Conceptualization is the simplified mental view of the idea the artist wishes to represent. It is the first step in the acknowledgement of representation. In other words, it is the beginning of the transformation of mental images into objects and the circumstances that attend these representations of original ideas.

Spatiality as understood today is a substantiated, recognizable and direct result of human society. Therefore it can be considered as a social product --a part of a “second nature” (meaning the human-made environment.) As a space of our own making and as it converts or adapts to the needs of society spatiality incorporates both physical and psychological spaces.

Spatiality, when considered as a social product, is simultaneously the medium and the outcome or, likewise, the presupposition and the embodiment of social action and relationship. In this manner spatiality refers to a space within the human environment, how the space affects us and how we relate, use and interpret it.

The concept of spatiality can be amplified to embrace new relationships between social action and natural activity and to embrace new relationships between virtual and physical spaces. While this may appear to expand the reach of installation art into the future, it may just as well be seen as a reconnection of the art form from its roots in antiquity to the advancing human development of the 21st century that we now call the information age.

It follows that the installation artist articulates (unifies or fits together into a coherent whole) the spatiality of a given site. The artist does so by way of a conceptualized process of placement (how the work is arranged) and inscription (the informal dedication or activation of the completed work.) Furthermore, the artist’s interaction with existing physical qualities and the immediate architectural or surface features of the site thereby enlists the cultural meaning of the site itself to become a part of the interpretation of the work.

The artist’s organized activity with the installation integrates the work physically and conceptually to the site and to the circumstances surrounding the installation. As a result, a temporary or permanent new version and history of the site is created. Other sensory qualities of the installation are revealed such as light-induced visual effects, sounds, and material substances that can be tactile and olfactory. All of it is perceived in real space and real time. Thus, it invites the observer to act and react simultaneously to the work’s aesthetic environment. In other words, the artist’s and the viewer’s senses respond to the work as a vehicle for new meaning.

Installation art or, more precisely, the objects used in installation art provide a basis or platform for the work’s direction and meaning. The objects themselves are not the principal elements of significance or meaning. This happens partially because installation art is time sensitive. As such, the work, as part of the surrounding environment, must move forward in time. As it does, its meaning becomes susceptible to change.

To use the example above, there is little doubt that Stonehenge had a particular meaning and function to its creators. But over time this meaning has changed. The original meaning is now a mystery. Yet, at the same time Stonehenge is a new source of meaning and with new relationships to human ability. It has also developed completely new functions such as its role as a classroom for historians and archeologists as well as its new status as a tourist destination.

Curiously, installation art shares with its counterparts in antiquity the fact that, as an art form, it successfully eludes commerce as a principal objective. That is, installation art works are for the most part impossible to sell. This property ennobles installation art to the aesthetic experience and helps to assure that the largest possible audiences have access to it.

Installation art works survive mostly through documentation. This may consist of preparatory drawings or models, journalistic efforts during construction, dedication, and visitations or subsequently through graphic or textual criticism and commentary.

Finally, art has been pointed towards new directions since the onset of the information age. The revelations of recent developments in science and physics suggest new extensions to our former ideas of spatiality thus leading the new relationships to the larger scheme of space-time. Worldwide Peace Marker Project belongs to this new variation of installation art –a variation that deliberately eliminates the gap between art and life allowing them to operate as a binary and seamless event.

Historically installation art is in itself a work in progress; installation art grew into a dominant presence across the spectrum of mainstream art during the later years of the 20th century. It seems to be maintaining this position in the 21st century. To a certain extent its influence has stimulated greater viewer participation resulting in greater vigilance towards one’s surrounding physical and mental environments. This development helped to clarify the relationships between the direction of installation art in the 21^st century and its roots in antiquity

It can be surmised with confidence that installation art is presiding over two major events in the history of art and of humanity. One is the completion of the long cycle of art that began in prehistory and ended with the 20th century when neither modernism nor post-modernism could contribute experiences or images of any consequence beyond the boundaries of art history. The second is the appearance new conditions for a transformation not just of art but potentially for the whole of humanity. This transformation signals the end of the youth of human consciousness and embraces a conscious adulthood for the human species that is reunited with nature --our own and that of the universe.

In summary, installation art describes artwork that encompasses an extended space. It suggests that art does not reside in the object alone but also in the experience of perception and its sufficiency. Moreover, installation art can be site-specific, time sensitive, interactive, environmental and, as with the Worldwide Peace Marker Project, it can be global and four-dimensional.

Finally, and specific to my work, the Worldwide Peace Marker Project as installation art is a clearly a test model that establishes the fundamental conditions at which reconciliation between art and life occur while at the same time reveals the newest shape for installation art in the 21^st century.

Installation art on that basis can be defined thus:

Installation Art: an approach to art where an object of art is placed in an environment where its presence modifies the dynamic symmetry and function of that environment.

Tiité Baquero

Cape Coral, Florida 2005

Edited by: Brent Scheneman