Urban Encounters

Morgan, Kim, Nagler, Solomon and Radice, Martha (2022) Urban Encounters. The Khyber Centre for the Arts, Canada, 10 October 2013 - 12 October 2013.

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Abstract

Public art installations are increasingly being created and used to open up new lines of inquiry into the socialities of urban public space. As cities strive to be indexed as culturally dynamic and ‘creative’, the stakes of artistic production in public space are raised ever higher. Yet there has been little rigorous research into how the interactions between art and the public actually play out in the urban social context. This interdisciplinary colloquium brings together artists and researchers to explore how artworks in diverse media and genres can shape the urban public – the patterned and unpredictable encounters, events, and flows of city life – and, conversely, how the urban public can shape artistic production. We ask: -What forms are artistic engagements with the city taking, and how do they influence the city’s people and places? -How does the urban public encounter art in the city, and how do these encounters affect the structure and content of the work? -What kinds of urban publics are generated through art? -How can we investigate and interpret encounters between art and the public in urban spaces?