![]() ![]() ![]() Its main research method, "participant observation", is a cluster of qualitative tools, which include first-hand experience of the environment, visual observation, attentive listening, casual interviewing and analysis of key documents.' Well, who knew? The rest of us call this journalism. ![]() 'Ethnography,' she writes, 'is a genre of writing with roots in anthropology that aims to generate holistic descriptions of social and cultural worlds. At the end of her book is a brief note in which she explains her methodology. Thornton, however, appears to believe that she has dished up rather more than this. The result, from her publisher's point of view, is an 'insider' guide to the shadowy types who make, market, sell and buy art. She also, more weirdly, hangs out at Artforum, a New York art magazine, and attends a student seminar at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. ![]() Its author, Sarah Thornton, a 'sociologist of culture' whom the Daily Telegraph once described as 'Britain's hippest academic', visits an auction and a biennale, a prize giving, an art fair and an artist's studio. Seven days to save a masterpiece for the nation! Seven days to rescue Damien Hirst's reputation! But in fact Seven Days in the Art World is only, somewhat less excitingly, what it purports to be: an account of seven disparate days spent in the excessive and increasingly loopy world of contemporary art. T he title subtly suggests the idea of a quest. ![]()
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