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Full text of this paper is not available in the ETD Center. Copies may be available for inter-library loan from Ohio University or may be available for purchase from Proquest/UMI

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Walking the Gentrifying Streetscape: Artistic Practice in San Francisco's Mission District (2006-2016)

Kaemmerling, Astrid
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1466446720

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts).
Through an exploration and analysis of urban walking art practices in San Francisco's Mission District in 2006-2016, this dissertation investigates the role of artists and the arts in gentrification processes and addresses the intricate connection between capital and culture in the 21st century global city. Since the 1970s, the Mission District, has housed a high percentage of artists and cultural producers and currently provides one of the best sites to examine the relationship between gentrification processes and the arts: in a city that celebrated the ideal of the artist as a figure located outside of the social domain and capitalist structures, what happens to the arts and artists once neoliberalism invades all pores of the city? The methodology is informed by ethnographic material which I collected during my participation in San Francisco's local walking art projects hosted by Southern Exposure, a local non-profit arts organization, and incorporates interviews with walking artists, local art professionals, and art community members. By situating this work in relation to that of the Situationist International, I define walking art as a practice which allows artists and participants to arrive at meanings concerning the urban environment through bodily explorations of selected areas and as an interdisciplinary art form that allows artists to unite multiple practices: performance, visual and media art. Through the study of walking art projects, including predominantly Mission-based cinematic walking art representations in contemporary visual media, I examine how artists are caught up in and address the impact of gentrification on their lives, communities and practices. Description and analysis of the walking art practices show that in contrast to common views in the field of gentrification research that positions artists as either agents or victims, artists contribute to gentrification debates by generating meaningful discourses through which they address the inherent complexities of local urban revitalization strategies and processes. My research demonstrates that artists embody contemporary art and gentrification debates insofar as they may alternately take on the role of urban researcher, analyst, diplomat, activist and/or mediator and thus complicates the role of the artist in the 21st century urban environment.
Marina Peterson (Advisor)
241 p.
American Studies; Art History; Cultural Anthropology; Sociology; Urban Planning
walking art; performance studies; gentrification; urban studies; San Francisco; art and artists in the 21st century; psychogeography; Situationist International

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kaemmerling, A. (2016). Walking the Gentrifying Streetscape: Artistic Practice in San Francisco's Mission District (2006-2016) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1466446720

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kaemmerling, Astrid. Walking the Gentrifying Streetscape: Artistic Practice in San Francisco's Mission District (2006-2016). 2016. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1466446720.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kaemmerling, Astrid. "Walking the Gentrifying Streetscape: Artistic Practice in San Francisco's Mission District (2006-2016)." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1466446720

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1466446720