A total of seven open-air screenings of live surveillance took place throughout the city of Oslo from September 14-20th. The week-long cycle of open-air surveillance cinema was completed by the screening of “Traffic” a live video feed of a traffic camera that was projected onto the surface of a garage door somewhere around the corner of Biskop Gunnerusgate and Storgata. This occured with much peace and contemplation and no police intervention.

Here are some images from the week…

Carwash

Traffic

Bagdad Cafe

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Cradle Will Rock

I came across this project by chance and it seems to be heading into a similar direction as Urban Interface. Interestingly it does not have a proper website. You can hardy find anything on it on the Internet, only here http://www.gruppo78.it/index.php?id=13,261,0,0,1,0

From the press release:

This major event includes a number of initiatives and its aim is to consider ways of exploring and creating art in public spaces and contexts, inside or outside the urban setting, but also in relation to and involving the onlooker, the community and the society, communicating directly with the public, who become protagonists – rather than mere spectators – of the creative act. The ultimate purpose is to effect conscious changes that will advance the progress of society.

The project will use new forms of communication involving the man and woman in the street, through socio-relational workshops, commercial hoardings and “artists’manifestos”, thus creating art platforms on streets and public areas – the city’s nerve centres, border areas and difficult suburban areas – with site-specific and “relational” performances.

In order to provide information on and guidance for the project, these revolutionary forms of communication, which aim to restore and give pride of place to a human dimension which has often been marginalised by the current media system, will be accompanied by more traditional methods. These will include an international documentary exhibition and an international conference where artists, curators, architects, town planners and public administrators will discuss the various aspects of Public Art.

Finally, a publication will bring together all the material from the various phases of the event.

The “Public Art” movement is a relatively recent phenomenon which has become extremely widespread. It appeared in the 1970s, particularly in England and America, first as Land (or Earth) Art, at a time when art felt the need to emerge from its usual appointed places – i.e. museums and galleries – to express itself in new and freer conditions, released from its traditional context

Public Art happens in places where people live, streets, areas known to everyone, so it’s people in the street that benefit from it most, and not only “those who are in the know”; their contribution, if any, is made at a later stage. The idea is to take art to the widest possible variety of places: squares, parks, schools, historical monuments, using site-specific events, i.e. events specially designed for that particular place to transform it with stimulating tokens of creativity, and whose function is to oblige the casual observer to take a fresh, sometimes critical look at things. In short, the objective is to improve the quality of life, urging people to see the surroundings in which they go about their lives with new eyes.

In the 1990s, Public Art, especially in Italy, turned toward what is known as “Relational Art”, a form of art that involves people directly, making them protagonists of the event, thus encouraging a deliberate, conscious approach to the typical problems found in a given social and environmental situation, which the artists and other people involved explore through workshops culminating in the creative act itself. In this way, the form of communication that takes place becomes the essence and substance of the event imagined by the artist. The aim is to achieve a conscious alteration of a given social context, which means that Relational Art has strong communicative/social connotations.

“PUBLIC ART in and around Trieste” intends to carry out a recognition of public art in general – the latter being historically characterised by various aspects and interpretations – in an attempt to introduce a systemic approach to a movement that is so vast and diversified and involves a complete about-turn from the traditional, and sacred, concept of ‘art’.

Will man ein Kunstwerk im öffentlichen Raum in Berlin ausstellen oder eine künstlerische Aktion in diesem durchführen, so muss man dafür einen Antrag beim Straßen- und Grünflächenamt Berlins stellen. Es empfiehlt sich, dieses frühzeitg zu tun, da eine Beantragung meist umfangreich ist und Rückfragen von der Behörde kommen. Es kursiert das Gerücht, dass man mindestens 3 Monate vor Veranstaltungsbeginn den Antrag stellen muss, dies kann aber nach Nachfragen beim Amt so nicht bestätigt werden. Die Anträge werden von der Kommission Kunst im Stadtraum beschieden.

Man wende sich an:
Bezirksamt Mitte von Berlin – Abt. Stadtentwicklung
Straßen- und Grünflächenamt – Herrn Liebrecht
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 14, 10178 Berlin
Tel. 030 2009-22829

Auf telepolis hat Florian Rötzer einen interessanten Artikel veröffentlicht, in dem es um städtische Strukturen geht. Rötzer hat auch gerade ein Buch ‘Vom Wildwerden Der Städte’ veröffentlicht.

Abstract des telepolis Artikels: US-Strategen habe nach den “failed states” die “feral cities” entdeckt, die die staatliche Ordnungen unterminieren können Städte sind zu den neuen Kampfgebieten geworden, weil hier Kriminelle, Aufständische und Terroristen schnell auf- und wieder untertauchen und alle notwendigen Ressourcen und Einnahmequellen finden können. Es ist schlicht die Masse an Gebäuden, Anlagen und Menschen, die ihnen Schutz gewährt, während sie für die Sicherheitskräfte und vor allem für militärische Aktionen ein Hindernis sind, da die Ausübung der vollen militärischen Gewalt aus politischen Gründen meist nicht möglich ist. Auch Präzisionsschläge fordern meist Opfer unter Zivilisten, und zudem können in aller Regel Medien die Vorfälle verfolgen und bloßstellen. Die Kämpfe im Irak haben gezeigt, dass in einem asymmetrischen Konflikt Aufständische keine Chance haben, wenn sie Territorien verteidigen wollen. In Städten wie Bagdad, die aufgrund ihrer Größe und Ausdehnung nur punktuell kontrolliert werden können, sind Aufständische, Terroristen oder Kriminelle hingegen kaum zu bekämpfen, solange die Wünsche von der umfassenden technischen Überwachung noch nicht in die Realität umgesetzt sind.

Ganzer Text hier: www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23616/1.html