Understanding Bourdieu chapter 8

In chapter 8 the authors talk about 'The field of cultural production' and the main focus within this chapter is 'Art' in the Social world. It is really interesting understanding Bourdieu's views on the meaning of art as he beleives that the culture of art and the social culture have a close link. These two cultures or culture is closely linked, because Art is distinguished as art when a piece of work is held in a museum or is told by a legitimit critic that a peice of work is in fact an art piece. I agree with what has been said in this chapter as art is not just made for 'arts sake' as it is a social production and is produced for a market. If art was just for art then it wouldnt work or take off as nobody will know about the 'artist' but if it was made for a market then there would be many people invloved in making art and making the artist well known. I briefly read chapter 9 which I thought backed up art culture and social culture very well because it tells us that artists are not really 'distanced from a social and economic world as they are dependent on a range of collective structure, processes, agents and institution'. A number of things which are invloved makes art social. Another instersting point made in this chapter is 'Taste' in cultural production. I found this interesting as my last lecture covered taste and how we develop these tastes, whether it was through family or culture or friends. In this chapter taste is part of the 'field of power,' this means that the cultural arbitary makes sure that things that are important are valued by everyone whether they like it or not. These things include the cannes film festival which I personally wouldnt be interested in but this is still published in the media. 'Understanding Bourdieu' has a very interesting insight to art and the cultural production, and I agree with a lot of things that have been said and also I found out things that Ive never thought about.