A journey through Johannesburg via three art projects raises intriguing notions about the constitutive relationship between the city, imagination and the public sphere- through walking, gaming and performance art. Amid prevailing economic validations, the trilogy posits art within an urban commons in which imagination is all-important.
"This book brings something new to the public space discourse that allows us to think beyond the specificity of Johannesburg. It indeed exposes the naturalised ways of thinking and talking about public space, which tend to privilege permanency and definition, while rendering invisible the processes by which public space is actually made. ... Gurney re-politicises the debate in new ways, offering us critical tools to re-imagining and re-speak of public space in the city." (Kate Dawson, Africa at LSE Book Review, blogs.lse.ac.uk, May, 2016)