School of Culture and Communication - Research Publications

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White night: city as event

Butt, D ; Papastergiadis, N ; McQuire, S (Research Unit in Public Cultures, 2015)

The nature of public events are changing as cities evolve. As people move more and more around the world, and information is circulating in increasingly complex patterns and rapid rhythms, the horizons of our urban landscape are also undergoing radical transformation. Urban illumination projects, which have become popular in cities around the world over the last decade, are a particularly visible sign of the ways in which new technologies and forms of public action are being combined to produce temporary transformations of urban space. In this project we seek to examine the impact of a major public event — White Night — in the City of Melbourne. Through this event we witness a significant shift in the location and duration of artistic events as they move to inhabit the urban fabric. But the event is also conditioned by a central expectation that the public can engage and interact with art, and with each other. Is the quality of the art or the public experience more important in defining the event? Or does framing the question in oppositional terms miss the point?