Site-Specific Art

As distant and close as can be Lo-fi recording: site-specificity and (in) authenticity

by Melle Kromhout

Paper presented at The Fifth Annual Art of Record Production Conference, Cardiff, 2009

In the paper I elaborate on lo-fi recording and its relation towards its hi-fi counterpart, using literature on (the... more In the paper I elaborate on lo-fi recording and its relation towards its hi-fi counterpart, using literature on (the history of) audio recording, the concept of noise – one of lo-fi’s most distinctive features in opposition to hi-fi – and the conceptualization of spatiality and physicality in and of music. Since, as Stan Link points out (in “The Work of Reproduction in the Mechanical Aging of an Art: Listening to Noise.” Computer Music Journal, 25:1, 2001: 34–47), there now exist ‘some very high-tech means to achieve “lo-fi” ends,’ I focus on whether lo-fi is or isn’t moving away from the hi-fi aesthetics of the music studio, what meanings are actually performed through lo-fi aesthetics as a strategy for authenticity, relying on site specificity and physicality, and what this might mean for the construction of the music studio as a conceptual framework in the study of popular music.

Performing the Fault Line: A Community Arts Dialogue

by Kris Darby

Exeter PGR Humanities Conference, 2012, Co-authored with Erin Walcon

On Sunday the 4th and Monday 5th of July 2010 a performance took place in Torquay spanning
200m along a stretch... more On Sunday the 4th and Monday 5th of July 2010 a performance took place in Torquay spanning
200m along a stretch of white carpet connecting Torre Abbey to the seafront.

For the performers, the site-specific piece had three objectives:
1. Get people onto the carpet.
2. Change their perceptions of the site and the landscape.
3. Keep it playful. And fun.

The ‘Extended Cloister’ project encapsulated a moment in time where a community engaged in active dialogue with artists, local bureaucracy, and each other raising pertinent questions concerning identity and place. Amidst a climate of pressing economic concerns, setting aside money to fund arts projects becomes a luxury in the eyes of many. How does a community attempt to defend its right to art in the public space, to defend the role of artists, and to talk to itself through the medium of performance art? Perhaps more importantly, how does the local authority respond to the resulting conversations?

In this paper we will present two different perspectives of the same project, from the point of view of the project manager meeting the audiences at the beginning and end of their journey and a performer who walked with them, in a bid to observe the challenges faced in fulfilling these three objectives.

Rethinking Site-Specificity: Some Critical and Philosophical Problems

by Kevin Melchionne

Art Criticism, Vol. 12, No. 2, fall 1998.

Provides a taxonomy of site-specific qualities and argues against the view that site-specific works of art cannot be... more Provides a taxonomy of site-specific qualities and argues against the view that site-specific works of art cannot be moved without being destroyed.

Tickled Pink: Laughter as Institutional Critique

by Susan Best

14th Biennale of Sydney, exh. cat. 2004, 98-99.

This is a short catalogue essay for Joan Grounds and Sherre DeLys work, Gargalesis, for the 2004 Sydney Biennale. It... more This is a short catalogue essay for Joan Grounds and Sherre DeLys work, Gargalesis, for the 2004 Sydney Biennale. It positions this site-specific work in relation to the discussions of Miwon Kwon and James Meyer.

Making Absence

by Michelle Smith

The process of researching and preparing a site-specific movement and live/recorded music performance focusing on... more The process of researching and preparing a site-specific movement and live/recorded music performance focusing on mythos and logos in local history reveals a delighful parallel process for the author. Mythogeography in the making.

Springs Farm: a peopled place

by Veronica Vickery

Semiotic characteristics of interaction between an artwork, an artist and a viewer in the context of an urban street

by Svitlana Biedarieva

Master's Thesis.
Defended on 31st of May, 2011.
Supervisor - Silvi Salupere

Doing art and doing cultural geography

by Perdita Phillips

published in Australian Geographer, 35(2), 151-159, 2004. This was written in early 2003. The link is to original designed piece.

Accompanying examples of initial visual experimentation from the fieldwork/field walking PhD project the paper... more Accompanying examples of initial visual experimentation from the fieldwork/field walking PhD project the paper outlines some of the challenges being an artist and using systems of understanding from science, the new ethnography and cultural geography as a framework for making contemporary art. The PhD project is in its preliminary stages and is designed to explore the area of walking and fieldwork in art, and as art. Some of the challenges are the ambiguous role of the artist as scientist, ethnographer and researcher, the role of reflexivity in art practice; and the pitfalls of ‘academic art’. While cultural geographers have used artworks as texts to explain places, this project endeavours to work with issues of place, landscapes, power, identity and representation in the art, to feed back into this dialogue. The bulk of the project will take place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia where the concepts of wilderness and wildness are most relevant. The research question of fieldwork/field walking is, within the discourse between Art and Science what is the connection between fieldwork and walking in the field?

Keywords

walking; fieldwork; the field; contemporary art; artist as ethnographer; site specific art; Kimberley region; art and science; reflexivity; wilderness; wildness; nature; interdisciplinary; poetics

Progressions in Ecofeminist Art: The Changing Focus of Women in Environmental Art

by Jade Wildy

Reviewed Article

Ecofeminist Art is a genre of Environmental Art that combines the essential understandings of Ecofeminism with the... more Ecofeminist Art is a genre of Environmental Art that combines the essential understandings of Ecofeminism with the ecological focus of Environmental Art. With two dominant forms, Ecofeminism can be broadly understood as either drawing from principal links with the ideas of the Earth Goddess, Gaia and Mother Nature, in Cultural Ecofeminism; and social activism to remedy the planet, the responsibility of which falls to women, through Social Ecofeminism. These two types of Ecofeminism can be seen to influence the art of many women working directive with the environment.

While the early Environmental Art movement was largely dominated by men, women artists like Agnes Denes and Nancy Holt were producing artworks that engaged with the landscape, establishing a field of Environmental Art that has progressed into contemporary art, with artists like Jackie Brookner and Patricia Johanson.

This article explores the ideas and philosophies within feminism relating to the environment, discussing the relationship between women and the environment, how Ecofeminist concepts have informed Environmental Art produced by women. Beginning with a discussion of Ecofeminism, it will include how the various interactions between women artists and the environmental have changed since the beginning of Environmental Art in the 1960s, through highlighting several prominent women working in Environmental Art.

** For a Generalised article on Ecofeminism please see http://www.suite101.com/content/art-and-ecofeminism-a356328

Walking Women: Interviews with artists on the move

by Cathy Turner

co-authored with Deirdre (Dee) Heddon, published in 'Performance Research', 15:4, pp.14-22, Dec 2010

You Know What I Mean? Metacommunication in Visual Arts

by Karen Gardner

Juan Munoz, One Laughing at Another; Manet, Luncheon on the Grass; Yanagi and Bernard Leach; Richard Wollheim

Audience of Visual Arts as the Subject as evidence of Metacommunications in Fine Art. Audience of Visual Arts as the Subject as evidence of Metacommunications in Fine Art.

The Return to Figuration from Abstraction

by Karen Gardner

West Dean College Visual Arts MA paper.
Cites Manuel Neri, Richarg Goldstein, Philip Guston, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Robert Rauschenburg, Satre, Giacometti, Text Projection, Bricolage, Metacommunication, Phyllida Barlow, Process Art, Arte Povera, Fluxus

No, I'd rather work figuratively. No, I'd rather work figuratively.

Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art

by Jade Wildy

Book Review

Is Street Art mere vandalism or cutting edge urban art? Does social activism have a place among ‘high art’ or is it... more Is Street Art mere vandalism or cutting edge urban art? Does social activism have a place among ‘high art’ or is it guerrilla warfare on the art world?

Music, Space & Theatre: Site-specific approaches to multichannel spatialisation

by Karen Lauke

co-authored with Dr Ewan Stefani

Approaches to the multichannel spatialisation of electroacoustic music are described here with reference to musical... more Approaches to the multichannel spatialisation of electroacoustic music are described here with reference to musical case studies which focus upon the expressive functions of space and the theatricality of sound diffusion in an acousmatic context. A site-specific approach to spatialisation is proposed to enhance theatrical aspects of musical performance. Case studies include proposals for novel layouts of the diffusion system within the performance space and compositional techniques that are designed to re-evaluate our understanding of individual listening spaces.

Defining Environmental Art

by Jade Wildy

Article on the Definitions of Enviromental Art

This article outlines some of the definitions used in defining Environmental Art and provides several examplesmore This article outlines some of the definitions used in defining Environmental Art and provides several examples

Keywords:
environmental art, bio-art, biosculpture, earthworks, eco-art, ecoart, ecofeminism, ecovention, ephemeral art, land art, site-specific, walking works, environmental installation, sited sculpture, social sculpture, assemblage, recycled art, non-sites, "definition of environmental art"

To Cite this article:
Wildy, J. 2010, 'Definition of Environmental Art', Suite 101, http://20thcenturyart.suite101.com/article.cfm/definition-of-environmental-art-with-some-of-the-different-types

The Family Slide Show As Critical History In Renée Green's Video Partially Buried Continued

by Monica McTighe

Walter de Maria's Lightning Field

by Jade Wildy

Short Article

De Maria's Lightning Field represents an artistic merger between nature and man-made, and draws on several influences... more De Maria's Lightning Field represents an artistic merger between nature and man-made, and draws on several influences during Modernism.