From agonism to the agoratic?

Warren Sack, Agonistics: A Language GameI have to admit that ever since Warren Sack introduced me to some of Chantal Mouffe’s political philosophy with his game Agonistics: A Language Game, I have been enamored of the idea of agonistic pluralism. He wrote in his artist statement for Database Imaginary

In the 1980s, Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau had an idea: why not think about democratic discussion as a competition, an “agonistic” activity, a game? Society is recognized as impossible, as a space of endless contingencies. Establishing precise distinctions between difference and conflict, they articulated a democracy based not on hostilities where parties are enemies to each other, but on “agonism,” where parties are constructively adversarial. This theory accepts that democracy cannot be organized in a well-mannered way without room for confrontations and a multiplicity of voices.

It is an appealing vision: neither chaos nor hive mind but agonism.

In a fascinating essay, Public Art? Activating the Agoratic Condition, presented at the 48 Degrees Celsius Public.Art.Ecology festival in Delhi, Nancy Adajania, challenges

“Mouffe’s much-cited model of the public sphere, in which, as she says, “the aim of democratic institutions is not to establish a national consensus in the public sphere but to defuse the potential of hostility that exists in human societies by providing the possibilities for antagonism to be transformed into ‘agonism’.”

Adajania argues that

Mouffe’s theoretical sleight of hand is remarkably unhelpful when it comes to addressing the crises, dilemmas and the often schismatic turbulences that attend transitional societies, such as India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea, to name only a few. In these situations, the public domain is a scene for the battle among forces whose agenda commits them to mutual exclusion and sometimes even mutual annihilation. There is often radical disagreement on how to interpret the national past and the national future, on how to distribute power and authority, and what the nature of the State should be. In some of these situations, also, positions are taken on the basis of tactical opportunity and short-term gain rather than on that of long-held principle or reasoned conviction; where vote-bank politics, illiteracy, famine and cultivated regional asymmetries prevail, the ground of politics resembles a quicksand more than it does the floor of a debating room. As applied to such complex predicaments, Mouffe’s theories are about as useful as a Lego set to the building of metropolis.

Watching Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress take remarkably antagonistic positions in the midst of a generational economic crisis, despite President Obama’s arguably agonistic vision of bipartisanship, one can’t help but think that agonism may not be Panglossian only in the “transitional societies” that Adajania cites.

Ravi Agarwal, Down and Out: Labouring Under Global Capitalism
Ravi Agarwal, Down and Out: Labouring Under Global Capitalism

In place of agonism, Adajania proposes the model of the agora:

the marketplace that is also a meeting place, a shifting weave of textures of thought, opinion, ideas and convictions; a non-hierarchical space of exchange where thought is multiplied and extended by distribution rather than imparted from a fixed source of authority. The agora of the classical Greek city-state was also, etymologically, the ‘open space’, where merchants, sailors, soldiers, artists, writers, priests, oracles, and madmen congregated and could voice themselves.

In “Public Art? Activating the Agoratic Condition,” Adajania sketches a nuanced idea of public art within an articulated notion of the public sphere and grounds her arguments in the specific artistic practice of two Indian artists, Navjot and Ravi Agarwal. Whether you buy Adajania’s agora or prefer to play agonisticly, Public Art? Activating the Agoratic Condition is a worthwhile read about experimenting wth art in public places.


Is it art or advertising? (Part I)

This is an easy game called “Is it art or advertising?”. Simply review the images and decide if you believe the projects shown to be art or advertising (or both).

Sometimes there may be only art, sometimes there may be only advertising, and sometimes one of each.

This game is inspired by the growing merger of aesthetics and commerce. As I realize that I am a targeted demographic for commercials using re-edited Roxy Music songs and Target ads that remind me of last years gallery shows, I begin to feel slightly uncomfortable. Is this is a mutually beneficial relationship for all involved? Is it bad to be inundated with higher level design and conceptual imagery on our billboards and buses even if its for corporate gain? What impact can public art projects have in taking over public spaces if their audiences can’t tell the difference between art and advertising? I can’t help but feel co-opted but maybe its just aesthetic evolution?


Can an economic downturn be an artistic opportunity?

After completing reporting on two years of state support for our small non profit arts org I am reminded of what I already knew. What a driving force the arts are to our econonmy – especially public art! With the joined totals of artists fees, materials, and fabrication the business of beautification really contributes its share into the local and national coffers.

Arlene Goldfarb eloquently expands on this idea in this article. Great weekend reading!!!

I’ve got a good start on my list dream projects, guest artists, and ideas! Now if I could only find the funding…


The Emotional City

Here are some images from Marina Zurkow of Will Pappenheimer’s and Chipp Jansen’s Tampa Public Mood Ring.


Liverpool Biennial seeks “Wonder Curator”

The Liverpool Biennial has a remarkable program of international public art commissions and is looking for a curator for this aspect of their program.


Ai Weiwei, Web of Light, Liverpool Biennial, 2008

The International Curator will work with the Director to design and deliver the International exhibition, directly and through our partners. This involves the research, commissioning, production and delivery of the non-venue based commissions. The curator must have the vision to commission works from the best international artists, build real collaboration with our various partners, and manage project teams to deliver our mission.

Closing date for applications
http://www.biennial.com/content/Footer/Opportunities.aspx


Lights on Tampa

I asked Marina Zurkow, whose Slurb is premiering at Lights on Tampa, to send Public Address some dispatches from the event.


Radiator Symposium: Exploits in the Wireless City

Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham UK
15 – 16 January 2009

As part of the 4th Radiator festival, the Radiator Symposium, “Exploits in the Wireless City”, aims to instigate discussion, debate and new interdisciplinary research networks based on the understanding that the development of digital networks are transforming our notion of (public and private) space.

Bringing together artists with architects, urban theorists, computer scientists, sociologists and fellow citizens, the symposium will explore, question and play with this new urban topography where the re-conceptualizing of the public sphere in the regeneration developments of the East Midlands mirror those around Europe.

Radiator will host the symposium alongside a series of presentations, exhibitions and discussions where the audience will have the opportunity to explore, remodel and re-present space in its traditional and emergent forms.

In its critique, the Radiator symposium will question the opportunities, future strategies and implementations that artists and communities face when learning to act within these new hybrid city spaces.

Through its artistic interventions, Radiator will put theory into practice with projects and events that both position and challenge the dominant forces at work in the urban environment and explore the new territories opened up by hybrid space. The “Going Underground” project, investigates this infrastructure by placing 5 artists into the urban confines of British cities: Glenn Davidson (Artstation) (UK), Folke Köbberling&Martin Kaltwasser (DE), Ian Nesbitt (UK), Christian Nold (UK), N55 (DK). These artists will act as sleeper agents, observing and gathering information from a range of different sources including; architects, planning departments, city council offices, surveillance, monitoring centre’s and the Police to create new work in response to their research.

There are still places left to book for the Radiator Symposium. For
Bookings, ring ++44(0)115 840 9272 or email info@radiator-festival.org
More info on http://www.radiator-festival.org/radiator-symposium-2009


Your new year’s resolution to do more public art!

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!

The Bubble Project is one of my favorite ways to interact with the corporate monologue. This project makes great use of web 2.0 by providing a down loadable bubble template and allowing participants to upload their own creations! A variation on this theme is to use store bought sticker bubbles used for photos and alter the magazines in your dentist office, etc.

The Pixalator is another great advertising altering street art invention.

By constructing a simple filter, digital advertising becomes a beautiful abstraction! It would take a little work to do this in public but I am collecting toilet paper rolls as we speak to do the at home version thanks to our friends at Craftster.org

For more inspiration on DIY art projects check out the The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith. It includes great projects like moss graffiti!

Hope this is enough to get you inspired to get going on all your art resolutions! Feel free to comment with your own project images or tell us about your plans to contribute to the greater good by subtly altering some public spaces!

Happy New Year!


Lights on Tampa Artist Symposium

Thursday January 8, 2008
4-6 pm
Tampa Theater
711 N. Franklin St.

Marina Zurkow, Shrub
Marina Zurkow, animation still of “Slurb”, the installation proposed for outdoor projection at the St. Pete Times Forum for Lights On Tampa. Image courtesy of the artist.

This symposium will explore various issues including:

  • How does the work of each artist function in the public realm?
  • What do these artworks, and programs such as Lights On Tampa, say about today’s cultural environment both nationally and in a mid-size postindustrial city such as Tampa?

2009 Lights on Tampa Artists are:

  • Casa Magica
  • Chris Doyle
  • Marina Zurkow
  • Will Pappenheimer & Chipp Jansen
  • Carlton Ward Jr.


Public/Private in “Pay Attention”


Public Art at the Polls

Suffargium. Still from the video by Jill Sebastian

Suffargium. Still from the video by Jill Sebastian

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.

For Suffragium (above), Jill Sebastian used documentation from the Milwaukee Public Library, the site of her project, and images of sculptures that are in and in front of the voting area at the library to create an animated video about Wisconsin’s voting history. The video was presented on two TV monitors inside the library for voters to watch while waiting in line, and there was also a woman in period costume outside the library singing suffragist songs.

As part of his project, Amalgam (a portion of which is illustrated below), at Craig Montessori School, Steve Wetzel distributed a form to 4th-grade students requesting that they sketch their ideal voting booth. The sketches were incorporated into a two-dimensional amalgam, made by Wetzel, that was on display in the school lobby.

Portion of Amalgam, by Steve Wetzel

Co-producers Pegi Taylor and John Loscuito needed to get approval at multiple stages of the project from the state and local elections divisions, as well as from all the site managers. The delicate balance was making sure the art was nonpartisan and would not interfere with people voting, yet offer artists opportunities to do their best work.

MVP was a success. Hundreds of people were exposed to performance art. Voting site officials were cooperative. No one complained that the art was partisan. A complete list of participating performers and projects, along with key media coverage, can be viewed at
http://www.myvoteperforms.com/

MVP’s key sponsor, the Wisconsin Arts Board, gave funding hoping the project could serve as a model for other cities. If you are interested in learning more, My Vote Performs will present a documentary video at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, 273 E. Erie Street in Milwaukee, Nov. 25 at 7:00 p.m. Or feel free to contact co-producer Pegi Taylor at pegitay@sbcglobal.net


“Top 5 High-tech public art masterpieces”

The surprising thing about this CNET compilation of Top 5 “Hi-tech public art masterpieces” is that it’s a pretty good list.

Watch video.

It’s a little hard to tell, but it looks like Jim Campbell’s “light bulb grid” was the version shown in New York, but we also commissioned a new version for the recent 01SJ Biennial, 1st and San Fernando.

More pix of the amazing Moveable Type by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin here.

More pix of The Fountain by David Small and Ben Tre here.

Also in the top 10 is Nuage Vert by HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen), which won the 01SJ Green Prix for Environmental Art.

via weplaytech


Do you know the Central Corridor?

The Metropolitan Council is seeking community members to work with artists selected for each of the Central Corridor LRT stations. According to Met Counci’s Public Involvement page:

Community members are needed for the Station Art Committee. Please read the Station Art Committee Charter (pdf) prior to applying. Applications must be submitted via email no later than November 14th, 2008. If you are having any problems submitting your application or have questions, please contact Jessica Hill at jessica.hill@metc.state.mn.us or (651) 602-1840.

Station Art Committees

  • West Bank
  • East Bank
  • Stadium Village
  • 29th Avenue
  • Westgate/Raymond
  • Fairview
  • Snelling
  • Lexington
  • Dale
  • Rice
  • Capitol East/10th
  • 4th and Cedar
  • Union Depot

via MinnPost


Art vs Audience

After teaching a class on art and social change, I have held the belief that artists need to consider the responsibility they have to their audience when creating work in public. Taking the cue of what not to do from missionaries and service learning programs that tend to have a “drop in and fix the problem” approach, I always encouraged my students to think long and hard about their artistic presence in a community. To ask themselves a series of questions related to the relevance of their work. Why here? Why now? Why me? Am I assuming to know more than my audience? In short, what gives me the right? These become important questions when you attempt to expose unsuspecting and sometimes uninformed audiences to your work.

For the most part I stand by these beliefs, although a new thought process is beginning to take place in all of this. What about experimental public art? Art that is often being figured out as the the artists goes along (much like me with this blog). Art that sometimes is created as a testing of an artistic hypothesis on the part of the artist.

I do believe that the artist has every right to conduct these types of experiments but I sense some tension when the public becomes the petri dish. One can choose to partake in a concert of experimental music or improvised dance (which if not done well can border on the tenuous line of self indulgence on the part of the musician or dancer). But innocent bystanders in the public realm may not always have that choice. What if they are not in the mood to be accosted by a public performance piece in the name of art? Or try to negotiate the space around the Tilted Arch ?

I fully embrace artistic experimentation and love love love unanticipated artistic encounters for the unsuspecting public. The wackier the better as far as I am concerned and with the advent of new technologies the possibilities are endless. I believe these two methods of working in public can co-exist but I wonder if we should (and if so how?) apply a sort of artistic social code to artists working in public in order to address the difference of art for audience and art for the artists.

Perhaps I should hedge my bet on the notion that all artists drawn to work in public posses some kind of innate desire to share beauty and thought provoking experiences with the world.

Thoughts?


Mainstreet meltdown

ligorano/reese, Main Street Meltdown

On October 29, 2008, the 79th anniversary of Black Tuesday, the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression in 1929, artists Ligorano/Reese will meltdown the “Economy.”

In a new, time-based event, called Main Street Meltdown the artists will install the word “Economy,” carved in ice, in Foley Square, using the New York Supreme Court as a back drop.

The event begins on Wednesday, October 29th at 9 AM and will last 24 hours.

Northern Lights co-presented ligorano/reese’s earlier frozen Cassandra warning, The State of Things, which spelled out the word Democracy, during the Republican National Convention as part of the UnConvention.


Interview with bystander at The State of Things from LigoranoReese on Vimeo.