By Dr. Anna Rostomyan and Dr. Monika Klein
Art is just art. Or is it? Can art go beyond a form of self-expression into influencing our identity, behavior, fashion choice, and social issues? In this article, Dr. Monika Klein and Dr. Anna Rostomyan explore how public art does all these and more.
In the heart of Rome, a couple strolls arm in arm, their stylish attire reflecting the elegance of the centuries-old architecture surrounding them. Meanwhile, in Paris, artists sketch the iconic Eiffel Tower, while fashionable locals sip espresso in nearby cafes. What about Berlin with its stark architecture, nonchalance, and techno scene? The quintessence of European cities provokes this profound question: How does art in our public spaces shape not only our environment but also our essence as individuals and communities, how does it affect our emotions?
From the controversial new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw or the Humboldt Forum in Berlin sparking heated debates about aesthetics, to the symbolic power of toppling monuments such as the Christopher Columbus statue in Baltimore, Maryland, which are no longer in line with social values; public art is both a mirror and a catalyst for change. This article delves into the complex relationship between public art and human behavior, examining how the canvas of our communities can act as a self-fulfilling prophecy, influencing everything from our fashion choices to our cultural identity and social norms.
Understanding emotions is essential for analyzing the motivations, values, and behaviors of not only artists but also individuals affected by art in public spaces.
We firmly believe that public art is all about emotions since it shows overtly on the visual layer, the artists’ internally experienced emotions and feelings, aspirations and intentions, beliefs and desires, inspirations and motivations being directed toward shaping similar emotions in the public eye. Its integration into community spaces shapes the way people experience the outward world. We can truly relate to this statement since the world has become an open-air museum for artists, where they can display their experienced emotions related to various aspects of human life such as culture, politics, education, etc. Moreover, the displayed emotions of the artists also have the ultimate power to generate similar emotions in the viewers and shape viewpoints concerning different issues of importance like leadership and justice, gender equality, Black Lives Matter and some other critical sensitive issues of great relevance, as well as stimulate creativity and positive mood in the strollers. Also, sometimes through public art, artists address topics of significance and great sensitivity that are somewhat easier for them to address anonymously through their creative street creations. Besides, public art creations can be created under the influence of very strong emotions, both negative (such as anger, annoyance, hatred, rage, etc.) and positive (such as delight, glee, euphoria, amusement, joy, etc.). So, understanding emotions is essential for analyzing the motivations, values, and behaviors of not only artists but also individuals affected by art in public spaces. Recognizing these emotional responses can provide insights into how people relate to their environment, as well as show its potential to influence their worldview.
Street art is regarded as one of the largest art movements, which has achieved huge popularity and is still rapidly growing as an art form. Street artworks mainly appear in urban areas and public locations such as exterior walls of buildings, highway overpasses and bridges, and remarkably define the outlook of many neighborhoods and cities all around the world. The fact is that it is much easier to address topics and issues of high importance through street art without the fear of rejection or prosecution, where creators and artists regard the world as their landscape to create on and have the intention of influencing the public emotions.
Changes in landscapes, such as those caused by new architecture– mostly ones in which art and culture institutions exist, or art installation and street art can lead to feelings of powerlessness among inhabitants. This sense of helplessness can negatively affect their emotional connection to the landscape, highlighting the importance of emotional well-being in environmental contexts. There are two types of emotional responses:
- Resilient Responses: These responses reflect a willingness to adapt and integrate changes into one’s perception of the landscape. Individuals exhibiting these responses tend to maintain a positive outlook despite alterations in their environment.
- Non-Resilient Responses: In contrast, these responses are characterized by feelings of frustration and despair. Individuals experiencing these emotions struggle to cope with the changes, which can hinder their ability to adapt.
The ’60s and ’70s marked the birth of graffiti and street art culture when people started to freely exhibit their protest and creativity through street art across the Globe. On the one hand, just from their very beginning, graffiti and street art have been conceived with great resistance from the wider public. On the other hand, the stylistic developments within graffiti, and the first explorations of the public space by conceptual artists, led people from outside graffiti and street art to also notice the artistic potential of the movements and acknowledge the creativity of the artists. Truly, by means of graffiti and street art, artists get the ultimate chance to express their very own emotions freely on the roads and reach a wider public. Of course, because of very many underlying reasons, some of them tend to remain anonymous, but there are also others who gain recognition through their street art creations, for instance, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lady Pink, and Invader, just to name a few. Moreover, if we look back at human art history, we can state that some of the famous artists started out their journey as artists by wall art as is the example of Ivan Aivazovsky, who in his earlier youth liked to paint on walls with coal and his murals later became very widely recognized. Aivazovsky was a celebrated painter of seascapes, the most famous among them being “The Ninth Wave”. Aivazovsky’s early works as well as those after his visit to his ancestral homeland in 1868 incorporated Armenian motifs and themes. It follows from this that if such renowned artists who started out with mural paintings can become widely recognized and esteemed, we should be resilient to public art and let artists freely express themselves knowing that some of them might have great potential, which can sprout through merely starting from street art. Moreover, aesthetic experiences can arise from the appreciation of human artifacts, such as artworks (e.g., poetry, sculpture, music, visual arts, etc.) or aesthetic natural objects like sunsets, which comes to suggest that the art consumers (including public art and street art) will experience pleasure while being faced with artworks in public spaces.
Public art can shape perceptions by altering how people view their environment and community.
Art in public spaces can have a significant impact on people’s behaviors and potentially influence their future through a mechanism like a self-fulfilling prophecy. This phenomenon can manifest in various ways. Public art can shape perceptions by altering how people view their environment and community. Positive, uplifting art may foster a sense of pride and optimism, potentially leading to more positive behaviors and outcomes. It can also influence expectations by depicting certain behaviors or societal norms, setting standards for how people should act in public spaces. For example, murals promoting environmental consciousness might encourage more eco-friendly behaviors. Public art plays a role in creating identity, helping to define the character of a neighborhood or city. People may align their behaviors with this identity, fulfilling the “prophecy” depicted in the art. It can also inspire action, with thought-provoking or activist art motivating people to engage with social issues, leading to community engagement and changes in individual and collective behavior. The presence of art in public spaces can affect mood and well-being, influencing people’s emotional states and potentially impacting their daily interactions and long-term outlook. Exposure to beautiful or meaningful art may reduce stress and increase overall well-being. Public art can change how people utilize spaces, transforming previously avoided areas into popular gathering spots. It fosters community connections by creating shared experiences and topics of conversation, strengthening community bonds, which may lead to more positive social outcomes. Depending on its content, public art can either challenge or reinforce existing stereotypes, influencing how people perceive themselves and others, and potentially affecting their future interactions and opportunities. There’s also an economic impact to consider, as areas rich in public art may see increased tourism and economic activity, leading to job creation and improved local services that directly impact residents’ futures. Finally, public art can serve an educational purpose, especially when depicting historical events or cultural information, increasing knowledge and awareness that can influence future decisions and behaviors. In essence, public art has the potential to act as a form of self-fulfilling prophecy by shaping the environment in which people live, work, and interact. By influencing perceptions, expectations, and behaviors, it can contribute to creating the future it depicts or suggests. However, it’s important to note that the impact of public art is not deterministic – it interacts with many other social, economic, and personal factors to influence outcomes. The power of public art lies in its ability to spark dialogue, inspire reflection, and offer new perspectives, which can indeed play a role in shaping individual and collective futures.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once described art as the highest form of self-expression. It truly resonates with us, since through art in general (be it real art, digital art, street art, public art, etc.) people, namely artists, gain the ultimate chance of imparting their internally experienced emotions and feelings, as well as having an impact on the audience and even shaping their worldview. Moreover, by using street art, the creators also gain the chance to heal from trauma, which can also be the case in creating masterpieces in general, as in the case of Van Gogh who used to express his emotions and feelings through his art. Artworks are generally cultural artifacts that transmit information from generation to generation.
Art offers a glimpse of something that may be difficult to perceive and access in our everyday lives, namely the feeling of aspiration toward the beautiful and a sense of hope for the better.
Furthermore, art offers a glimpse of something that may be difficult to perceive and access in our everyday lives, namely the feeling of aspiration toward the beautiful and a sense of hope for the better. Also, public art can generally influence the emotions of those who experience it by means of evoking such positive emotions as joy, interest, contentment, amusement and love. Neuroimaging studies highlighted that immediate emotional responses to artwork and low-intensity enduring changes in affective states (cf. Scherer, 2005, for the distinction of emotional response and affective state) are associated with the recruitment of brain circuitry involved in the emotion regulation system, namely pleasure and reward. As we know, the brain is wired in such a way that it interprets the stimuli coming from the outside world generally as threats or rewards. Thus, for instance, images rated as beautiful elicit activity in reward-related areas creating the state of a beneficial situation for the human being’s survival, eliciting impulses in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, and are associated with higher reward value than those rated as ugly, which can be considered to be unbeneficial for the organism’s survival chances (Kawabata and Zeki, 2004). Furthermore, by means of using psychophysiological measures, studies find visits to art museums decrease stress levels resulting in the reduction of cortisol levels, which could promote the general health and well-being of humans (Clow and Fredhoi, 2006; Mastandrea et al., 2018). On the other hand, various theories of emotion have been influential in describing the paradoxical enjoyment of negative emotions in art (Juslin, 2013; Menninghaus et al., 2017). Several authors suggested that the psychological distance of the perceiver from what is depicted in the artwork, which comes from the individual’s awareness that the represented object or event is a cultural artifact, reduces the emotional impact of the eliciting object or event and allows the appraisal of the aesthetic qualities of the artwork. This “psychological distance” account underpins the difference between art-specific emotions and utilitarian emotions (Frijda, 1988; Scherer, 2005). Moreover, our research has shown that the transmitted emotions of the artist are interpreted on the side of the viewer based on the latter’s formerly shaped emotional background knowledge stored in the amygdala, that is his/her past emotional experiences that also largely influence the interpretation processes, as well as have an impact on the generation of resultant positive/negative emotions and feelings in the viewer (Rostomyan, 2012).
Through this paper, we would also like to address how public art, particularly sculptures, can act as self-fulfilling proficiencies through various mechanisms. Here are the key points that support this idea, derived from the provided contexts:
- Cultural Trail and Legacy: Public sculptures are seen as cultural trails that connect the past with the future. This notion implies that when communities invest in public art, they are not only enhancing their current environment but also creating a legacy that future generations will appreciate. This self-fulfilling aspect arises from the belief that art contributes to cultural identity and continuity over time.
- Social Acceptance and Engagement: The success of public sculptures is closely tied to their socio-cultural acceptability. When sculptures resonate with the community, they foster a sense of belonging and pride among residents. This engagement can lead to increased support for future art initiatives, creating a cycle where successful art projects encourage more artistic endeavors, thus fulfilling the community’s artistic aspirations.
- Dynamic Interaction with the Public: The interaction between sculptures and the public is dynamic, as sculptures can influence how people perceive and navigate public spaces. This interaction can enhance the overall experience of the public space, leading to a greater appreciation for art. As people engage with these sculptures, they may develop a deeper understanding of art’s role in their environment, reinforcing the idea that art can fulfill its purpose of enriching public life.
- Trauma Healing: Artists can heal through art by means of transmitting their internally experienced emotions and feelings. Moreover, those who witness the creation process or just witness and experience art pieces in public also gain the possibility of partly experiencing those experienced emotions of the artists as well, which may or may not also resonate with their previously experienced trauma and help them heal from PTSD. For instance, the World Health Organization recognizes how art can reduce the impact of trauma as “a tool for community building and post-disaster development”.
In fact, trauma-informed public art requires the expertise of multiple disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and healthcare, as well as social work and community engagement, planning and urban design, and of course the aspect of creative arts. Though these aforementioned sectors may otherwise work in isolation, it is highly imperative that artists conduct transdisciplinary research on the topic they would like to address, so as to have deeper insights into the issue being elaborated on and vitalized through public art; thus, to gain different viewpoints from various perspectives taking into account that their work will eventually influence the masses; thus, their works should encompass vital areas apparent in different disciplines for the precision of trauma-related aspects.
In summary, public art acts as a self-fulfilling proficiency by creating cultural legacies, fostering community engagement, facilitating dynamic interactions, and benefiting from institutional support. These elements work together to ensure that art continues to thrive and fulfill its intended roles within society. We have also discussed the high vitality of emotions in public art, both on the part of the creators and the audience. We also touched upon the area of trauma healing through art that can again be experienced by both of the parties involved in public art consumption. In addition, art creation and consumption can greatly increase our stress resilience levels which can be beneficial for our emotional and psychological well-being, and be resultantly beneficial to our survival in this journey called life, making this world a better place to experience and our ride through it greatly enjoyable and worthwhile. So, let us embrace art in all its forms, welcoming its potential of evoking emotions in us, serving as a means of touching upon sensitive issues and making us think about them and simply enjoying beautiful roads and neighborhoods.
