Creative minds collide at art symposium
Ian Nelson, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Arts & Living
A meeting of creative minds working around the globe took place Friday in the Student Union Ballroom, as the symposium "Art in the Public Sphere: Singular Works, Plural Possibilities" showed a display of past works and current projects to bring forth the idea of public art to the University of Massachusetts.
The symposium ran all day from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with breaks only for lunch and refreshments. Seven panelists each conducted a twenty minute presentation addressing their personal work and experience in the public art field. Panelists included landscape artist George Trakas, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak, German landscape architect Frank Sleegers and perhaps the most verbose of the bunch, celebrated designer/architect Vito Acconci.
Acconci has been interested in public art from the get go, taking it out of the gallery and straight to the masses. He brings this public mindset to the creation of his visions, choosing a collaborative path as opposed to strictly using his ideas. "If you intend something to be public," Acconci said, "then it can't start private."
Acconci showed slides of his innovative works, including conceived architecture, prototypical buildings and sites, projects for cities and personalized modern conveniences. He spoke on a Tokyo clothing store he designed, with the concept of creating as much surface area as possible in the smallest space possible. The walls and shelves were made of rear screen projection PVC material and pulled taut to hold the weight of the clothing. The store was lit by lights behind the screens, providing a soft, gauzy glow.
"I'm obsessed by the motion of a continuous space," Acconci mused, since the walls and shelving in the Tokyo boutique neither start nor stop. He also showed a park bench he designed, a concept derived from the Mobius Strip. The bench also neither starts nor ends, with its seating curling around itself in a twisted donut shape. Acconci works mainly with places where people can be, as opposed to objects which one can hold in their hand. However, he did design a sphere which rotates and dismantles and serves as a coffee/tea brewer with cream and sugar options.
The symposium ran all day from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with breaks only for lunch and refreshments. Seven panelists each conducted a twenty minute presentation addressing their personal work and experience in the public art field. Panelists included landscape artist George Trakas, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak, German landscape architect Frank Sleegers and perhaps the most verbose of the bunch, celebrated designer/architect Vito Acconci.
Acconci has been interested in public art from the get go, taking it out of the gallery and straight to the masses. He brings this public mindset to the creation of his visions, choosing a collaborative path as opposed to strictly using his ideas. "If you intend something to be public," Acconci said, "then it can't start private."
Acconci showed slides of his innovative works, including conceived architecture, prototypical buildings and sites, projects for cities and personalized modern conveniences. He spoke on a Tokyo clothing store he designed, with the concept of creating as much surface area as possible in the smallest space possible. The walls and shelves were made of rear screen projection PVC material and pulled taut to hold the weight of the clothing. The store was lit by lights behind the screens, providing a soft, gauzy glow.
"I'm obsessed by the motion of a continuous space," Acconci mused, since the walls and shelving in the Tokyo boutique neither start nor stop. He also showed a park bench he designed, a concept derived from the Mobius Strip. The bench also neither starts nor ends, with its seating curling around itself in a twisted donut shape. Acconci works mainly with places where people can be, as opposed to objects which one can hold in their hand. However, he did design a sphere which rotates and dismantles and serves as a coffee/tea brewer with cream and sugar options.
Be the first to comment on this story