Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Students

Primary Theme: Cities

Secondary Theme: The Visual

(2-0305) Artistic Locations: Examining the Relationship Between Art and Space

This panel looks at the ways that art practice defines and depends upon particular spaces, be these museums, galleries, neighborhoods, cities, cafes, or homes. Bringing together developing themes in the anthropology of art with spatial themes developed in urban and transnational anthropology, these papers explore the social relevance of “artistic space.” How does artistic practice structure and produce space? What are the social and political consequences of this? Alternately, or in combination, some panelists may ask how existing spatial relations structure art practice, and how this impacts the way that art interacts with society.
While the particular points of theoretical engagement within this discussion are open, some potentially fruitful interventions could explore:
• How artistic practice interacts with the spatialization of social disparity (i.e. race, class, gender), and how artistic spatial production may impact social struggle along these lines.
• How artistic spaces imbricate within transnational flows of people, capital, and ideas.
• How does artistic practice mobilize spatial meaning in the production of urban imaginaries (c.f. Biron, Peterson) or in contest over national identity (c.f. Winegar, Canclini)?
• What does it mean for artists to produce “utopic” spaces within a broader urban context?
In addressing these questions, participants are encouraged to comment on what is gained by bringing spatial analysis and artistic concepts together. In what ways does this combination speak to broader concerns of anthropology? Is there something specific about artistic space that is intellectually productive?

Organizer(s)

• Colin McLaughlin-Alcock

  
  University of California, Irvine

Chair(s)

• Colin McLaughlin-Alcock

  
  University of California, Irvine

Presenter(s)

• Colin McLaughlin-Alcock

  
  University of California, Irvine

• Hai Ren

  Associate Professor
  University of Arizona

• Karen Stocker

  CSU Fullerton

• Marlaina Martin

  Doctoral Candidate
  Rutgers University, New Brunswick

• Adrienne Cohen

  Assistant Professor
  Colorado State University

• Alen Agaronov

  ScD Student
  Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Presentations:

• 2:15 PM - 2:30 PM

  Local Art in a Foreign Neighborhood: Negotiating Scale in Amman’s Artistic Hub
  Colin McLaughlin-Alcock – University of California, Irvine
• 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM

  The Aesthetic Scene: A Realistic Critique of the Creative Economy in Urban China
  Hai Ren – University of Arizona
• 2:45 PM - 3:00 PM

  Public Art and Placemaking in San José, Costa Rica
  Karen E. Stocker – CSU Fullerton
• 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM

  Film Pre-Production, Location Scouting and the Racialization of Space
  Marlaina Martin – Rutgers University, New Brunswick
• 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM

  Resonance, Authority, and the Space of Dance in Urban Guinea
  Adrienne Jordan Cohen – Colorado State University
• 3:30 PM - 3:45 PM

  Playing with Your Food: Spaces for Sensory-Aesthetic Eating Experience
  Alen Agaronov – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health