Urban art as platforms for bodily engagement and social encounters: the Modified Social Benches |
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Authors: | Andre G Afonso |
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Institution: | 1. The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, London, UKandre.afonso.13@ucl.ac.uk |
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Abstract: | AbstractThis paper discusses the role of the Modified Social Benches, a series of urban artworks, as platforms for bodily engagement and social encounters in open, outdoor urban spaces. Special attention is given to a couple of salient aspects involving both the design of the artworks and their social appropriation: (a) the different levels of sensory and kinesthetic engagement afforded by the benches, and (b) how these material qualities reflect in the urban space around the benches, lending the artworks a notorious social character. The social and the bodily dimensions are presented as intertwined characteristics of the Modified Social Benches. In order to explore these relationships, the paper highlights a set of key concepts, such as social encounters and affordances, as well as the notions of performance and engagement. |
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Keywords: | Embodied interaction urban art social encounters engagement play |
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