Public Art - Art Event 1

Last Friday I attended the Panel about Public Art. The most important feature of Public Art is that it defines the area it is in. Everything from Professor Sheer's sculptures, to the memorials in Paris, to graffiti on posters, public pieces are all art artistic expressions of their area or they define how one should view the area. The panelists defined public art as having three different functions:

1. Beautification: such as a Professor Sheer's leaf sculpture at the otherwise concrete and cold metro station.
2. Direct Protest: such as Princess Hijab's "Veiling art" in Paris, to poke fun at fashion and a direct protest against the negative stigma toward Islam.
3. Demonstrating new ways to see the world: Paris streets that lead directly to a memorial, establishing French identity. Or Professor Sheer's sculpture out from the the New York Courthouse, a visual representation of the courthouse. And even Princess Hijab's veiled artwork demands the viewer to look at public posters differently.

Professor Sheer also described how an artist should consider three important things when creating a public piece:

1. The Identity of the place: What meaning does the place have? For example a courthouse has a very different meaning than a metro station.
2. The people who interact: Who is going to walk by your art and look at it? How are they going to relate to it?
3. The physical site: Are there trees around it? What does the architecture look like? How can you mold it into the already existing area or make it stand out?

With all this in mind I considered what Professor Friebele described as the NEW public space- the internet. Just like how Graffiti allows an artist to share their work with no price tag internet websites like YouTube, DeviantArt, Facebook, and Blogger allow you to share your work with anyone who happens to be passing by for free. The internet is one giant digital metaphor to a public space; a forum like a public square, game sites like arcades, amazon and ebay like thrift stores and auctions.

I believe the internet is even more flexible with sharing "public art" because a lot of Public Art has to be created with the permission of whomever owns the land otherwise the artwork is illegal. This keeps many artists who cannot receive permission to work in a given space from publicly displaying their artwork. Only those bold enough to break the law are seen. The internet, however, has websites (such as Blogger, DeviantArt, and Youtube) dedicated to everyday people sharing their information to the world or whoever happens to be passing by. Anyone can create a free account on these sites and share their work!

The panel made me look at the internet and art on the internet different. Each function of public art I listed above can be applied to art in the internet as well. This has inspired me to look at my artwork differently. I will especially focus Professor Sheer's specific list of what an artist should consider while making art for some of my internet sites in the future.