Final Project Proposal: Visual Art as Civic Media
Final Project Proposal: Visual Art as Civic Media
My project will have two parts, both centered around the idea of using art as civic media.
Part 1) I'll do this first, in order to have better ideas for part 2. Part 1 is a literature review on the history of public art interventions (anonymous, subversive, graphic art, etc.), including detournement, ad hacking, critical and satirical graffiti (and reverse/ clean tag graffiti), billboard modifications, adbusters, political remix, etc. The deliverable from part 1 will be a paper, probably about 15 - 20 pages in length. To be finished by mid - late November.
Part 2) This is the practical part, which I'll do after I've done most of part 1 or at least most of the research for part 1, because I think my ideas about what type of issue can best be tackled through art and how I can use art to tackle it will probably change as I learn more about what other people have done in the past (and what kind of results they got). I'll make several pieces on the same issue (I have several issues which are already themes in my artwork, but I will choose one based on what I learn in part 1), and, if possible, provide a link to a larger organization/ community (which cares about concrete changes relevant to the issue) on the artwork itself, so that interested people can connect to the larger group. (I do want to avoid making my art look like an ad, though, so I have to figure out how to do that.) The deliverable from part 2 will be at least 3 - 5 (depending on scale) pieces of art focused on a single issue which can be addressed through action taken on the part of the receivers. I think, unless part 1 gives me different ideas, I'll either deliver artwork anonymously (as per usual) or post artwork anonymously in popular public areas (which I've also done, but it gets taken down quickly), or both. To be done by the last day of class/ Finals week/ whatever the due date is.
Cool pictures of clean tagging/ reverse graffiti:
Sample art:
Comments
I really like this. Art as "civic media" probably has had some of the most history of people taken over space for their voices to be heard. Would you include some of your past experiences relating to delivering artwork anonymously in public areas in the paper? I would be also very interested in the part on how people interact with the art you deliver. Maybe if you interview some people that are observing the art, to see what message or feeling they are getting from the art? Or another cool way you can implement the second phase of the project is having an unfinished canvas, where you can set it up somewhere public with paint brushes or other material, and put down something like, "collaborate" or something along those lines (the cool art organization that I told you about here in Providence: as220.org did something like that in their festival, which they set up news print and basically created an interactive mural where anyone could paint at whatever moment they wanted).
What subject matters for your art are you considering? Where will you station the art? How will you collect feedback on the art?
I think this is really interesting, particularly your hope that "my art [might] look like an ad" Have you also considered thinking about how public art makes its way into the private sector? Or how public [civic minded] art may be co-opted by a particular political cause or party (e.g. Shepard Fairey's Obama Hope poster)? With the attention that Fairey and Banksy have brought to street art in the last few years, a great deal of focus has been given to the artists by commercial interests. How has this changed the way public artists approach their craft?
Really interesting! I hope that you will have the opportunity to link your artwork to relevant organizations and communities. Do you plan to also include in your projects reactions to the work that you've done? For example, if you plan to publicly display the art somewhere it would be neat to observe and/or talk to people about their reactions.