Art, Value, and Connections: A Socio-Semantic Network Analysis of the Contemporary Art Market.
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2025
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Abstract
This study offers a relational approach to contemporary art production by modeling the socio-semantic network linking early-career artists to aesthetic content. Using data from Chile’s National Collection of Contemporary Artists (NCCA), it combines Structural Topic Modeling (STM) and Exponential Random Graph Modeling (ERGM) to analyze how symbolic and social structures co-evolve. Results indicate that institutional visibility is unevenly distributed across aesthetic content, with higher visibility content more likely to receive selective institutional support and favorable aesthetic evaluations. In contrast, content with broader artist engagement tends to align with more traditional formats and receives comparatively lower institutional recognition. Additionally, the ERGM analysis reveals that affiliations between artists and aesthetic themes are not random but shaped by structural mechanisms of symbolic alignment and social homophily. Factors such as gender, educational background, and sponsorship type significantly influence the likelihood of artists engaging with particular content. This approach thus contributes to the study of cultural production by explaining how artistic meaning, legitimacy, and access are co-constructed within a stratified symbolic space.
Description
Tesis (Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Sociology)--Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2025