Art Ecology and Planning: Strategic Concepts and Creativity Within the Post Industrial Public Realm
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ART ECOLOGY AND PLANNING: Strategic Concepts and Creativity within the Post Industrial Public Realm Collins, T. M. A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY July, 2007 i Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. ii Art Ecology and Planning: Strategic Concepts and Creativity within the Post Industrial Public Realm by Timothy Martin Collins A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Art & Design, School of Art & Performance. University of Plymouth July 2007 iii Timothy Martin Collins Art Ecology and Planning: Strategic Concepts and Creativity within the Post Industrial Public Realm Abstract: The intent of this thesis and its attendant body of practical work was to examine and test ideas and practices that can inform and expand the artists’ role in the post-industrial public realm and its environmental context. The general focus was on transformative approaches to contemporary public art. The specific interest (and area of practice) is defined by artwork that takes an interdisciplinary approach to new forms of social creativity in the context of post-industrial environmental change. This dissertation begins with a broad literature review to understand public art and its relationship to: the public realm, ecology, nature and the environment. The intent was to understand the theory and process that inform answers to questions regarding the artists’ ability to affect public policy; the ability to expand the creative act beyond singular authorship and finally the question can we verify the impact of art? The thesis closes with two chapters describing practical work on ‘Nine Mile Run’ a project that developed an ecological restoration approach to post-industrial public space; also ‘3 Rivers 2nd Nature’ which focused upon the emancipation of, and a means to advocate for post industrial nature. These projects were developed with the intention to test theory through application and value through outcome. The goal was to provide a better understanding of ideas that define and enable collaborative or inter-relational approaches to transformative art practice. The intention was to make a small contribution to the theoretical framework that informs the conceptualization, experience and valuation of transformative public art practices that intend to affect the material and conceptual forms of the post- industrial public realm. It is through intellectual study and ongoing practice that the three original questions are addressed with a cautionary affirmative. Other specific findings include the following. • The ongoing tension between individual freedom and social interaction is best addressed through a moral commitment to creativity in relationship to the emancipation of people, places and things. • Visual evidence can not be the sole focal point of critical engagement with transformative practice. • Transformative practices that undertake an inter-relational methodology demand ethical, responsible and distributed outcomes. iv List of Contents Page Introduction 1 Section I – The Art Context 9 Chapter 1 – Context: Art Beyond the Gallery 9 Initiating New Ideas and Practices 9 The Limits of the Artworld 14 Reconstruction (Restoration) 24 Chapter 2 – The Art of Engagement: Issues and Case Studies 30 Can Art Effect the Social Condition? 30 ‘Democracy’ 33 ‘If You Lived Here’ 37 ‘Mapping the Terrain’ 43 Engage and Affect 54 Section II – The Social and Political Realm 58 Chapter 3 – Public Realms 59 The Evolution of Ideas 60 The Experience 70 Chapter 4 – Art in Critical Engagement with Public Realms 75 The Primary Issue 79 Problems in Discursive Forms 82 Art, Design, Planning and Cities 85 Conclusion 95 Notes from Sections I and II 98 Section III – The Emergent Environmental Condition 100 Chapter 5 – Ecological Restoration and Art 101 Preservation and Conservation 101 Art and Ecology 104 Complicating the Meaning of Nature 113 Art, Nature and Traditional Aesthetics 115 Chapter 6 – Environmental Aesthetics 118 An Aesthetic of Engagement: Subject Object Collapse 119 Natural Environmental Aesthetic: Subject Object Retention 122 Synthesis 126 Aesthetic Systems and health – Empathic Values 129 Conclusion 134 Chapter 7 – Intersubjective Aesthetics 137 v Kester’s Dialogic Aesthetic 138 Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetic 142 Bishop’s Critical Counterpoint 146 Section IV – Strategic Ideas and Creative Practices 152 Chapter 8 – Nine Mile Run 1997-2000 156 Intent and Objectives 159 The Nine Mile Run Program 162 Process 164 Conclusions from Nine Mile Run 175 Chapter 9 – 3 Rivers 2nd Nature, 2000-2005 199 Intent 200 Process 208 Critical Analysis of 3 Rivers 2nd Nature 227 Conclusions 250 Notes from Sections III and IV 267 Conclusion 272 Freedom or Emancipation? 278 Comparative Practices 281 Evidence, Responsibility and Outcome 290 Notes from Conclusion 297 Bibliography 298 Appendices Appendix A (CD ROM1 and CD ROM2) 320 Appendix B plans (CD ROM2) 321 Appendix B data (CD ROM3) 322 Appendix C (Bound in Copies of Publications) 323 Appendix D (Supplemental text donated to the Library) 324 vi List of Tables and Illustrations Page Tables Table One: The inter-relating models of the public realm 62 Table Two: An integrated social/ecological model of the public realm 67 Illustrations Illustration one: A Map of Allegheny County 154 Illustration two: NMR Project Development Timeline 155 Illustration three: Analyzing discursive Relationships 183 Illustration four: Attendance and Discourse 184 Illustration five: Nine Mile Run Historic Conditions 190 Illustration six: The evolving status of Nine Mile Run 191 Illustration seven: Year to year reports 206 Illustration eight: Images from 3 Rivers 2nd Nature 207 Illustration nine: The 3 Rivers 2nd Nature Timeline 225 Illustration ten: Proclamation in support of the rivers 226 Illustration eleven: The Monongahela Conference Programs 249 Illustration twelve: The inter-relationship of lyrical, critical and transformative practices. 263 List of Appendices Appendix A (CD-ROM1) Nine Mile Run Greenway Project (2000) [CD-ROM] Transforming Nine Mile Run. Pittsburgh (PA): STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University. Available from World Wide Web: <http://slaggarden.cfa.cmu.edu> Appendix B 3R2N plans (CD-ROM2) 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2006) Ecology and Recovery - Allegheny County. Allegheny County, PA: Studio For Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University. Available from World Wide Web: <http://3r2n.cfa.cmu.edu> 3 Rivers 2nd Nature and Perkins Eastman Architects (2006) An Ecological and Physical Investigation of Pittsburgh Hillsides. Pittsburgh, PA: Allegheny Land Trust. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.alleghenylandtrust.org/special_projects/hillsides/index.html>. 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2006) Allegheny County Water Trails. Pittsburgh (PA): STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University. Available from World Wide Web: <http://3r2n.cfa.cmu.edu> vii Appendix B 3R2N data (CD-ROM3) 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2005) The Allegheny County River Dialogues - Watertrails. Pittsburgh (PA): STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon University. Available from World Wide Web: <http://3r2n.cfa.cmu.edu> 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2005).Stream Reports; Field studies, map studies, and policy study. Pittsburgh (PA): STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon University. Available from World Wide Web: <http://3r2n.cfa.cmu.edu> Appendix C (Bound In Copies of publications) Collins. T, (2001) Conversations in the Rust Belt. in Herzogenrath, B. (Ed.) Critical Studies; From Virgin Land to Disney World, Nature and its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and Today. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Collins, T. (2003) Lyrical expression, critical engagement, transformative action: an introduction to art and the environment [online]. Community Arts Network [cited 27 July, 2006]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2003/06/lyrical_express. php> Collins, T. (2003) Postindustielle Landschaft - Nine Mile Run: Intervention in the Rust Belt, The art and ecology of post-industrial public space. In Genske, D. and Hauser, S. (Eds.) Die Brache als Chance. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Hong Kong, London, Mailand, Paris, and Tokyo: Springer. Collins, T. and Goto, R. (2003) Landscape, ecology, art and change. in Miles M. (Ed.) Urban Futures, Critical commentaries on shaping the city. London and New York: Routledge. Collins, T. (2004) Aesthetic Diversity. in Strelow, H. and David, V. (Eds.) Herman Prigann – Ecological Aesthetics: Theoretical Practice of Artistic Environmental Design. Berlin, Germany: Berkhäuser Verlag, AG. Appendix D Supplemental Donation to Library Kester, G. (Ed.) (2005) Groundworks: Environmental Collaboration in Contemporary Art. Pittsburgh (PA): the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University. viii Acknowledgements I dedicate this to my mother Mary Elizabeth Collins, she taught me to love books. I have undertaken this study as a part of the natural evolution of my interests and my role as an art-based academic researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. I began work in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Directed by Bryan Rogers, PhD, in 1994. I have