It might be useful to look at Axis as well as be aware of the ongoing debate on public art
http://www.axisweb.org/dlForum.aspx?ESSAYID=18014

Those of you thinking about accessing new audiences by putting work into public spaces could contextualise the process by referring to a Guardian article on the recession.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/18/slack-space-vacant-shops

Public art online has some very useful information. Sample the link below for a downloadable research document on Millennium Square, Leeds.
http://www.publicartonline.org.uk/resources/research/mill_square_leeds.php

Some web-sites that could be useful if you were thinking about researching the way presentation could shape an audience's reaction to art work.

Good iron mongers offer a wide range of fixings and fittings
http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/

http://www.choiceful.com/shop-online-Fixings.html

http://www1.westfalia.net/shops/tools/ironmongery/tensioning_rope/tensioning_ropes/

Look at builders supplies as well
http://www.screwfix.com/

http://www.ebuildingsupplies.co.uk/page/home

Delicate and unusual wire meshes etc
http://www.wires.co.uk/?gclid=CKPDgLKJ5pgCFQyjQwodlXAxbQ

More architectural scale wire
http://www.steelwirerope.com/General%20Wire%20Rope/StainlessSteelWireRope.html?gclid=CKDE48KJ5pgCFQo1QwodZmKKcA

For coloured ropes and climbing fixtures
http://www.inglesport.com/shop/catalog.php?category=SRT%20Ropes

Swivels and links etc
http://www.seafishingsupplies.co.uk/index.php?cPath=59_109

If you are thinking about using commercial style signage or text
http://www.fastsigns.co.uk/England-WestYorkshire-Leeds-store857.html

Building walls? Plywood, chipboard, blockboard or MDF
http://www.boardcraft.co.uk/products.asp

Lighting
http://www.pegasusassociates.com/products/ArtGalleryLighting/ArtGalleryLighting.html

Display cabinets
http://www.displaysense.co.uk/display-cabinets?gclid=CML7mN2V5pgCFQpNQwodRQ8ecg

Came across a couple of web links that could be useful.

Constructing audiences, defining art. Public Art and social research
http://eipcp.net/transversal/0102/buchholzwuggenig/en/print

Quantifying the audience for ones and zeros
demographic description for the audiences for digital art
http://www.davidberman.com/CHINDigitalArtAudiencesLiteratureReviewandMethodologyBerman20050418.pdf

I found 3 images of Carey Young's texts which are interesting in that they highlight the different types of dialogue that artists can have with audiences. An earlier engagement with this type of practice can be seen in the Keith Arnatt show currently on display in the Institute. Keith was a tutor of mine back in the late 60s and early 70s and gave me my first encounter with conceptual thinking. Keith really opened out the possibilities of outside the gallery engagement. Seminars in the sculpture department at that time were very intense; you had to read constantly to keep up.
One all afternoon seminar debated whether or not 1+1=2 was an a priori or an a posteriori statement and if the former, could it have sculptural properties? Keith's 'Trouser-Word Piece' is in the Leeds show. Seeing that photograph of him exhibited wearing his 'I'm a real artist' sandwich board is so nostalgic and also on a personal note very sad, he died just two months ago.

Yesterday's Guardian (G2) had an Adrian Searle review of the new show at the Hayward Gallery, 'The Russian Linesman'. It's curated by the artist Mark Wallinger. Wallinger is a very interesting artist to follow if you are thinking about curatorship or audiences. His huge White Horse has just been chosen as the 'Angel of the South' and earlier work such as 'A real work of art' 'State Britain' and 'Ecce Homo' are facinating engagements with audiences. To hear Wallinger speak about his work on YouTube, visit Mark Wallinger Ecce Homo the EYE. To read the article visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/feb/16/mark-wallinger-the-russian-linesman

Thoughts on the white cube of the gallery space.

The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds is probably the clearest expression of what Thomas McEvilley calls "the sterilised operating room of the white cube" (Cited in Inside the White Cube, O'Doherty1999) The environment is perfect for those modernist works that reflect a purity and distance from the everyday. Such as Ettore Spalletti's work above. The audience entering a church like space designed to remind them of how deeply significant the work on display is.

However some artists exhibiting there have tried to engage with this. Carey Young's interrogations being the most recent. I will try and post up some examples of what she she did when I have time.

Try 'delicious' as a bookmarking tool. It also supports 'clouds'. 

Those of you looking at curating should look at Curating Subjects, Paul O'Neill (Ed) 

This medium, the Blog is interesting. One aspect of this is like a diary or journal. It suggests that there is an audience of one, myself alone but when I write this, its not in the same format as when I access the  Blog itself. It feels as if someone else has written the text if I log in and read what I have written. The surrounding frame of warm neutral tones with the familiar menus of font, text layout and other options, will disappear. The new layout is more formal and engineered towards reading rather than composing. I of course know the text was written by myself. I'm not quite in my dotage, yet; but somehow because I have had nothing to do with shaping the surrounding architecture of the site, my text has been adjusted. I've noticed something similar when someone else sets an author's work in print. We select certain fonts that we use constantly but editors choose fonts that suit a whole book layout. When authors send in texts for publication, their layouts, use of capitals, choice of font, spacing etc all contribute to the meaning but it's all lost in the editing process. This is perhaps the first stage in the erasure of the author. 

Another aspect of this medium is that it is accessible to millions. So we are all encouraged to write as if at some time others will read what you are thinking as private thoughts. The structure mirrors the classic paradox of the human condition. I am aware of my own existence but how do I know whether others are aware of myself? They may all be simply generated by my own perceptual encoding. A test of this is of course to find out if anybody really is reading this. Louisa has sent my address to 40 other people and suggested that as they build their Blog they link to this one. Comment would therefore be good, as it would suggest that I am not alone. So, for those of you bored with this, see above for images of my last piece of public artwork. It was for a very targeted audience, designed to embarrass a local landlord and raise awareness of how local building stock was being left to fall apart by profiteering speculators. It is meant to be placed outside the actual building that is falling apart and is meant to have a similar sensibility to roadside shrines. Candles are lit in front of it at night.