latest update: 07/10/2008 02:27 PM

Making Places for SCULPTURE on the KSU CAMPUS:
Considerations for Setting Analysis

Laurence A. Clement, Jr., J.D., ASLA
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

Patrick Dougherty's recent installation (fall 2002 - winter 2005) Shades of Home  

Considerations include: image ... activity ... technology ... ecology

IMAGE / VISUAL / SPATIAL / SENSUAL

Premise:  Each sculpture has a unique visual and spatial composition that should be analyzed in relation to the visual and spatial setting into which it might fit.  The artist that creates or created the work will have particular concerns about the connection to the ground, wall or other surface to which it will be attached.  The artist's intentions should be accommodated in locating, siting and placing the sculpture.

Visual and spatial character of the setting/site/place/location for a work.

• Is it in a linear (movement) or centered (container) space
• Definition and scale of spatial volumes; position of space in hierarchy or sequence of campus spaces
• Contrast or similarity of the sculpture's elements with visual characteristics of immediate environment or of enclosing architectural and landscape elements: i.e. repetition of size, shape, position, direction, color and texture of architectural masses, planes, lines and points in immediate environment -- architectural form, scale, patterns, color.... 
• Visual relationships to plants in the vicinity. 
• Relation of figure-ground aspects of image in the immediate area, as perceived from key viewing positions (views into, through and out of the area).

Distance to another setting or piece (visual access)

General ability to hold, frame, provide backdrop or otherwise effectively display the piece.

Noise, acoustical characteristics of the immediate environment

• Distance from busy roads
• Distance from dumpsters, air conditioning compressors, fans, etc.
• Band practice

Smell

• Distance from dumpsters

Touch/Skin

• Textural qualities in immediate environment
• Access for tactile response if desired
• Thermal aspect of the environment; experience of the site through the skin (See: Lisa Heschong: Thermal Delight in Architecture)

Kinesthetic aspect ... gravity; slope of ground — inherent visual stability or dynamism of base plane -- kinesthetic aspect of approach, experience, departure as sensed through the body in motion and at rest
 

Consider the degree of activity in the area, the general character of use in the area -- the immediate cultural environment.  Distinguish between movement and container spaces; and public, private, and service areas.

Movement -- relation of setting to:

• Pedestrian walkways; primary, secondary or tertiary
• Bike paths; primary or secondary
• Vehicular ways, roads, drives and parking lots
• Emergency routes; primary, secondary or tertiary
• Service; loading zones; dumpster locations

Distance from the Beach Museum of Art

• immediate grounds — center; near vicinity; far vicinity; across campus

Is the space or setting a gathering or public zone, used for celebrations or key events, active or passive?
Quadrangles; primary or secondary

Use of adjacent buildings and spaces

Relation of setting to campus center or edge

• distinguish core campus to larger campus to periphery
• a primary or 
• secondary entrance/exit experience

Relation to memorials on the campus

• Viet Nam Veterans
• Radio Tower
• Busts
• Trees, Benches other landscape components
  

TECHNOLOGICAL / STRUCTURAL / CONSTRUCTION / MATERIALS

Premise:  Sculpture must be placed in a safe, cost efficient, and enduring manner.

Topography

• Grading and drainage concerns
• Ease of installation and maintenance, access for equipment, at the site

Utilities

• Presence and accessibility of electricity (night lighting?) or water (fountain?)
• Subsurface lines or problems for installation? E.g. Irrigation ..
• Ease of maintenance at the location

ECOLOGICAL / NATURAL SYSTEMS / OTHER CONTEXTUAL ISSUES

Premise:  Sculpture should be placed in a manner sympathetic to, and responsive to, the natural systems of the environment.

Relation of the setting to key Vegetation

• Grounds of BMoA — historically the arboretum for the campus
• Great Lawn in front of Anderson
• Botanical Gardens
• Quinlan Natural Area, campus creek
• Horticultural specimens across the campus

Relation to water elements

• Campus Creek, especially.

Solar exposure of setting

• Contrasts of light and shade patterns on the ground, building facades, in wooded glades or other
   natural areas.
• Distance to sheltered viewing area (porch, for rainy day views; windows for winter views)

Wind patterns

• human comfort
• interaction with the piece (energy for movement)
• durability of the sculpture, to tolerate wind loads

Relation to rock outcroppings or soil elements

Reference

Irwin, Robert; Being and Circumstance ... four general categories for Public/Site Art.  Think of sculpture in the landscape as:

• site-dominant
• site-adjusted
• site-specific
• site-conditioned/determined

Kingery-Page, Katie; Art in the Campus Landscape: Case Studies, MLA Master's Thesis, KSU... LD2668 .T4 LARC 2006 K56

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