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CFP AAG - 2017
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston, April 5-9, 2017.
Sense as a field’s experience in geography of arts: methods and tools, positionality and teaching
Nowadays following the cultural turn in urban planning, geographers are more and more interested in issues that deal with art in urban spaces. They raise questions not only about specific spatialities (Volvey, 2007), about social and aesthetic effects of art (Cameron & Coaffee, 2005 ; Sharp & Padisson, 2005, Mathews, 2008) but also about its role in the city making (Miles, 1997, Guinard, 2014). In this context, geographers are methodologically lacking and by doing so, they tend to be challenged when it comes to fully seize the aesthetic experience in/of urban space, whether it be artworks reception (Zebracki, 2013) or creative engagement with the city. As a consequence, they have to create and use new tools and skills inspired by other disciplinary fields. Thus, this methodological DIY leads to innovative changes in the field of geography of arts such as experimentations that are concerned with sensorial or creative research (Hawkins, 2012). Regarding these observations, this session aims to explore the scope of these methodologies that take place within spatial studies of art as well as to examine their input for the field.
A first focus will consider the problems perceived by geographers to empirically grasp and understand art in urban space and the tools used to overcome them. What are the main difficulties experienced by researchers that study art as a spatial object? What are their specific tools? What are their effectiveness and limits? Which opportunities do they open in terms of reflexivity? How do they enable geographers to understand the aesthetic experience?
A second focus will invite the contributors to investigate the question of the researcher positionality. Design and implementation of those methods often implies a singular relationship with the people interviewed and/or observed. Actually, most of these methods (mental maps, commented walks, artistic production, writing and drawings about their aesthetic experience, etc.) not only imply to involve people but to engage them (and the researcher) in action. One can wonder how does this relation transform the researcher positionality? How can this position be included in the research design? Towards transforming the researcher’s relationship with the interviewee, relationships with non-academic actors are also evolving. Indeed, some geography of art practices such as creativity research, imply the professionals’ networking participation (artists, urban planners, associations, etc.). How do these practices recompose the field boundaries? What are the new forms of interdisciplinarity emerging from these innovations? How the geographers’ integration in the professional spheres of urban planning and public policies is promoted?
Thirdly, the authors are invited to specifically question the scope of these new methodological skills within geography and spatial studies. How do they spread? How can they help the understanding of non-artistic research topics? What is the influence of these methods on the teaching of geography? And finally, how can the use of the methods explored in the geography of arts enrich geography as a social science?
Submission guidelines:
Interested participants should:
Bouhaddou, Marie-Kenza : [log in to unmask] (University of Paris Nanterre)
Margier, Antonin : [log in to unmask] (University Lille 1)
References:
Cameron S. & Coaffee J. (2005). ‘‘Art, Gentrification and Regeneration – From Artist as Pioneer to Public Arts’’, European Journal of Housing Policy, 5 (1), 39-58.
Guinard, P. (2014). Johannesburg : l’art d’inventer une ville. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Hawkins, H. (2012). “Geography and art. An expanding field: Site, the body and practice”, Progress in Human Geography, 37 (1).
Mathews, V. (2008). “Artcetera: Narrativising Gentrification in Yorkville, Toronto, Urban Studies, 45 (13), 2849-2876.
Miles, M. (1997). Art, Space and the City, London, New York, Routledge.
Sharp, J, Venda. P & R. Paddison. (2005). « Just Art for a Just City : Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration », Urban Studies, 42 (5/6).
Volvey, A. (2014). “Entre l’art et la géographie, une question (d’)esthétique”, Belgeo, (3) 2014.
Zebraki, M. (2013). “Beyond public artopia: public art as perceived by its publics”, Geojournal, n° 78, pp.303-317.