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Public Address is a platform for wide-ranging discussion of innovative projects, and practices. Read here for news, announcements, and postings and sign up for our e-newsletter here.

Contemporary art is increasingly “untethered” and moves from the white cube of the gallery to any site – including the virtual – to engage the public in its own realm. Public art is an ever-expanding field of inquiry, with artists of all stripes exploring the public realm. Beyond murals, monuments, memorials (and the occasional mime) public art has become a vibrant and engaging practice. From the spectacular to the quotidian, permanent to ephemeral, sited to virtual, material to performative, conceptual to cinematic, we believe there are unprecedented opportunities for new art practices in our shared environment. This is the critical focus of Public Address.

Your new year’s resolution to do more public art!
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
01.6.2009
Tags
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I have been really impressed lately with the willingness of artists to share their ideas and utilize the internet to spread mini interventions in cities across the world. In the past few weeks I have shared a few of these ideas with teachers, nieces and nephews, and of course my DIY peers. With everyone chipping in to do their part there could be an unexpected public alteration around every corner! My dream for 2009!

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Living City :: environmental responsiveness
Author
mediachef
Post
01.5.2009
Tags
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According to David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang, “In the future, walls will breathe. Construction materials and systems that have been inert for thousands of years will respond in real time to the dynamic conditions of their surroundings and to a larger network of data. Buildings will host public interfaces to air quality and make visible the invisible conditions of the environment. Architecture will come to life.”

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Hitching Up to Public Art
Author
mediachef
Post
12.4.2008
Tags
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It seems that we gallop through life in a haze
And don’t notice the things we race by every day
Until a time comes when a change will occur
That will cause us to notice, stop and confer
We talk to our neighbors; ask “was that always there?”
“I never saw it before”, the neighbors declare.

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It’s a translation thing?
Author
mediachef
Post
11.18.2008
Tags

This summer I participated in a workshop at Creative Capital on “Exhibiting and Working with Institutions.” Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I posited that at least in “emerging fields” there may be a translation problem between what an artist says and what a curator hears. The language is specific to the art formerly known as new media, but it may also apply, at least in spirit, to experiments with art in public places.

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Antoni Muntadas
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
11.17.2008
Tags
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One of my favorite moments of the day is perusing the Art Daily emails that come my way. Every once in a while, hidden between the announcements of who’s doing what job where and what is currently selling at Christie’s (and at what price!) you can spot an interesting public art project or artists. Today it was Antoni Muntadas

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Northern Lights founder profiled
Author
mediachef
Post
11.16.2008
Tags
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Northern Lights is in the U of M news recently with a profile of director Steve Dietz: Dietz’s current project is called Northern Lights: a roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented art agency. “There are some exceptional artists here,” he says, “and there are some strong programs at MCAD and the U; but there isn’t the strong […]

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Public Art at the Polls
Author
Northern Lights.mn
Post
11.14.2008
Tags
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Where did the presidential election and performance art cross paths? No, not LA or New York…try MILWAUKEE!!

For the first time in US history, voters were treated to performance art at polling places. Voters at 11 sites in Milwaukee experienced dance, video, recorded sound, sculpture, and more, all with the purpose of celebrating and encouraging discussion about citizenship. A non-profit, nonpartisan group called My Vote Performs (MVP) produced the project.

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