# Convention SEE ALSO: [[Art Worlds]] ==This note is just a #seedling . More is coming to grow and connect it to the rest of the Field Guide.== *Oxford English Dictionary* defines "convention" as: > A rule or practice based upon general consent, or accepted and upheld by society at large; an arbitrary rule or practice recognised as valid in any particular art or study. Sociologist Howard Becker described convention as a core practice of complex [[Art Worlds]], the full ecology of people required to make art available in the world. As he describes it: > Members of art worlds coordinate the activities by which work is produced by referring to a body of conventional understandings embodied in common practice and in frequently used artifacts. The same people often cooperate repeatedly, even routinely, in similar ways to produce similar works, so that we can think of an art world as an established network of cooperative links among participants. If the same people do not actually act together in every instance, their replacements are also familiar with and proficient in the use of those conventions, so that cooperation can proceed without difficulty. (Becker 2008) For Becker, the use of convention wasn't good or bad in the arts, just an observed tendency of art worlds. When using this framework, it is important to avoid judgment – especially when "conventional" is often considered a negative term when describing a work of art. In reality, without conventions of practice, complex and repeating expressions of art would not be possible at all. Says Becker: > Conventions make collective activity simpler and less costly in time, energy, and other resources; but they do not make unconventional work impossible, only more costly and difficult. (Becker 2008) --- ## Sources - Becker, Howard S. _Art Worlds_. 25th anniversary edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. ## Tags (click to view related pages) #frameworks #seedling