Thesis Research

Source: National Endowment for the Arts Web Site

http://www.nea.gov/resources/Lessons/PALLY.HTML

by Marc Pally

“The field of public art is a relatively young one with roots that can be traced back to the creation of percent-for-art programs. Public art, broadly defined, encompasses artwork placed in a public context—on the street, in a park, on the exterior of a building, within the common spaces of a public building and so on. The history of public art is enormous and includes commissioned art as well as art initiated by artists. Planning efforts for public art are, not surprisingly, almost exclusively directed toward official activities: government sponsored programs that either depend on mandated allocations (e.g. one-percent of capital improvement project budgets or private development projects), or that encourage voluntary participation through incentive programs or through the power of persuasion and mutual benefit.

The variety of circumstances that constitute the public art field is one of its strengths and presents administrators with challenges in developing appropriate administrative structures and funding strategies. There are precious few models that can be duplicated safely. The idea of site specificity, which is basic to public art, must be incorporated into the planning process itself. Points of view vary tremendously and must all be given a respectful hearing before a responsive and useful plan can be produced.”

if work invites online interaction in ways that also allow spammers, advertisers, and pornograhy to appear as part of the site, what then? moderation of such interaction is an ongoing job—who will do it? who is responsible for it? if artwork is meant for the public, is the city obligated to remove offensive material or risk legal action? research protection to publisher

if a public art piece is targeted by hackers, what plans for restoration? how secure should site be? is artist/work harmed if site is hacked and public views results?

the same as when a street is blocked off for construction and so the public is denied access—temporarily—to a public art piece? how much downtime is acceptable, at each instance and total?

Source: Public Art, Public Controversy

pg. 35: “The terms of Serra’s contract were adapted from a form the GSA uses for contractors and suppliers generally. The larger part of the contract consists of federal procurement boiler plate. The contract contained little to suggest that the complex legal relations involved in the projects. More important, omitted was what Serra contends was his inducement for entering into the contract: the promise that the work would be permanently installed at its site. Serra’s lawyer at the time of the contract negotiations, along with all the government employees connected with the program, testified that a permanent work of art was to be chosen, built and installed at this site. The argument was not only that Serra was given an explicit oral promise of permanency, but also that the GSA’s policy, usage and practice implied that his sculpture would not be altered or distorted. Serra contends that this promise of permanency was a valid and enforceable oral agreement intended or implied as part of his contract, and that removal and/or relocation of the sculpture constitutes a breach of contract.”

Read more...

Source: Public Art, Public Controversy

pg. 34, from the 1979 King County (Washington) Arts Commission:

“Under the policy, a work of art may be considered for deaccessioning if one or more conditions such as the following apply:”

Read more...

Commissioning
Conservation
Maintenance
Deacquisition

Source: Public Art, Public Controversy

pg. 18
The Commissioning of a Work of Public Sculpture
by Judity H. Balfe and Margaret J. Wyszomirski

“...the interests involved in public art commissions are not only more numerous, but often arise from collectivities that are themselves variegated and diffuse.”

Read more...

Source: Designing the World’s Best Public Art

pg. 13: “...I suppose that the Airstream [trailer] was my first experience of American public art. After all, it accomplishes in a practical way, just about everything I have heard anyone want from a public artwork. It is visually stunning, an American icon, historically based, made of a durable material, requires little maintenance, is somewhat inexpensive, and does not offend the political, religious or moral sensibilities of too many people.”

Garrison Woods
Professor of Fine Arts, Area Coordinator of Sculpture, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Source: New Media Art

pg. 62-63: Robotic 7 kW xenon searchlights, webcams, TCP/IP to DMX converter, Java 3D interface, GPS tracker, Linux, email servers
Keywords: public, spectable, telepresence
http://www.alzado.net

Read more...

Source: New Media Art

pg. 56-57: Knowbotic Research with Peter Sandbichler, 2002
Flash, Nessus Attack Scripting Language, MySQL, Pd, Python Keywords: hacking, hactivism, installation
http://unitedwehack.ath.cs

Read more...

Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser have created digital artworks for stage, screen, gallery, and museum, with a present focus on art for public spaces. http://www.openendedgroup.com/enlightenment/credits.html

Source: Spectropolis:

Spectropolis projects: UMBRELLA.net by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki

About UMBRELLA.net: UMBRELLA.net is an experimental platform for developing ad-hoc networks based around coincidence or chance occurrences. The project utilizes the haphazard and unpredictable patterns of weather and crowd formation as a catalyst for network formation. This approach is meant to challenge traditional conceptions of how networks form and function by correlating their existence to circumstances beyond people’s direct control. The system consists of a set of umbrellas as nodes that can spontaneously form based on weather conditions. UMBRELLA.net establishes a visual footprint of a network in public space and creates a framework for sharing localized information among connected nodes.

Read more...

Source: New Media Art

pg. 24: “The inherently ephemeral nature of much New Media art, we well as its often unfamiliar aesthetics and technologies, posed a challenge to gallerists and collectors. Some artists provide a CD-ROM of other storage device containing a copy of the work (e.g. the sale of a floppy disk containing Douglas Davis’ The World’s First Collaborative Sentence to collectors in 1995). Others produce works that take the form of physical objects, such as John F. Simon Jr.‘s wall-mounted “art appliances,” which recall framed paintings. Feng Mengbo’s Iris prints from his interactive CD-ROMs and Cory Arcangel’s silk-screens of images from his Game art works, have had commercial success, partly because such forms are familiar and relatively easy to exhibit.”

Read more...

Source: Vectorial Elevation

http://www4.alzado.net/edinformacion.html : Between April 22 and May 3, 2004 this website allowed you to design enormous light sculptures in the sky over the city of Dublin, using 22 robotic searchlights placed around O’Connell Street. The beams of light were visible at a distance of 15 kilometres; every fourteen seconds a new design was displayed as it arrived from the Internet.

Read more...