Life as Theater and Theater as Life:

Abstract

Since media technologies have distributed visual narratives of popular culture to the masses, characters from popular narratives have appeared in the spontaneous drawings of youth. Over time, changes in the subject matter and aesthetic characteristics of these youth-produced drawings have reflected the evolution of popular tastes. However, due to a convergence of 21st century technological media; sociological influences; cross-cultural exchanges of aesthetic traditions; and natural inclinations for play, the spontaneous art works of contemporary youth now represent more than imitative appreciation of popular culture. Youth who are fans of particular phenomena of popular culture are projecting their understandings of the world through art expressions that function as ‘life as theater and theater as art.’ If art teachers and students are to engage in critical examinations of the new visual art forms, functions, and meanings of these works they must recognize concepts and terminologies appropriate to deciphering the works’ inherent characteristics.