Ep. 119 Art History in Edinburgh Scotland, Cultural Capital, What's in Your Cultural Wallet?

Happy Holidays from The Modern Moron recorded this day, the 25th of November, 2022.  It’s Black Friday and there’s no place I would rather NOT be than a mall, A Walmart, a Best Buy or an Amazon.  Also, I literally got back from the grocery  store and I thought I was going to have to take out a Home Equity Loan.  I just paid over $5 for a dozen eggs.  What the ever-loving- @##$%?  At what point is it going to  be …. That’ll b e a dollar…. Another dollar…. Okay, two for one.  Thanks Grandpa Joe… for all the inflation.  It’s your fault.  Your fault there’s global inflation.  Whatever country your in, it’s that political leader’s fault that there is global inflation.  If you live in Canada, Thanks Trudeau.  If you live in China, thanks JinPing.  Great Britain’s revolving door… thanks Sunak.  Or can we still blame Boris Johnson?  Thanks Bo-jo.  Or let's lay that on Liz Truss!  She was only there 50 days, it’s all her fault.  Thanks Liz.  

But let’s stay in Great Britain, because…

My guest is the Senator’s daughter who has been on this show multiple times, this time from Edinburgh, Scotland!  She is attending the University of Edinburgh getting her Master’s degree in Art History.  We talk about: 

• How wonderful and nice the people of Scotland are, dispelling the U.S. notion that everyone there is groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons.  
• The Art History Masters degree she is achieving specifically is in accessibility, and as I said in the previous episode, we’re not talking ramps and wider doorways, but accessibility in a broader sense.  Is it accessible to all social classes, ethnicities and cultures and are they all represented in art museums?  We talk about those little plaques next to the artwork that I almost never read.  Are they accessible to all?  I bring up something used in internet web content design and development called the Hemingway app.  Hemingway’s style of writing, as  you may already know, is very concise and direct.  There’s not a lot of flowery language in it which allowed him to get to the point more quickly.  It’s very efficient.  And now… there’s an app for that.  And it’s called hemingwayapp.com .  It’s free.  You go there, paste in your composition, or write in the page and the app will analyze your writing as you go.  It will highlight areas where your sentences and paragraphs can be made more simple.
• We talk about her roommates in her flat… there’s 5 of em! 
• She brings up the term “Cultural Capitol” which is a theory created by this french guy Pierre Bordieu who was a French sociologist and public intellectual.  Seriously?  There’s an occupation called Public Intellectual?  What’s the annual salary of a Public Intellectual.  I’m a private intellectual.  I’m the most intellectual person in my bathroom at any given time.

Back to Cultural Capital.  I’m going to read you a few sentences about Cultural capital and the sentences are a little too complex to be comprehended by some individuals, which lowers their Cultural capital and creates further inaccessibility.  Inaccessibility to knowledge.  Confused?  Me too.

Cultural capital is defined as the social assets of a person that can be used to increase one's chances of success in life. These assets can be either tangible, such as clothes or educational certificates, or intangible, such as knowledge or life experiences. While everyone has some form of cultural capital, those from higher social classes tend to have more of it. This is because they have greater access to resources that can help them develop their skills and talents. Additionally, they are more likely to inherit cultural capital from their families.

Cultural capital is not a static concept; it can change over time as people gain or lose access to resources. For example, someone from a lower social class who manages to get a college degree has increased their cultural capital. Similarly, someone from a higher social class who drops out of school may have lost some of their cultural capital. And, the meaning of cultural capital is not necessarily static. The social assets that society values can shift over time.

There are three types or “states” of Cultural Capital: 1) There is the “Embodied” state which is the capital you have from your life experiences, learning your A,B,C’s and being read to all the way through education and socialization.  2) the second state is called the “Objectified” state, more commonly known about twenty years or so ago as “bling”, “cheddar”, “lit”, “Gucci”, etc. And it’s not just slang as we see it everywhere.  I drive a Ford Pickup and you drive a Mercedes or a Lexus or a Tesla, you’ve got more “Objectitfied” cultural capital than me.  Your grocery bags say Whole Foods, my grocery bags say Grocery Outlet.  You get it.  

3) Finally, there is “Institutionalized” Cultural Capital which is the way society measures social capital.  The classic example of this is formal academic degrees; a masters degree carries more capital than a bachelors degree, a PhD even more and so on.  And let’s not forget the degrees on the opposite end of academia, that being degrees from the School of Hard Knocks.  Depending on the culture, there may not be much perceived value on a degree from that institution or street smarts, but if  you do have it, you can still  gain your objectified capital (cha-ching).

She uses the expression or notion that museums and the historically European art contained within is “The purveyor of absolute fact”.  And as part of the study of Art, she challenges that notion.  I hope I’m getting this right, otherwise she could sue me for defamation!

The point, as I understand or misunderstand it is when she says there should be multiple entry points that visitors to a museum can access the art.  Something for everyone.  I liken it to the ski trails at a ski resort.  There’s the green circle or the bunny  hills.  If you know a little more about art you can tackle the blue trails; I think it’s a blue square?  Then if you’re really down with the art, you can tackle the black diamond explanation of the painting or whatever the hell you’re looking at.  

Okay, enough babbling out of me, it’s time to learn about Art Accessibility, Scotland style.  Grab yourself an Irn-Bru, unless it’s time for a wee bit o’ whiskey.  As the lassie and me have a little Blether.  Keeut Tine-g .. to TMM.  Thanks for listening.  

CLOSE - The Modern Moron equates Cultural Capital to Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.  You know, as far as great speeches from a movie go, I will put Gene Wilder’s rant up against the best of them.  Gordon Geko and his “Greed is Good” speech or even Gary Cooper in his “Luckiest Man on The Face of the Earth” speech… a lot of the best speeches are from sports movies.  Especially if you’re a misogynist moron like me.  I think we should do an episode on the best speeches from great movies.  What do you think?  Maybe some of them would apply to today as much as when we saw them on the big screen?  

But that is for another day.  Thank you to my guest and best wishes on her upcoming Masters degree.  Thank you for listening and we’ll see  you next time on TMM.

Cultural Capital Theory & Examples | What is Cultural Capital? - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com 

Understanding Ernest Hemingway's Incredible Writing Style - bookanalysis.com  

https://hemingwayapp.com/