Space and Place (Lecture notes):
use turns space into place
actions in a space create a place
what we know it to be informs our actions
places and spaces effect social norms and social functions inside them
lack of use turns place into space
Deleuze and Guattari (1980)
Nomads compared to immigrants/migrants
Nomads → no boundarys → living off land → resources
A nomad is a person who does not have a permanent abode, often to find fresh pasture for livestock.
Moving from one fixed point to another
We are all migrants if we move from the place we are born
Immigrant → moving across to another country
Undocumented migrant -. undocumented crossing of borders → lack of passport/no visa → stowaway
Immigrant → desire to be in another place
Nomads do not believe in borders
Nomads are free, immigrants/migrants are often not
Freedom of movement is limited without a passport
Putting art in a public place (Stage 1)
Arts practice in relation to the public (Stage 2) → Public + Artist = Art → Community art = Artist working with public
Art + Site = Art (Stage 3) → how location is important → context
Transforming the possibility of what public art might be (Stage 4) → Art questioning art in a public space → Art = Change → What is art?
One Place After Another (1997)
site specific art → location identities
communication of art → narrative
Itinerant means a person on a schedule/journey/travelling A to B/on the move
Physical/non physical journey
travelling to gain info for practice
moving somewhere to create new art
how art practice is effected in new environments
how place is effected by new art
other itinerant artists: Adam Chudscow
Artist as an ethnographer
ethnographer = anthropology
Ethnography = the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures
What makes something scientific? → process, evidence, method, statistics, methodology, repeatable.
artists studying peoples and cultures
understanding and describing the customs of people and cultures
art examines civilisation, culture and what is happening now
art/artists examine civilization, culture and what is happening now, similar to ethnographers
ethnographers are scientists
building understanding through research is done in both art and science
site, place and space as materials/medium
Functional site vs literal site
Literal site being: the physical construction, walls ceiling, architecture, etc
functional site being: not necessarily physical, online spaces
site, place and space as materials/medium
reusing narrative of a place/space and recreating it in the same place/space → repetition → reoccur
How we feel about space/houses depending on the people who lived before → if someone who lived there before died there, how would you feel?
