Public Art Lab (PAL)
PUBLIC ART LAB - AN ACTION RESEARCH PLATFORM
Intended as an action research platform, Public Art Lab devises and implements exhibition and communication formats to take place at the juncture between the creative disciplines, public authorities, the business community and universities. The interventions aim to translate social processes into the public realm with the support of new technologies. Public Art Lab has developed ’action research’ as its preferred methodological tool.
NETWORKED COMMUNICATION FORMATS
Public Art Lab is dedicated to researching and visually communicating diverse locations and their typical social structures at the overlapping layers of the public urban and the digital realm.
The Media Facades Festivals (2008) and the Mobile Studios (2006) are good instances of this approach. The Media Facades Festivals have encouraged artists and media designers to involve local residents in artistic processes, the results of which are shown on urban screens that are digitally interlinked. The Mobile Studios went on an itinerary through Eastern Europe as nomadic, multi-media research and production laboratory, and observed, analysed and generated various social phenomena. Mobile Studios, in conjunction with co-curating local partner institutions, became the forum for a vibrant scene to express itself in new exhibition formats, and interact with the general public and urban space.
Public Art Lab was founded in 2002 by cultural manager and industrial designer Susa Pop and artist Hans J. Wiegner as a network of experts such as curator and multimedia producer Ela Kagel, urban planner Mirjam Struppek, and programmer David Farine, among others.