Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais/ Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 7, nº 1

Deadline: September 15, 2019

Editors: Pedro Andrade (Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho) & Mário Caeiro (Superior School of Arts and Design of Caldas da Rainha, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria).

Public art is understood as a hybrid and intercultural art style that, in the context of urban or rural public spaces and times, represents and presents objects or projects, contents or forms, structures or conjunctures, or any other theme or problem, social or individual. Material public art includes monuments, statues, installations, graffiti, stencils, stickers, etc. Immaterial public art exhibits events, performances and content on websites and social networks. Thus, the practice and understanding of public art cannot be separated from its social dimensions: its contexts (public sphere, global and local cultures, cyberspace and cybertime); the respective practices (leisure, citizenship, tourism activities and actions, among others), and the corresponding target public (citizen, tourist, immigrant, etc.)

In other words, how do we communicate public art for different publics, within the city and in its public space? Inside the urban fabric of contemporaneity, everything is on the move: capital, labor, people, ideas, things, social inequalities, to name but a few of these rhythms and societal territories. In particular, within the network society, information and knowledge redefine these structures and conjunctures, by updating their own courses. Therefore, the communication of information and knowledge of public art in the city cannot but be mobile. In this context, diverse mobile cultures emerge, defined as a set of procedures, norms, beliefs, habits and practices that deal with increasingly portable information and knowledge, for example through the use of mobile phones. One of the expressions of mobile cultures is public art, whose works frequently reconstruct those innovative communication courses. And one of the processes that most contributes to the development of public art is cultural tourism. Tourist activities have gradually become a global and local phenomenon, somewhat opposite to the generalized process of immigration from the peripheral countries towards the central ones.

Thus, this issue of Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies accepts contributions to a deeper debate and knowledge of such themes, through a reflection essentially in the following three major areas, which now hybridize with each other:

• Public art production: innovation for the public communication of urban culture and arts
• Creation of cultural and art works within the urban public space; material public art (monuments, statues, installations, graffiti, stencils, stickers, etc.); immaterial public art (events, performances, content on websites and social networks); hybrid cultures and intercultural / transcultural communication in the city; history and socio-cultural memory of artistic projects in the city, by pioneering authors and actors of classical media or new media.
• Mediation of public art: valorization of urban heritage and promotion of cultural tourism through urban art
• Regulation of public art by central and local state and administrative institutions; local development strategies through public arts; growth of participatory cultural investments linked to the ecology of regions and to the restructuring of urban areas; sustainability of cultural and artistic enterprises promoting public art.; emergence of industries, service mediators (tourist agencies), and creative commerces in the cultural and leisure sector, linked to public art; inclusive employability in the public arts sector and human capital in the local economy; memory institutions and urban artistic archive: museums, art galleries, cultural enterprises, local associations, groups of friends, collectors, etc.; urban public arts, cultural tourism and digital culture.
• Dissemination of public art: urban media, social networks and mobile devices
• Dissemination of cultural heritage through public art; territorial promotion for the quality of life via the urban arts; implementation of public art in Unesco creative cities and smart cities; international affirmation of urban arts localities and non-places as a tourist and counter-tourist destination; central socio-cultural actors in public art networks: artists, curators, collectors, public (citizens, tourists, immigrants, etc.); mobilities of lifestyles and leisure associated with public art: use of mobile telephones in urban telemobilities, mobile companionship, slow tourism, etc.; Public Art in the City 2.0 (through urban, social and digital networks) and in City 3.0 (social-semantic networks, mobile devices, Internet of Things).

KEY DATES

Submission deadline: September 15, 2019.

Notification of acceptance decisions: November 31, 2019.

Deadline for sending the full version and translated: January 31, 2020.

Journal publication date: June 2020.

The Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a double blind review process. After submission, each paper will be distributed to two reviewers, previously invited to evaluate it, in terms of its academic quality, originality and relevance to the objectives and scope of the theme chosen for the journal’s current issue (www.rlec.pt).

Articles can be submitted in English or Portuguese. After the peer review process, the authors of the selected articles should ensure translation of the respective article, and the editors shall have the final decision on publication of the article.

Originals must be submitted via the journal’s website (www.rlec.pt). If you are accessing the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies for the first time, you must register in order to submit your article (indications to register here). The guidelines for authors can be consulted here.

For further information, please contact: rlec@ics.uminho.pt