Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 151

(Fisher ����:���). In other words, certain traditional forms of art associated
with the modern system are thought of as high art, whereas the new forms
tend to be thought of as low. The development of new media began in the
eighteenth century, when the first mass-produced books were published,
and continued with the development of visual prints, photography, motion
pictures, radio, television, sound recordings, computers, the Internet, and
so on. At first, movies were regarded as a form of low art by comparison to
theater (Fisher ����:���).
A second perspective on the distinction between low and high art considers
microlevel distinctions within a pre-existing medium or art form. An
illustrative historical distinction dates back to the eighteenth century
and opposes folk and popular culture with aristocratic culture. The wide
distribution and accessibility of cultural artifacts shaped both the tastes and
values of popular audiences and also came to play a transformative role on
the arts themselves. So-called “mass art,” (for instance mass-market romance
and gothic horror novels, or certain kinds of rock music and hiphop), sought
to appeal to a broader audience, while higher forms of art were perceived as
more complex and sophisticated, responding to the interests of an elite few.
This form of culture war can help to understand the origins of the Edinburgh
Festival. The International Festival represented a form of elite event
presenting “high art” that was included in the program on the basis of an
invitation to participate by the festival director. Rudolf Bing co-founded the
Festival with Henry Harvey Wood who was Head of the British Council in
Scotland, Sydney Newman who was Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh
University, and a group of civic leaders from the City of Edinburgh, in
particular Sir John Falconer. The predominant form of art presented at
the Festival was classical music, with one of its main highlights being the
concerts given by the Vienna Philharmonic. These events offered the exiled
conductor Bruno Walter opportunities to return to Europe, which he had
fled during the Third Reich, and reunite with its Philharmonic orchestra.
Since its beginning, the Fringe has been an “unjuried,” open access
performance arts festival to which anyone can participate with any kind of
performance. In its first year, eight theatre companies arrived in Edinburgh
uninvited and held their performance in smaller alternative venues during
the same time as the International Festival. It took a few years before the
events “on the fringe of the International Festival” developed a more formal
institutional structure. In ����, the Festival Fringe Society was founded.
The creation of the Traverse Theatre in ���� by John Calder, Jim Haynes,
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