"REFLECTIONS ON HIDDEN ART"

http://www.uel.ac.uk/rising-east/vol3/num2/page38.htm this article explores the notion that in a period of social dislocation there is increasing fluidity in the field of cultural production and in the choice and promotion of symbols by intermediaries (those who identify cultural goods like identity, presentation, appearance, and lifestyle and attach value to them by conferring, consecrating and legitimating their symbolic meaning. Only those with who are in postions of power bestow symbolic meaning: that is it is bestowed by those with cultural capital (knowledge, mastery or expertise--a designer for instance). So, essentially poaching elements of others' lifestyles and cultural practices and assign those characteristics with an economic value. This can be seen in the transformation of Soho. The socio-spacial transformation was a metamorphisis of the symbolic meaning of city and the lifestyle of the visual artists. Pioneering artist, who had colonised the small scale industrial premises, successfully defended thier patch against the encroachment of the financial district and modernist redevelopment schemes only to be excluded themselves as a 'clean-up' and commodified version of thier way of living/working was sold to high earners from the financial district. So, in this case the role of the intermediary(designer) is to identify a lifestyle/condition with the potential for economic value/cultural value and reinterpret it creating a kind of cultural currency.

maybe?