An Approach to the Problem of Urban Art Objects Comprehensive Assessment Using Qualimetry Methods

Over the past few years, the issue of developing common criteria for assessing the significance of urban art works has been constantly discussed in the context of the dialogue between the government and society. Meanwhile, the decisions made by local authorities (for example, deputies of the Moscow City Duma and the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg) are always of a private nature and do not rest upon a single science-based approach to legalizing the placement of urban art works in the urban environment. This study is aimed at justifying the use of qualimetric methods in a comprehensive assessment of the significance of urban art works. The study’s methodology is presented by comparative and qualimetric methods for evaluating the aesthetic parameters of urban art works. The article notes the complexity of the assessment due to the pronounced specificity that makes it difficult to interpret urban art unambiguously. Basing on the methodological principles of artworks examination (technography, technology, iconography and iconology), the authors propose a number of criteria for evaluating rational and emotional aspects of the significance of urban art objects. To evaluate an art object for each of the criteria, the article offers its own qualimetric scale. It can be described using a set of “points”, for example, from 1 to 10, where the lowest (1) and the highest (10) levels are described in strict and understandable terms, and the middle points (from 2 to 9) are determined by an expert basing on the extent of difference between the level detected by the expert and the two specified extreme levels for this particular art object. With their help, the derived figures can be translated into evaluation categories, thus obtaining particular assessments that are separate for each criterion, and the final value can be derived from a generalization of the particular assessments. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the qualimetric method can provide a systematic approach to assessing the rational and emotional aspects of artistic interpretation of urban art objects. The method’s practical application can provide a compromise for the opposing parties struggling to claim the “rights to the city”, and regulate the visual culture of public spaces on an objective scientific basis.