An Experience in Constructing a Qualimetric Assessment of the Significance of Urban Art Objects

Abstract

The article attempts to ensure the unity of views on the implementation of urban art projects in local contexts. The paper aims to discuss the results of a pilot study obtained through a comprehensive assessment of the significance of urban art objects using qualimetric scales. The authors selected seven art objects that meet the four requirements: a) the art objects exist in the urban environment at the time of their assessment by experts; b) the art objects have a high communicative potential, that is, they are interesting to the viewer; c) there are discussions in the media and social networks about the prospects for preserving the art objects; d) the sample is heterogeneous. The experimental group included ten experts, both art theorists and practitioners. The experts were asked to evaluate the significance of each of the art objects by ranking them according to eight “rational” and two “emotional” criteria. The existence of consistency of the experts’ opinions was checked using the concordance coefficient. The pilot study showed that the most significant among the rational criteria for evaluating an artwork were technography (the degree of qualitative impact of the art object on the environment, the degree of the work’s conditionality with the context) and iconography (the uniqueness/brightness of the author’s message). The significance of the other principles (of technology and iconology) is considerably lower, which means that they can be ignored when constructing the final assessment by linear convolution. There was also a fairly high relative significance of the two emotional criteria that had been proposed for the experts’ consideration (the emotional dimension of the work in the artist’s experience and the emotional dimension of the work in the viewer’s experience). The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the fact that a systematic approach to assessing the rational aspects of the artistic interpretation of an urban art object makes it necessary and sufficient to rely on the two methodological principles for evaluating an artwork — technography and iconography. When evaluating the emotional aspects of artistic interpretation, it is necessary and sufficient to rely on the emotional dimension of the work in the experience of the artist and the viewer. The results obtained suggest finding an objective scientific basis for regulating the visual culture of public spaces.