Transindustrialization: Art, regeneration and cultural inequalities

Art of all forms is inherently political, even if it does not pursue an explicitly political agenda. Who is and who is not depicted and what is commemorated and what is not can reflect power and representational relations within a society. Similarly, the accessibility of art, and how art can transform landscapes such as urban environments, is the result of political decisions. Drawing on work highlighting how some post-industrial cities have been transformed through art installations, we utilize explorative walking in deindustrialized city spaces, the neighbouring communities where art is devoid of context. Spaces where there is a lack of art and so a failing to transform landscapes or to commemorate and memorialize their industrial heritage. We focus on the sociocultural significance of such art in – or, notably, without – context in deindustrialized spaces and propose a critical reading of these as sites of ‘meaning’. We ask how the art that is and is not contributes to senses of exclusion and marginalization when urban environments fail to move into a transindustrial phase.