CULTURE AND URBAN SPACE · Call for texts and art projects by Interartive

Info (English): http://interartive.org/2014/02/culture-urban-space-en/

Info (Spanish): http://interartive.org/2014/02/culture-urban-space-es/



For the publication of issue #65 the digital journal InterArtive will publish a special issue dedicated to diverse aspects of the current discussion about Culture and Urban Space. We invite theorists, critics, curators and artists who work on the subject to participate.

As a substrate for artistic and political action, the city is a place with established hierarchies in regard to the distribution of space, visibility and networks. Economical centres, cultural networks and points of architectural and historical interest hold their already structured symbolic values, that constitute the façade of the city. In its shadow remain the ‘non-places’: train stations, chain stores, massive housing blocks, crumbling walls and sidewalks, decadent neighbourhoods, noisy highways. Somewhere in between, we have the invisible body of information, oversaturating the air, waiting to be processed and displayed through the appropriate device; a virtual realm of online communication and hybrid spaces of augmented reality that co-exist with the physical landmarks. The connective tissue in this heterogeneous body is the people, who (re)act within this context, supporting the existing structures or hacking them and transforming them, so as to create new nodes of meaning in space.

Which dynamics emerge within the urban space? How do they affect cultural production? What is the relation between political movements (online and on the streets) and artistic expression? What is the role of globalization within a political and artistic context? How are the existing hierarchies challenged by crisis and protest?

This call seeks to reflect on the political and cultural transformations that take place within the city, to highlight the links between the urban space and artistic production and to think about the concept of art and the city, within a global context.

Proposals that consider one or more of the following topics, among others, will be accepted:

> The city as a place of artistic and political transformations // Occupy movement and squatting: Self-managed cultural and political spaces // The city in crisis

> Public, private and common space: interconnection and challenges // Sustainable urbanism, urban planning and transportation // Ecocities and cultivation within the urban sphere

> The memory of the city: History, archives and daily experience // Contemporary architecture vs. historic, demolition vs. conservation

> The digital dimension: Information age ideologies, interaction, augmented space and art // Crowdsourcing of information and urban experience in online maps, travel guides and leisure social networks (Google Street View, TripAdvisor, FourSquare etc.)

> The voice of the streets: from official marches to political protests and Pride parades // Hacking the urban space: Interventions, participation, appropriation // Urban tribes and subcultures: street art, street culture, skating, hip hop, punk, electro (and more)

> Emergence of new identities, formation of new communities // Invisible borders: Immigration, multi-ethnic identities and integration // Civism and citizenship: artistic, historical and philosophical approaches

Texts should be around 800 to 3000 words: http://interartive.org/wp-content/uploads/PUBLISHING-GUIDELINES-Texts.pdf

The works and art projects will be published in the form of Online Exhibition (images and short text): http://interartive.org/wp-content/uploads/Format-Guidelines-Artworks.pdf

Proposals should be submitted up until May 31, 2014, by mail at: [email protected]

The 65th issue of Interartive will be published at the end of July 2014.

ISSN 2013-679X