Transmedia Field Guide

While I could have done something crazy and off the wall I decided that my field guide to an art world would be focused around the actual art world that I grew up in. I have heard many stories about people who grew up in small, Midwest towns where art was something that simply did not exist. Although my hometown is small and conveniently located in the Midwest, with the counterculture and liberal undertones, the arts are something that defines my community. I grew up surrounded by murals, yarn-bombing, and amazing performances. In school, I was exposed to incredible artists in resident such as contemporary artist Bing Davis and the African dance company Bi-Okoto. With all of these amazing opportunities in my reach I was able to creatively make my way through childhood and adolescence with the amazing, artistic support of my village.

Yellow Springs is small but, relative to its size, has a large arts and cultural community. Sociologist Howard Becker defines an art world as “an established network of cooperative links among participants” (1982, p.34). Yellow Springs is, quite literally, its own art world with many incredible artists, a unique audience, and a history of being weird.

I intend to explore the history and significance of the various disciplines (a list provided to me by the Yellow Springs Arts Council) within the context of the community and connect with the artists themselves in order to create a comprehensive field guide to the art world that is Yellow Springs. The field guide will include a history and description of each discipline along with one or two highlights focusing on an artist or work, a map or guide to public art around town, and a collection of community input from artists and the audience about what makes Yellow Springs unique in regards to the arts.

My overarching goal is to provide the residents and visitors of Yellow Springs with a detailed and ever growing guide to the arts and culture of our unique village. In addition to creating a physical book that contains all of this information, I plan on using additional transmedia resources to create various media outlets in which the field guide will be available and change as the arts and cultural community in Yellow Springs continues to develop and grow.

Check out this video: Introducing Yellow Springs