What follows is seen as a set of lines for thinking along, routes of exploration, rather than chapter headings or specific research topics (although things may end up being both of those at some stage in the future). There are various crossovers between several the elements listed. It is not intended as a description of all the thinking that can be done around topics of contemporary public art and cities, more of a personal guide for activities, readings and exploration.<\/p>\n
My focus on contemporary public art (loosely defined) is a way of limiting things by excluding historical monuments and modernist pieces of public sculpture. The option of excluding capital cities is based on the belief that such cities are often unusual, with more in common with each other as a group of global cities than being representative of their nation’s cities. Limiting the geographical focus to north-west Europe and north America is partly based on my personal experience (and ease of travel from a base in Birmingham, UK) and partly because cities in those locations broadly share some sort of underlying culture. If opportunities arise to look at cities in other parts of the world, these will be taken.<\/p>\n
This framework-for-thinking has already shaped activities between 2015 and 2017, and will continue to guide activities over the period 2017-2025. Outcomes will include deeper personal understandings of the relevant topics; contact across a network of key intermediaries with personal, occupational or academic interests in public art and cities; as well as various writings and presentations around key themes that emerge.<\/p>\n
An early action is to share this framework of ideas with others, as well as scheduling visits to more cities and undertaking more studies. Cities already visited have included 10 UK and 4 US\/Canada cities. Proposed visits in 2017-2025 will be to at least 30 further cities (10 UK; 10 US\/Canada; 10 mainland European).<\/p>\n
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The thinking-framework being used includes:<\/p>\n
Initial understandings of:<\/strong><\/p>\n What counts as, and current\/historical perspectives on:<\/p>\n Contemporary<\/p>\n Public art<\/p>\n Cities<\/p>\n Place<\/p>\n Contemporary issues of cities:<\/strong><\/p>\n Devolution; city-regions; networked cities<\/p>\n Landscapes; amenities; international rankings<\/p>\n Demographics; cultures; identities of place<\/p>\n Change; renewal; regeneration; sustainability<\/p>\n Public\/ private interplays<\/p>\n Inequalities<\/p>\n Intelligent decision-making\/ smart planning<\/p>\n Purposes of public art in contemporary cities:<\/strong><\/p>\n Interplay of spaces and interventions<\/p>\n Really useful art; art as decoration … in purposeful city, liveable city and city as destination<\/p>\n Legacies, statements, signature pieces of art<\/p>\n Economic impacts<\/p>\n Community cohesion and community development<\/p>\n Artistic impacts; legibility and visual literacy; cultural representations, reputations and realities<\/p>\n Cities of culture; cultural cities<\/p>\n Art as respected object, art as familiarity; art as ambiguity<\/p>\n Art as problem-making; as opposition; as shock; art for thinking with<\/p>\n Who is it for (and on what basis)?<\/p>\n Artist ambitions and public expectations:<\/strong><\/p>\n Different interventions, different engagements, different approaches; different financial models<\/p>\n Actions and objects; seen and unseen; fixed and mobile; isolated and gathered together<\/p>\n Artist careers; new artistic strategies and ambitions; different media\/ different modes<\/p>\n Experimentations and evolutions<\/p>\n ‘Career’ of neighbourhood; city trajectory<\/p>\n Site and location<\/p>\n Reputation and opinion<\/p>\n Permanence and transience<\/p>\n Curating public art<\/p>\n ‘Career’ of a piece of public art<\/p>\n Decision-making … how and by whom:<\/strong><\/p>\n Policies, priorities, practices, amendments<\/p>\n Collaboration and engagement<\/p>\n Determinations of place\/ people\/ organisation\/ artist<\/p>\n Commissioning and decommissioning<\/p>\n Competitions and purchasing<\/p>\n Stock and flow<\/p>\n Who pays and how?<\/p>\n Bureaucracies and creativities<\/p>\n Governance, planning, funding, policies:<\/strong><\/p>\n Economic development; placemaking; civic and community engagement<\/p>\n Cultural offers; cultural industries; cultural quarters<\/p>\n National\/ Regional\/ City\/ Neighbourhood\/ Locality<\/p>\n City administrations\/ voluntary organisations\/ business interests<\/p>\n Political dimensions<\/p>\n Values (for money)<\/p>\n Public art policies, strategies and approaches<\/p>\n Synchronicities and diachronicities:<\/strong><\/p>\n Maps, lists, directories<\/p>\n Interconnections and intersections<\/p>\n Local (and wider) histories of art\/public art<\/p>\n Histories of places and peoples … national, city, community, site<\/p>\n Recurring operational issues:<\/strong><\/p>\n Ownership; maintenance; security and protection<\/p>\n Individual responsibilities\/collective overviews<\/p>\n Promotion, publicity and role of the media<\/p>\n Assessments and evaluations<\/p>\n Public art and .. :<\/strong><\/p>\n Architecture; commemoration; protest; urban design, internet as place, writing, performance, vandalism, meanings, histories, freedoms.<\/p>\n Linkages to identity; ambiguity and uncertainty; story-making; wellbeing; significance; value\/use; progress; issues of public\/private; representation; meanings; histories; freedoms; consensus and controversies.<\/p>\n Continuing emerging puzzles and challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n Changing context … political, economic, social, artistic – changes in the work, in the space<\/p>\n Implications for cities, artists, observers, residents<\/p>\n Assumptions, existing scripts and narratives (re control, power, access, relationships, ethnicities, disabilities, genders, cultures)<\/p>\n Post financial crash\/austerity; post-ideologies; post-class; post-expert; post-truth, post-fact; post-post.<\/p>\n Geoff Bateson<\/p>\n