Urban art as platforms for bodily engagement and social encounters: the Modified Social Benches

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of the Modified Social Benches, a series of urban artworks, as platforms for bodily engagement and social encounters in open, outdoor urban spaces. Special attention is given to a couple of salient aspects involving both the design of the artworks and their social appropriation: (a) the different levels of sensory and kinesthetic engagement afforded by the benches, and (b) how these material qualities reflect in the urban space around the benches, lending the artworks a notorious social character. The social and the bodily dimensions are presented as intertwined characteristics of the Modified Social Benches. In order to explore these relationships, the paper highlights a set of key concepts, such as social encounters and affordances, as well as the notions of performance and engagement.