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A BROAD UNDERSTANDING OF THE PUBLIC REALM

Seminar Fall 2008

Instructor: Sofia Ponte

sofiaponte@yahoo.com

November 24, 25, 26, 27 meets from 7.30- 9.30pm

December 5 review (meeting time TBD)

Overview

Cities are spaces where individuals socially engage with each other on many levels. Nowadays public spaces are highly oriented as business or tourism attraction subtracting a great deal of potential to other social interactions. How can art register extra qualities to the public realm? How can communal situations, simply taken for granted, be expanded into new intriguing moments of socialization? How can passerby's be reminded of the diversity and flux of a city? The seminar will reflect on the role of art in the public realm and broadly analyze historical, social and philosophical concepts that make it possible to observe and understand the specific conditions of the emerging 21st century city.

Structure

Participants will discuss among them the bibliography of each session and develop an assignment that links the group discussions with their artistic practice.

Assignment

Participants are expected to create a project that considers a site, time and context specific. That contemplates the social-political implication of its placement and significance in the public realm. The projects most be documented and presented to the group and a guest reviewer in the last day of classes.

Bibliography

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Marshall Berman

Privatizing the Public Realm by Shirley Kressel

The Rise of the Network Society by Manuel Castells

The Artist in the World of Science by Marcel Breuer

The Fall of Public Man by Richard Sennett

Public Sculpture in the Context of American Democracy by Siah Armajani

Worlds Away and the World Next Door by Andrew Blauvelt

Heterotopias by Michel Foucault