an economic field. What I demonstrate is an inevitable clash between a free market and between political constructions that effect levels of freedom—concentrating on the parameter of inequality. The article focuses on the case of commercial art galleries, and analyzes their operation under neoliberal conditions, which represent the implementation of the idea of freedom in the economic field. Subsequently, I demonstrate the how high levels of concentration in the art market erode the levels of the equality of the players in the field. Ultimately, I argue that this case offers an example of the more general operation of the art market, which follows neoliberal principles, and thereby undermines the concept of economic freedom that is intrinsic to them.

Animals and Beauties: Zoomorphic Inscriptions of a Modern Gender Hierarchy

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with myriad other foundational changes taking place in China, attitudes to the role and significance of women and animals were also changing. This evolution is apparent in the artistic realm where both had featured in imperial-era Chinese art for centuries and continued to appear in the new Republic after 1911. This article examines animals and their paired depiction with women within one genre of art – the Baimei tu (One hundred beauties) – as it evolved from the late 1800s until the end of the 1910s. An examination of the works of leading commercial artists of this form reveals the importance of animals in the creation of a gendered modernity for China’s Republic – one that established a clear hierarchy of men over women. This article argues that the species-ist othering of animals was integral to the othering of women in the early Republican world of commercial art. It contributes to the literature on human-animal studies that shows the links between species-ism and sexism through the identical processes of variously othering animals and women. Identifying animals and women as special and different, reinforces a species hierarchy that places humans above other animals and a sex hierarchy that places men above women.