Use and Artifice (original) (raw)
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Cite as: Souliotou, A.Z. (2015) ICTs and Contemporary Art: a platform for the urban well-being, Proceedings of the 3rd International Biennial Conference Hybrid City 2015, Theona, I., and Charitos, D. (eds), University of Athens, pp. 339-344 Abstract. The objective of the present article is to show how ICTs can inspire or facilitate artistic creation and how art (inspired by ICTs or using ICTs) can contribute to the urban well-being. With the advent of the ICTs the boundaries between the makers and the users have considerably blurred in a way that the latter not only do they possess, but they also shape data. The users, thus, have become active participators and creators, so both technicians and users co-create and share information in virtual environments which can in turn influence the structure of urban physical space. This turn has led to a “Data to the people” tendency which empowers individuals and enables them to take initiatives in sharing information and in engaging with active citizenship. This new role of the user-creator has been already taken by artists who use ICTs in their artworks. All artists presented in this article have access and therefore use the ICTs within their cutting-edge art-and-technology practices which constitute a product of the information age in current post-industrial society. Whether they are telematic artists, Internet or post-Internet artists, GPS artists, GST artists or even artists making public art, their approaches show how the ICTs blaze new trails in contemporary art through a variety of projects and exhibitions using a lot of different media. As far as the telematic artists are concerned, their projects present a remarkable evolution thanks to new advances in data visualization and info-graphics which give them the opportunity to present the (flow of) telecommunications through images and maps by precisely locating and dating the communication processes. These new possibilities, thus, enable the visualization of the telecommunication networks which emerge from these processes, going beyond traditional telecommunication projects which just use telecommunication networks in installations or in collaborative projects without visualizing or mapping them. The Internet has given an unprecedented boost in communications and has notably given rise to Net Art (or Internet Art) which comprises a lot of Internet-based artistic projects presenting a high degree of heterogeneity. Especially the Web 2.0 social network platforms have led to an exponential increase of Internet Art projects. Post-Internet art has subsequently expanded the production of artworks inspired by the Internet by taking on-line data and translating them to material creations. GPS enables artists to draw by taking up physical activities like walking in cities or travelling between cities. GSTs are a considerable source of inspiration for contemporary artists, since they permit them to have a satisfactory –if not a complete– image of urban places and engage themselves with cyber-flânerie, ceaseless exploration of the urban space and interrogation about privacy and other social issues. As far as public art is concerned, ICTs can be integrated in urban public space or even translate existing public art installations from material to electronic, providing thus the participators with a new kind of experience. The material and the electronic, the physical and the virtual, intermingle forming thus hybrid urban environments and altering the urban physical context. Furthermore ICTs provide us with a clear urbi et orbi image of the world, since a lot of (collaborative) art projects which use ICTs extend not only in the urban, but also in the global scale. Thus, they give a comprehensive image of the 21st century global village which is characterized by the rapid growth of the urban phenomenon and the shift from the city to the metropolis and thereafter to the megapolis. (Perrault, 2011) Another important recent phenomenon, which relates to the ICTs use, is that although a lot of projects are a priori considered as technological or commercial, they also turn out to be artistic and we can particularly find them implanted in physical urban space. ICTs thus instigate an inquiry with regards to the (re)definition of the ‘artistic’ and render urban physical contexts platforms for the fusion of the technological, the commercial and the artistic. All the above approaches reflect different points of view with regards to ICTs and show that art (inspired by ICTs or using ICTs) can contribute to the urban well-being by: addressing current problems of the urban living, such as earthquakes, riots, social inequality; raising questions about privacy and voyeurism; proposing alternative ways for mapping or visualizing information, as well as for establishing communication and collaborations in urban, inter-urban and even global scale; bringing together people living in urban environments. In all the above ways art can give a more comprehensive image of the contemporary urban condition and (re)define the role of ICTs in society and human history by providing new insights into their potential uses.
CPSL Vol.5 no.2, 2022
The following article presents a very brief review of the impact of the art institution Documenta on the Athenian urban environment aims to give an answer to the question of how and why the art exhibition "Learning from Athens" gained such popularity in urban and economic developers, locally and globally, that has not yet led to enough critical discussion on the cultural, and political researchers. The article approaches two views on this impact. One linked to the Athenian urban ruins of the Greek economic recession through which emerged a new (exotic) touristic destination to the European periphery. And the other linked to the politics of the Creative City which function as the main strategy of the present Athens cultural-led gentrification including heritage and planning politics, real estate, touristic, entertainment, and creative industries. The article is setting up a number of important questions to cultural and political researchers about city rebrand processes and the generated change and innovation produced; the social inequalities in particular.
Regaining the culture of cities
When, as architects, we reflect on the relationship between architectural projects, cities and landscape, we must keep the urban degradation of the world we live in uppermost in our thoughts. Nowadays we live in a state of crisis, and this fact casts doubt on a series of values closely tied to professional and teaching activities. Understood as a tool for the building of top quality public spaces and ever better places and landscapes to live in, architecture is obscured by an increasingly common desire to impress. However, we must hold fast and seek to start afresh from the meaning of an architectural project, analysing case by case, each and every time, enquiring into the needs and potential a specific place expresses in nuce and revisiting all the specific features of the local area, culture and history. To respond adequately in the right tone, what is needed is silence, calm, care and the chance to rethink things and return to places, to assess even the smallest, often latent signs which are there, hidden in the landscape. A landscape which is not simply what we see but also a combination of our points of view on what is around us, a sign of our perspective on things and our idea of how we would like them to be. There is a fifth dimension of the space in which we live: the culture of cities, the culture of the landscape. And from this fifth dimension we must start again, regaining the culture and history of sites and cities.
Introduction : Presentation of the Arteria project in a cultural participation context
2018
WITH THIS PAPER, WE WISH TO SHARE THE EXPERIENCE OF AN ARTS-BASED ACTION RESEARCH INTERVENTION IN THE SOFIA STREET, IN COIMBRA (PORTUGAL), A CITY STREET THAT WAS INSCRIBED AS AN UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE IN 2013. THIS INTERVENTION IS PART OF THE BIGGER ACTION-RESEARCH PROJECT NAMED ARTERIA (2018-2020), WHERE WE WISH TO EXPLORE THE POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND THE FIELD OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. IN THIS PAPER, WE DESCRIBE HOW THE FIELD RESEARCH, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THIS STREET (THE PREPARATION OF COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION), OFFERS A PROCESS OF METHODOLOGICAL EXPLORATION ON HOW SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGIES MAY BE ARTICULATED WITH THE PROCESSES OF ARTISTIC CREATION. WE SHOW HOW THIS CAN BE DONE BY DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO CULTURAL PARTICIPATION THROUGH THE PROCESS OF IMMATERIAL CO-CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE. AT THE SAME TIME, WE SHARE REFLECTIONS ON HOW THE ARTISTIC INTERVENTION MAY HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF...
The “smart-art” project is an innovation-strategy element whose main goal is to promote arts participation and heritage experience in the city of Thessaloniki. The term “innovation strategy” defines the objectives, actions and implementation tools, which allow improving both the capacity and innovation performance of a project. Making a city smart is a new approach to the challenges raised by urban development which prioritizes innovation. While most of the recent scientific literature tends to spotlight the technological aspects of smart city , its organization and policy aspects have not gained much attention. The meaning of smartness in the urban context, according to Komninos et al () N. and the research unit URENIO, does not involve only the utilization of cutting-edge information and communication technologies but also the equally vital dimension of citizens’ participation. Smart cities have as their major objective the resolution of urban problems, such as waste management, air pollution, public health, traffic congestion etc. While worldwide the idea of smart city has existed for many years, in Greece there have been few relevant efforts. Until now there has not been a strategic plan for implementing a smart city project for the city of Thessaloniki. Our research indicates that Thessaloniki needs to take drastic steps towards the effective promotion of its art offerings and cultural heritage. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods, our investigation focused on two different groups of people which represent the two communities primarily addressed by our project. The first group includes people variously employed in the field of the arts, while the second constists of art lovers in general. In both cases, the age range extends from 18 to 65 years old. Having thus ensured a sampling both of art professionals and art-consuming citizens, we complement our project with a SWOT analysis. Aiming to maximize arts participation in a way that gives the public an active role, our project enables citizens of Thessaloniki to communicate with each other about what is going on in the city related with art and history of art. At the same time, they will get transportation and opening-hours information, so as to plan their visit to museums, art galleries and other spaces that host art events. A vital dimension of our smart-art project regards the participation of the public in the process of its actual design through their active involvement in all the critical stages its preparation, testing and implementation. The smart-art project requires the collaboration and communication among all the various stakeholders (arts organizations and associations, artists, art-managers/marketeers). The creation of a new start-up is seen as instrumental for the innovative promotion of arts participation and heritage experience, as well as a vital contributor to the enhancement of the cultural tourism of Thessaloniki.