Enhancing Our Outdoor Spaces Through Interactive Public Art

An increasing number of places are creating interactive public spaces through public art, sculptures, fountains and multimedia screen usage to enhance community gathering by attracting people to cluster around in open spaces.

Interactive work produced in a public space is usually based on “implicitly or explicitly shared meanings between the artist and the community, and consists of actions or works executed on behalf of the community as a whole,” according to a report by Marquette University. This gives an opportunity for the public to create symbols associated to their spaces, facilitating an enjoyable and valuable outdoor experience for the people usually free of cost. Sculptures for instance, have a different type of connotation associated with them today than they did decades ago.

“Today, sculpture embraces many new forms representing new technologies and materials resulting in installation sculptures, light-based sculptures, and other forms of sculptural expression,” notes the Marquette University study. “In at least some of its manifestations, public sculpture offers a bridge between cultural particulars and the universal, which can be appreciated by all persons irrespective of their cultural origin.”

The study is particularly relevant to the way we perceive interactive public spaces…