We're playing with the conventions of public space; the conventions of behavior that we bring when we enter such a space as well as how the architectures and institutions that construct these public spaces condition our behavior. Take, for example, the gallery. When you arrive at the gallery, you expect to be able to wander through it undisturbed and without being required to perform or respond. Furthermore, you don't expect to engage with others, except perhaps in the most cursory of ways - "oh isn't that interesting," or "I don't understand this" and so on. The convention is that as a spectator you occupy a space of neutrality, as if you and the objects you gaze at have diplomatic immunity.
Another convention we are exploring is that of the amusement park. Once entering an amusement park, you become a part of a game environment and anything can happen, within a set of prescribed rules. You give your trust over to "the maker" or "orchestrator" of the event, saying, in effect, I am part of and complicit in this experience.
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The irony of these conventions that we've just described is that these so-called public spaces aren't really public. Not public if you compare it to the classical respublica. Public space is a social setting in which members of the polis can collectively express their opinions and, given a good enough formal structure, even take part in the governing or at least the judgment of their society. We are not, however,making soapboxes (podiums) on which people will stand to shout their opinions. Rather, we are looking at how their collective imagination and their social relations that form as a result of the events make these environments public spaces. We're also examining other publics alternative to the classical notion of the public, drawing from, for example, the circus, the piazza, the street, the festival and the playground...
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