Istanbul Yaya Sergileri 1 | January 2002 ROLE OF THE PEDESTRIAN Text written by Nazli Gonensay for the publication of the urban exhibition 'Istanbul Yaya Sergileri 1: Nisantasi' Artwork, when displayed privately or publicly, has a visitor/spectator. The relationship of the artwork and its spectator in the conventional sense has been generally defined and controlled by a higher structure [the museum, the institution etc]. The boundaries of interaction between the spectator and the art itself are clearly established, leaving the individual limited to a predictable and disciplined patern of behavior. The pedestrian of the city, in its transient form, creates the most fluid layer of the urban fabric; especially in large metropols such as Istanbul, the nature of pedestrian behavior is nonlinear and temperamental, it defies order, the movement paterns are unpredictable; it infiltrates and invades cracks and crevices, an an organic manner, of the physical formations of the city. The pedestrian has a reputation of invasion. When designing street furniture, the challenge is in durability and solidity of the object in order to withstand the intervention and sometimes invasion of the pedestrian. Whereas the conventional visitor is anticipating the experience of art, following a linear seguence of events determined for him to arrive at the art (buying ticket, waiting in line, defined path, entry exit etc.), the pedestiran in transience (through street, alley, stairway, courtyard, park, etc.) becomes the unanticipating spectator of the street art. While we are familiar with the controlled behavior of the conventional spectator in the museum, it is difficult to forecast the relationship that will evolve upon this unexpected encounter on the street. Where here are no imposed regulations (no touching, no camera, no talking, etc.) what is the nature of interaction between the street art and the pedestrian? To what extend does the pedestrian participate and how deliberate is its participation? What is the level of intimacy with the object? The behavior of the conventional visitor is curbed by preconditional control mechanisms, involving security, surveillance, and penalty; while the visitor is watching the art, he himself is being watched and is made aware of this control mechanism. The pedestrian, on the other hand, is free of any perceived psychological control, and therefore will interact freely with the object under his own psyche. If we were to create a system of surveillance of the pedestrian, with a hidden eye -in other words without the psychological pressure of awareness-, we would document an endless inventory of pedestrian behavior and participation, enabling us to understand and create a socio-cultural map of the public in a given time. Presumably, factor of time would play an important role in this process. What type of psychology does the art trigger in the pedestrian, and over time, what form does the art take on with the intervention and influence of the pedestrian? Does this add to or subtract from the life of the art? Does the pedestrian redefine the art, or perhaps by redefining the art, does he also redifine his own role from passive to active, from being merely a spectator, to sharing authorship with the artist in a given time period?