A Conversation with Mary Ellen Carroll

Abstract

A wide-ranging and definitive interview with conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, who is best known for works that transpose land art to urban contexts and to questions of public policy such as zoning and access to free Internet service. Carroll describes her practice in terms of “making architecture perform,” which she does through direct interventions in city streets, such as her rotation of a suburban house in prototype 180 (1999–ongoing) so that it's back façade was turned to the street, while it's front faced a public park at the back of the lot, or in Public Utility 2.0 (2015), which sought to provide broadband wireless through unused radio frequencies, otherwise known as Super Wi-Fi, to underserved communities, largely of color, in New Orleans. Carroll is a leading voice at the intersection of urban theory, public policy, and media art, and in this interview, she articulates the several complex layers of her most significant projects to date.