{"id":4720,"date":"2012-01-23T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T18:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=4720"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:10:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:10:46","slug":"lightmodal-public-art-that-isnt-so-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/01\/23\/lightmodal-public-art-that-isnt-so-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightmodal: public art that isn’t so public"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here’s art with no vision, goals, and of a doubtful legacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I stole those headings from the Necklace Project website (www.necklaceproject.ca\/<\/a>). Lightmodal is the Surrey contribution. As I write this (December, 2011) there isn’t yet a gallery page for this part of the project, which is “an inter-municipal collaboration for public art.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Each contribution is supposed to reveal an “inner light of each community.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So far, there’s little information available about Lightmodal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The designers are\u00a0Organelle Design<\/a>. Unfortunately, they only have photos on their site. No explanation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was unveiled September 30, 2011, as part of\u00a0Culture Days<\/a>. Information is limited:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lightmodal is a zero energy, environment responsive public artwork. Inspired by naturally occurring light phenomena like auroras in the sky and bioluminescence in the water, the artwork\u2019s light patterns are generated in reaction to the surrounding motion, vibration, and sound of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Viewers were bussed in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Architizer <\/a>has a brief blurb, from before the opening:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Urban Visuals<\/a> and\u00a0Organelle Design<\/a> were selected among a talented pool of artists and architects as winners of the Necklace Project Competition for the City of Surrey. As a public art piece, the project is conceived as an interactive, light-based installation along the elevated Skytrain line. The piece will be activated by the confluence of transportation modes by a series of vibration, acoustic and electrostatic sensors.\u00a0The result is an organic, aurora borealis-like display of colors that celebrates technology and alternative means of transport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And so, with very little information, we’re left to our own devices to interpret this piece. No problem. Let’s start with definitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Public art should be interpretable and able to be appreciated by the greater part of the taxpayers. It is, after all,\u00a0public<\/em>, and not everyone has a fine arts degree or an appreciation of whatever the latest conceptual trends are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So, let me put forth my ad-hoc and totally arbitrary rules for judging whether a piece of public art is successful. Note that these rules don’t apply to art in museums, galleries or on your fridge\u00a0\u2013 only art in public meant for the public to enjoy:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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  1. It should be recognized as something other than infrastructure.<\/strong> It needs to be able to be appreciated and seen as something special, or different from, say, a sidewalk. In other words, people should be able to recognize it as a piece of art.<\/li>\n
  2. It should be physically accessible.<\/strong> Since it’s public the public should be able to get to it and observe it without undue difficulty.<\/li>\n
  3. It should be understandable.<\/strong> This is a tough one, since what is understandable will vary from person to person. Let me (once again, arbitrarily and without explanation) say it should be understandable by someone with (at most) some college education who is willing to spend some time thinking about it. The difficulty of comprehension should be similar to those crossword puzzles in the commuter papers. I hate those things, I’m not really a word person, but they’re designed so an ‘average’ person can get most of it done in half-an-hour.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    I have a few further thoughts about public art. Public art is a public service, and should serve the public. Therefore it should have a function that helps the community. That function should fall into one (or more) of the following categories:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n