they are both essential for marking existence within physical realms. However, with the rise of media advancements, perhaps exceeding the bounds of the physical realm, time has increased its speed, thereby perpetuating the slowness of space. Acconci extends this notion to argue that space was in effect turned into time by digital speed traversing concrete spaces, and from this, some degree of individual agency was lost at the hand of higher forces that now control these newly abstracted spaces. With this being said, individual agency also complements public spaces by allowing for personal introspection and contemplation to augment them. From public time shifting to a more private phenomenon, time for public space has arguably diminished; however, in Acconci’s world, this facilitated the entanglement of public and private space. The hybridity of these two spheres, which were traditionally dichotomised, became engaged as such in the wake of the newly emerging “virtual space,” a means for rendering public space private.
“The end is public, but the means of public art might be private. The end is people, but the means might be individual persons. The end is space, but the means might be fragments and bits.” In understanding this hybridity in relation to time and space, private relationships with public spaces can then be conceived within public art, which inserts itself into existing environments to co-exist with, disrupt or redefine known spaces. Referencing individualism, which is often critiqued for eroding community life and normalising isolation, Acconci forges an alternative notion to this prospect — that in connecting with our individual selves, we are able to connect with spaces around us more deeply. Here, Acconci emphasises the dire importance of engaging with public art by inserting personal memories and imagination, thereby fostering private time within a public space.
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To Acconci, pop music is the ‘new public art,’ an entity that does not require space but rather alludes to time itself. A once collective experience, music, too, has become increasingly individualised, though it still holds the potency to be experienced within
any space or time; inducing what is the core of human emotion, memory, and inspiration. Amidst the changing tides of what we know to be public and private, music renders these notions obsolete through its spatial transcendence.
“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.” — Jean-Michel Basquiat
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