A city

A survey of the psycho-social* environment in public space.
The project was done together with Fanny Carinasdotter, John Huntington and Mikael Näsström and was exhibited on Norrköpings konsthall in November 2005.

In the project we wanted to initiate a discussion about- and new perspectives on the public space of Norrköping. With the project we wanted to discover the voices heard and the ones that want to be heard. We were investigating who had the means and rights to express their opinions, at the same time as we posed questions about which values and mentalities that are present in public space.

The project consisted of different elements.
-Investigation and mapping of the public culture that we encountered in the urban environment of Norrköping. This investigation consisted of a notorious collecting of visual marks of individual expression in public space: Graffiti, posters, stencils, notes and different other street art.

-Survey of how the public and common spaces were perceived by individuals upholding themselves there. This Survey was made in a psych-osocial analytical way and was similar to questionnaires used by employers to see if their employees feel comfortable at work. This questionnaire was handed ou and collected during one day outside the library, and was then a part of the exhibition.

-Simultaneously we made our own contribution to the public space, by having a massive poster and sticker campaign. The author of this campaign was a fictional group of activists promoting good and naive messages. This group was something out of the ordinary; it was something alien at the same time as it was perfectly right in its claims. We also did an interview with these persons that we then used in the exhibition where the persons in the group where anonymous. We wanted this element of mystery surrounding them, that it could be anyone making their voice heard, regardless of class, sex, age and ethnicity.

These parts came together in the exhibition, as photos, texts and audio-interview. The exhibition was consciously quite stiff, as we wanted the tension between the academic survey and the somewhat naive activists. With this project we tried making public art at the same time as we analyzed and discussed public art, an experiment in how to raise questions and answering them simultaneously.

*The term psychosocial refers to ones psychological development in interaction with a social environment. The Swedish term psykosocial is used frequently for workplace-related issues, as well as in other fields.