Underlying this website and the series of 23 short films (available on a two-DVD set from public libraries*) is my Master’s thesis. It describes the project, its goals and methods of investigation, elaborates on the variety of public art seen and experienced today, elaborates what “public space” and “public sphere” means in relation to our cities, describes the challenges of situating art in public spaces, and offers conclusions with regard to the challenges of situating art in the public realm.
I wrote it to be readable by everyone, not just a professor or external examiner familiar with the topic. It’s 94pp long including four short appendices. The thesis refers to the documentaries, but for my MA project I created a separate, single DVD with three twenty-minute films.
The paper can be downloaded here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8md49gjtev02sst/public_art_thesis.pdf?dl=0
Not to make things more complicated, but if you were to go to Simon Fraser University’s thesis repository, SUMMIT, you can find (and download) not only the paper but also links to the three films submitted as integral to the thesis project (you’ll require Adobe Flash to view the films):
http://summit.sfu.ca/search/apachesolr_search/public%20art
PUBLIC ART PRIVATE VIEWS 