VADRG research projects
Not – there: The ethics and politics of non-monumental art and design practices for/as public space.
Public space is vital for any society. For an ecologically responsible, sustainable, and democratic society the significance of public space is even greater. This significance extends to questions of the design of public space, what ‘design’ means in public space, and what the attendant art practices are that constitute a belonging or relation to public space. Whereas state citizenship is bestowed upon individuals in a top-down fashion, the democratic citizenship of public space is actively produced between individuals in their relations and encounters with each other and their environment. Democratic citizenship in public places is not forged on consensus, but a ‘shared activity’ of divergent and perhaps discordant attentions: it is an ecology. Public spaces provide a means for this ecological production.
In 2006 and 2007 VADRG's research project examines the role of public space in the making of citizenship, and includes urban interventions of public art, writing in/of space, the role of digital technology and information-scaping, the question of ephemeral events (festivals, flash gatherings, etc) and temporary art works (digital, written, geographically distant, or temporal) as crucial practices that contribute to public space citizenship. The research project’s engagement with the idea of citizenship also addresses the need for clear and serviceable definitions and understandings of key terms in the area of culture and the environment, namely, reconceptualising relations between ‘public’ and ‘space’. The research project therefore becomes political through aesthetic thinking, and because aesthetics now entails choice; the project is an ethical/cultural one.
In April 2007, VADRG will present 'there forever' an ephemeral public art event, as part of the Port Festival. For more information please see the 'there forever' page.
Links to other people thinking (a little) like this:
Lucas Ihlein's Petersham projectSue-Ann Ware 'Anti-Memorials and National Identity in the Victorian Landscape' (pdf)
Architecture in Australia article examining the Stolen Generations memorial competition
Sue-Ann Ware on roadside memorials
Artangel, British organisation supporting large scale artist's projects