After the conferences in Lisbon, Exeter and both editions of Waterfronts of Art celebrated in Barcelona, the Public Art Observatory presents its annual conference for the year 2003. This conference, Waterfronts of Art III, will focus on “Public Art and Urban Design : Interdisciplinary and Social Perspectives ” as a central topic

It is well-known that the annual conferences of the Public Art Observatory are characterized by their marked interedisciplinar character and by their social scope. In spite of it, in none of the previous ones, these topics have been the center of attention for the presentations and debates.

We believe that already there has come the moment to approach these subject matters and to open our space of reflection to other disciplines that as the Geography, the Urbanism or the Sociology, have not had a relevant presence in the previous editions. As M.Miles was expressing recently, "actually that might be to good designs for Barcelona - to link with other discipline. A lot of critical writing goes on in cultural geography. They like questions like Is it political economy or culture which determine things?"