Artists as Agents: The Impact of Art(ists) as an Everyday Practice on the Built and Lived Environment

Being an Artist is or can be an unthankful, often not even officially recognized profession. Although they entertain and sustain the cultural scene and the livelihood of our cities, they suffer to make a living and are placed at the bottom line of the Art Network. The paper starts with a short time travel through the art world with focus on London, drawing light on the evolution and developments that have brought the cultural and artistic scene to where it is today. The research specifically enhances the role of the human figure, the ‚everyday artist’, within this urban and artistic discourse. It ends with a potential forecast that incorporates current changes, developments and technologies that impact artistic spaces, the artists as well as the public and the way we experience, perceive, sell, buy, produce and display art. The aim was to unravel and showcase the potential the artistic practice and especially the human actor, the everyday artists, can have on the urban fabric and the social realm if only incorporated and empowered more in our daily lives. The insights obtained through the research form the programmatic framework. They allowed to define a new model that reacts to these aspects and eventually built the foundation for the design project.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science