To browse Academia. The structure of the book and the proportions of considerations contained therein are subordinated to the main issue but it is preceded by two chapters which recapitulate our position on the definition of urban art and the aesthetic experience as such.
These sections do not convey the results of the research. They are necessary, however, due to the ambiguity of the basic terms used in the book and the heated discussion on the subject. In order to move on to the analysis of the collected empirical material, it is therefore necessary to clarify the meaning of the key terms used and to explain what theoretical perspectives controlled the collection and interpretation of our research material.
The main part of the book is devoted to the above-outlined attributes of the experience of art in urban space: 1 its inevitability, 2 its specificity due to the location and medium of art, 3 interrelations in terms of processuality, eventualisation and performativity of the experience, 4 and its polysensory nature. To express the suggestiveness of the mural experience, and even to try to give a voice to this experience, we decided to add an annex of the impressions concerning the specific objects of art, reconstructed on the basis of interviews conducted during the research.
They are accompanied by illustrations. These impressions should be treated as complementary to the rest of the book. It is a documented collage of quotes from specific statements, providing examples of the recipients' experience associated with specific objects. We see this contact with the recipients as the fundamental value of our work, though we are aware that such statements fall easy prey to manipulation of various parties.
And it is almost certain that they make for a good read. On the other hand, it must be remembered that they are also secondary to the experience which is considered as non-discursive. The statements, therefore, are not the experience itself or evidence of a direct experience, but only its verbal reflection, heard, recorded and in addition corrected so as to be grammatically clear and possible to translate into English.
