User:Danieljames~enwikiversity

Self-Assessment
The focus on public art in this class made me think about the possible public aspects of my designs. As furniture designer the potential is there for my pieces to have a public presence, especially in the case of outdoor items. Reflecting on what implications my furniture might have on the public was an aspect that I hadn’t fully considered previously. I am a strong believer in the mixing of art and design so while this class focused more on the fine art side of things, I found it to be very applicable and enjoyable.

For the final project I came up with many different ideas but ultimately decided on making an outdoor bench and posing the question, “is outdoor furniture public art?” I wanted to do something involving both art and design, as I am a strong believer in combining the two. In many instances art is made to provoke while design is made to please, but in the case of public art it can be closer to design in that it has to be approved by comities and go through many hoops on its way to approval for public presentation (in many cases). I find this to be an interesting question and wanted to get other people’s reactions on the topic. In doing this project other things came up that I started thinking about, such as how something like a relatively simple bench could have many different implications depending on who might be viewing it.

The correlation between public art and design is an interesting topic that I found myself thinking about more and more as the quarter progressed and which I will continue to think about. Adding this to the list of considerations that I go through while creating something will make me a better designer and artist.