"Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more." --Aldo Van Eyck

Art of Space is dedicated to place-making through the communal creation of public art as space and event.   Conceived as an alternative to processes of commodification and consumption that conflate civic engagement with immersion in the economic marketplace, Art of Space provides opportunities for Springfield residents and university communities to participate in the ongoing revitalization of the city’s urban districts through a dialogue that privileges the creation of wonder over profits as a form of social engagement.  Art of Space establishes a new model for reimagining and rebuilding the city with constructive roles for participants beyond those limited by commercial relations and reinforced by current modes of revitalization and cultural celebration. While we acknowledge the importance of the “creative economy” to the re-establishment of Center City as the center of civic life in Springfield, the emphasis of city strategic planning on the value of art as an economic stimulus overlooks an important opportunity to re-imagine urban social relationships unencumbered by the production of  surplus value. With the understanding that social relationships are the basis of space creation, Art of Space fosters the gathering of community to create temporary spaces that manifest the transformative power of community. We transform everyday materials as an affirmation of possibility in our everyday lives.

Art of Space is a collaborative of individuals working together toward a designated, shared goal. We inspire by working as a group, putting aside individualized notions of project outcomes. We work flexibly, accommodating the scheduling needs of our ever-supportive volunteers. Keeping in mind the democratic goals of our project, we maintain flexibility and respond to our context. The ephemeral materiality and temporary nature of the installations emphasizes process and interaction, and the creation of memories attached to place. We create events as spatial embodiment of community.

Art of Space utilizes everyday materials and simple interactive assembly processes to construct 400 to 1200 sf  transformative space-as-events in Springfield’s urban districts. Fabrication and construction require anywhere from one week to one month on site during scheduled workshops and sessions. The installations are temporary and upon completion remain as active components in the community for durations ranging from one night to one month. Installation design concepts and methods take advantage of the modularity, availability and costs of materials not typically associated with fine art or construction, materials that have an immediate connection to our everyday lives.   A primary goal of these projects is that the participants have a role that affects the details and final form of the work. The materials and techniques have inherent tolerances and flexibility, allowing participants to make decisions about construction that allows them to design as they build within the parameters of the structural logic established as the project. As much as possible, form is the direct result of process and materials. In the past we have utilized such materials as packing tape wrapped and layered into high-strength tensile structures; draped and wound irrigation tubing cinched into rigid shells with zip-ties; and plastic sheeting knitted on large looms resembling those used by elementary school children, crocheted into giant structural nets. The physicality of the materials during fabrication and construction is crucial to our process, as is the safety of participants. Another consideration is our desire to maintain a small ecological footprint with our work, even though the everyday materials we use are industrial products. To this end, we recycle material whenever possible. This motivation to recycle informs our process, but does not necessarily determine what we do. In this way, the plastic sheeting used for an inflatable becomes the fiber for a knit space, or the lumber used as the armature for a woven shell becomes anchorage for large woven plastic panels. The second component of our spaces-as-events comprises activities that we plan for the constructed spaces. In some cases these activities comprise direct physical engagement or play with the structure itself. Our projects are conceived for all manner of touching. Participants can climb, crawl, roll, and even bounce on or in our spaces. In others, we have created events, such as a parade, where participants took turns rolling a pavilion from one project location to the next. For another we created a highly interactive game involving helium filled beach balls that completed the buoyant interior space created as part of the project. All of our projects must meet a high standard of formal excellence as a way of enhancing the impact of the work on the community, while ensuring satisfaction and pride in the outcome. 

Art of Space is dedicated to place-making through the communal creation of public art as space and event.   Conceived as an alternative to processes of commodification and consumption that conflate civic engagement with immersion in the economic marketplace, Art of Space provides opportunities for Springfield residents and university communities to participate in the ongoing revitalization of the city’s urban districts through a dialogue that privileges the creation of wonder over profits as a form of social engagement.  Art of Space establishes a new model for reimagining and rebuilding the city with constructive roles for participants beyond those limited by commercial relations and reinforced by current modes of revitalization and cultural celebration. While we acknowledge the importance of the “creative economy” to the re-establishment of Center City as the center of civic life in Springfield, the emphasis of city strategic planning on the value of art as an economic stimulus overlooks an important opportunity to re-imagine urban social relationships unencumbered by the production of  surplus value. With the understanding that social relationships are the basis of space creation, Art of Space fosters the gathering of community to create temporary spaces that manifest the transformative power of community. We transform everyday materials as an affirmation of possibility in our everyday lives.

Art of Space is a collaborative of individuals working together toward a designated, shared goal. We inspire by working as a group, putting aside individualized notions of project outcomes. We work flexibly, accommodating the scheduling needs of our ever-supportive volunteers. Keeping in mind the democratic goals of our project, we maintain flexibility and respond to our context. The ephemeral materiality and temporary nature of the installations emphasizes process and interaction, and the creation of memories attached to place. We create events as spatial embodiment of community.

"Coming back to style and to the oeuvre, that is, to the meaning of the monument and the space appropriated by the fête, art can create ‘structures of enchantment’. Architecture taken separately and on its own, could neither restrict nor create possibilities. Something more, something better, something else is needed. Architecture as art and technique also needs an orientation…In other words, the future of art is not artistic, but urban, because the future of ‘man’ is not discoveredin the cosmos, or in the people, or in production, but in urban society." --Henri Lefebvre,