Example of permanent memorial recognizing past events
Evan Mapes
Wiki Entry #1 (1.1Videos) : Public Art and Spatial Politics
Many of the videos we watched often cover very similar topics and themes. While exploring public art and spatial politics, we learn what the piece of art or object reveals about the specific location it was placed in. Many monuments, memorials, and statue share a memory dating back to hundreds of years ago for humans to remember what occurred in a specific event. This is implemented so when one walks by the statue they are immediately immersed in the environment, time period, and begin to remember the significant event being shared. Other monuments like Spiral Jetty share monuments made out of the environment, that exist because of the landscape and architecture but are not exactly the landscape or architecture. The space makes many of the art objects and can be manipulated in many different ways. Another recurring theme with public art, discusses the definition of what is art and what is public? What defines these two descriptions? In order to answer, we must observe the idea that much of modern art is used as a rural and urban displacement. Artists look into what defines public art and pull an item from one context and place it in a totally different place. In doing this the artist redefines the artwork by representing it through its location. The world can be a museum in this way. We have also learned that not all cases of the public are ideal. Many public memorials require expensive cleaning, can be costly rent, de abused by graffiti. Other negative sides of public art represent specific moments that may no longer be important or represent a negative side of the civilization it is apart of (Civil War Soldiers). In this way, there can also be temporary displays, like Car Guo Quiang who creates an image in the sky out of fireworks. In this way, the fireworks are large and monumental but ephemeral at the same time. Following this same pattern of the importance of location, the video discussed how one can identify a place of tension and create a movement or building that can relieve or expel this tension. Most flash mobs or marches take place near the government or capital where many important decisions are made. The video showed the art center museum placed right next to the prison to get rid of the negativity and depression the prison brings to its location. Overall these videos provide strong insight into location that I could recreate in specific projects. Whatever I end up producing I hope it reveals something about my life or something about its location. In hopes of producing a calm and peaceful environment that is soothing with natural noise into a VR Realm, it will invite the viewer into a location and allow them to feel what it would be like to be in a forest or near a waterfall.