Introduction - community as makers of permanent public art

Introduction

community as makers of permanent public art
Why is it important and how is it done?
How does it fit into the current culture of permanent public art commissioning in Melbourne?


This blog has been created to generate a document that maps my thought processes and research on the aspects involved in community members as makers of permanent public artworks.
Its just a work in progress, a meander.

The arguments could go in circles
In the centre of this picture is the artist's practice, an organic conglomeration of ideas, actions, physical artefacts, physical processes, all organised within the limits of time which is metered out by the sun,  caught up with how she might write up or explore her research and then the daily things to consider when making public art, she must rush off and buy chalkboard paint and organise the cement sheet. Around the outside are many questions, new ones each day, formulated as she works . . .

what if?

For example; why should we worry about public art?
Is it okay for the artist to commandeer public space?
Is it the work of an artist if she works with a community?
Is it a well-paid form of littering?

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I have a public art practice that involves making ceramic and mosaic murals with community organisations, most often schools. The process that I use involves the community members making aspects of the artwork out of ceramics and it creates a relationship between these community members who are involved and the final artwork. I am interested in how this process could be played out in permanent public artworks both commissioned and self facilitated.
But there are tensions involved that make the process one that is not readily taken on by the commissioners of permanent public artworks.

I think by making and talking about it, we can create a discourse about permanent public artwork which uses community members as makers.

Journey

Being an artist is a bit of a journey and if you are an artist with different fields or genres, then you have a few journeys taken chronologically in parallel with each other. always informing one another.
great.
so we have the artists discourse running inside her head about her journey. the discourse of course is a course, a coursing river and as she goes she makes artworks that exist in time and space, on either side of the river. her thoughts transgress backwards and forwards from the river, they circle the artworks, particularly when she is making them. sometimes when making a new one, she does a mental circuit of the old one that is related to try and remember what she learnt. don't make the same mistake twice. improve on this one, this time.
Externally to this journey of course are the other journeys that the participants and those involved also make. Theirs are often not looked at by the artist. She often reflects on her own journey and not on anybody else's.

Others
There are other things happening here that we will find difficult to record.
what happens when someone comes across the artwork on their daily travels?

how does the participant feel when they made it, later and then years down the track.

There is an assumption that it is all good, that being involved in making a public artwork makes a stronger connection between that person and their community.

which also raises the question of ownership

ownership, acknowledgement and creative authorship
who owns a public artwork where the community have been involved as makers.
In some of the recent artworks I have made, the first names of those involved have been installed into the artwork. But this raises the question of, 'why not the second names?' It is difficult to place the second names of participants, if they are children because of privacy rules and parental permission. Then whose full names do you include and whose do you not?  Or, 'Its difficult but why not do it?'

Often when I am making an artwork with students towards a permanent piece they are unhappy that their names are not included.  They are used to writing their name on every piece of work they do, both drawn and written.The name is the makers stamp.



placemaking
There is a bit of a movement going on (started in the 60's) about democratic design and devleopment of places particularly in the way that local government manage this development. Placemaking is an idea about how people culturally make places. You can physically make a building and organise the design and layout of an area but ultimately people decide if and how they will use the space. A place is different from a space because it is identified and used by a community in a certain way. A place develops as a cultural identity that is not controllable by anyone. The theory  of placemaking is that if people are involved in the design and choices about developing the physical place that it might also become a place that people are more connected to and use. The idea of building something for people and they will come, doesn't necessarily work. In placemaking theory the places are created or altered based on the people's needs and feedback about the space, then using this knowledge, hopefully the development makes a space into a place.

NOw I know you are not meant to use wikipedia but lets start there as most people do.

'Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that promote people's health, happiness, and well being. It is political due to the nature of place identity. Placemaking is both a process and a philosophy.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placemaking

I love how it says that placemaking is political. I have thought that no matter what you do in public space it has to be political. getting out of bed in the morning is political. if you have to make a choice it is a choice against another option. I have felt this particularly when doing my own experiments with art in public space. I often think about what would other people like, and i also think about what is okay to be represented. what will never find itself being politically incorrect. 

and placemaking is a process - big tick and a philosophy.

Placemaking Chicago, suggests that 'place' connotes an emotional attchment to a piece of land.
http://www.placemakingchicago.com/about/principles.asp