Browsing by Subject "Public art"

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Anna Chave: Regarding the Proper in Architecture
(1993-03-26) Chave, Anna
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Balance between humanity and ecology
(2009) Spears, Steven Joseph, 1974-; Catterall, Kate
Incorporating aspects of public and environmental art practices into my professional endeavors as a landscape architect and urban designer has provided me with opportunities to work at a human scale, consider human needs, and focus on environmental issues that are closely interwoven with those needs. The public and environmental art process has presented greater opportunities to balance the sublime with the pragmatic and allows for a more overt communication between designer and audience, viewer or user. Functioning in this interstitial space allows me to communicate ideas clearly and to initiate a broader discussion on how society might find a balance between the stewardship of the natural environment in the face of the exponential growth of communities and the desire to own and develop land. My aim is to strike a balance between economic development and environmental imperatives through work bridging the practice of landscape architecture and public art. My objective is to use art and design work in the environment to persuade people to utilize all of their senses and to realize the undiscovered in their own journey, to stop and notice the world around them, and to act to protect the delicate balance between contemporary civilization and precious ecosystems. Using a method to register and then to make overt ephemeral elements in the environment, I aim to both demonstrate the ever-changing quality of nature and, more importantly, abuses of the natural environment in our society. Although my interest in the natural environment is multifaceted, water quantity and quality is a focus for my work. It is fast becoming a global issue with dire environmental and social ramifications. In the southwest United States and Australia, water is scarce. In the northwest United States and Finland, water quality remains an issue. In parts of Africa and Asia, water is being privatized and villages are left without a source of life and livelihood that has been a constant for generations. The more poetic aspect of my work focuses on natural time and revealing the abstract beauty of the environment. Shadows, sun, water and wind are all environmental systems that we can learn from and are revealed to us through natural time. It is through natural time that we may learn, respect and come into balance with the environment. In order for my work to succeed on all levels and reach the broadest possible audience, it needs to exist in the public realm. In order for it to communicate effectively it needs to be both, persuasive and poetic; while revealing possibilities for harmony between humanity and ecology. This can be achieved by communicating natures’ equilibrium surrounding environmental issues in the face of human civilization and time.
The corporate model : sculpture, architecture, and the American city, 1946-1975
(2015-05) Douberley, 1977-, Amanda; Reynolds, Ann Morris
This dissertation is a theoretical and historical account of urban sculpture in the U.S. following World War II. The title refers to an example set by corporations during the 1940s and 1950s for commissioning modernist office towers and abstract sculpture that fundamentally shaped the early history of a modern public art in the U.S. This corporate model was taken up by American cities during the 1960s in the construction of new civic centers that combined large-scale, abstract sculpture with glass and steel city office buildings. Federal funding further encouraged new sculpture commissions, which proliferated across the U.S. Emerging theories about visual communication impacted both urban planning and the corporate image during this period, as urban renewal reshaped cities for maximum legibility and corporations commissioned designers to create new trademarks. I argue that these twin aims conditioned the planning, production, and distribution of urban sculpture, whose status oscillated between the landmark within urban planning and the trademark of corporate America, between a concrete city element and an abstract symbol. I tell the history of post-war urban sculpture through three case studies. In the first case study, I examine three significant sculpture commissions for urban building lobbies realized by the architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill during the 1950s: Harry Bertoia’s screen (1954) at the Manufacturers Trust Company Bank on New York’s Fifth Avenue; Richard Lippold’s Radiant “I” (1958) at the Inland Steel Company Headquarters Building in Chicago; and Alexander Calder’s mobile (1959) for the Chase Manhattan Bank branch at 410 Park Avenue. In the second case study, I trace the parallel trajectories of urban renewal in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan and Alexander Calder’s fountains and stabiles made for World’s Fairs and international expositions, which intersected in La Grande Vitesse (1969), the National Endowment for the Arts’ first sculpture commission for its Art in Public Places program. In the third case study, I look at three sculptures produced by the fabricator Lippincott Inc., either as a series or in multiple editions, during its first five years of operation: Tony Rosenthal’s cubes (1967-68), Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1963-67), and Claes Oldenburg’s Geometric Mouse (1969-71).
Design : a tool for transformation
(2009) Ferguson, Beth Jean; Catterall, Kate
My graduate research has been focused on testing how visual communication in the form of three-dimensional polemic works can become a tool for effecting social change. The change I am interested in relates to the global energy crisis, and resolving imminent transportation and associated ecological problems by promoting the use of electric vehicles. The main focus of my work has been the use of a strategy that is best described as the transformation of old and iconic artifacts in order to communicate complex new ideas. The main project that I will use to discuss this strategy uses the form and implications of a 1950’s gas pump emblematic of the golden era of petroleum production and the heyday of the automobile as the lynchpin for a conversation with my audience. By tweaking the original meaning of the pump and by juxtaposing an image of gas guzzling vehicles with a proposal for sustainable electric powered vehicles I have created a public dialogue about the current energy crisis and a compelling argument to support the move towards alternate fuels. This 3-D design intervention in public space has proven to be an effective way to, convey a socio-political message, more effective than any poster because it is a functional element which is both warmly received because it hits home an idea in a positive, even humorous way and elicits an emotional response from the viewer. The station not only charges electric vehicles and encourages the public to test ride them, it allows people to re-envision mobility through experience, become involved and take action.
The social and economic impacts of public art : connections, complexity, and possibilities
(2015-12) Goodrum, Emily Kay; Oden, Michael; Simon, Keith A
This professional report addresses the broad issue of evaluating the impact of artistic and cultural activity. Focusing on the quantitative and qualitative effects of public art, this report attempts to address the following questions: What are the social and economic impacts of public art, and what can planners (land use, economic development, neighborhood development, participatory action planners) do to reap potential benefits while avoiding negative impacts? I address these questions through an in-depth review of existing literature from diverse fields and schools of thought and through qualitative analysis of the case study of Aurora, a large-scale new media art event in Dallas, Texas. Drawing upon these sources a number of connections are made and contradictions are revealed, and the complexity of how people perceive and value public art emerges from the literature and the case. The qualitative, cross-disciplinary analysis is used to suggest routes to further avenues of multidisciplinary research as well as revealing possible new ways of thinking about the form and value of public art. The research demonstrates both positive and negative effects from public art depending on context, content, interpretation, as well as an interaction between these factors. Thoughtful implementation suggests great potential for public art’s social benefit and it is an activity that planners and policymakers certainly have role in as regulators of urban space.
The activation of the social is the art : SUPERFLEX and the development of Superkilen
(2018-05-03) Voss, Michelle Leigh; Adejumo, Christopher O., 1959-
The symbiotic relationship between contemporary culture and public space is leading to new modes of creating and experiencing art. In this emerging form of artistic practice, artists directly engage with communities to create new work. Defying easy categorization, this practice has received numerous labels in an attempt to more clearly define the genre, including socially engaged art. One distinctive element of this collaborative form is the role of the urban environment, and, specifically, public space. This study explores how the Danish artist collective, SUPERFLEX, collaborated with community members in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Nørrebro in Copenhagen, Denmark to create Superkilen, a public park spanning roughly one kilometer of urban terrain. Engaging community members with SUPERFLEX’s concept of participation extreme, Superkilen evolved into a constellation of more than one hundred curated objects from over fifty different countries. The result of many years of collaboration between artists, architects, designers, and community members, the site demonstrates how public space can be renegotiated in the urban context. This study also investigates the essential concepts underpinning the creation of socially engaged art for public spaces, as well as the implications of critical spatial practice and the activation of the social sphere in works of art. For art education, further investigation into the realm of socially engaged art offers avenues for exploring how art can have practical implications in society. Most critically, art educators can demonstrate how creative exchange can be a pathway for underserved groups and invisible communities to participate in the public sphere.
The public poetics of Celia Alvarez Muñoz
(2019-08) Retta, Sofia Virginia; Flaherty, George F., 1978-
This thesis concentrates on the public art practice of Celia Alvarez Muñoz (born 1937 in El Paso, Texas), focusing specifically on El Río Habla (The River Speaks), 2000-01, located on the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas. In this work, Muñoz employs poetry, water, space, and artifacts to tell the story of the San Antonio River. This public artwork also reveals the primary qualities and concerns of Muñoz’s practice, namely language, history, time, and place. Throughout my analysis of El Río Habla, my approach concentrates on the experiences of looking, reading, listening, and moving while also offering interpretations of the poetry, which is the central feature of the work. While El Río Habla is the primary focus of this thesis, I also examine Muñoz’s practice through three other works across a variety of genres: a public art project in a light rail station, a museum installation, and an artist’s book. I demonstrate that her work in public art, though rarely the subject of scholarship, is equally critical to understanding her practice as the books, photography, and installations for which she is best known. I maintain that her multimedia practice is characterized by her keen attention to local contexts, histories, and communities, as she uncovers hidden and neglected histories of the places in which she is working. Ultimately, this thesis argues that El Río Habla is a critical work of place-specific public art, as it subverts the dominant narratives of San Antonio’s history, reveals the city’s obscured histories, and centers the river as a foundational yet continually changing force and place within the city