Wu Chen (Chinese, 1280-1354), Manual of Ink – Bamboo, 1350, ink on paper, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The methodologies that we discussed before mostly ignored the site of the imagery or the place where audience view the image while Audience Studies doesn’t. It means that this discipline focuses more on social qualities of the studied image and the audience site but sometimes ignores the image itself.
Interestingly, Audience Studies are important in defining the social site and audience for the image. It means that whether this image would be viewed in the social context where it was originally created or it would be moved out to the other social modality it would create different perception from the audience by which it is interpreted. So taking into consideration a social factor would greatly change the importance and meaning of the current image by the audience, meaning that Audience Studies would fit in interpreting it.
If we take the current Chinese image and view in original site that it was created than it would be more significant for the Chinese audience than if this image is viewed by Americans who does not have many associations with bamboo other than laminated bamboo floor and bamboo kitchenware. However, this painting would also change its significance if viewed in different social classes within China. If it was originally intended to viewed by emperors and high-class authorities (the proof is the quantity of seals in the painting) than it would be different for low class working people because depending on each family and their history they might have different connotations with the bamboo and painting in general. However in America people may not understand this artwork at all for the reason that they have no personal associations with anything that is drawn there. It may change the view on the original intention for what the painting was created making it worthless and useless for this society.