One of those projects is “Shanghai Dreaming, Holding an Urban Golden Card“, made for the Shanghai Biennale in 2008.

This work is a great example of an approach to public art, that involves the local public, it is created through the input and participation of the public, it uses various media, she used local businesses, for instance a marketing company, to communicate the work. I like very much how through the collecting of stories, and transforming them into a visual, physical manifestation, some residents of Shanghai, just everyday ordinary citizens become visible. And through their stories, in fact, a story about the social impact of city life emerges.
An interview with the artist about this project can be seen here:
http://www.dmovies.net/shanghai7/index.html

Consider this an example of how you could think about creating the monument for Nan Ting.

Jeanne van Heeswijk’s website: http://www.jeanneworks.net

INTRODUCTION
University Town is a strange, artificial environment: it’s not really a cityscape, nor is it a village, it’s a habitat that has some features of the city, but feels quite different. It feels isolated from reality. It has roads, bridges, parks and sportsfacilities. There’s public transport, there are shopping areas with banks, restaurants, fast food, and other services. There’s dormitory housing, there are school buildings, school canteens, museums and, finally, there are four villages. These last villages on the island will disappear very soon.

The villages provide a kind of public space that relates much more closely to the city, than the rest of the island does. Narrow chaotic streets, intimate small spaces to eat and or shop in, lively activity in the street, family life, various generations sharing the same public space. (how often do you see elderly people or young children on campus?).

Nan Ting Village is a place where many students of the GAFA go to hangout, barbecue, play pool, drink beer. Some students have their own small enterprises there. The villagers run restaurants and shops, there’s a market selling locally grown fruit and vegetables, locally caught fish. Villagers sit under the trees, playing chess, gossiping, smoking.
What will be left of any street life when Nan Ting, as it is now, is gone?
Where will the villagers go? What will be left of the history of this island? And how will campus life be without the little bit of liveliness and chaos that Nan Ting offers?

The new assignment is called Remembering Nan Ting, a Monument and can be downloaded here.

Here is a Google translation of the text.

The students’ views in answer to these questions have been collected in a single document. Download the PDF here.

An important skill to train as a designer or artist, is how to present your work. Not only is the form, and spatial organization important, but also the vocabulary that you develop to communicate about your work.

> That was the point of this assignment.

Jenny Holzer (born 1950) is an American conceptual artist.(…) The main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space. Originally utilizing street posters, LED signs became her most visible medium, though her diverse practice incorporates a wide array of media including bronze plaques, painted signs, stone benches and footstools, stickers, T-shirts, condoms, paintings, photographs, sound, video, light projection and the Internet.

source: Wikipedia
http://www.jennyholzer.com/

Here are some of the answers the students gave to the questions about interactive and public art as posed in class on September 29th.

wang hao ning’s answers(.doc)
nan’s answers(.ppt)
liu yu qing’s answers(.doc)
mai shan wen’s answers(.doc)
li qian’s answers(.doc)
xia xiao’s answers(.doc)
xin xiao yan’s answers(.pdf)
zhan dan ping’s answers(.doc)
cui xin yan’s answers(.doc)
jin dan dan’s answers(.doc)
wu sheng’s answers(.doc)
li wen long’s answers(.doc)
mo wu ren’s answers(.doc)
huen kitho’s answers(.doc)
qiang’s answers(.doc)
ye chun ling’s answers(.doc)
wang wen juan’s answers(.doc)
lin yi ping’s answers(.doc)
zheng qi qi’s answers(.doc)

14 more to go.

Daan Roosegaarde is an artist working in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.His work explores the dynamic relation between architecture, people and e-culture. In this interaction his sculptures create a situation of ‘tactile high-tech’ where visitor and (public) space become one.

Roosegaarde: “My artworks explore the dynamic relation between architecture, people and new media. In this research the sculptures are a materialized collision of technology and the human body. Through the use of new media the sculptures trigger human senses to make a sensual engagement with their environment. For example interactive landscape Dune enhances the daily behavior of people, reacting to their sound and motion as they pass by in the evening. Here the visitor changes into a participant; a direct influence on the identity of the interactive work. Fused into an intelligent and sensible environment, the artwork becomes an extension of our collective, social skin.”
Visit his site here: http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/

Giny Vos‘ work is characterized by a poetic use of technology. It is mostly “created for public spaces.  This means that, by and large, the real existing environment plays a significant role in the final result. (…) I consider the processes that take place at any given location to be just as important as the physical characteristics thereof, so I often make use of movement, in the form of light or digital displays. At the same time, the work also always tells its own story; it is not an illustration of the place where it is, but rather tries to expand the experience of this. In this way, the work seeks to place the given situation (literally and figuratively) in another light, whereby a new situation arises, without the existing one being obscured.”
Visit her site here: http://www.ginyvos.nl/site/reizendzand_eng.html

SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) is a public art institution, based in Amsterdam, that develops exceptional art projects in relation to public spaces:

SKOR aims at promoting the quality and experience of public space and endeavours to bring experimental approaches and critical discourses on art in public space to the attention of a larger public. The organisation focuses on interaction between art, partner, location, and the public and establishes connections with developments in new media, architecture, urban development, and landscape architecture.

Visual and written documentation about all their projects can be found here: http://www.skor.nl/listpublish-680-en.html

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The Researchgroup Art & Public Space (in Dutch the ‘Lectoraat Kunst en Publieke Ruimte‘), stimulates research and theoretical reflection on the role of art and design in the public domain.
On this mainly text-based site you can find various publications on the topic of art in public space. It is pretty tough english for you to read, but if you’re truely interested in the topic of art in public space, and you’re english is OK, I recommend you take a look.  http://www.lkpr.nl/index_en.php?page=publicaties&id=6

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Stroom Den Haag is a centre for art and architecture with a wide range of activities. Starting from the visual arts, architecture, urban planning and design the program focuses on the urban environment. (…) Stroom wants to contribute to the permanent development of the reflection on the city and the part that can be played by the visual arts in this context.
Check out their projects here:
http://www.stroom.nl/programma/index.php?lang=en&time=past