One Place after Another

Things I've learned:

• “You’re fooling yourself if you think that by seeing a sculptor weld two pieces of steel together, somebody has a sense of what art-making is.”7 Just watching someone make something else doesn't make it art. But when the audience is actively participating in the art making process that's when they will understand. That's key, making others understand. The belief that learning is doing is so accurate in this situation. Seeing is very different from doing and impacts the individual mentally, emotionally, and most significantly, physically. Jacob’s desire to shift the role of the viewer from passive spectator to active art-maker really made me realize how significant of a role the audience plays in art making practice.
•  By eliminating the architect's involvement, artists are seen as the bridge between public art and urban spaces in which the general public share that space and are therefore responsible for what services are provided. By taking away big money business, the project focuses more on public interest rather than being manipulated and having to compensate in the end for a larger profit
• So site and place are different. Site:  it implies it belongs to someone ie institutions, and its a neutral location based on geography. Place, on  the other hand, is community specific, making Culture in Action more audience specific

• So they only focused on those social communities that were excluded from dominant communities. Those dominant groups are  business, economic, national and international communities which I think was a smart move as it targeted those who would benefit the most from these activities

• New neighborhoods are taking back their neighborhoods from an inefficient government and from those that gain money. Individuals are realizing that they are being taken advantage of and notice that it's because not many people have taken a firm stand. Members in a community need to be more involved in social and political activities in the neighborhood to ensure the decisions are made with the public interest in mind and the only people that can speak on that behalf are those who live there. 

• According to Mac Donald, she believes that the neighborhood itself can regulate and control the services that are being offered in the community. The government should not have a part in this process because how would the gov understand what the community needs. By forcing members to participate more actively in community affairs it “champions radical individualism, disparages middle-class values, and reserves particular contempt for ‘gentrification.’”4

• “This is not about social experiments, it's about political importance”. This statement really resonated with me because it reminded me of the purpose of art. Art should not be seen as a game or something you just do for fun. Art is so much more powerful than that and is capable bringing people together. Art can be a weapon if used as such and can impact so many people in all aspects of life, especially politics.

• “artist’s connection to the area and its people through geographical ties or past personal experiences—strikes a different balance in the triangulation (of power) between the artist, the sponsoring institution, and the chosen community group.” The community, the curator, and the institution I never considered how many people had to work to make community based art possible. 

• Heather Mac Donald article “The New Community Activism: Social Justice Comes Full Circle”.  Revolution, rising to demand that the government stop dumping social problems onto their streets and start demonstrating a commonsense concern with the quality of life in the city’s neighborhoods.”43. I really like this because its just a huge stab to the government saying they aren't paying enough attention to community voices and the basic concerns of all people rather than focusing on their personal gain. 

Questions:

• How do the artists know what the public interest is? Do they take a survey,do some interviews, or is it just based on general news from media
• How do artists involve all people in a town, both property owners and not? How do we bring them physically and emotionally together?
• How has community based art evolved since 1993? What else has changed in terms of overarching issues and how do we (society) perceive artists in our communities? Have some places rejected artistic involvement in social/ communal issues? Why?
• Why did Sculpture Chicago stop funding Haha and Flood? Were they not aware of its positive communal impact?
• Why did Dion’s high school environmentalist group dissipated over time? Was he not as involved or were students not as investing in learning about the environment? What happened? 

ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER 

SITE-SPECIFIC ART AND LOCATIONAL IDENTITY

By: Miwon Kwon

Juliana Romero