How can art change the meaning of the city? : an examination of an installation in a public setting, Compton Court, M.I.T.

Abstract

In the last few years there has been a shift towards an interdisciplinary questioning of the urban environment, which has included planning, architecture, design and the fine arts. Although each discipline has approached the urban environment with a given set of assumptions based on its own history, a larger question has seemed to emerge: how can we make our cities more habitable, more social, more meaningful? Artists have sought definitions outside their own history including philosophical, sociological and scientific theories; planners and architects have also looked towards definitions of the urban environment which have included theories of perception and cognition. Sculptors are challenging the assigned role to public institutions, in terms of the work's symbology and meaning. Planners are questioning the value of their work based upon the lived perceptions of people on its streets. This shared questioning indicates the possibility of new directions for both environmental design and environmental art: sculpture, architecture, design; a joint history?