Circus Aesthetic: From Pastel to Pastiche?

A literature review by Laurens van den Broek A literature review by Laurens van den Broek Word count: 5,371 Cover image: Calvert Litho, 1890. Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei Contents Preface.............................................................................................................. 1 Circus discourse in the wake of Adorno The archetype of spiritualized art...................................................................... Vacillating between the limelight and obscurity................................................ A pastiche from the get-go................................................................................ Dominant characteristics of circus’s aesthetic practices..................................... 2 3 4 5 Developing a theoretical model Gaining popularity and allure........................................................................... Towards an inclusive theoretical model............................................................ Applying the model: a case study...................................................................... 6 8 9 Asserting the model’s design historical relevance From pastel to pastiche?.................................................................................... In conclusion.................................................................................................... 10 11 Reference list..................................................................................................... 12 0 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei Circus aesthetic: From pastel to pastiche? A literature review by Laurens van den Broek It takes but one great insight to spark an academic discourse, and even with a generic form of popular entertainment such as the circus things are not different. Admittedly, the circus seems, at first sight, unlikely to be an eligible subject for academic research in design historical context, or at the very least an awkward choice indeed. As an expression of culture, though, its aesthetic values have undeniably been uttered in numerous material artefacts, eventually disseminating into cultures around the world. This circus aesthetic, with the electronically mediated world growing Fig. 1: Varekai differs drastically from the ever more towards the concept of a “global aesthetic of traditional circus acts. Caption village” as McLuhan coined the phrase1, has from Cirque du Soleil website. <http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ become, I argue here, a transcultural pastiche varekai/default.aspx> [11 December 2014] increasingly deviating from established circus traditions, culminating in contemporary circus shows such as the nature-inspired 2002 Cirque du Soleil show Varekai (Fig. 1) amongst many others. The transition of what once started as a “traditional” circus –the term “pastel” in the title referring to homogeneous, romanticized conceptions one could have of the past, however a modern fallacy they may be– to a well-produced, tightly coordinated performance show housing intellectual content is in this particular case evident. However, where does one draw the line when it comes to a frivolous cultural happening such as the circus? When exactly does tradition (pastel) turn into pastiche? This will be the central research question of this literature review. Finding out when (circus) tradition is transformed into cultural pastiche could prove beneficial when put in design history context, for aesthetics continue to play a role. If a theoretical model can be devised that can separate pastiche from tradition in the circus, the model might also be applicable to design-historical discourse outside of the circus. Potentially, it could raise knowledge and awareness in the field while answering the research question. After all, the circus too has been designed, but what constitutes a “circus” has been the subject of a multiplicity of rigorous changes in a relatively short period in history. From its ancient Greek and Roman roots to its absolute zenith in 19th and early 20th century America, where traditions were reinvented and established anew, and finally to its current globally scattered state, the circus has undergone several metamorphoses throughout the centuries. In order to clearly define the body of referable literature, choices were made that will be clarified hereafter. A time span has been chosen to demarcate referenced sources, 1 McLuhan, Marshall, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967), Berkeley, California (Gingko Press) 2001, p. 63. For more information on McLuhan’s concept of the ‘global village’, see: McLuhan, Marshall, War and Peace in the Global Village, London (Bantam) 1968. 1 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei starting from 1970 up until and including 2010, covering forty years of academic literature on the circus. There are two reasons for this, the first one being availability. Although the last years have produced some great publications on the circus and its aesthetic2, they were excluded because they proved too difficult to get a hold of. Either they were not available in Dutch (university) libraries or other public (online) institutions yet, or they were simply too expensive to purchase. The second reason, though, expresses the lack of necessity felt to include these newer sources. Within the set period of time period eight sources were picked that together were deemed comprehensive and representative of academic writing on circus aesthetics. These range from the origins of the circus to more recent developments and focus mainly on European and American circuses, the respective places where the circus originated from and where the circus found the successful format that eventually led to worldwide fame. Additional sources are only used to support arguments and are clearly mentioned in full in the footnotes. A chronology of referenced literature can be found below (Fig. 2).3 Fig. 2: Chronology of reviewed literature – full titles are given in the reference list. The archetype of spiritualized art It would be wrong to state that Theodor Adorno’s posthumously published Aesthetic Theory (Ästhetische Theorie, 1970; translated into English in 1984, although HullotKentor’s 1997 translation acts as the English standard) is a book about the circus, just as it would be a mistake to say that Adorno was the first to write about circus aesthetics. Rather, Adorno (1903-1969) wrote (at times densely) on a wide array of aesthetic topics 2 Several works ought to be mentioned here, starting with Women of the American Circus, 1880-1940 (2012), edited by Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene. That same year two other marvellous book were published: Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010, edited by Matthew Wittmann, and The American Circus by Susan Weber, Kenneth Ames and Matthew Wittmann again. In 2013 the gorgeously designed The Circus, 1870s-1950s came out, edited by Noel Daniel. Finally, Paul Bouissac’s Circus as Multimodal Discourse: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual (2014) is worth mentioning here. 3 Unfortunately the 1980s remain poorly represented in this literature review. Books like George Speaight’s A History of the Circus (1980) and Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum (1983), edited by Arthur Saxon, regrettably proved too difficult to find. 2 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei including the circus and performance art in general, making him one of the first to write about circus aesthetic in an academic fashion.4 Therefore, Aesthetic Theory can rightfully be seen as a sound academic point of departure with regards to circus aesthetics. Adorno allocates only a few brief moments to the aesthetic of the circus, but these moments are nonetheless relevant. Regarding the circus as a form of art, Adorno refers to it as being part of ‘art genres that fall below approved culture’5 and thus makes a clear distinction between highbrow and lowbrow culture, the circus belonging to the latter category according to his contemporaries. The circus nevertheless sparked discussions outside of circus milieu and ‘engaged artists and intellectuals from all walks of life.’6 Adorno explains that artists across Europe such as the French cubist painters and Wedekind in Germany turned to the circus for inspiration. ‘What Wedekind called "corporeal art" has not only remained beneath spiritualized art, not only remained just its complement: In its intentionlessness, however, it is the archetype of spiritualized art.’7 By having no meaning, no predetermined intentions, circus is an elevated art form pur sang, Adorno therefore implies. ‘Forms of the so-called lowbrow arts, such as the circus tableau, in which at the finale all the elephants kneel on their hind legs, while on each trunk stands a gracefully posed, impassive ballerina, are unintentional archetypal images of what the philosophy of history deciphers in art; from its disdained forms much can be gleaned of art's secret which is so well hidden (...).’8 What is it in the circus, then, that attracts both lower and upper classes, both the less educated and the more cultivated members of society? There are banal elements to circus acts, with clowns performing slapstick and dangerous animals such as lions and tigers inciting intuitive feelings like fear, but also more refined elements are to be noticed: acrobats graciously swinging through the air, horses galloping side by side, and tragic narratives that develop during the show and touch upon deeper emotions such as melancholy (think, for instance, of the sad clown; what some might call a contradictio in terminis). This aesthetic duality ensured a diverse audience, but never succeeded in achieving the same culturally sophisticated status that was bestowed upon institutional counterparts such as museums and theatres. Adorno states that performance arts like the circus are devoid of intentions, but much has changed in recent years as will be illustrated later on. Vacillating between the limelight and obscurity Such aesthetic duality presumably finds its origins in the way the circus traditionally operated on the borders of society, connecting the rural with the urbane, the nomadic nature of the circus adding to this equivocal image of being participative and rejecting of society at the same time. It was Paul Bouissac, a semiotician and widely regarded as a pioneer in circus studies, who keenly noticed these developments and noted them down 4 Of course there were academic studies on the circus to be found prior to the 1970s, though mostly consisting of circus histories and studies on circus life. Courtney Ryley Cooper’s Circus Day (1931), Marian Murray’s Circus! From Rome to Ringling (1956), George Leonard Chindahl’s A History of the Circus in America (1959), Esse Forrester O’Brien’s Circus: Cinders to Sawdust (1959), and Earl Chapin May’s The Circus: From Rome to Ringling (1963) are some examples. 5 Adorno 2002, p. 80. 6 Otte, Marline, Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890-1933, New York (Cambridge University Press) 2006, p. 117. 7 Adorno 2002, p. 81. 8 Adorno 2002, pp. 287-88. 3 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei in Circus and Culture: A Semiotic Approach. Published in 1976, it is a compilation of essays, articles and papers written between 1970 and 1975, each of which treats a different aspect of circus behaviour. As a semiotician it is Bouissac’s conviction that circus performances act as conveyors of cultural messages and that the strongest of these messages are embedded in the circus’s “genes”, serving as meta-cultural codes. Bouissac is one of the first, if not the first, to approach the circus from a semiotic point of view and, as we will see later when discussing Semiotics at the Circus, proves quite successful in doing so. Vacillating between the limelight and obscurity, circus aesthetics were in a constant state of transformation through the assimilation of local and regional cultures. By unintentionally putting into question the cultural codes that societies forced upon its participants, the circus became an enigma to some, a mirror for others. For instance, stereotypes of gender were expanded upon as much as they were done away with, or inverted even; nature’s axioms were ridiculed and at the same time revered.9 This intrinsic ambivalence, the critical undertone never absent, fortunately has not changed in recent years in spite of increasing professionalization, but the focus has arguably shifted to more grander stories and wider, more encompassing issues. The gradual change in circus acts as noted in the preface, moving from traditional to more modern and less “freewheeling” approaches, resulted in an increase of cultural legitimacy, not exactly putting them on par with museums yet (although both aim to offer art of the highest quality to its audiences), but at the least turning them into full-fledged competitors for theatre groups nowadays. Notwithstanding, if circuses intentionally celebrated and mocked the status quo simultaneously, spurring metareflections of society itself while prompting volleys of laughter and gasps of admiration, Adorno’s “intentionlessness” can only be refuted. A pastiche from the get-go Both Adorno and Bouissac are European from descent, but have lived (or live, in Bouissac’s case) parts of their lives across the Atlantic Ocean. Adorno was exiled and resided in the United States for (approximately) 11 years before returning to Europe; Bouissac lives in Toronto to this day. Bouissac’s writing, therefore, is presumably even more influenced by American circus culture than Adorno’s. It could explain their different conceptions of “the circus,” aside from having grown up in dissimilar milieus, their utilization of different research methods, and different areas of interest. Clarifying the correlation between circus and American culture is the subject of an essay written by Doug Mishler. His article ‘“It Was Everything Else We Knew Wasn’t”: The Circus and American Culture’ first appeared in Fig. 3: The Cultures of Celebrations, 1994. The Cultures of Celebrations (1994, see Fig. 3 for its eerie <http://goo.gl/n9Jc2y> [15 cover), edited by Ray Browne and Michael Marsden. The December 2014]. book itself investigates the many manifestations of human celebration, and what else is the circus but an artistic celebration of life? Mishler opens with a funny commemoration of the extravagant P.T. 9 Bouissac 1976, p. 7. 4 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei Barnum (1810-1891), arguably the most famous, influential and flamboyant circus director America has known. Mishler asserts like Bouissac that ‘[t]he circus was successful in so many locales because its appeal transcended race, gender, class and occupational distinctions.’10 In attempting to unearth the cause of the American circus’s success during its golden age (1870-1930), Mishler states that ‘[o]f all elements which contributed to the circus’s popularity, novelty was the most significant,’11 which logically includes circus aesthetic. Such novelties included the circus tradition of “humbug,” wherein man’s curiosity for exotic cultures was indulged by offering counterfeit stereotypes fabricated by the circus. Barnum was a master at this practice, which earned him the title of ‘King of Humbug’12 Freak shows, too, fascinated the audience. Today, such practices have disappeared from Western circuses by and large, the public opinion now favouring civil dignity and respect for other beings over sheer curiosity. A similar fate seems to await the use of wild and exotic animals in circuses.13 Traditions in circus aesthetic accordingly sound arbitrary; they were a pastiche from the get-go. Still certain aesthetic traditions that were established long ago persevere. Ask any child what a circus is and chances are the answer will sound something like this: ‘A big top with a lot of bright colours; there are clowns with big red noses, and acrobats run and play with horses or in the air, and many magical things happen.’ Circus aesthetics apparently have always been eclectic in nature, so where does this “pastel” and seemingly homogeneous image, portrayed for instance by Calvert Litho’s lithograph (1890) on the cover of this literature review, come from? Dominant characteristics of circus’s aesthetic practices To answer that question, having a look at Helen Stoddart’s Rings of Desire: Circus History and Representation (2000) proves worthwhile. Much like what Circus and Culture did for Bouissac, Rings of Desire did for Helen Stoddart. The book is to be read as both an introduction to circus history and as an account of dominant characteristics of the aesthetic practices of the circus put in socio-historical context. Dedicating an entire chapter to aesthetics, Stoddart claims that defining the ‘terms of circus aesthetics is very much like, and is linked to, defining its generic identity’14 and asserts that it is not an easy task, as they have been the subject of ‘much change and adaptation according to institutional transformations and technical innovations over the years,’15 as it has been ascertained here from previously discussed works. Stoddart first delivers the reader with the following important quote: ‘Whilst the circus before 1782 was an eclectic and opportunistic assemblage of equestrian display, human and animal tricks and burlesque, the importance of the stage after this, during the so-called Romantic era, transformed the nature of the circus spectacle for a considerable period of time until, under the influence of the American circus in the 10 Mishler 1994, p. 128. Mishler 1994, p. 129. 12 Mishler 1994, p. 135. 13 A very recent example is the formulation of a Dutch bill draft, aiming to prohibit the use of wild animals in circuses in the Netherlands. Source (Dutch): <http://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/brieven_regering/detail?id=2014D46577&did=2014D46577 > [15 December 2014]. 14 Stoddart 2000, p. 79. 15 Ibid. 11 5 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei second half of the nineteenth century, it was in some ways returned to its fairground roots where display took precedence over drama.’16 This passage is relevant for two reasons, the first being the historical context provided and the second being the suggestion that aesthetic elements evolved according to the shift of emphasis from display to drama and vice versa again. What, then, might these aesthetic elements be? Defining a circus’s lingua franca, with all its variations and proverbial dialects, is difficult, but Stoddart gives it a go nonetheless: ‘A trawl through any collection of circus advertising from almost any period will turn up a very similar collection of adjectives being used to depict the delights on offer. These can be divided up into attributes (exoticism, gorgeousness, skill, novelty, magnificence, danger, display, beauty, action, spectacle) and effects (sensation, delight, wonder, humour, suspense, astonishment) and these in turn may be described through a series of related critical characterisations (realism, comedy, absurdity, burlesque, anomaly, orientalism, eclecticism, melodrama).’17 Artefacts designed for circus use (think of décor, clothing, ritualistic and performance attributes, lighting, sound; basically everything on display in the circus tent, including the tent) must somehow conform to such qualifications if they are to establish the right sense of “circusness,” a unique sense that differs per circus group. This seems like an incredibly broad and dispersed set of required characteristics, and it most certainly is. Circus goods are, like the performers that make use of them, an eclectic assemblage of seemingly unrelated artefacts that, when put together, are bequeathed with the beguiling powers of magic – or put differently, when they are embedded in circus discourse something magical happens. Artefacts that contributed to circus traditions, it becomes clear, were the objects that either proved useful in their sheer utility or became part of a novel act and were therefore not replaced or discarded, or they were objects that served as an identifiable symbols to strengthen the circus brand, even after becoming obsolete – the lion tamer’s or ring master’s whip serving as a prime example in the increasing absence of lions, tigers, bears and other animals. Gaining popularity and allure Bouissac’s and Stoddart’s landmark works in the field of circus studies, along with the Internet spectacularly growing in popularity, heralded a new age at the break of the new millennium. After slowly picking up the pace during the 1990s, academic discourse and theory on the circus and/or its aesthetics definitively took flight in the 2000s, its literature proverbially flooding both academic and public book markets worldwide (as can be seen in Fig. 2). One of those books was Patricia Bradley’s Robert Penn Warren’s Circus Aesthetic and the Southern Renaissance, published in 2004. Bradley’s book remains one of the quirkiest in this literature review, because it is based on works of fiction written by the American writer and literary critic Robert Penn 16 17 Ibid. Stoddart 2000, p. 85. 6 Fig. 4: Robert Penn Warren in 1968. Image from Wikipedia. <http://goo.gl/03kmQK> [15 December 2014]. Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei Warren (1905-1989, see Fig. 4), most notably his short story collections The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories (1947). Bradley tries to distil the non-fiction from the fictitious stories Warren wrote on the American circus of the Southern Renaissance, which took place in the southern states from roughly the 1920s to the 1940s, nearing the end of the golden age. ‘Social and cultural historians John Culhane and Don Wilmeth note that although the circus was a popular form of entertainment throughout the nineteenth century, America experienced its circus heyday during the second decade of the twentieth century,’18 Bradley mentions. This surge in popularity became evident in the works of American authors who grew towards maturity in that period, Warren being one of them. In his work, as in the literary endeavours of contemporaries like William Faulkner and Ralph Ellison, ‘the circus itself came to reflect the three defining cultural moments of the Southern Renaissance: World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.’19 A structuralist approach to Warren’s circus aesthetics is hinted at here. Bradley opens her first chapter with a quote from John Culhane’s The American Circus20 (1990), worth mentioning here for its epitomizing quality of circus appeal: ‘That has always been the appeal of the circus: it is life as heightened as imagination can make it. It is also, to be sure, life as carefully controlled as human precision can make it, but it is not special effects; it is real.’21 The notion that it is ‘life as carefully controlled as human precision can make it’ sounds as if circus aesthetics, as part of the circus, were constructed in a most deliberate way, even though it appeared from Stoddart’s book that circus artefacts (contributing to circus aesthetics) traditionally invoked the appearance of being randomly put together. Bradley’s semiotically inspired reading of Warren’s circus aesthetic unravels one symbolic sign after the other. Patriarchal and matriarchal influences surface, as do Freudian and Lacanian love triangles, and so on. This may not be a surprise when noticing the origin of the section opening quote in the conclusion: it is from Bouissac’s Circus and Culture. No dashing new insights regarding circus aesthetics arise from Bradley’s literary survey, as was to be expected from its focus on Robert Penn Warren’s artistic expressions rather than the actual aesthetics of the golden age circus. However, perhaps a valuable hypothesis can be constructed after reading Bradley’s study. Circus traditions as richly described by Warren are established by the introductions of novel practices that, should they persist over time, turn into habits. Such habits then become a part of the larger time-dependent structures that constitute traditions, or if the change is drastic, creates its own temporal structure (the birth of a new tradition). Coming with a set of idiosyncratic rules, traditions are encapsulated by often-visceral narratives that aim to justify their current existence and dismiss the need for change. Narratives of newly introduced practices –and those occurred often for novelty was the most important element contributing to a circus’s popularity according to Mishler– that clearly clash with the narratives of prevalent traditions force a narrative deconstruction and reconstruction, provided that such novelties are not initially rejected. These reconstructed narratives can be considered pastiche: different narratives are forged into one eclectic but unified new 18 Bradley 2004, p. xii. Bradley 2004, p. xiii. 20 Sadly, finding John Culhane’s The American Circus: An Illustrated History (1990) also proved too difficult. 21 Bradley 2004, p. 1. 19 7 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei narrative (or if new, eclectic in its relationship to other traditions). As the narratives change, so do traditions. Baring an intrinsic resilience to change, traditions can as such adapt but only if there exists a social consensus. Circus aesthetics, in this model, can be indicated as the visceral utterances of such narratives. Towards an inclusive theoretical model With this hypothetical model it is possible to explain how traditions turn into pastiche, providing a theoretical answer to the research question. Of course, though, the model first has to be validated and, if necessary, improved. The first five sources of this review were the inspiration for the model’s inception; perhaps the last three can yield important details that could add to the validity of the model. In 2005 the study Circus Bodies: Cultural Identity in Aerial Performance, written by Australian theatre and drama professor Peta Tait, was published. Circus Bodies is a survey on aerial performances put in the context of cultural beliefs in transition over a period of 140 years. This very specific aspect of the circus has not been represented properly thus far, so for the sake of completeness it is a welcome addition to this review. The introduction of Tait’s book, which aims to be a solid historical foundation for her arguments and observations on gendered aerial performances, immediately offers a set of valuable insights: ‘As Eric Hobsbawm (1983) points out, (...) the practices that make up a tradition are invented, and as rituals with rules, they produce standards through repetition that become continuous to the past. The repetition of set formats over time has created the institutional form of circus which historians like John Culhane propose is the ‘real circus’, with horses, clowns, acrobats, animal acts in a ring and accompanied by a band (1990: 11).’22 This sounds positively familiar. The model previously suggested deals with traditions much the same way: as practices (“rituals with rules”) turn into habits (“producing standards through repetition”) they are incorporated in larger temporal structures that constitute traditions or create entirely new traditions (“becoming continuous to the past”). The reasons, now and then vague or not supported rationally, to justify such traditions are the so-called narratives of prevailing traditions. Once a narrative de- and reconstructs, thanks to the introduction and acceptance of a novel practice (carrying its own narrative), a tradition changes accordingly and becomes pastiche. In time the perceptibility of pastiche-ness wanes –fading from collective memory, perhaps– and the narrative emulsion establishes a new tradition. Additionally, traditions can be adjourned (or altered) if social consensus ceases to exist, a case in point being the prohibition of wild animal use by law. Directing attention explicitly towards the corporeal aspect of the circus and elaborating on how it helps to form and simultaneously express cultural identity (‘Circus is performative, making and remaking itself as it happens’23), specific circus artefacts remain overlooked in this study. Rather, Tait’s study zooms out and vividly illustrates how objects can be formative of the circus’s aesthetic and consequently their identities in general. The French contemporary circus Archaos (founded 1986) makes for a 22 23 Tait 2005, p. 5. Tait 2005, p. 6. 8 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei fascinating postmodern example, incorporating punk-anarchist and industrial aesthetic in the circus’s DNA (see Fig. 5). Tait’s book has also helped to ascertain the model’s cogency. Now that a theoretical model has been fully conceptualized, its validity ought to be tested; a case study could provide a useful instrument in doing so. Applying the model: a case study Albrecht’s study The Contemporary Circus: Art of the Spectacular (2006) lends itself well for such an application, showing the broad divergence of circus identities after World War II. The most well known example of the contemporary circus movement (“nouveau cirque”) is the circus mentioned in the Fig. 5: The French Archaos preface, Canada’s Cirque du Soleil, of which Tait said its combined industrial and punkanarchist aesthetic with aesthetic to range ‘from quaintly charming to outrageous to 24 traditional circus aesthetic. obnoxious.’ Albrecht’s book is split into three parts, the first Advertisement from official of which focuses on the creative team behind the curtains. website. The director and his crew, the circus’s design and what music <http://archaos.info/media/pages/ should be played during the shows, it’s all touched upon in 14/untitled2.bmp> [16 December 2014]. the first three chapters. Part II consists of four case studies, while the third part highlights the individual performers themselves. In the preface Albrecht gives an overview of the rise of new circus formats such as Archaos and Cirque du Soleil, and states that ‘[w]hile all of the contemporary circuses avidly acknowledge the effectiveness of combining circus with the theatrical arts, some have attempted to embrace the dramatic arts, incorporating narration into their productions.’25 In circus shows of the contemporary circus movement the plot thus plays a much bigger part than in traditional circuses. ‘Another significant characteristic of the contemporary circus is its dependence on clowning to knit its productions into a unified whole (...),’26 Albrecht denotes. The role of clowns is thus broadened, and in Circus Oz eventually taken to the extreme ‘by turning everyone into a clown.’27 Directors play a large part in determining the aesthetic of their shows. ‘Like his cinematic counterpart, the circus director is as responsible for the content of a production as he is for its look and style,’28 Albrecht mentions. The creative process has changed significantly throughout past decades. About director of creation Andrew Watson (a role unique to Cirque du Soleil), who did Varekai amongst other shows, Albrecht quotes Lyn Heward, Cirque du Soleil’s retired president of the Creative Content Division: ‘Andrew’s job, therefore, is really to ensure that this creative group is conscious of all of this. This is not pure theatre that we are doing. It’s not pure acrobatics. It’s not pure circus. It’s a marriage of all of the above.’29 24 Tait 2005, p. 120. Albrecht 2006, p. xii. 26 Albrecht 2006, p. xiii. 27 Ibid. 28 Albrecht 2006, p. 3. 29 Albrecht 2006, p. 12. 25 9 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei This again exhibits how the contemporary circuses have deviated from traditional circuses. But in creating their own particular niches, circuses like Archaos and Cirque du Soleil have established their own traditions – combining “punk-anarchistic” lifestyles with circus art for the first, colourful and androgynous fantasy creatures (see Fig. 6) for the other. Cirque du Soleil makes for a perfect example to demonstrate the theoretical model devised earlier. One stylistic choice Franco Dragone, ‘who directed the first seven of Cirque du Soleil’s productions,’30 made that defined Cirque du Soleil ever since, was the Fig. 6: Two other shows performed removal of the curtain that separated the artists from by Cirque du Soleil, exhibiting the the audience. Consequently, the artists had to remain characteristic use of fantasy creatures in character for the entire duration of the production. in their productions. Captions from Cirque du Soleil website. Here, a novel practice has been introduced (the cur<http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/h tain was there in previous productions). The practice ome/shows.aspx> [17 December turned out to be a success and turned into a habit 2014]. (new standards were created through repetition), and thus created a new tradition (for it was a drastic intervention). The novel practice’s narrative clashed most decidedly with the narratives of prevailing traditions but subsequently, as it turned out to be a success, de- and reconstructed the narratives into a new pastiche emulsion which accounts for both the old and new direction. To this day, as with the colourful fantasy creatures, it remains a characteristic feature of Cirque du Soleil’s productions. From pastel to pastiche? The designed model implies intertextual relationships between underlying structures, making use of structuralist and semiotic idiom. It would therefore be useful to end this literature review with a study that deploys analyses rooted in linguistics. As implied earlier, Bouissac repeatedly returns to the topic of the circus. In 2010 Bouissac had Semiotics at the Circus published, another bundle of semiotic analyses, this time including the latest developments regarding contemporary circus acts as discussed here earlier by Tait and specifically Albrecht. From the model the following important question arises: how does one know how the narratives of new practices and prevailing traditions clash or not? As said, traditions are not always stooled on rational argumentation – narratives that are often not logically woven together (and so are nearly always fictitious, but not to the beholder). So when it is noted that the narratives collide, one or multiple deviations (however slight) are perceived. Some of these deviations are obvious (‘Why has the curtain gone?’), sometimes less so (‘Why use this new hat instead of the old one?’). Bouissac’s research digs deep into the social fabric that envelops the circus, and some of his writing is dense and packed with jargon. In Chapter 3 it is denoted that ‘[t]he spontaneous identification of the various categories of situations [types of social interaction that are identified by the observer within a specified cultural domain] is an on-going business in everyday life and 30 Albrecht 2006, p. 4. 10 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei an important aspect of the cultural competence of any individual,’31 implying that the reliance on subjective judgment is unavoidable. The model is also subject to this type of judgment, as there simply exists no alternative. Bouissac states that ‘[the impact of the “reinvented”, or contemporary, circus] can be only locally and sporadically, rather than globally, construed as a post-modern revolution,’32 refusing to believe in a global homogeneous manifestation of postmodernism in the circus business. Bouissac asserts that the modern-day “pastel” images of the great circuses of yesteryear are indeed poetic, mythical even. ‘Nowadays a literary tradition and a strong promotional narrative construe circus life as an existential choice that embodies a dream-like freedom for city dwellers caught in the shackles of their daily routines.’33 Traditions thus are entirely a product of the human mind; social constructs that are jointly used to uphold this infamous circus myth. As shown though, these social constructs were actually reinvented continuously to fit new needs and values, in time spawning numerous variations of the circus formula. Perhaps more fittingly this review’s subtitle should be: [f]rom pastel to pastiche and back again, ad nauseam. In conclusion Using Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory as a point of departure, it has been shown that circus aesthetic has not developed as presumed in the preface. Instead, a continuous de- and reconstructing mechanism of (aesthetic) traditions has been identified from examples extracted from the referenced sources. In the process of performing this literature review a structuralist model has been contrived that could provide an answer to the research question asked in the preface. A case study has been applied to assert the model’s validity. Unfortunately, case studies applying the model outside the circus domain are beyond of the scope of this literature review, and therefore ought to be performed in follow-up research. Should its legitimacy be demonstrated, the model could be applied in a broader sense and prove an effective explanatory tool in the context of design history research. 31 Bouissac 2010, p. 45. Bouissac 2010, p. 183. 33 Bouissac 2010, p. 12. 32 11 Laurens van den Broek – st. nr. 2541849 – Design, History and Culture – dr. G. Lees-Maffei Reference list Adorno, Theodor W., Aesthetic Theory (1970), London (Continuum) 2002 (reprint of the translation by R. Hullot-Kentor from 1997, of Ästhetische Theorie). Albrecht, Ernest J., The Contemporary Circus: Art of the Spectacular, Lanham (Scarecrow Press) 2006. Bouissac, Paul A.R., Circus and Culture: A Semiotic Approach, Bloomington (Indiana University Press) 1976. Bouissac, Paul A.R., Semiotics at the Circus, Berlin (Walter de Gruyter) 2010. Bradley, Patricia L., Robert Penn Warren’s Circus Aesthetic and the Southern Renaissance, Knoxville (University of Tennessee Press) 2004. Mishler, Doug A., ‘“It Was Everything Else We Knew Wasn’t”: The Circus and American Culture’ in Browne, Ray B. and Michael T. Marsden (eds.), The Cultures of Celebrations, Bowling Green (Bowling Green State Popular Press) 1994, pp. 127-44. Stoddart, Helen, Rings of Desire: Circus History and Representation, Manchester (Manchester University Press) 2000. Tait, Peta, Circus Bodies: Cultural Identity in Aerial Performance, London (Routledge) 2005. 12