The specific role of art in shaping our living environments is explored in the field of Artistic Living Environment. The social being and impact of art is examined through its potential to transform planning processes for the construction or preservation of buildings, rather than something to be ‘integrated’ into said processes. A central theme is how art can understand, and promote, how ‘publicness’ in built environments emerges.
The research in Artistic Living Environment is experimental, developing new work and methods to investigate the potential of art to occupy and transform living environments. This research also examines how the conditions for working with artistic values change its potential impact and value for the public. The research is multidisciplinary in nature and relates to all actors and stakeholders in the development process, but from an art perspective. Artistic research in the field takes a variety of forms: conceptual, spatial, activist, participatory and so on. Practitioners in the field of Artistic Living Environment work close to actual sites where planning processes for the built environment are ongoing and in dialogue with the people affected by them.
KKH’s work in the field of Artistic Living Environment is located at the Of Public Interest (OPI) Lab in Gröndal, which also conducts further education at the advanced level. The work at the OPI Lab is led by artist and professor Jonas Dahlberg and has a doctoral student attached to it.