Abstract
Despite increasing interest in the geographies of public-art engagement, there remains a paucity of knowledge of its digitally networked dimensions. This chapter examines this gap through a virtual ethnography and (social) media discourse analysis of encounters with Paul McCarthy’s Tree (Paris, 2014). This study aims “to queer” the anti-normative (i.e., anti-permanent, anti-heteropatriarchal) ramifications of this sexuality-related artwork: a temporary, 24-metre butt plug-shaped inflatable that unleashed a heated debate about public art’s local (mis)uses. The analysis reveals how the negotiation/augmentation of online and offline engagement pushes the envelope of user agency and spatial connectivity in today’s digital culture. This study provides scholars with critical modes for interrogating the digital geographies of the bottom-up co-production of public art through online media, employed both as research sites and as tools.
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Notes
- 1.
The majority of these news reports were in English, many of which covered French key papers, such as Le Monde.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter reflects a significantly shortened and edited version of the article “Queerying Public Art in Digitally Networked Space”, published in ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 16(3): 440–474. I owe a debt of gratitude to the ACME Editor Kath Browne and four referees, whose incisive comments have enabled me to strengthen the original manuscript. Moreover, I thank Catherine J. Nash and Andrew Gorman-Murray for further comments that helped to shape the text in its current form. The analysis dates from 2014–15.
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Zebracki, M. (2019). Queerying Public Art in Digitally Networked Space: The Rise and Fall of an Inflatable Butt Plug. In: Nash, C.J., Gorman-Murray, A. (eds) The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6876-9_13
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