Re: [-empyre-] Critical Spatial Practice

[Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum@ucsd.edu>]

Hi Kevin,

I too have been surprised the focus on questions of reception, as well 
as well as a persistent assumption that spatial representation can 
function in a socially compelling or politically productive way. My use 
of "spatial representation" could index here all of the various 
modalities of artistic representation in space that have been discussed 
so far: kinesthetic activity and sound in PED ("Here the 'user' is asked 
to perform an unwitting political/utopian action riding conscicuous 
bikes?" - Johannes Birringer), or interactive installation as in 
"trans-border: primitive man @edge of virtual forest / hyaku-take", or 
public installation and performance in "Chrysalis Bridge", or Millie 
Chen's interest in sound in public space. My questioning of the inherent 
possibilities in anyone's "critical spatial practice" circulates around 
the "critical" part more than the "spatial practice" part - in other 
words I question the assumption that art can significantly instantiate 
questions in the mind of the "user" that are politically transformative 
and thus progressive. (I don't deny some influence - see "significantly" 
above...)

I take my question to be a gross summary of the strong critiques 
presented here by Birringer, ("For the digital to affect and transform 
us politically, what could it do?"), or as Catherine Ingraham just said 
in another post, criticality "remains the word most used in describing 
studio teaching in architecture but is less and less influential as a 
idea or methodology." So my question finally is, why criticality at all? 
What can it do for us that we couldn't do much better by *productive* 
political practices - things that do something useful instead of trying 
to "message" the public? (And, for Birringer, I do in fact think that 
there are things that digital media can do... but I will not be in a 
position to discuss that possibility until present research is complete...)

But, in the spirit of good examples... off the top of my head... I met 
Raquel Rennó in Sao Paulo recently and we had a long talk about this... 
she is working in Spain and turned me onto the following projects that 
are actually helping immigrants negotiate borders - Technological 
Observatory of the Straits (http://www.fadaiat.net/) and 
LavapiesWireless (http://lavapieswireless.net/). Of course, activities 
such as these are by necessity experimental and ultimately tactical (and 
yes, maybe not entailed in the self-referencing and delusionally forward 
oriented whirligig of the artworld that Saul Ostrow so well 
described...), but could these potentially be thought of models that 
should not replace, but rather taken as the primary nexus of practice 
over memes like "critical cartography" or "Critical Spatial Practice"?

Finally, although getting ahead of the discussion I see a lot of what I 
think I am trying to support here my colleague Teddy Cruz's work, but we 
will hear from him later... so maybe to revisit at that time.


Kevin Hamilton wrote:

!-snip-

> /// Broad Questions
>
> These are some questions I keep coming back to in my engagement with the 
> topic:
>
> 1) I've been surprised to see the thread so far focussed so much on 
> questions of reception. As such, it's also been largely a discussion of 
> Art, with some (to me) familiar assumptions about Art's capacity for 
> fostering at least personal transformation, if not social change. How 
> might we talk about examples of CSP without resorting to avant-garde 
> models in which enlightened cultural producers educate, influence or 
> enhance through "secular spiritualism" (phrase from Chris' posts) or 
> perceptual/ethical superiority?
>
> 2) How can we understand and influence the material, social and 
> political specificities of temporary or habitual perceptual practices 
> without instrumentalizing sensation in the service of aesthetic affect 
> or political effect? Can we talk about particular sensoria as more or 
> less free or rich outside of an ends-oriented approach?
>
> 3) What about Art has been, or continues to be, useful to "Critical 
> Spatial Practitioners"?

!-snip-

--
Brett Stalbaum, Lecturer, LSOE
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Major (ICAM)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Department of Visual Arts
9500 GILMAN DR. # 0084
La Jolla CA 92093-0084
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