This thesis is concerned with placing public art within the broader modernist spatialisation of social relations. The research takes place around two related enquiries. The first emerges from questions raised by the art critic Rosalyn Deutsche with regard to the proposition that public art functions as both a profession and technology that attempts to pattern space so that docile and useful bodies are created by and deployed within it. Following such questions, this thesis seeks to scrutinise the ways in which discourses on public art might operate in enabling, maintaining or disrupting everyday practices and socio-spatial relations. Secondly, as a foray into methodologies of public art research, the thesis considers Foucauldian governmentality approaches in terms of what these might have to offer an investigation of public art. The thesis undertakes the analysis of a wide range of texts connected with three South Australian urban developments for which public art was separately proposed, designed, selected and installed. Attention is given principally to the Rundle Street Mall, a pedestrianised shopping street in the city-centre of Adelaide, examined at several moments throughout the period of its development (1972-1977) and later refurbishment (1996-2001). Also discussed are the Adelaide Festival Centre Plaza (1973-1977) and the Gateway to Adelaide (1996-2000), the latter project involving the reconstruction of a major traffic intersection on the outskirts of metropolitan Adelaide. Through these examples the thesis documents key debates in the history of Australian discourses concerning public art. In addition, this study brings attention to the relations between artwork and a proliferation of individuals, agencies, and other interests, highlighting the competitions over space, authority and expertise, and the often unexamined role that public art plays in maintaining or unsettling socio-spatial relations. Knowledge about public art, it is argued, is produced, transformed and deployed across a range of discursive sites (contemporary art, urban design, planning, transport and others) and becomes tied to specific problems of governing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2008

This study is concerned with the roles and relationships between artists-in-residence, community audiences, and program coordinators/art educators as they engage together in community arts programs. This study takes place at Project Row Houses (PRH), a community arts organization located in Houston, Texas and focuses on the artist-in-residence program, which commissions a group of national and international artists for a 6-month period to create art installations in relation to the community and its African-American heritage. This ethnographic case study is based on the activities and events surrounding the 2008 PRH exhibition, Round 29, Thunderbolt Special: The Great Electric Show and Dance, after Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins and employed qualitative data gathering methods of participant-observation, conducting semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews, and through document collection, and contextual information. Observations were recorded through field notes, photographs, and video. Interviews were conducted with 3 artists-in-residence, 3 community audience members, and 3 program coordinators or staff members involved with the program, regarding their experiences at the site and experiences with each other. My analysis presents the roles of artist, community audience, and program coordinator/art educator through three sections on cultural work. Within these sections I discuss topics related to the power of voice, situatedness, and creativity, as it relates to the artists and community audiences. For the role of program coordinator/art educator, I focus more closely on her role in the process of mediation. Topics of power, social dynamics, identity, and representation are also framed within these discussions.

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Cette recherche s’intéresse à l’interrelation entre l’expérience de l’art public et celle du paysage. Elle se penche sur l’art public utilitaire, plus précisément sur le cas de quatre œuvres-banc situées dans le Parc linéaire de la rivière Saint-Charles, à Québec. La position assise suggérée par ces productions artistiques occasionne un contact sensoriel direct avec l’œuvre, mais surtout, elle orchestre un retournement du regard vers le paysage selon une posture et un angle de vue définis. L’activation de la fonction de banc par l’action de s’y asseoir, ou du moins la compréhension de cette possibilité d’usage, donne alors accès à une expérience du paysage environnant qui, loin d’être fortuite, fait partie intégrante de l’œuvre-banc. Cette étude analyse ainsi les œuvres-banc afin de mieux comprendre comment elles sont reçues par le public, mais également comment elles participent à l’expérience paysagère. Les réponses obtenues à la suite d’un questionnaire en ligne ont permis d’évaluer les différents aspects de la compréhension et de l’exploration de la fonction de banc des œuvres, selon une grille d’analyse conçue en adaptant certains postulats de la théorie des affordances de Gibson (1979; 2014), de la matrice de préférences de Kaplan & Kaplan (1989a, 1989b) et du modèle environnemental de Carlson (1979) aux enjeux de la recherche. Les données cumulées et traitées ont ensuite permis de démontrer que les œuvres-banc participent à une expérience paysagère de qualité. Cette contribution est principalement liée à la position assise suggérée par l’œuvre, elle qui invite les usagers du parc à s’immerger dans la scène tout en offrant une perception multisensorielle du paysage. En somme, cette recherche a fait émerger des constats sur l’apport des œuvres d’art à l’aménagement de l’espace public et à la qualité de l’expérience vécue par les citadins, deux volets sous-explorés de la recherche en art public. / This research questions the relationship between the experience of public art and that of the landscape. It focuses on utilitarian public art, more specifically on the case of four artistic benches located in the Saint-Charles River Linear Park, in Quebec City. The seated position suggested by these artistic productions causes direct sensory contact with the work, but above all, it orchestrates a reversal of the gaze towards the landscape according to a defined posture and angle of view. The activation of the bench function by the action of sitting on it, or at least the understanding of this possibility of use, then gives access to an experience of the surrounding landscape which, far from being fortuitous, is an essential aiming of the artistic bench. This study thus analyzes artistic benches in order to better understand how they are received by the public, but also how they participate to the landscape experience. The answers obtained following an online questionnaire allowed to evaluate the different aspects of under-standing and exploring the bench function in the art piece. An analysis grid was designed by adapting certain postulates of Gibson's affordance theory (1979; 2014), Kaplan & Kaplan's preference matrix (1989a, 1989b) and Carlson's environmental model (1979). The data ana-lyzed according to this grid then made it possible to demonstrate that the artistic benches contribute to a quality landscape experience. This contribution is mainly linked to the seated position suggested by the work, which invites park users to immerse themselves in the scene while offering a multisensory perception of the landscape.

The purpose of this essay has been to investigate the conditions for making the Swedish national public art collections available with the help of digitization. Together with the art owned by the state the municipalities' and regions' art holdings have also been added to the delimitation, and in addition, the interpretation of the concept of public art is made broad by including both traditional framed and easily moveable art together with building-related art. The art collection in the focus of the essay is thus managed in a decentralized structure which is examined with a survey and a case study. The survey provides quantitative data on the size of the art collection and the choice of system. The case study aims to highlight the importance of the organizational form and to describe how digital technology is used today to make art accessible.  A summation of the municipal, regional and state collections of public art amounts to approximately one million works of art. The survey also showed that there is a great deal of variation when it comes to the choice of administrative data system for inventorying and otherwise managing the public sector's art collections. In order to be able to draw conclusions based on the choice of collection systems, a taxonomy was developed where a total of 35 different systems were sorted into five different characteristics. The analysis showed that the large art collections get more appropriate systems than small art collections and that there are rational grounds for these choices.  The case study showed that there is a great deal of variation when it comes to titles and naming of organizational units. The staff who work with art in the case study's small to medium-sized municipalities often have many and widely different areas of responsibility. Among the regions of the case study, there are examples of art being managed by the property administration, but the most common is that the activity belongs to the cultural administration. In the case study, it is not possible to find any connection between organizational form and degree of accessibility. On the other hand, it is expressed that shared premises with a museum provide a richer professional context. The degree of accessibility in the case study is as low as 1% of the collection in most cases. The way that art is made available, via an individual municipality or region's website, or social media, makes it difficult to search widely for works of art owned by the Swedish public sector. This last observation also becomes an essential part of the conclusion that the conditions for making public art accessible via digitization exist, but it is not a work that seems to be progressing successfully today.

The research is based on the belief that the Earth's survival is reliant on an understanding of the interconnectedness between people and the planet. The premise that creative expression is an inherent need in human beings and a powerful agent for social change is at the core of this study. The arts permeate all aspects of life and can play a positive pro-active role in economic and social upliftment. The study therefore explored a contemporary public context in which artists intervene in society to provide practical and functional social spaces but also, with the ecological crisis of the planet, to create an awareness of the interconnectedness of life. Place-making was of specific concern and one of the aims was to examine ways of re-shaping the appearance and meaning of public spaces. An equally important issue was the role and responsibility of both the artist and the commissioning process in a social context and the relevance of individual expression as modes of addressing social concerns and as a tool of public empowerment within a new democratic South Africa that can have a genuine impact on community well-being and social inclusion. The research therefore exists in between the arts, social sciences and the ecology of place: that is, the understanding of the role of creative intervention within social spaces. The study provides a historical context and development of new trends in public and collaborative community arts, contextualises the notion of public and argues for a repositioning of assessment criteria for the arts within a social public domain and in the interest of the people. It is based on a critical survey of international collaborative arts and its potential as a guide to alternative solutions and implementation within a South African context for creative interventions and regeneration of public spaces and empowerment and capacity building of its citizens. The research discusses the relevance and the position of the arts and craft industry as a means of poverty alleviation, job creation and empowerment in South Africa. Rebuilding community demands both the rejuvenation of social spaces and the restoration of community esteem together with mutual and self-respect. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil (Art History)

<p>An analysis of Konstvägen Sju Älvar, an exhibition of modern Nordic sculpture along a road trough the wilderness of Northern Sweden. Konstvägen is a project for public art and contemporary art in northern Sweden. The intention is to see what happens when you exhibit art alongside a road and what function it fills. By comparing the qualities of Konstvägen to the qualities of a monument Konstvägen and it’s exhibitional functions are sought to be understood.</p>

This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Master of Architecture (Professional) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in the year 2014. / This thesis explores theories of escapism and applies them to the Johannesburg precinct in the form of a socially interactive public space. Our day to day banal realities do not satisfy our innermost desires, as a result; we choose to disconnect from our realties. We often become passive consumers in a world dominated by production, fuelled by retail advertising and marketing media, and in turn we frequently overlook the shaping of our own social existence and choosing healthy forms of flight. I feel that our city does not provide opportunities for escape in the form of urban rituals and therefore a sense of belonging is inadequately specified. I aim to provide a positive form of escape which supports urban rituals, and thereby define a place within Johannesburg. A public space enables social interaction and individual exploration and is therefore a temporary from of escape. Our city is often perceived as dangerous and unaccommodating, but there is vast opportunity within the precinct due to the many existing connections and vibrant pedestrian life. My chosen site is an existing heritage building and the active node, Gandhi Square, currently existing divided by a sprawl of busses through which pedestrians are forced to navigate through. Through the redesign of this space, I intend to encourage a pedestrian dominant city, and a civic space that enhances public life and further facilitates urban renewal. My intervention involves 3 elements; an outdoor theatre, the redesign of the Metro Bus facility and a public space to promote a harmonious transition zone between the two. The contemporary theatre I am proposing forms space without physical walls, as light and sound evolve to stage events. The theatre functions within the reshaping of an existing heritage building located on site. It is a flexible space where intense sensory events can occur and carve the avenues into a socially interactive city. This engaging atmosphere caters for the collective as well as the everyday encounter, transforming to the needs of Johannesburg. My intervention will define a place where the celebration of community is lacking and in turn seek to change the perceptions of our city. Through the experience of the whole, my design facilitates chance interactions in which mystical moments can be manifested within a public space devoted to civic escape.

My research is comprised of two connected components – a written report, and an original artwork. In the written segment of the research, I critically assess arguments sourced from digital theorists writing mainly in the 1990s, who positioned “cyberspace” as means of bodily escape, physical transcendence and disconnection from lived reality. I link their writings to a larger notion of technological determinism. I use a combination of theoretical sources and case studies to argue that these determinist attitudes are being challenged by the emergence of a recent artistic practice (termed “locative art”), itself made possible through changes in the understanding of the integration of digital information into the material world. The second part of my research consists of an original locative work, entitled “Tree ID”. It is integrated into my written research in my third chapter, in which I discuss the technical function and conceptual background of the work. “Tree ID” functions alongside my case studies as an artistic response to technological determinism, and, additionally, as a practical investigation into the South African context of locative art.

Les expositions de projets d’art public, nouvelle forme de commande artistique née dans les années 1970, changent de manière significative les paramètres de la création artistique contemporaine dans la ville. Associant une présentation dans l’espace public à la création in situ, elles incitent les artistes à réaliser leurs œuvres en vue d’un événement citadin et en fonction d’éléments spécifiques du contexte d’exposition urbain (comme la topographie du lieu, son histoire, son architecture...). Si l’impulsion première que ces manifestations délivrent aux artistes est primordiale pour la création de tout projet d’art public, elles laissent une marque plus précise dans les attaches individuelles qui relient ces œuvres à leurs sites urbains. Retraçant l’évolution du concept d’exposition de ses origines jusqu’en 2007, se dessinent successivement trois générations principales dont la césure correspond, au niveau de leur contenu artistique, à des élargissements substantiels du vocabulaire formel des participants. Une distinction entre formes abstraite, urbaine et relationnelle nous permet d’évaluer des retombées importantes de la commande artistique sur les œuvres en saisissant les différents degrés de leur intégration contextuelle, laquelle atteint son apogée dans des projets qui se construisent autour de ready-mades assistés ou simples trouvés sur place.Nouveaux types de monuments, éphémères pour la plupart, ces derniers constituent un art public sans précédents historiques dont nous mesurons, à travers l’exemple de douze études de cas, le rapport à la démarche artistique individuelle. / In the 1970s site-specificity revolutionizes the framework for artists working in the arena of public art. A new exhibition format, entirely based on new commissions, extends institutional activity way into the heart of the city space. By challenging artists to create new works that engage their particular urban surroundings (for example, the topographical, historical or architectural aspects of a site), these exhibitions of mostly temporary public art projects give a crucial new impulse to contemporary artistic creation in the city.This dissertation examines the effects this new form of commission exerts on the artists’ works by analyzing the ties that bind the projects to their installation sites. Following the evolution of public art project exhibitions from their inception to 2007, we distinguish between three main trends. Not only do they present major organizational differences, but their artistic content is characterized by a successive and substantial expansion of the participants’ formal vocabulary. A distinction between an abstract, an urban and a relational form enables us to evaluate the different degrees of contextual integration of extrinsic elements into the works of art and to locate the impact these commissions have on projects created with urban ready-mades found on the site. New types of monuments, mostly ephemeral, constitute a public art without historic precedents and of which we measure, at the example of twelve case studies, the relation to individual artistic methods.