Public space: risk, participation and the “new mobile public”

Abstract

The following text intends to review two art projects, the installation “Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better” by Sagmeister Inc., and “The Museum of Non Participation” by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler.

These projects are particularly interesting as both are narrative subjects and physical artefacts connected with people’s everyday life in the urban context that challenge and expand our relationship with the city. They are analysed regarding their contribution to the current discussions on the concept of public, for which the issues of risk and participation at play on each of the art projects are quintessential concerning some of the most acute propositions of theorists on public life and public space.

Considering the influence that the new technologies of transportation and communication have had on the transformation of the concept of “new mobile public” and its implications on the way we understand social relations dynamics, two metaphors currently used to signify those dynamics are juxtaposed to make sense of contemporary approaches to publicness, and to acknowledge the importance of the issues of risk and participation, portrayed by the referred art projects, as a proficient way to take forward the discussion.