About
The B of the Bang is a 56 metre high corten steel spikey 'public art' sculpture.
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Mapping Controversies: “B of the Bang”
Humanities 2008/2009: “Mapping Architectural Controversies” - www.mappingcontroversies.co.uk
Manchester School of Architecture, UK
Lecturer: Dr. Albena Yaneva
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At the time of writing the public artwork in the picture above, known as ‘The B of the Bang’, is being dismantled due to the end of a long running controversy surrounding its commissioning, design, construction, cost, aesthetic value, mothballing and/or demolition.
It is an imposing structure that has divided many in a series of disagreements running from its inception to demolition and this controversy was aided along the way by its structural failure.
As a piece of ‘public art’, the nature of the controversy seems to open up more in some ways. The very assertion that art can be public opens up a plethora of troublesome issues surrounding aesthetics, politics/governance and the fact that it is supposedly aimed towards some pseudo-universal ‘good’ value. This is immediately open to debate since the nature of what is good is always notoriously controversial, let alone when one introduces art/aesthetics to the debate.
This website aims to map the controversy surrounding this structure and has done so in several ways. This website runs a powerful content management system/blogging platform within which related news articles have been archived. These articles have then been subjected to various analysis exercises and the issues highlighted through these exercises and our own understanding of the controversy have then led to more complex graphical analysis.
There is also a good deal of public research where interviews have been carried out and statistics processed.
