Art In City Research Articles

The Coffee/Café-Scape in Chinese Urban Cities

The Coffee/Café-Scape in Chinese Urban Cities

Natural and anthropogenic sources of total suspended particulate and their contribution to the formation of black crusts on building stone materials of Catania (Sicily)

Blackening and disaggregation of exposed surfaces of stone monuments are well-known effects of stone decay taking place in polluted urban environments all over the world. This paper aims to assess the contribution of natural and anthropogenic sources of total suspended particulate (TSP) causing permanent damage (black crusts) to the stone monuments of Catania (Sicily), one of the most popular “cities of art” of southern Italy. Atmospheric pollution of Catania, a typical Mediterranean coastal town, is mainly contributed by vehicle exhaust emissions rather than industrial ones. Episodically, the city also suffers gaseous and ash emissions (plumes) from the nearby Mount Etna volcano. Thus, to discriminate between natural and anthropogenic contributions to stone decay on Catania monuments, black crusts and TSP were sampled within the urban area and subjected to specific analytical procedures (optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive spectrometry, ionic chromatography and dual inlet mass spectrometry). Mineralogical, chemical and isotopic characterization of black crusts and TSP provided new insights concerning the partition of sulfate sources in this particular urban context. The influence of Mount Etna emissions on both TSP and black crusts compositions was shown. Nevertheless, the key role of anthropogenic sources in the total sulfate budget was confirmed, while sea spray and volcanic emissions were found to make subordinate contributions. Quantitative data useful for the identification of the threshold pollution levels for preventive conservation of Catania monuments were obtained.

Anchoring and Exposing in the Third Place: Regular Identification at the Boundaries of Social Realms

Harry’s is my favourite bar in my neighbourhood. It is a small wine bar, owned by three men in their late thirties and targeted at people like them; my gentrifying inner city neighbourhood’s 20 to 40 something urban middle class. Harry’s has seats along the bar, booths inside, and a courtyard out the back. The seating arrangements mean that larger groups tend to gather outside, groups of two to four spread around the location, and people by themselves, or in groups of two, tend to sit at the bar. I usually sit at the bar....

Outdoor sculpture in Baltimore: a historical guide to public art in the monumental city

Outdoor sculpture in Baltimore: a historical guide to public art in the monumental city

A Lawyer Looks at U.S. Antiquities Laws

The legal issues involved in trading antiquities across international borders are very complex; cases hinge on points that, to archaeologists, often seem to have little relevance to archaeological issues, or even to our sense of what the law ought to be. A New York City art dealer was caught red-handed bringing into the U.S. Peruvian antiquities worth, reputedly, about a million dollars (see below). He had no export permit from Peru. Peru's antiquities laws require a permit for the export of all antiquities. It would seem very clear, then, that this dealer was engaged in an illegal activity. Unfortunately, perhaps, it is not that simple.

Open innovation in city of art: The case of laser technologies for conservation in Florence

The field of laser application for the cleaning and restoration of cultural assets is thriving. Ablative-laser technological systems can clean and protect inestimable works of art that are subject to atmospheric agents and degradation over time. This new technology, which has been in development during the last forty years, is now available to restorers and has achieved success for restoration efforts across Europe. In the continuing evolution of the use of lasers for restoration of cultural assets, one important example of innovation is taking place in Florence. Local actors who belong to a creative cluster are engaged in this effort. The objects of our analysis are to detail the genesis of this innovation in the local Florentine context, and to analyse the relationships among the main actors who have contributed in it. This study investigates how culture can play a part in the generation of ideas and innovations, and what types of creative environments favour this generation. In this context, the issue of laser technologies for the restoration of cultural heritage has been analysed as a case of ‘open innovation in creative public space’, such as city of art.

Prometeu acorrentado: uma proposta esquiliana de formação para o homem clássico

The aim of this work is to present a discussion on how the educational process evolved in the Classic context, broadening historical-educational knowledge. Based on that, we also aim to promote an analysis on Education in contemporaneity. Initially, there is a discussion on Greek tragedy (conceived as a city art) which was used by City-state dominant sectors as a way to form and educate the Citizen-Man. Thus the role of the poet arises within this educational process, given his technical ability to create his art as well as the use he makes of art’s didactic aspect. Furthermore, we analyze the educational strength of Aeschylus, one of the poets of the Classic era, whose works served as a formative instrument. In this sense, special attention is given to the social conflict depicted in Prometheus Bound and the way the poet represented his characters to make Prometheus’ myth the background to highlight a new Man formation requiring a democratic society. Key words: social transformation, Greek tragedy, Aeschylus, education, man-citizen.

La componente culturale del prodotto turistico integrato: la creazione di valore per il territorio attraverso i musei locali

This work examines the possibilities of distribution of the cultural tourism during the whole year in less known peripheral areas characterized by a widely diffused cultural heritage and a scarce monumental importance, in order to reduce the negative externalities due to the concentration of tourism in the traditional circuits of the big art cities and, particularly, during certain seasons. From the analysis of the existing and potential tourist demand, we want to verify whether the current cultural offer is able to catch and adequately satisfy a more and more large and composite demand for knowledge. We try to find the limits of the exploitation strategies of the cultural capital which have been followed up to now, in comparison with the opportunities inherent in the features of the Italian cultural heritage. In particular, considering the new concepts of culture and cultural good and focusing the attention on the strategic value of the places, we analyze the decisive role of the local museums both in the production and in the organization of the territorial cultural and tourist offer.

The Extra-urban Cultural District: An Emerging Local Production System: Three Italian Case Studies

This paper seeks to identify the distinctive variables of a particular type of local production system: the extra-urban cultural district (E-UCD). Although cultural districts are becoming an important field of investigation, most of the literature has concentrated on urban clusters, cities of art and cities of culture. However, place-based policies for rural development are also increasingly focusing on the need to valorize natural and cultural amenities. This paper contributes to the developing body of theory on cultural districts in extra-urban areas. The three levers whose valorization determines the success of the development of the E-UCD are identified. Each issue is discussed in theory and in practice, drawing on research on the three Italian case studies of Cinque Terre, Val d'Orcia and Ravello.

Landscape City: The Ideal Direction of Cities Development of 21st Century in China

Landscape city is a new concept of city construction which is proposed by Chinese famous scientist Qian Xuesen.It contains many factors such as garden、culture、art 、technology . Landscape city covers the western modern urban theory, and at the same time Chinese culture connotation, it stands for 21st century Chinese socialist urban development ideal direction. In the early of 1990s, one of the famous scientists of China, Professor Qian Xuesen proposed the concept of landscape city, and it embodies Qian’s deeply expectation that the cities in the 21st century are landscape cities. What is the landscape city? From Professor Qian’ 68 pieces of articles, letters and interviews, we can conclude a formula that is: Landscape City = Garden City + culture city + art cities + modern technology city. Our cities have different natural and geographical conditions and also have different society function. But for most of them, should set landscape city as their development goal, this should be the Chinese nation’s noble ideals of the living environment in the 21st century.

도시 공간에서의 비디오 아트와 미디어 환경에의 재고

The development of projection technology produces series of discussions associated to various form of visual immersing possibilities by the way of projecting image directly to the obscure surface surrounded us. Besides, the significance can be found in terms of that this kind of image projection offers chance to citizens to enjoy high standard images and makes people consider media environment of city. Video art as the digital technology grafts penetrates formative space of city by projecting images. The certain thing about questions how the media has status in city is that media is now not existing for self neither for abstractly and virtual reality is existing in the general appearance of metropolis. This paper treats media environment of city and the meaning of image projection as from of video art in the city. It accesses about the meaning of video form visual art in big city- new reality, the virtual and the real, immersion and interactivity. And media reality of metropolis defines that there is not one major discourse in the gigantic text -metropolis rather they are different discourses each other simultaneously compatible in the gigantic text -metropolis and in fact, they affect each other and interact.

The Films of Julian Schnabel

CHARACTERIZATION, REVISIONISM AND MISREPRESENTATION IN THE FILMS OF JULIAN SCHNABEL A few years ago after viewing the 2007 film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the third film by contemporary director and (former) star painter Julian Schnabel, a friend of New York Review of Books writer Sanford Schwartz prophetically announced to the critic, "Apparently it's easier to make a great movie than a great painting."(1) Indeed, Schnabel's ascension to art stardom has taken a truly enigmatic path. Initially conjuring his success as a painter within the elitist landscape of the late 20th century New York City art market, today we find Schnabel strutting down the red carpet of the Cannes and Toronto international film festivals after writing and directing three films while armed with seemingly zero experience in the field of filmmaking or screenwriting. As a painter, Schnabel's work is largely classified as "Neo-Expressionist", belonging to Postmodernism's timely...

Urban pastoral: natural currents in the New York School

Were the urbane, avant-garde poets of the New York School secretly nature lovers like Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, and Annie Dillard? In Urban Pastoral, Timothy Gray urges us to reconsider our long-held appraisals of Frank O Hara, John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, and their peers as celebrants of cosmopolitan culture and to think of their more pastoral impulses. As Gray argues, flowers are more beautiful in the New York School s garden of verse because no one expects them to bloom there. Along with the poets whose careers he chronicles, Gray shows us that startlingly new approaches to New York City art and literature emerge when natural and artificial elements collide kaleidoscopically, as when O Hara likens blinking stars to a hairnet, when painter Jane Freilicher places a jar of irises in her studio window to mirror purple plumes rising from Consolidated Edison smokestacks, or when poet Kathleen Norris equates rooftop water towers with grain silos as she plans her escape route to the Great Plains. The New York School poets and their coterie have become a staple of poetics, literary criticism and biography, cultural studies, and art criticism, but Urban Pastoral is the first study of the original New York School poets to offer sustained discussion of the pastoral and natural imagery within the work of these renowned city poets and also consider poets from the second generation of the New York School Diane di Prima, Jim Carroll, and Kathleen Norris. Moving beyond the traditional boundaries of literary criticism to embrace the creative spirit of New York poets and artists, Gray s accessible, lively, and blithely experimental book will shape future discussions of contemporary urban literature and literary nature writing, offering new evidence of avant-garde poetry s role within those realms.

Exhibitions and Cultural Heritage - A Survey on Exhibition Policies of Italian Cities

The transformation of the sustainability models of cities, in the last years, has modified the perception of the economic and political role of arts and, consequently, the expectations of the public sector on cultural institutions. In Italy, the growth of cultural tourism in the main urban centers and art cities has changed the cultural supply models, increasing the emphasis on temporary exhibitions and events. Moreover, the contraction of public resources has induced cultural institutions to develop new forms of collaboration with private organizations in order to negotiate their autonomy.Starting from the Italian scenario, this research describes the activity of eight relevant institutions involved in the organization of exhibitions. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative data will show, in the first part, how these institutions have developed different models as far as their management structure, governance, nature of their offer and relationship with the cultural system as a whole.In this perspective, the second part will be dedicated to the study of a specific exhibition recently held at Palazzo Te in Mantua, analyzing the role that exhibitions have taken in local contexts.

Muséo-parcs et réenchantement de l’expérience muséale : le cas de la Cité des Arts et des Sciences de Valencia

L’offre museale subit actuellement de profondes transformations. Au-dela des structures traditionnelles, qui n’hesitent plus a recourir a des museographies innovantes et a glisser dans la sphere des loisirs, semble se developper un nouveau secteur, a mi-chemin entre musees et parcs d’attraction. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser un exemple de cette offre hybride de type museo-parc, la Cite des Arts et des Sciences de Valencia (Espagne), s’inscrivant dans une logique ludo-educative, afin d’en comprendre les elements structurants. Apres avoir presente les fondements conceptuels sous-tendant la redefinition experientielle des musees, nous exposerons notre etude de cas, en definissant d’abord la methodologie utilisee puis en presentant l’ensemble des dimensions structurant cette offre d’experience, avant d’enoncer les implications manageriales de cette reflexion.

Pale Riders: How a Band of Radical Outsiders Briefly Stole the New York City Art World (for the Better)

Two new books present an alternative art history about collaborative, political art stemming from New York City in the 1980s, while simultaneously weaving a fable of cultural renewal instigated by a band of Marxist-inspired cultural outsiders. Julie Ault and Tim Rollins grew up in rural Maine. They met as art students at the state university in Augusta. Precociously, at nineteen, Rollins educates himself about conceptual art and Arte Povera. He needles the provincialism of fellow students, advertising the screening of a blue movie. Instead of a tawdry smut film, the auditorium of clamouring and soon to be angry young men is subjected to nothing more than grainy blue light emanating from a super-8 projector. Ault recounts this and other memories about her friend and (later) artistic collaborator in Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History. The book is a lustrously illustrated volume about Kids of Survival; the art and...

A study with a purpose to determine structural defects and faults: The seismic risks of the existing buildings in various districts of Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, a host of many different civilizations- being a city of tourism, art, and culture, with a mega-city area of 5712 km2, having more than 1,000,000 buildings with a population exceeding 10 million, has been exposed to numerous earthquakes in its history and, has experienced damaged extensively as a result of these earthquakes. Istanbul was also affected by the recent August 17th Golcuk and November 12th Duzce Earthquakes; and approximately 32,637 buildings were damaged. When the regional earthquake accelerations were examined, it was observed not even a design earthquake had occurred in Istanbul as a result of these earthquakes. On the other hand, damage, destruction, and the losses of life were observed to be more than the expected values. As one can comprehend from these figures, it can be stated that the building stock of Istanbul is defective; and these buildings contain the risk of severe damage or total collapse. It is considerably significant to repair these negativities in the defective buildings and remove the apparent defects for minimizing the risks. Moreover, it was pointed out that a great danger awaits Istanbul and the Marmara Region because of the seismic risk and structural damage scenarios. Consequently, the investigation of the present building stock of Istanbul would help for better determination of earthquake scenarios for Istanbul and the Marmara Region. A detailed examination was conducted on a total of 467 buildings with reinforced concrete or masonry structural systems, from 23 different districts of Istanbul, and the results obtained were evaluated in this study. The damage conditions of the buildings, their suitability to the original project, concrete strength values, reinforcement conditions, project and building defects, and other architectural and structural system faults, not suitable as regards to the seismic design, were determined. As a result, apparent defects and faults for the investigated buildings were marked. Key words: Earthquake, present building stock, structural defects, risk analysis, Marmara region.

The Historic Centre in Spanish Industrial and Post-Industrial Cities

The congestion of the city area within the walls along the 19th century and the economic and social crisis of historic centres during most of the 20th century led to their deterioration. The theoretical conceptualization and practical implementation of domestic improvement and reform programmes have changed with time. With the beginning of the new century, urban dynamics in a globalized space are making historic places into real scenes for economic exploitation related to massive and residential tourism with a cultural brand design, as well as to property for well-to-do population. As a consequence, the social component took a secondary place in town planning theory. In this context, our essay is aimed at studying the response of town planning to the recovery of a historic city fully sharing the dynamics of a postmodernist and global metropolis. In the last few decades, the structure and morphology of the Spanish city have undergone dramatic changes. Spatial processes from the Anglo-Saxon world have an influence on the building of the contemporary Spanish city. In the global information society, film images of shopping malls, crowds in edge cities or theme parks are the best publicity for the building of these new urban landscapes (1), which are a reality in almost every city. The dense city developed until the 70's was followed by a dispersed city built with new elements from counterurbanization and suburbanization. The city organized around its heritage and the centrality of the pre-industrial city were followed by a new kind of city promoted by means of large heritage containers which -in too many ocasions- can even hide the importance and quality of the old town. In such a situation we wonder if a resident of Bilbao can feel more identified with the whole postmodern landscape built around the Guggenhaim Museum than with the Casco Viejo (historic core of the city) or the interesting 19th- century Ensanche de Poblacion (urban extension). Or if someone from Valencia boasts more about Santiago Calatrava's architecture (City of Arts and Sciences) than about the architecture in the Ciutat Vella (old town) and its extensive monumental heritage. It is not easy to answer these questions with certainty. In a way it could be so, but we must not forget that new architecture sectors are no more than leisure and shopping areas, mostly located in the outskirts - not in the case of Bilbao-, usually without a district structure and therefore places where no social relations exist. This is precisely a kind of relation easy to find in the dense and central city of the pre-industrial period (historic centre) and the first pre-industrialization (urban extension). In these conditions, the present historic city took on the principles of urban and intraurban competition in terms of tourism, leisure, business, population, cultural events, etc. The analysis of the 21st-century historic city is dealt with from a double point of view. Firstly, the analysis of the physical, social and landscape consequences of comprehensive town planning and restoration along the last three decades. In order to do this, a comparison is made on the evolution of intervention policies in historic centres, from the 19th-century renovation actions up to the all- embracing restoration carried out since the 80's. Secondly, the analysis of the resulting processes will help us understand some of the most important socio-territorial dynamics developing in the historic centre as a product of the present city. Specifically, the place of spatial organization in the current city, as competition or complement to the new urban areas resulting from suburbanization processes.

More to see than a canvas in a white cube: For an art in the streets

Graffiti art is neither ‘simply graffiti’ nor ‘simply art’, but a new kind of visual cultural production that exceeds both categories. Graffiti art moved beyond the neo‐dada/pop art strains of (post)modern (galleried) painting and took the next dialectical step, out into the streets: no longer paintings on canvas that mimic the image‐strewn city walls, but the city walls themselves as the canvas for new image‐making. Street art has read the signs of this historic move correctly, and has followed graffiti art in ‘taking place’ in the public sphere of the public square. These new art forms are an enhancement to contemporary urban living, a welcome growth in the living city, a disruption of the unexamined assumptions connecting urban visual culture and the existing social order. Another art city is now possible if the art in the street is taken seriously.

Elmer Keeton and His Bay Area Negro Chorus: Creating an Artistic Identity in Depression-Era San Francisco

On June 25, 1939, a vibrant show, the Swing Mikado, opened at the Golden Gate International Exposition on San Francisco's Treasure Island. Featuring an all-black cast, the production was a brashly irreverent adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado (Hobart 1939b) with the locale changed from Japan to an unidentified coral island in the South Seas. The Swing Mikado preserved Sullivan's intact--albeit with minor changes in lyrics to omit racist references and adapt to the changed geographical setting. Added to the score, however, were a half dozen swing arrangements and specialty dances that were greeted with immense ovation and that accounted for the sellout, standing-room-only crowds. The Swing Mikado--which had originated in Chicago a year earlier--represented one of the most successful endeavors of the Theatre (FTP), one of four arts programs collectively called Federal that were sponsored by the Works Progress Adminsitration (WPA), the federal government's massive employment effort of the Depression era. San Francisco's version of the show featured fifteen soloists, a of about fifty, and a dancing of about twenty. John Hobart, in the San Francisco Chronicle, characterized the singing group as really magnificent.... After the anemic voices that usually make up the ensemble in G. and S. revivals, he wrote, is wondrous to hear this huge crowd of singers, with full-bodied voices, pitching into the music (Hobart 1939b). This was well-known to locals: under the inspired direction of Elmer Keeton, it had become one of the most prominent ensembles in northern California's (FMP)--another One unit. (The FTP and the FMP often collaborated on musical theater productions. The other two components of One were the Art and the Writers' Project.) Keeton's Bay Area Chorus had been attracting large crowds and exceptional reviews for the previous three years. Critics predicted that the Swing Mikado was in for a long run. Two weeks after its opening, however, Congress shut down the FTP, bending to conservative opposition to the WPA in general and to rumors of Communist influence within the Theatre in particular. 4100 Off Rolls; 'Mikado' Show Closed, lamented the Chronicle in a page 1 story the day after the closing (4100 Lopped 1939). The Project, which felt invested in the production because of Keeton's chorus, tried to convince WPA authorities to take it over from the defunct FTP, but to no avail (Ness 1939; Music Project 1939). A month later the Swing Mikado reopened under private sponsorship in the city and then went on tour. Thereafter, the chorus continued to perform concerts under Keeton's leadership, and was even featured in several nationwide broadcasts. The story of Elmer Keeton and his Negro chorus--pieced together here from programs, reviews, WPA documents, and recordings--is one of musical artistry and success, but also of racial exclusion and marginalization. Keeton himself walked a tenuous line between tolerating the segregation of the WPA and promoting the extraordinary musical heritage of U.S. blacks. His nonconfrontational approach cultivated positive interactions with the white population, whose responses to his programs were for the most part appreciative, but also, at times, patronizing. With the exception of a small minority of white singers directly threatened by the group's success, Keeton and his chorus attracted well-deserved praise from the city's arts critics. Keeton's quiet attitude toward racial issues stands in stark contrast to that of younger arrivals to San Francisco, among them one of the solo singers in his musical productions. Joseph James, featured in two theatrical presentations with the chorus, spearheaded a contentious legal battle that led to the integration of local labor unions. …