Knowledge-Generation Strategies in the City Space: Comparing Artistic Communities of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Barcelona

Today city space is at the center of communicative interaction between various actors and their groupings. As such, it has become the locus of intensive knowledge creation, and clashes and intersections of different knowledge fields. Probably, one of the major knowledge-generating powers in the city space are the artists. Their works appear to be knowledge objects that represent significant conceptual relations between meanings and – when introduced in the urban space – they influence knowledge generation processes. Knowledge evolution is stimulated by artists through the continuous use of art works for communication with publics in common urban spaces of experience. Communities of artists appear to be particularly powerful communicators, joining their efforts in a common narrative, style or artistic methodology; and performing various activities in the urban space. These activities can involve broad audiences in the development, reproduction and promotion of certain conceptual combinations. We study how such artistic collectives communicate and generate knowledge in the urban space.