Do Artifacts Have Politics?
By Langdon Winner

WEEK 1

“Histories of architecture, city planning, and public works contain many examples of physical arrangements that contain explicit or implicit political purposes.”

IMPLICIT EXAMPLE

USA:
During the 1970s, there were many designs ranging from buildings, buses to sidewalks that ere unsuitable for disabled people. This was not intentional but neglect as most designs just considered the majority. Hence, most of the artifacts had to be redesigned/rebuilt to include the minority.

Robert Moses intentionally designed the Long Island bridges with a height of 9 feet to filter certain type of people. He envisioned the people who would use the parkways for recreation and commuting were white people of 'upper' and 'comfortable middle' classes. Therefore, intentionally excluding poor people and blacks as they would have to use public transportation, e.g. buses. Since, the buses would be taller than the bridge, it was forced to find a different route other than the bridges.

EXPLICIT EXAMPLE

WEEK 2

The Power of Display
By Mary Anne Staniszewski

ALFRED BARR

P 1

P 2

Barr thought if the background is white, then the frame is much brighter than the picture. Later taking away attention from the picture. Neutral colours like beige cancels the brightness, directing the audiences attention towards the painting.

Label 1

Label 3

Label 2

“the labels… they were general intellectual labels to make people understand what they were seeing… they explained the general nature… of that room or the whole exhibition… such a thing had never been done before.”

A 'field of vision' is created if the painting is positioned below eye level and at slightly spaced intervals. Barr believed this layout would make the audience appreciate the singular artwork displayed and not lose focus on the others surrounding it.

One of the international exhibition is ‘The Istanbul Biennial’ located in Turkey. First introduced in 1987, the exotic location was visited by international travelling curator and critics of elite groups. Whenever, there was a new biennial the audience would praise the work and the exhibition would receive higher status.

The Istanbul Biennial

(Click on the picture for more information)

“The very name of a location can determine how an exhibition is positioned historically and read critically. Exhibition depend upon the rich and various connotative benefits associated with their chosen locations, for sites are always signifiers of stability and history or, conversely, of the exotic, of the new, or even of art itself.”

“Two hundred or so low-hanging overpasses on Long Island were deliberately designed to achieve a particular social effect.”