New Genre of Public Art as a Means of Developing Collective Creativity

The present article studies the way public art can develop the practice of collective creativity. Collective creativity is a type of collaborative creativity that encompass diverse strata of people as members of a society. Collective creativity is practiced when there is a need to overcome the probable conflicts and difficulties on a collective scale and as a whole. It is a skill needed for collective problem solving and benefits the public rather than only individuals, in that it is inclusive in engaging people. Collective creativity has been the subject of study from different perspectives. However, despite its importance, creativity has mainly been treated and studied as an individualistic phenomenon when it comes to art.In other words, although the end of the modern era promised a shift towards a more pluralistic approach to the arts, creativity with regard to art has not been respectively reconsidered and studied in its pluralistic sense. Nevertheless, the socio-cultural theory of collaborative creativity, considering its proximity to the field of art, may pave the way towards an interdisciplinary study of both public art and collective creativity. Maintaining a pluralistic approach towards art rather than an individualistic, elitist one, the public art may serve as a creative medium to promote collective creativity. Adopting a sociocultural approach, the characteristics of the space in which collective creativity is practiced, comply with public spaces in that both of them are collaborative and an interactive process of communication is in progress between them.Viewed through socio-cultural perspective, collective creativity is a process which is practiced collaboratively and hence, is prevalent in communicative atmospheres. Therefore, it is through communication that people reveal their intentions to each other and their differences and contradictions are disclosed as a result of self-expression. This confrontation of contradictions creates a dialectical atmosphere which is likely to raise conflicts. Considering the unique nature of each human being, such conflicts may be different each time and cannot, therefore, be predicted or dealt with a set of predetermined rules. Consequently, tackling such conflict demands creative thinking. On the other hand, public art, as a pluralistic art exhibited outside institutional frameworks so as to be available to a wide range of audiences, can act as an artistic means to develop collective skills.Moreover, considering public art - public space relations, and the fact that according to the socio-cultural approach, the public space is the field of collective creativity practice, public artworks may have the potential to trigger the interactive communication process that is required for the practice of collective creativity. To determine whether public art is able to trigger the self-expressing interaction process needed for the practice of collective creativity, the characteristics of this art type are first to be investigated since characteristics of an item are the means that enable it to function in a specific way or towards accomplishing a certain goal.In the present article, the functionality of public art for the development of collective creativity has been examined. Considering that there exist several definitions of public art, the article first analyzes the nature of public art to prepare the groundwork for the study of its characteristics. Thereafter, due to the typological variety of public art, different types of such art are studied for their level of interactivity, which is the same quality that determines the functionality of public art for developing collective creativity. Since collective creativity is practiced in a communicative space, public art is supposed to prompt interactions if it intends to develop a communicative space. In other words, a work of public art has to serve as a stimulus that triggers communication between individuals. This process of stimulating the parties to prompt interactions is described in technical terms as "triangulation".  The proper type of public art for the objective of collective creativity practice is, thus, the type which can better serve as a triangulation stimulus.In this article, first the theoretical literature on public art, public space, and collective creativity have been explored and analyzed in order to indicate how these three fields are interrelated. Afterwards, the study deals with how public art needs to be considered in a proper context if it is to contribute to develop collective creativity.Based on the outcome of this theoretical analysis, the attributes of public art and requisites of collective creativity practice are respectively studied in order to identify the type of public art which is most compatible with the objective of developing collective creativity. Based on the attributes of collective creativity, the new genre public art, due to its communicative nature, holds the most potential for triangulation and is, therefore, the proper type of artistic practice as a means of developing collective creativity.