Public Culture in the Visual Sphere

The UC San Diego Visual Arts Department is hosting a series of lectures and panels investigating contemporary theories, practices and debates in the making and reception of public culture as they move through the visual sphere.

http://visarts.ucsd.edu/html/splash.html

Curated by John C. Welchman
In collaboration with the Visiting Artist Lecture Series committee 2009-10 (Anya Gallaccio, Teddy Cruz, Kyong Park, Suzanne Wright); the Public Culture graduate committee (Edward Sterrett, Orianna Cacchione, Cara Baldwin, Katrin Pesch, Sara Mameni, Tara Zepel), and Jordan Crandall.

Supported by the Visual Arts Department, UCSD; Dean of Arts and Humanities, UCSD; SoCCAS [Southern California Consortium of Art Schools]

Collaborations with the Master of Public Art Studies Program, USC Roski School of Fine Arts; English and Comparative Literature, UCLA; the graduate MFA program at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; Calit2 [California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology]; and the Athenaeum, La Jolla.

Schedule of Events: All events take place at the UC San Diego Visual Arts Facility, Performance Space Thursdays @ 6:30 pm unless otherwise noted

Jan. 7 Take off: What is Public Culture? [panel]

Anya Gallaccio "What is Public Culture?"

Kyong Park "Anyang Public Art Project 2010: constructing a research-based, multi-disciplinary, community participation and process-oriented urban project in Korea"

Cauleen Smith "When Documentary Seems Like a Lie"

Teddy Cruz "Practices of Encroachment"

Jordan Crandall "New Media and Public Culture"

Moderated by John C. Welchman

Jan 14 Pros and Cons: Graduate Research in Public Culture [panel]
pros* Issue Zero Launch

Nicole Holland "Private as Public in the USSR"

David Mather "Mass Forms, Mass Agency in the Early 20th Century"

Sheryl Oring "I Wish to Say: Free Speech and Democracy"

David White "'Network' as a Tool for Neighborhood Engagement"

Rayanne Tabet "After the Flood: Reversing the Trans-Arabian Pipeline"

Cara Baldwin "We are the ones we've been waiting for"

Moderated by Edward Sterrett

Jan. 21 Public Culture and Democracy [panel]

Cynthia Truant [UCSD, History]
"Citizenship: constructions and contestation in France, 1700-1900"

Grant Kester [UCSD, Visual Arts]
"Democracy, Virtuality and Public Culture"

Marcel Henaff [UCSD, Literature and Political Science]
"Grace, the work of art, and public space"

Jan. 28 Claire Bishop [City University, New York]
"How do you bring a work of art to life?: Contemporary Art and/as Pedagogy"

Feb. 4 Steven Graham [University of Durham, UK; co-sponsored with Art Center, Pasadena]
"Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism"

Feb. 18 Boris Groys [New York University; co-sponsored with USC]
"Visiting Time: Contemporary Time-based Art"

WEDS Feb. 24 Vito Acconci
"From Words to Actions to Architecture"

Feb. 25 Brian Holmes
"Intellectuals and Social Movements: Doctrine - Debate - Defense - Invention"

March 4 Where is the Public Option? [panel]
[co-sponsored with and hosted by the Athenaeum, 1008 Wall Street La Jolla, CA 92037]

Rebecca Solnit
[writer and essayist, San Francisco]

Rick Lowe
[Project Row House, Houston]

Matt Coolidge
[Founder and Director, Center for Land Use Interpretation]

Suzanne Lacy
[Otis College of Art, Los Angeles]

Moderated by Teddy Cruz

March 11 Town Hall/Manifestos/Open Mic.
Moderated by Kyong Park and John C. Welchman

Modifying LA

Staying in Echo Park in Los Angeles recently, each day passing by this church fitted with some surprising elements, the forms start to supplement the conditions of the building. Nestled into the existing form and shape of the building, the elements function as additional seating, table structures, planting pots, and potential stairs, modifying the existing arrangement.


The insertion of these additional elements unfold a poignant suggestion for acts of modification that append additional forms, stage new configurations, and allow other movements into and around buildings. Urban furniture then may function as means for such elaborations, figuring possible itineraries for what it means to take a seat.

o corpo na cidade, Brasil

Exhibition on the theme of urban interventionist practices, taking place in multiple venues around the city of Curitiba, and curated by Paulo Reis.
http://www.ocorponacidade.com.br/

Urban Landscapes, Lisbon

Walking through Lisbon, I came upon these temporary bench-plant structures strewn along the waterfront. Their colorful and modular appearance stood out as a rather dynamic solution to urban furniture. Allowing flexibility, the structures give way to possibilities for immediate transformation, reconfiguration, and interaction - one might imagine these blobs being moved around now and again, creating a sort of mobile urban landscape (if only they were on wheels...).

7th Bienal do Mercosul, Brasil

http://www.bienalmercosul.art.br/
Public Text:

The exhibition has gathered together artists that require an active dialogue with the city, reconfigured in a manner of a public text:
The curating approach here is a plan.
A plan of occupation and of forces and pulses existing in the urban space.
In this curating approach, the artists work the symbolic and material elements of the public space.
We are interested in artists working the city as material for their projects.
We are interested in artists producing poetic forms out of urban phenomena.
We are interested in visible and invisible works, which can occupy subtle physical ties like the air and the sound space, urban space and the media.
We are interested in giving back to the city, its spaces as they were, without adding materials, so that the waste will consist of memories and meanings.
The exhibition will mainly take place in the public spaces of Porto Alegre, basing itself on several lines of investigation:
i. Illumination: Works that render visible strategic points of the city.
ii. Wavelengths: Open radio transmissions to all the artists that are taking part in the Biennial (see below).
iii. Transitory and Ambulant: Works about the flux and dynamic of the time and of the urban space.
iv. Points on the Map: A net of projects at the Biennial and at the city, have together given expression to a new and amplified text. In addition, the exhibition will be held in one of the warehouses of the Quayside. Here, the Biennial looks at the creation of a radio installation - Radiovisual - the radio commissioned especially for the Biennial.

I participated in A Day in LA: Washington Boulevard Art Concert on Sunday, October 11. This was a project organized by Stephen Van Dyck that involved 60 artists reinterpreting public unused outdoor space along all 27 miles of Wash Blvd.
The installation I constructed is titled Referential system designed to mimic the structures of symbolic capital and was located Northwest corner of Perrino Place and Washington Blvd.
More information about the project can be found here.

The Space Hijackers prosecuted

The decision has been made to prosecute peaceful activist artists the Space Hijackers for impersonating police on 1st April 2009 at the G20 Summit demonstrations.

It is alleged that the group entered the City of London wearing police uniforms in an armoured personnel carrier with the intent to deceive the public into believing that they were members of the Police force. The Space Hijackers vehemently deny any intent to deceive or that they had any sinister motives.

The Space Hijackers describe themselves as ‘Anarchitects’ and that their aim is to challenge and provoke discussion through peaceful public performance. A spokesperson for Space Hijackers, said "We are shocked and appalled by the behaviour of the Police on the day both towards us and others. We don’t feel that we were arrested because the officers honestly believed that we were impersonating the Police but because we were becoming a thorn in their side.”

Raj Chada of Hodge Jones Allen said "The Space Hijackers were protesting entirely peacefully. In light of the numerous allegations of violence and misconduct against the police that have marred the event, perhaps the biggest joke is the decision to prosecute those peaceful protestors playing loud music and wearing fancy dress."

The Space Hijackers have every confidence in their case and welcome the opportunity to encourage further scrutiny of the policing of the event itself. The Space Hijackers will vigourously contest the charges laid against them and their legal team invites all assistance from any witnesses who saw the defendants on 1 April 2009.
For more information, please visit their website.