The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 19 (2008)
139
Art and Urban Space: Rent, the East Village,
and the Construction of Meaning
Naomi TONOOKA*
ART AND URBAN SPACE
Art has an immediate relationship to urban space. From alternative, activist
art rooted in the neighborhood to prestige-associated art in museums and galleries,
art is spatially defi ned by its interaction with its setting, and implicated,
to varying degrees, in the culture industry. Artists are mobile on the spectrum
of spatially-defi ned prestige and value. From the space of anonymous, nonprofi
t, neighborhood-oriented cultural work to the space of the fame-, profi t-,
and institution-oriented culture industry, artists can hope to move, and this
hope often sustains their labor.
The value and meaning of art is contextually defi ned by its place in the
fi eld of display (neighborhood, alternative space, mainstream museum, gallery,
theatre, movie theatre, or DVD, among others). Thus, art is implicated
in “the processes of capitalist valorization,” even when presented as an autonomous
circuit for “the constitution of communities and collective subjectivities.”
1 Art-making is affective, immaterial labor—that is, “labor that produces
an immaterial good, such as a service, knowledge, or communication”
2—with its focus on “the creation and manipulation of affects,” and its
ultimately intangible products: “a feeling of ease, well-being, satisfaction,
excitement, passion—even a sense of connectedness or community.”3 As the
immaterial labor “in its various guises (informational, affective,...con't
No comments:
Post a Comment