Not For Tourists - The Publicness of Public Art - The Public Utteraton Machines Record What People Think of Other Public Art in New York City

Abstract

In 2015/16 interactive public art works were installed on the sidewalks in Brooklyn and Queens by Rebecca Hackemann using ordinary city permits. The locations were chosen in order to counteract the dominant locations for public art in New York, which tend to be in Manhattan and/or in tourist concentrated areas. The works are entitled The Public Utteraton Machines and enable passersby to utter their opinions about other public art in the city as well as its role in society. The device’s earpiece recorded over 100 open ended narratives and 391 responses to quantitative data questions via an integrated e-paper display screen. This public art project combines social practice with object based public art into a conceptual public art practice that forms a commons or civic art. Sound archives of the responses can be found at local libraries in Queens and Brooklyn and at http://utteraton.com/.