The Skateable Realm - Revealing New Affordances Within The Public Realm Through Skateboarding
(2025)
author(s): Njål Aleksander Vigdal Granhus
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Research Paper of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
MA Interior Architecture (Inside)
Public space is defined as “ an area or place that is open and accessible to all people,
regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, or socio-economic level. These are public gathering
spaces such as plazas, squares and parks”.
Public spaces that bring together a great diversity of people are therefore
designed as “zero friction” spaces, but when in use, people will experience friction.
This research paper focuses on how one constructs territories within the public realm and how this
can both foster participation for those who can identify themselves with the activities
within the territory and others who do not -to depart from a space. This creates fear
tendencies against the unknown and in order to maintain a certain behavioral control,
objects are being modified, removed and designed to prevent certain behaviors and
user groups from territorializing certain spaces from happening.
One territorial action is found in the action of skateboarding. Skateboarders do not only foresee
opportunities for action through the use of affordances within the public realm, but also
territorialize the space through extractions, additions, and public interactions for their action to
be possible. Skateboarding might be considered an action that excludes certain user groups from using the public space if territorialized by the skating community. Yet, on the contrary, skateboarders see opportunities for action within the public realm through affordances that might not be obvious to
the naked eye and therefore creates another level of interaction and encounters which may alter
the behavioral corollary within the space.
If skateboarders see the user value of public space through affordances and claim elements
within the space through action, does their territorialization of the space actually negatively
impact the space? Or do they introduce a new user value of the space that furthers behavioral actions and introduces new encounters?
Therefore, this research paper reflects on how a skateboarder's perspective of the public realm criticizes how we use space and reveal new design potentials for a multifunctional public space.
Projecting Form, Investigating Distance
(2023)
author(s): Agnese Cebere
published in: HUB - Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society
This exposition describes a process of investigating projection of form as a bridge between near and far, physical and virtual, anchored in the production of what I call “handheld devices” and a multimedia performance. It explores sympathetic dwelling in the crevices of the clay forms in relation to the smooth openness of the built environment of scientific and institutional space exemplified by the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon which graciously hosted me for a Center for Art Research Project Incubator residency and fellowship in 2023. In this text, I take up concepts of information and noise, distance and intimacy, affordances and the dynamics of action.
From Particle Data to Particular Sounds: Reflections on The Affordances of Contemporary Sonification Practices
(2015)
author(s): Thomas Bjørnsten
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
This article reflects on recent notions about data sonification within sound-based experimental and artistic practices. The intention is not to survey the current state of data sonification methods and techniques as such, but rather to suggest a number of selected points of critique for addressing specific assumptions about processes and discourses related to what we may broadly refer to as sonification. Furthermore, these issues will be addressed by critically asking what we understand by “data” in the first place, as something susceptible to be turned into actual sounding material. Considering how specific discourses and cultural understandings frame contemporary notions of data, the article also includes different examples of alternative, exploratory practices. Thus, one of the aims will partly be to open up a transdisciplinary discussion about the critical affordances and potential pitfalls of data sonification seen both as an aesthetic and a knowledge-producing practice. This involves not only attention toward strictly academic and scientific settings, but also relates to how data sonification ventures are being communicated within broader societal, cultural and art institutional contexts.
This exposition describes a process of investigating projection of form as a bridge between near and far, physical and virtual, anchored in the production of what I call “handheld devices” and a multimedia performance. It explores sympathetic dwelling in the crevices of the clay forms in relation to the smooth openness of the built environment of scientific and institutional space exemplified by the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon which graciously hosted me for a Center for Art Research Project Incubator residency and fellowship in 2023. In this text, I take up concepts of information and noise, distance and intimacy, affordances and the dynamics of action.open exposition comments (0)