Academic Sessions: Liverpool 2002
New Public Art: Communication and Collaboration
Convenors:
Jane Linden, Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe and Alsager Faculty, Alsager, ST7 2HL. j.linden@mmu.ac.uk
As the distinctions between art and life are further eroded by contemporary trends toward hybrid and interdisciplinary practices, we are more likely to experience \'public art\' in the form of an internet project, a time-based intervention in a shopping centre, or as inscribed into the fabric of the surrounding architecture. Working in this ever-expanding territory leads to a diversity of approaches, enriched and enlivened by the debates and issues that arise out of the new collaborations between artists, institutions, and the public. By bringing together a range of these key players, and reflecting on their mixed ecology, this session aims to offer some insights into the nature of these collaborative working processes, the resultant innovative arts practices, and the shifts in pedagogic strategies that seek to embrace and further inform them.
InSite? Out of Site? Obscure and Diverse Interventions in the Public Forum
Jane Linden
As an introduction to this session, this paper will look briefly at a range of art works that seep through the seams of, what we might consider to be, the traditional spaces for the siting of Public Art, and explore the often complex relationships they have with those that utilise and populate these public contexts. Much arts practice has spilled out into the public forum in an attempt to re-consider traditional, hegemonic, and thus supposed alienating conventions. The fusion of disciplines, blurring of boundaries between art and life, and the move towards a more active relationship between art and audience, have contributed to the development of a wider consumer public. Alan Kaprov\'s \'Self Service\', Nick Crowe\'s \'The Citizen\'s\', or Jeremy Deller\'s \'Battle of Orgreave\', it will be argued, are clear examples of a dedicated interactive methodology that seeks primarily to embrace the audience or public as part of the art work - as part of the \'text\' to be engaged with. However, inscribing the public into the fabric of the work suggests there is a secondary level of engagement - open only to the informed few who both participate and engage self-reflexively with the act of participation. This paper, then, would hope to raise questions on the value and significance of these relationships - both in terms of postmodern arts discourse and socio/ideological intent, how this impacts on the viewing (and often unsuspecting) public, and whether the arguable dichotomy between innovation and socially engaged practice needs to be re-examined.
Changing Currents, Rising Tides: Charting the Course of New Public Art
Cameron Cartiere (Chelsea College of Art and Design, England)
Public art in the past forty years has undergone a variety of dramatic transformations and diversifications. In the latter part of the 20th century, artists from a variety of backgrounds began working in ways that were more socially and politically influenced. These artists do not limit themselves to strictly visual mediums. They engage in performance, intervention, and community actions. The focus of their work covers a broad range of contemporary issues including sexism, racism, toxic waste, recycling, multiculturalism, war, homelessness, and domestic violence. But how, with the boundaries of what constitutes public art being stretched to new extremes, will a framework for critical discussion develop? Public art is forcing radical shifts in preconceived ideas of audience, interaction, and social discourse. What are the criteria for evaluating a medium of such diverse manifestations? Do the more traditional evaluative aesthetic, didactic and monetary issues still apply? This paper, which focuses on the work of public artists from Great Britain and the United States addressing the specific issue of water, explores several possibilities for developing a critical exchange and more inclusive conceptual strategies within the continually evolving discipline of new public art.
A Modest Proposal for the Public Realm: The Niigata Culture Box and the Skoghall Konsthall of Alfredo Jaar
Michael Corris (Kingston University, England)
The Bunka No Hako (Culture Box) in the Niigata region of Japan and The Skoghall Konsthall (Skoghall, Sweden) are two public projects initiated by the Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar in response to the absolute lack of institutions of contemporary art in those regions. With these two projects, Jaar construct a discursive space to consider the relationship between culture, place and the notion of the public good. This space takes the physical form of an architectural site that is modelled on the structure of a museum or kunsthalle. Rather than reproduce the concept of a museum of art in miniature, Jaar proposes built structures that house a rich mix of cultural forms, from poetry to contemporary art to objects of everyday use. The architectural form of each of these projects was designed to be resonant with certain crucial features of the place in which they are sited. The Japanese project is constructed around the idea of an autonomous, sustainable culture box. These structures are conceived as permanent sites of display to be administered by the local population. The Swedish project, on the other hand, is a temporary site built to house works of art on paper of young artists drawn from Stockholm, Malmo and Gotenburg. Because Skoghall is a centre of paper manufacturing, the entire structure was constructed from local wood and paper products. The controlled immolation of The Skoghall Konsthall took place 24 hours after its inauguration, dramatising the lack of such cultural services in that locality. In constrast, the Bunka No Hako project is one in a series of 12 proposed structures throughout the Niigata region.The striking differences to be observed in the physical articulation of these two projects raises interesting questions about the terms of cultural engagement in the context of contemporary debate on art in the public realm.
The Provisional, Phantasmatic and Virtual Character of Social Space
Peter Mortenbock, (London and Vienna, England and Austria)
Our present urban environments are saturated with an increased number of purpose-built devices that guide us, record us and know about us. While enabling goal-directed forms of social interaction, cities have in large parts become opponents to social practices lacking purpose.Within these conditions the art and architecture collaborative Think Architecture is working on a variety of research and art projects examining a breadth of performative patterns and strategies, in which lived space begins to unfold without being determined by any form of corporate initiative, programmed action or institutional force. By looking at ways of rethinking social identity and spatial practice through performative acts of partial, impure and engaged praxis the tradition of representational space in Western culture and the belief in the power of the signifier is shifted to a dynamic understanding of processes of writing and rewriting of space as well as of marginalised or trivialised discourses as curiosity, cruising and sentimental identification: In the project CruiseScapes material space is turned into the visual surface of a new material structure. While material space becomes surface, imaginary space ceases to be a void. It becomes a walk-through body whose ambience can be sensually experienced and performed. The proposed labyrinth plays with the ambivalent and contradictory spatial qualities of temporary, abandoned and marginalised spaces embedded in the urban fabric. This coming together of spatial and social patterns, memories and fantasies in processes of disindentification and rewriting is often a characteristic moment in the conceptualising of technologically informed virtual spaces. Hence, the enacting of cruising as a form of epistemic inquiry, as intended in the project, makes trivialised cultural practices and discourses permeable for the conditions of spatial experiences present in virtual electronic environments today.
If This is Not a Pipe then What is Lost in Translation?
Rory Francis (Manchester Metropolitan University, England)
The development of a critical language examining the work of socially engaged art practice draws upon a variety of models and methodologies. These are from disciplines often tangential to the field of arts practice. Artists actively pursue developing projects within, and from, other \'worlds\' with differing agendas; local government, development and regeneration agencies, environmental groups, health authorities. What is problematic frequently is the translation of aims and intentions between such arenas, and the concomitant challenge to the development of critical practice of the artist. This is further contested when such projects and dialogue cross linguistic and cultural boundaries as well as professional. Although the initial imperative for the artist may have been politically motivated, (a response to gallery practice and the hegemony of the art world), the challenge becomes one of communication and/or compromise. If socially engaged arts practice is contextually articulated, then what is lost (or gained) in the translation? This paper will explore the implications for the development of a theorised framework as it operates for the artist and the impact upon pedagogical practice. Examples will be drawn from the writer\'s experience of projects in Europe.
Jane Linden, Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University, Crewe and Alsager Faculty, Alsager, ST7 2HL. j.linden@mmu.ac.uk
As the distinctions between art and life are further eroded by contemporary trends toward hybrid and interdisciplinary practices, we are more likely to experience \'public art\' in the form of an internet project, a time-based intervention in a shopping centre, or as inscribed into the fabric of the surrounding architecture. Working in this ever-expanding territory leads to a diversity of approaches, enriched and enlivened by the debates and issues that arise out of the new collaborations between artists, institutions, and the public. By bringing together a range of these key players, and reflecting on their mixed ecology, this session aims to offer some insights into the nature of these collaborative working processes, the resultant innovative arts practices, and the shifts in pedagogic strategies that seek to embrace and further inform them.
InSite? Out of Site? Obscure and Diverse Interventions in the Public Forum
Jane Linden
As an introduction to this session, this paper will look briefly at a range of art works that seep through the seams of, what we might consider to be, the traditional spaces for the siting of Public Art, and explore the often complex relationships they have with those that utilise and populate these public contexts. Much arts practice has spilled out into the public forum in an attempt to re-consider traditional, hegemonic, and thus supposed alienating conventions. The fusion of disciplines, blurring of boundaries between art and life, and the move towards a more active relationship between art and audience, have contributed to the development of a wider consumer public. Alan Kaprov\'s \'Self Service\', Nick Crowe\'s \'The Citizen\'s\', or Jeremy Deller\'s \'Battle of Orgreave\', it will be argued, are clear examples of a dedicated interactive methodology that seeks primarily to embrace the audience or public as part of the art work - as part of the \'text\' to be engaged with. However, inscribing the public into the fabric of the work suggests there is a secondary level of engagement - open only to the informed few who both participate and engage self-reflexively with the act of participation. This paper, then, would hope to raise questions on the value and significance of these relationships - both in terms of postmodern arts discourse and socio/ideological intent, how this impacts on the viewing (and often unsuspecting) public, and whether the arguable dichotomy between innovation and socially engaged practice needs to be re-examined.
Changing Currents, Rising Tides: Charting the Course of New Public Art
Cameron Cartiere (Chelsea College of Art and Design, England)
Public art in the past forty years has undergone a variety of dramatic transformations and diversifications. In the latter part of the 20th century, artists from a variety of backgrounds began working in ways that were more socially and politically influenced. These artists do not limit themselves to strictly visual mediums. They engage in performance, intervention, and community actions. The focus of their work covers a broad range of contemporary issues including sexism, racism, toxic waste, recycling, multiculturalism, war, homelessness, and domestic violence. But how, with the boundaries of what constitutes public art being stretched to new extremes, will a framework for critical discussion develop? Public art is forcing radical shifts in preconceived ideas of audience, interaction, and social discourse. What are the criteria for evaluating a medium of such diverse manifestations? Do the more traditional evaluative aesthetic, didactic and monetary issues still apply? This paper, which focuses on the work of public artists from Great Britain and the United States addressing the specific issue of water, explores several possibilities for developing a critical exchange and more inclusive conceptual strategies within the continually evolving discipline of new public art.
A Modest Proposal for the Public Realm: The Niigata Culture Box and the Skoghall Konsthall of Alfredo Jaar
Michael Corris (Kingston University, England)
The Bunka No Hako (Culture Box) in the Niigata region of Japan and The Skoghall Konsthall (Skoghall, Sweden) are two public projects initiated by the Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar in response to the absolute lack of institutions of contemporary art in those regions. With these two projects, Jaar construct a discursive space to consider the relationship between culture, place and the notion of the public good. This space takes the physical form of an architectural site that is modelled on the structure of a museum or kunsthalle. Rather than reproduce the concept of a museum of art in miniature, Jaar proposes built structures that house a rich mix of cultural forms, from poetry to contemporary art to objects of everyday use. The architectural form of each of these projects was designed to be resonant with certain crucial features of the place in which they are sited. The Japanese project is constructed around the idea of an autonomous, sustainable culture box. These structures are conceived as permanent sites of display to be administered by the local population. The Swedish project, on the other hand, is a temporary site built to house works of art on paper of young artists drawn from Stockholm, Malmo and Gotenburg. Because Skoghall is a centre of paper manufacturing, the entire structure was constructed from local wood and paper products. The controlled immolation of The Skoghall Konsthall took place 24 hours after its inauguration, dramatising the lack of such cultural services in that locality. In constrast, the Bunka No Hako project is one in a series of 12 proposed structures throughout the Niigata region.The striking differences to be observed in the physical articulation of these two projects raises interesting questions about the terms of cultural engagement in the context of contemporary debate on art in the public realm.
The Provisional, Phantasmatic and Virtual Character of Social Space
Peter Mortenbock, (London and Vienna, England and Austria)
Our present urban environments are saturated with an increased number of purpose-built devices that guide us, record us and know about us. While enabling goal-directed forms of social interaction, cities have in large parts become opponents to social practices lacking purpose.Within these conditions the art and architecture collaborative Think Architecture is working on a variety of research and art projects examining a breadth of performative patterns and strategies, in which lived space begins to unfold without being determined by any form of corporate initiative, programmed action or institutional force. By looking at ways of rethinking social identity and spatial practice through performative acts of partial, impure and engaged praxis the tradition of representational space in Western culture and the belief in the power of the signifier is shifted to a dynamic understanding of processes of writing and rewriting of space as well as of marginalised or trivialised discourses as curiosity, cruising and sentimental identification: In the project CruiseScapes material space is turned into the visual surface of a new material structure. While material space becomes surface, imaginary space ceases to be a void. It becomes a walk-through body whose ambience can be sensually experienced and performed. The proposed labyrinth plays with the ambivalent and contradictory spatial qualities of temporary, abandoned and marginalised spaces embedded in the urban fabric. This coming together of spatial and social patterns, memories and fantasies in processes of disindentification and rewriting is often a characteristic moment in the conceptualising of technologically informed virtual spaces. Hence, the enacting of cruising as a form of epistemic inquiry, as intended in the project, makes trivialised cultural practices and discourses permeable for the conditions of spatial experiences present in virtual electronic environments today.
If This is Not a Pipe then What is Lost in Translation?
Rory Francis (Manchester Metropolitan University, England)
The development of a critical language examining the work of socially engaged art practice draws upon a variety of models and methodologies. These are from disciplines often tangential to the field of arts practice. Artists actively pursue developing projects within, and from, other \'worlds\' with differing agendas; local government, development and regeneration agencies, environmental groups, health authorities. What is problematic frequently is the translation of aims and intentions between such arenas, and the concomitant challenge to the development of critical practice of the artist. This is further contested when such projects and dialogue cross linguistic and cultural boundaries as well as professional. Although the initial imperative for the artist may have been politically motivated, (a response to gallery practice and the hegemony of the art world), the challenge becomes one of communication and/or compromise. If socially engaged arts practice is contextually articulated, then what is lost (or gained) in the translation? This paper will explore the implications for the development of a theorised framework as it operates for the artist and the impact upon pedagogical practice. Examples will be drawn from the writer\'s experience of projects in Europe.