Clowns, fuzzy worms and blooming flowers: becoming a ‘creative child’ through arts consumption

Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess
publishedVersion

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Other link related to publication (opens in new window)

Authors

Date

2023

Department

Department of Art and Media

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

35

Series

Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 39, issue 13-14, pp. 1331-1365

Abstract

Focusing on three ‘Instagram-ready’ art installations, this article suggests that a special kind of consumer – the ‘creative child’ – is being developed at the intersection between immersive art spaces and social media technologies. Using a multi-method approach blending ethnography in art exhibitions and netnography on Instagram, the study elaborates on how a consumer ‘becoming’ – a never-ending process of forming the self – emerges from affordances of these environments that foster the elements of childlike creativity: imaginativeness, emotiveness and playfulness. It argues that ‘becoming’ goes beyond the social media performance of the self. Through approaching adult consumers as ‘creative children’, the study illustrates how the consumer is enabled to tap into creativity in novel ways, and how following the therapeutic ethos and reconnecting to the ‘inner child’ can create a sense of an open future, full of possibilities.

Description

Keywords

Other note

DOI

10.1080/0267257X.2023.2184852

Citation

Hietala, I 2023, 'Clowns, fuzzy worms and blooming flowers: becoming a ‘creative child’ through arts consumption', Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 39, no. 13-14, pp. 1331-1365. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2023.2184852

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202305313500

Collections

[article-cris] Palvelut / Services