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Public Sphere_s
Steve Dietz
Various ideas of ‹the public› have been theorized at least since the Greeks, but whether it is Socrates confronting Callicles about mob rule in Plato's Gorgias or Jürgen Habermas' «public sphere,» Walter Lippmann's «big picture» or Mouffe's agonistics, this public has almost always been intimately connected with a parallel notion of public space. From the agora to the piazza to the commons to the park, in some sense robust public discourse can only flourish in public space. In part this is an issue of audience. What makes discourse public is having an audience. With the rise of the printed press, radio, television, and now Internet-enabled communications, the potential public expands beyond physical space into the virtual spaces of communications systems. [more]
Introduction Notions of Public Plato to Mouffe Notions of Art From the Open Work to the Open Platform Notions of Public Art Community Art Art in Public Cyberspaces Space As Public Art The New Public Plaza The Liminal Lobby The Electronic Café Reactive Architecture The City As Interface Communications Systems Billboards Telematic Media Code Is Law The Legal Bug The Digital Commons Resistance and Engagement Making Things Public