Sculpture Mobs
Sculpture Mobs is a public art project initiated by the Austrian art and technology collective monochrom in 2008. The project consists of coordinated interventions in public space in which participants rapidly assemble temporary sculptural installations. Sculpture Mobs have been staged in Austria, Slovenia, Spain and the United States, and have been discussed in the context of participatory public art, culture jamming and public-space intervention.[1][2]
Concept
Sculpture Mobs were conceived as temporary collective interventions in public space. Participants collaboratively construct sculptural objects, often within a limited timeframe and with improvised materials. The project combines elements of performance art, public intervention, flash mobs and culture jamming.[3]
The project has been characterized by Johannes Grenzfurthner as "art with a criminal impulse". In its 2023 profile of monochrom, WOZ Die Wochenzeitung described Sculpture Mobs as training camps in which participants were encouraged to build something creative in public space, install it and leave. The article cited temporary barrier-like sculptures placed in front of the Slovenian parliament and The Great Firewall of China at Google's headquarters in California as examples of this practice.[1]
History
The project was launched by monochrom in 2008. Training sessions for participants were organized in Vienna, including an event at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna.[4]
At the 2008 Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, monochrom held a Sculpture Mobs training camp in which participants were instructed to erect temporary public sculptures in a simulated Wal-Mart parking lot within five minutes, before "security" was called.[5]
Sculpture Mobs also took place in Graz in 2008 as part of the Elevate Festival.[3] Slovenian broadcaster Radio Študent reported that monochrom would carry out public interventions called Sculpture Mobs with volunteers in the center of Ljubljana as part of the HAIP festival.[6]
In May 2008, monochrom collaborated with the Billboard Liberation Front on The Great Firewall of China, a temporary unauthorized sculpture installed near Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. Laughing Squid described the action as part of monochrom's Sculpture Mobs project.[7]
Additional Sculpture Mob events and training camps were later organized in Barcelona in connection with the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival and the Hackbus project. In Learning, Freedom and the Web, Anya Kamenetz listed a Sculpture Mob among the Hackbus events at the festival and described monochrom's "extralegal sculpture mobs" as part of the Hackbus crew's contribution to the event.[2]
Reception and analysis
Sculpture Mobs has been referenced in curatorial, educational and media-art publications concerned with public intervention, participatory culture and extralegal artistic practice.
The project was included in the exhibition catalogue Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System published by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), which identified The Great Firewall of China (Sculpture Mobs) as an intervention at Google's campus in Mountain View.[8]
In Learning, Freedom and the Web, Anya Kamenetz discussed monochrom's "extralegal sculpture mobs" in the context of the Hackbus activities at the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival, situating the project among experimental practices linking public intervention, informal learning and digital culture.[2]
A 2009 Harvard University thesis on urban public pranks and public-space interventions discussed monochrom in the context of guerrilla communication and participatory public actions.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Die Ratlosigkeit, sie flattert so schön". WOZ Die Wochenzeitung. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kamenetz, Anya (2010). Learning, Freedom and the Web (PDF). Mozilla Foundation. Retrieved 3 June 2026. Search this book on
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Monochrom". Elevate Festival 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ "Sculpture Mobs". monochrom. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ "monochrom's SCULPTURE MOBS: Training Camp". Maker Faire. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ "Arhiv Spletne strani Radia Študent Ljubljana 89,3 MHz". Radio Študent. 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ Beale, Scott (15 May 2008). "Monochrom and BLF: The Great Firewall of China at Google". Laughing Squid. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System: Art in the Age of Intellectual Property (PDF). Hartware MedienKunstVerein. 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2026. Search this book on
- ↑ Andersson, David John (March 2009). This Train Is Not a Playground: Improv Everywhere and Urban Public Pranks (PDF) (Senior thesis). Harvard College. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
External links
- Sculpture Mobs at monochrom
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