Imagineering Urban Infrastructure: Art and the Cultural Politics of Public Utilities
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Keywords: infrastructure, culture, art, urban planning
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Theresa Enright, University of Toronto
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Abstract
In the past two decades, public utilities across North America have been employing artists directly within municipal infrastructure agencies. These programs do not merely seek public art objects on or about systems of electricity, waste and recycling, water, or transportation. Rather, by embedding artists in context, they formalize creative processes of imagineering—that is, aesthetic modes of representation, image and narrative— in building and governing infrastructure. This paper considers the rise of infrastructural Artist in Residencies (AiR), asking where and why they are taking place, how they work, and what their impact is on urban and infrastructural relations. Based on an analysis of over thirty AiR programs as well as interviews with AiR stakeholders, the paper demonstrates how AiRs are transforming both the socio-technical organization of infrastructure networks and the civic relations of decision-making, meaning, and use defining public goods. While acknowledging the often-competing regimes of value justifying and supporting AiRs, overall, the paper highlights the potential for artist residencies to contribute to more just, democratic, and sustainable urban futures.
Imagineering Urban Infrastructure: Art and the Cultural Politics of Public Utilities
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Paper Abstract