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Annual International Conference, London, 26–29 August, 2014
Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with Institute of British Geographers (IBG)

CFP: Geographies of Public-Art Co-Production: Let Us Talk about Public Art, but Where Are the Publics?

Sponsored session by the Space, Sexualities & Queer Research Group (SSQRG)

Update: seeing the current SSQRG sponsorship of this session, we actively seek contributions that address public-art co-production from the angle of sexuality and queer studies and/or public artworks with sexuality content.

Convenors:
Martin Zebracki (University of Leeds) & joni m palmer (independent scholar)

Art in public space is often surrounded by a cacophony of voices from artists, policymakers and a wide range of viewers. Where producers of public art frequently lay claims on audience effects and public engagement, we believe these claims deserve academic scrutinisation along the everyday experiences of both practitioners and beholders in consideration of reconfiguring understandings and potentialities regarding co-production—i.e., collaborations between producers and publics—in the field of public art.

This session invites scholars across disciplines as well as practitioners to critically and creatively engage with the encounters between producers and publics of public art. The questions that this session embarks upon include, but are not limited to:
* How are knowledges about public art constructed in the encounters between producers and publics?
* How are public art’s publics involved in public art from its preparation through its implementation phase and the time thereafter?
* To what extent do the everyday perceived opportunities and challenges of publics’ involvement in public-art production differ between the perspectives of producers and publics?
* How might we engage and engender multiple perspectives to create novel collaborative understandings, methodologies as well as sites for knowledge exchange toward geographies of public-art co-production?

We are open to any original discussions and creative contributions attending to theoretical, methodological, empirical and/or artistic dimensions of the subject matter.

Seeing the current SSQRG sponsorship of this session, we actively seek contributions that address public-art co-production from the angle of sexuality and queer studies and/or public artworks with sexuality content.

If interested, please submit a 250-word abstract to Martin Zebracki at m.m.zebracki AT leeds.ac.uk by 12 February, 2014. A special journal issue might follow this session, so we appreciate if you indicate any interest therein in your submission document. Please contact us should you require any more information about this CFP.

Best wishes,

Martin Zebracki & joni m palmer

m.m.zebracki AT leeds.ac.uk & joni.palmer AT colorado.edu

Session website: http://www.zebracki.org/cfp2014rgspublicart

Dr M.M. (Martin) Zebracki
Lecturer in Critical Human Geography
School of Geography
University of Leeds
University Road
Leeds LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/m.zebracki
http://www.zebracki.org