DP0772759: 2007-2009. Funded by the Australian Research Council.
The core aim of this project is to provide a critical analysis of the impact of large electronic screens on contemporary forms of social agency in public space. Its key hypothesis is that the emergent creative practices associated with the new generation of public screens offer distinctive opportunities for public interaction and civic revitalization. Realization of this potential demands the development of new models for utilizing media technologies, negotiating the competing interests of the public and private sectors, and addressing increasingly diverse and mobile urban populations. The project is designed around two related strands: the sociological analysis of public interactions with large public screens, and the contextualization of artistic interventions in city life.
The focus of this research is to examine the potential of these platforms to constitute a new dimension of public space and civic agency and its conceptual frame is informed by the interplay of six key questions:
- how do public screens relate to the history of urban transformation?
- what role do public screens play in the process of urban renewal?
- who are the key stakeholders in shaping public visual culture?
- how do public screens affect social experience and modes of citizenship?
- how are new artistic and commercial collaborations shaping contemporary civic life?
- is the changing relation between digital technology, visual culture and public space altering the function of ‘creative industries’ as drivers of 21st century economies?
Banner image courtesy of Fed Square P/L.