Foundation Art and Public SpaceContents OPEN 6 (In)security
OPEN 6 (In)security
There is a yearning for security in today's public domain. The individual and the community are increasingly demanding protection and control over the space, themselves and others. A society of control is looming, but one lacking a clear idea about the nature and the origin of its underlying fears. This cahier examines the consequences of the current preoccupation with security for the public space and the visual arts. What are the implications for the functioning of the public domain, for its arrangement, design and experience? And how does this influence the task and perception of art? From art, architecture, philosophy and politics come theoretical and practical scenarios, proposals and visions that expose something of today's security paradigm, advocate alternative (conceptual) models or offer insights into the current ethics and aesthetics of security.
Jorinde Seijdel
Editorial
Online article
Gijs van Oenen
Languishing in Securityscape
The Interpassive Transformation of the Public Sphere
The issue of security in the public domain is not so much precipitated by increased danger as primarily a problem of ‘interpassive citizenship’, according to legal philosopher Gijs van Oenen. He examines the conditions for the transformation of the public sphere into an obsessive medium of security concerns.
Online article
Lieven De Cauter
A Short Archaeology of the New Fear
The Belgian cultural philosopher Lieven De Cauter has written extensively on the emergence of the capsular civilisation, in which public space is divided into monitored and enclosed, secure enclaves (gated communities, shopping malls, theme parks, camps, ghettos). In this article he makes an initial attempt at analysing the new fear upon which this capsularization is based. Is it a frightening but fleeting hallucination, or does collective fear suggest a genuine danger?
Sean Snyder
Temporary Occupation, 2003
A Visual Essay
In 2003, Sean Snyder (USA, 1972) showed his project Temporary Occupation (DVD, 4 33 , colour, sound) as part of the ‘Territories’ exhibition at the Witte de With centre for contemporary art in Rotterdam. The military bases shown are temporary and scattered all over the world. They are enclaves offering all necessary facilities and services. They are constructed and outfitted in such a way that military personnel never need to leave the base, creating an illusion of security. For this project, Snyder made a video using images made available by the US Department of Defense and its imagery services. He mixed these images with photographs by (former) residents and with photographs he took himself of decommissioned bases redeveloped by local authorities. Snyder compiled a selection of photographs and video stills from this project especially for open.
Thomas Y. Levin
Surveillance and the Ludic Reappropriation of Public Space
Based on the work of artists such as the Australian Denis Beaubois (1970), Thomas Y. Levin analyses the significance and the effect of the ever-expanding system of surveillance cameras in the public space. Through performances in the public space, Beaubois plays a game with security devices. In this way he has developed a strategy for turning the panoptic effect of security and surveillance by means of cameras and facial recognition software back upon itself.
Sven Lütticken
Park Life
The need to keep out the big, bad, unsafe world is growing, as evidenced by the increase in enclosed spaces. Using the concept of the ‘human park’ introduced by Peter Sloterdijk in 1999, as well as old and new examples from film, architecture, art and television, Sven Lütticken wonders whether the new societal form these places conjure up for us is in fact safer.
Harm Tilman
Architecture in Control Societies
Security as a Selling Point
As city authorities are confining themselves to their basic tasks and citizens are compelled to take the care of their living environment into their own hands, ‘gated communities’ like those becoming increasingly common in the United States may not be far off for the Netherlands, according to Harm Tilman. The development of a society of control in which the issue of security is high on the political agenda has opened the way for this in the Netherlands.
Mark Wigley
Insecurity by Design
WTC New York
The idea that architecture keeps danger out seems a fable since the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York. Therefore, architects should stop pretending architecture offers security and protection. So long as they refuse to see that architecture is not neutral, they will keep on building new targets.
Online article
Hans Boutellier wishes art would apply the brakes to the security Utopia.
Jouke Kleerebezem
Beware of the Dog!
The Public Domain in the Information Society
Fear is a poor counsellor if we want to examine the potential of the information society. If we let ourselves be led by it we will remain stuck in a mass-media society, in which obsolete systems of power and knowledge still operate. According to Jouke Kleerebezem we must above all be vigilant ourselves and test the limits of the possibilities offered to us in a network society.
Willem van Weelden
Insecurity as Absolute Zero
Jan van Grunsven and Ineke Bellemakers, Kanaleneiland, Utrecht
The project by Jan van Grunsven and Ineke Bellemakers is being conducted in the Utrecht problem area of Kanaleneiland, a place where insecurity is readily linked to immigrants. attempts to make young people aware of the role of the media and, in Willem van Weelden’s words, ‘enables them to effect an expressive correction to the images pandered by the media, which represent this “insecurity’’.
Q.S. Serafijn shows multiple dimensions of the interactive D-Tower in Doetinchem.
Mark Wigley
Cabin Fever
The Home of the Unabomber
At the end of the 1990s, the Unabomber was put on trial in the United States. His defence team tried to present his cabin as one of the most significant pieces of evidence of his insanity. The strict aesthetics of simplicity, natural materials, craftsmanship and geometric purity have since become symbolic of disturbing acts of terror, forever blemishing the image of the idyllic little house on the prairie.
