Aesthetic Experience of Urban Art: Analyzing Experiences of Four Measures in Tehran City Using John Dewey’s Theory of Valuation

The entry of art into the daily life of societies remains today as a major common issue between artists on the one hand and urban actors on the other. From the first decade of the twentieth century when artists came out of the ateliers and contributed to the creation of urban art, the aestheticizing role of art and the consideration of the work of art as a device for creating beauty in the city and improving the quality of the urban landscape remains a constant. The crossing of different forms of art in urban environment therefore remains the nature of art which enters the scene with an objective of creating beauty and by accepting this affirmation, it is thus formulated that the multitudes forms of art in the city, seek to aestheticize the urban in order to achieve their objective(s), although these objectives may differ for each form. Consequently, the hypothesis would be that urban art will not have achieved its objective(s) and will be marked with success with the user only when opening up to a grasp and a perception leading to the realization of an aesthetic experience. Thus, considering urban art as a power for the realization of an aesthetic experience in an urban environment and as a device for evaluating the urban landscape, what will be the criteria and indicators to be defined in order to develop a method for evaluating the quality of the realization of this experience and the amount of valuation of the urban landscape in the user's perception? The research is in pursuit of an applied dimension for the theoretical notion of urban aestheticization and for this, mobilizes urban art as an analytical device. The development of an analytical method with quantitative criteria capable of evaluating the how and how much of the effect of urban art on improving the quality of the urban landscape in the user's perception is an intermediate aim to ultimately lead to the functional dimension of urban art and the achievement of its targets. Based on the theoretical trio of art-urban landscape-aestheticization, the research develops theoretical definitions likely to establish tools for the analysis of urban interventions. Based on the concepts and approaching them from a variety of angles, "criteria" are generated which, in turn, assess the feasibility of the aesthetic experience through "indicators". With a view to a realistic understanding of these theories used and of the method developed, four cases are selected in Tehran whose dimension, local situation and spatiality are entirely different; for study and analysis of the framework for achieving the aesthetic experience in an urban environment. Among the research results, emerges a direct relation between the aesthetic experience quality and the degree of fulfillment of three environmental, visual and social criteria based on the analysis indicators. Given the process-oriented relationship between the forms of art and the city, based on John Dewey's Valuation Theory Process, it is interpreted that the aesthetic experience quality is the very meaning of the degree of the urban landscape valuation by urban interventions.