Art and the Public Sphere, Journal Special Issue
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Jordan1
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Intellect
- ISBN
- 0000000000
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- September
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/aps/2017/00000006/f0020001
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This output is a journal article authored by Mel Jordan who also edited this double issue of Art & the Public Sphere journal, Intellect (Volume 6). The special edition was supported by Arts Council England (ACE) to enable four new writing bursaries. The journal issue was also supported by Birmingham Big Art project and launched at the symposium ‘Public Art Thinking’ organised by Eastside Projects in November 2017.
W. J. T. Mitchell first coupled the terms ‘Art’ and the ‘Public Sphere’ in 1992 and his conception of Art and the Public Sphere is further developed in his chapter ‘The violence of public art’. Jordan argues that Mitchell’s semiological account limits the way we consider the production and function of art because it forces an ontological engagement with public art that foregrounds the question ‘what is art of?’ rather than ‘what does art do?’ Jordan proposes that art also operates towards the construction of culture and society rather than simply reflecting upon it. Following Georg W. Bertram, she considers Walter Benjamin’s formation of ‘critical practice’; that critique is essentially a change of practice as opposed to a negation of society.
The research community engaged in these debates extends from art history scholars such as Claire Bishop (2012), and Grant Kester (2004, 2011) who debate the function of social art, and those attempting to identify the value of the arts and humanities, in particular Geoffrey Crossick and Patrycja Kaszynska (2016), who reviewed the social benefits of arts and culture in an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded study, ‘Understanding the value of arts and culture, AHRC Cultural Value Project’. Jordan’s research also relates to her book section, ‘Towards Critical Practices: Art and Design as Socially Productive Practices’ in Linda King and Oonagh Young (eds) Transdisciplinary Practice, 2017 pp. 14-19.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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