Mural as public art in urban fabric: An attempt to link configurational approach to perceptual morphology

Abstract

The intrinsic relationship between art and the public has changed as public art has greater visibility in contemporary urban space. Especially following the growing interest in placemaking in spatial planning and design, many cities in different countries tend to experience an unprecedented transformation of urban space displaying various modes of artistic performances open for the public. As a visual art, the mural could be considered one of the leading creative activities in the cities' public domain. The ever-increasing popularity of murals as public artwork made the local governments tend to introduce some programs to steer the performance of the art within the very spatial condition of the city fabric. Along with its vivid cosmopolitan culture, Istanbul has performed as the cultural hub of the contemporary arts located both indoor (the various size of galleries) and the city's outdoor spaces. As one of the central neighborhoods in Kadıköy district in İstanbul, Yeldeğirmeni, represents a very relevant context to investigate the issue public art in urban space. Having accommodated an international mural festival in 2012, the district has turned into an experimental site for various mural practices. The extent of the art in the urban space calls for morphological research to test the perceptual performance of the artwork in terms of the characteristics of the physical fabric in which the murals locate. The paper, in this context, conducts a spatial analysis focusing on network integration, visibility, and townscape characteristics of the neighborhood fabric. The research findings are correlated with the level of recognition of the murals by the public to reveal the conditional relationship between the spatial morphology and the perceptional capacity of the murals as public art.