During this sprint, each group visited a site and conducted research, and presented in the final class. Our group chose a public space with a pump track and a forest. Few people passed by on the day we visited, and at first we thought it was an abandoned site. After research and further understanding, we realized that the site looks deserted because it is off-season. We discovered that this public space is actually organized and managed, and has many possibilities to be exploited. It made me think that we did something similar in the last sprint, visiting a site and presenting it to the class. But these two experiences are very different. On the last visit, we felt and recorded the perceptual experience brought by space, and on this visit, we focused more on the rational experience of research and thinking. Since I don’t have a lot of research experience, this sprint is relatively difficult for me.

The application of the concept of commons in art institutions has an inherent relationship with the modern transformation of art institutions from private to public since the Enlightenment, and at the same time reflects the new requirements of today’s social and cultural development for public art institutions. Viewing public art institutions as commons emphasizes their characteristics shared by society and the public, especially calling for a sense of common governance based on the concept of community. Based on this awareness, art is no longer regarded as treasures that live high in the temple, but a social spiritual resource that enriches the imagination and creativity shared by all human beings. By positioning themselves as a commons, public art institutions need to further open themselves to the public, not just by opening the door and welcoming the public, but fundamentally change the relationship with the public. This means further opening up the process of art generation and inviting public participation. Participation and co-governance have become new keywords, and the production process of art has also become a process of community construction, creating possibilities for new narratives. The generation of this kind of narrative requires further activation of every individual in the urban field on the basis of the original narrative of urban modernity, so as to promote a new dimension of collective writing.

Public art institutions are an integral part of modern urban space. From private or semi-public collections, art galleries, or salons to museums, civic theaters, and art galleries open to the public, the modern transformation of art institutions is also a sign of the communalization and publicization of modern society. The design and construction of specialized public art institutions means the emergence of a new architectural type and new urban spaces that are completely different from traditional palaces and churches. Take the Altes Museum (built in 1823-1830) in Berlin designed by the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the 19th century as an example. On the one hand, the rotunda as the main body of the building is reminiscent of ancient Greek temples and ancient Roman pantheons with its domes, columns and surrounding statues of ancient Greek gods. The original meaning of the Temple of the Muse (Mouseion) also implies the quasi-religious status of art in a secularized society since the 18th century. On the other hand, Schinkel specially designed an open colonnade-style entrance for the old museum, rather than a tall and formidable gate with a sense of isolation, so that this art palace is truly open to the public. Its internal space and external public space become a connected whole. Through the architectural language, the Enlightenment thought prevailing in the 19th century has been fully conveyed.

According to the ideals of the Enlightenmentists, the museum is not only a palace that enshrines great art and a temple that praises the creation of human wisdom, but also a public space with social significance. As far as Schinkel’s museum building is concerned, the architectural prototype of its openness can be traced back to the agora in ancient Greece. In Europe in the 19th century, museum architecture had a specific intention to use the ancient prototype of agora, that is, to construct museums as places for cultivating and cohesive sociality. In other words, art institutions such as museums, art galleries, and public theaters that have sprung up in the West since the end of the 18th century have had the dual attributes of temples and public squares since their birth, and have self-identification and expression of this dual attribute. It is a palace of art full of sacredness, and it also exists as a real place for social interaction. People not only meet art and beauty here, but also meet each other, sharing and exchanging some common aesthetic experiences. In fact, this aesthetic social communication experience plays a fundamental role in the construction of modernity. It is through this continuous and repeated self-confirmation of the social process that modern people gradually form a spiritual world with their own collective narrative.

From the perspective of modern urban narrative, public art institutions have dual attributes as art and social communication fields, so they have the natural potential to inject narrative elements that stimulate imagination into urban space, so as to add a layer of meaning to urban narrative. Furthermore, the prescriptive narrative is changed into an open, creative, and developing collective narrative, which greatly enriches the generation of narrative texts in a region. The prerequisite for realizing this potential is that art institutions should renew not only their content, but also their overall self-cognition. Specifically, the self-narration of an art institution cannot be self-defined, i.e. defining itself as a closed text, such as an exhibition producer or a place for aesthetic education in a narrow sense, or a public cultural service infrastructure under the stereotyped understanding, and they should use creative narrative methods to tell and communicate themselves. When public art institutions understand themselves as commons, art management concepts such as public education and audience development must also be re-understood and interpreted at a new level.

Sprint 4 The Commons_Reflection / Jing-Ting Huang / Themes in Contemporary Art (2022-2023)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0