When Place Becomes Prop: Public Art, Private Selves, and the Aesthetic of Spectacle
Dany Jacob | University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.71106/PZEU9202
Publication: Volume 7
Abstract | This reflective essay explores the evolving relationship between public art, personal identity, and spatial experience through an encounter with Chris Burden’s Urban Light installation in Los Angeles. Blending personal narrative with cultural theory, the piece examines how public spaces like Urban Light are increasingly transformed into backdrops for self-performance and digital self-branding. Initially visiting the site as a tourist, I chronicle how an academic perspective slowly draws on the works of Walter Benjamin, Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, and Jean Baudrillard to question how space is perceived, practiced, and consumed. The tension between passive observation and performative presence highlights how space becomes layered with affect, memory, and meaning, even (or especially) when it is co-opted for visual consumption. By retracing a moment on the margins of an iconic site, I want to reframe my understanding of what it means to inhabit, observe, and ultimately be shaped by urban spectacle.
Keywords | Public Art, Spatial Experience, Flâneur, Performance of Self, Cultural Theory, Urban Spectacle
Dany Jacob (djacob@uwlax.edu; ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3142-583X) is Assistant Professor of French at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, USA. He earned his Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies from SUNY Buffalo. His research examines the dandy’s role in Western sociocultural thought, exploring its impact on modernity, aesthetics, and masculinity through fetishism. Recent works include articles on aesthetic spaces in Huysmans’ Against the Grain and rearticulating Jay Gatsby’s dandyism in meme culture. His current projects focus on transnational dandyism, affect of readership and disruptive aesthetics.
MLA Citation for this Article:
Jacob, Dany. “When Place Becomes Prop: Public Art, Private Selves, and the Aesthetic of Spectacle.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 7, 23 Oct. 2026, pp. 5.11–5.18, https://doi.org/10.71106/PZEU9202.