Analysing Public Art and Geography

Analysing Public deviceistic creation and GeographyHow can in the frequent eye(predicate) art dispute the sexual activityed nature of space?The world is getting more and more optic, and increasingly meanings argon communicated by visuals (Rose, 2001). It is the aim of this research proposal to outline the final division project that is going to focus on interdisciplinary themes of space, art and gender. It will demonstrate how human geography engages with visual art, and how the research linking the two has expanded every rest home the past few decades. It will show the issues that one may be presented with when researching art. An explanation will be given of how gender and consistence argon viewed in geography.Geography and visual artGeography is recognised as a very visual discipline (Driver, 2003 Tolia-Kelly, 2012), that extensively engages with our vision (Roberts, 2012), and geographers wipe out long been use various types of visual imagery and objects in their wor k (Garrett, 2011 Rose, 2003). Over the past decades, namely since the cultural turn, there has been greater interest in potential colligate between visual arts and geography (Rose, 2001). During this time the field of research has expanded from looking at landscape paintings from earlier centuries, to analysing broader spectrum of artistic mediums, both digital and analogue (Hawkins, 2012). It is understood that everyday images and objects that we see are not meaningless and static things, but are imbued with meanings that affect our behaviour and interaction with the world (Hall, 1997).Art in humans spaceThe term art itself is an extremely broad concept, and there are many sub-disciplines in art that can be employ to narrow down the research. This particular research is going to be focused on art in urban space. Nowadays many urban spaces are rich with artworks which are done in various mediums, and by utilising various methods. Arguably the traditional form of art in public spa ce is public art. Public art commonly is defined as either permanent or temporary artworks, including social and contextual art practices which are commissioned for openly accessible locations, that is, outside conventional settings such as museums and galleries (Zebracki, 2013303).An artwork may have an in campaigned meaning, a set of ideas or ideals that its author wants the world to receive, and a meaning that is created by the audience upon its consumption (Baldwin et al., 1999). What makes it hard to predict how public art will be consumed, are the diverse publics or audiences that encounter it. A piece of art may be aimed at general public, but when different social groups read it , the diversity of meanings that it actually produces have to be taken into explanation. Therefore, in this sense the study of public art becomes a study of the reception of art by its publics (Miles, 199785).Geography, dust and genderGeographers see body as a space. Many quote Rich when he talks about the body as the geography closest in (1986212). It is the border between the interior world and the outer world. It is a space that is sexed and gendered, where sex is a biological product and gender a social one (Valentine, 2001). However, more upstart academic work blurs the lines between the two, arguing that there is evidence of cases where bodies do not abide by the traditional views of sex and gender (Cream, 1995), and that both should be considered as social (Valentine, 2001).In social research gender is understood as social, psychological or cultural differences between men and women (Knox and Pinch, 2010235). Historically geographers have viewed differences in gender roles as socially constructed (Castree et al., 2013). Therefore, characteristics that constitute what it means to be masculine or feminine are subject to change in space, place and time. More recently academics such as Judith Butler (1990) have contendd this view, and suggest that gender is a performan ce, rather than what one is. She argues that gender is performed through ritualistic repetition. From this viewpoint, which just about call as poststructuralist (Jagger, 2008), gender is sustained through acts, gestures, mannerisms, fashion, and lifestyle (Castree et al., 2013172).Identities, roles and spatial relations between males and females in geography have often been dissectd utilising womens liberationist viewpoint. Predominant argument of feminist philosophy is that women in many areas of life are still unfairly treated as being in a subordinate position to men, and that the Western society remains largely patriarchal (Knox and Pinch, 2010).New Genre Public Art, Body and GenderMassey (1994) describes how large public spaces are reserved for males, and how often artworks depicting bodies of women are produced by men contributing to the male gaze, which extends outside the walls of galleries and museums (Miles, 1997). This prevalent masculine worldview is contendd by activ ism that is empowered by forms of current genre public art (Lacy, 1995).If we are to consider the relationship between public art and gender, the historical divorce that has existed between body and city, where most public artworks are found, should be kept in theme. Undesirable body processes are expelled from the city, and the civilised body is expected to contain them (Miles, 1997). This idea comes from the Cartesian view that body should be subject to mind (Longhurst, 1997). In Western culture body has become associated with negative traits, emotions and femininity, and mind with rationality, knowledge and masculinity (Valentine, 2001). Furthermore, it is somehow seen that men surpass the body, for whom it is merely a container of their mind, and that women are more affected by their fleshy (Longhurst, 1997491) instincts and therefore their bodies.Moreover, this view has had an influence on social sciences. Rose (1993) argues that white males tend to other difference, and tha t this has shaped how geography has been studied over the years. It was only in the latter part of the 20th century that academics started to critically look at how mind has been given privilege over the body in geography (Longhurst, 1997), and it was recognised that in fact everyone is affected by their embodiment (Rose, 1997).Body is the tool through which masculinity or femininity is acted out (Puwar, 2004). As performativity suggests, these materialise through the act of doing. It is therefore the aim of this research to analyse how public art captures these performances, and how it communicates and constructs gender in the eyes of its publics.Case studyButlers work is often linked with gender and performativity, but it is rarely used when public art is studied. This research will try to expand the body of work on new genre public art considering gender politics. It will take into the account the latest research on gender and performativity, and will analyse how perceived gender roles are read through performances and acts that are captured in public artworks. great Manchester has been chosen as the site for the research, with public artworks that range from sculptures depicting historic figures from Britains imperial past, such as, Queen Victoria, to contemporary street art that seeks to challenge the status quo, such as found in Northern Quarter.ConclusionThis research proposal outlined the final year project that will analyse public art and gender by looking at performances that are captured in artworks. It demonstrated how body and gender are understood in geography. It showed how body is an agent through which gender is acted out, and how body as an artistic subject captures these performances. Art has been an important part of geographicalal work and research in the past, and as the visual imagery and objects become more important in the modern society, more and more meanings are conveyed through visuals. This research will explore what meanings pu blic art conveys about gender roles, and how these meanings are read by artworks publics.The main aim of this research is to analyse the way public art can challenge the gendered nature of space.The objectives to achieve this are to explore the way that Tankpetrol aims to disrupt traditional genderings of public space to analyse the meanings encoded in the artwork of Tankpetrol to analyse the consumption of Tankpetrols artwork and how it impacts on peoples ideas of gendering public space.ReferencesBaldwin, E., Longhurst, B., McCracken, S., Ogborn, M. and Smith, G. (1999) Introducing Cultural Studies. Athens University of Georgia Press.Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London Routledge.Castree, N., Kitchin, R. and Rogers, A. (Eds.). (2013). A mental lexicon of Human Geography. Oxford Oxford University Press.Cream, J. (1995) Re-solving riddles the sexed body. In Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (eds.) Mapping Desire Geographies of Sexualities. London Routledge,Driver, F. (2003) On Geography as a Visual Discipline. Antipode, 35(2) pp. 227231.Garrett, B. L. (2011) Videographic geographies Using digital video for geographic research. Progress in Human Geography, 35(4) pp. 521541.Hall, S. (1997) excogitation. In Hall, S. (ed.) Representation Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London SAGE, pp. 112.Hawkins, H. (2012) Geography and art. An expanding field Site, the body and practice. Progress in Human Geography, 37(1) pp. 5271.Jagger, G. (2008) Judith Butler Sexual Politics, Social Change and the Power of thePerformative. London Routledge.Knox, P. and Pinch, S. (2010) Urban Social Geography An Introduction. 6th ed., London Pearson.Longhurst, R. (1997) (Dis)embodied geographies. Progress in Human Geography, 21(4) pp. 486501.Miles, M. (1997) Art, quadriceps femoris and the City Public Art and Urban Futures. London Routledge.Puwar, N. (2004) Space Invaders Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place. Oxford Berg.Rich, A. (1986) The Politics of Location, in Blood, Bread and Poetry Selected Prose 19791985. London Norton Co.Roberts, E. (2012) Geography and the visual image A hauntological approach. Progress in Human Geography, 37(3) pp. 386402.Rose, G. (1993) Feminism and Geography The Limits of Geographical Knowledge. Cambridge Polity Press.Rose, G. (1997) Situating Knowledges positionality, reflexivities and other tactics. Progress in Human Geography, 21(3) pp. 305320.Rose, G. (2001) Visual Methodologies An Introduction to Researching With Visual Materials. London SAGE.Rose, G. (2003) On the Need to Ask How, Exactly, Is Geography Visual? Antipode, 35(2) pp. 212221.Tolia-Kelly, D. P. (2012) The Geographies of Cultural Geography II Visual Culture. Progress in Human Geography, 36(1) pp. one hundred thirty-five142.Valentine, G. (2001) Social Geographies Space and Society. London Pearson.Zebracki, M. (2013) Beyond public artopia public art as perceived by its publics. GeoJournal, 78(2) pp. 303317.LINARDS DAVI DANS