The morphogenesis of art districts: Case studies of Williamsburg, NYC and 798, Beijing

Spatial Barriers and the Formation of Global Art Cities: The Case of Tokyo

“…Research on the rise of global art cities like New York, London, or Berlin points to the importance of unused spaces, open spaces, and big spaces (Morgner, ) as part of an artistic imaginary that links artistic freedom of expression to an unlimited space—open to ideas without limiting (and perhaps even enforcing) thinking in bigger or more radical terms. Although (or perhaps because) Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, Radović and Boontharm () describe its use of space as small Tokyo.…”

“…University degrees and other professional certificates scarcely define that practice; with no established criteria to define successful works of art, no set career pattern that can be easily followed, employment and the generation of income remain temporary in nature (Strauss, ; Lahire and Bois, ; Boari and Corrado, ; Wilson, ; Menger and Rendell, ). As Morgner () has argued, the artistic milieu therefore develops as a kind of coping mechanism; the uncertainty of artistic practice is managed in a setting of mutual reinforcement and support, and in an atmosphere that reinforces notions of creativity and creative behavior. Urban ruins and their potential for reuse form part of such a narrative of artistic atmosphere‐making (see Göbel, ).…”