Features of Digital Public Art of the Twenty-First Century: Art of Physical and Virtual Space

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of contemporary practices of digital public art as one of the new forms of art of the twenty-first century that actively interacts with urban space. Research methodology. The method of systematic analysis and synthesis (to consider digital public art practices as part of contemporary art), the method of cultural and historical analysis (to study the trends in the development of public art at the early twenty-first century), the typological method and the method of comparative analysis (to identify the features and typology of digital public art practices, as well as to determine their differences). Scientific novelty. Contemporary digital practices of public art are studied. Artistic interventions of media art in public space as a means of social intervention are considered. On the basis of comparative analysis, the differences between the practices of digital public art as an independent subgenre of public art created, managed, and distributed in cyberspace are revealed. Conclusions. Digital public art is a unique form of contemporary art existence outside the artistic infrastructure, which is created and disseminated in public space through cyber technologies in order to problematise various topical issues of both the art of the early twenty-first century and the space in which it is presented. At the present stage, digital public art objects are an integral part of the urban space. Despite the availability of new technical means of presentation, public art remains a connection with conceptual issues (identity creation and inclusive community participation). Digital practices of public art in line with the aesthetics of postmodernism, according to which it is important to overcome the vacuum, a certain isolation of artistic practice, and to understand ontological states. Demonstrating the idea of accessibility of the cultural collage of the contemporary space, they illustrate the tendency of transgressive processes of the boundaries of cultural form, the convergence of mass and elitist culture. The main characteristics of digital practices of public art are interactivity, technology, dynamism, attractiveness, and sociality.