tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28918036766876143812024-03-13T17:39:36.477-04:00This Much I Know / This Much I Feelricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-68585432888622575462007-12-19T21:38:00.000-05:002007-12-19T21:47:14.442-05:00Social Conflict and the Politicization of Cullture in Turkey<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"></span></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU">It is no coincidence that current political debate over the Islamist Welfare Party revolves around the term “lifestyle.” The dominant camps in this conflict draw their bases of support from groups with quite different lifestyles. The Islamist Welfare Party, while developing its own bourgeoisie and its new intellectuals, grew by winning broad support from the old and new <span style="font-style: italic;">gecekondu</span> populations with its populist motto of “pure and just order.” Opposed to it is a loose group consisting of the radical bourgeoisie, state bureaucrats, the army, the urban middle classes, Kemalist intellectuals, the “Second Republicans,” and some radical intellectuals. Secularism and the Western–modern way of life are about the only common ground this otherwise incompatible alliance has.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">It is clear that class does not correspond “properly” to political culture because class boundaries in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region> have been increasingly crosscut by contradictory and hybrid cultural constructs of religion, ethnicity, nationalism, lifestyle, and gender. The culture of the popular classes can be opposed as “alienated” or “backward” by their supposedly counterpart intellectuals, as has been the case with arabesk culture. At the same time, regressiveness and racism can become popular among the subordinated, as is epitomized in the <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sivas</st1:place></st1:city> massacre and the rise of a popularized nationalist fervor suppressing the Kurdish issue. It is not just because the official, public political sphere in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region> is so very restricted that social conflicts have been increasingly expressed in the language of culture since the 1980s; the politicization of culture itself has been a major factor in and consequence of the project and process of Turkish modernity from its inception. In that sense, the contradiction that inheres in the formation and appraisals of arabesk culture continue with Turkish society: the contradiction between a dominant nationalist and paternalist incapacity to live with difference and a deep, unrealized popular capacity to change and accept difference through hybridization.</span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style="font-size:85%;">Meral Özbek, “Arabesk Culture: A case of modernization and Popular Identity,” Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba, eds., <u>Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey</u> (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997) 228.</span></span></p><blockquote> </blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-62634017926635125522007-12-07T01:37:00.001-05:002007-12-07T02:03:26.989-05:00documenting fragmentsIf I need to remember information about something--a place, a building typology, a cultural form--I start an entry for it and add to it as I learn more. Examples of entries include things like Republic Monument, Transportation, AKM, Mosques, Synagogues, Shopping, Cinema, Food, Music, Istiklal Caddesi, Signage...and so on.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jtRGOaicI/AAAAAAAAAPM/Rpom3BqGLVE/s1600-h/encyclopedia_taksim.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jtRGOaicI/AAAAAAAAAPM/Rpom3BqGLVE/s200/encyclopedia_taksim.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141119852628052418" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jusWOaifI/AAAAAAAAAPk/ls5b9NIHRbo/s1600-h/encyclopedia_beyoglu.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jusWOaifI/AAAAAAAAAPk/ls5b9NIHRbo/s200/encyclopedia_beyoglu.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141121420291115506" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jvmWOaigI/AAAAAAAAAPs/OFRG7hAFUt0/s1600-h/encyclopedia_churches.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jvmWOaigI/AAAAAAAAAPs/OFRG7hAFUt0/s200/encyclopedia_churches.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141122416723528194" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jqY2OaibI/AAAAAAAAAPE/EV_EFX_PTb8/s1600-h/encyclopedia_taksim.jpg"><br /></a>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-29525498905680754442007-12-07T00:46:00.000-05:002007-12-07T00:51:55.866-05:00documentation...starting to format<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jfNmOaiaI/AAAAAAAAAO8/mx05UeMIAX0/s1600-h/CaseStudy_LincolnCtr.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/R1jfNmOaiaI/AAAAAAAAAO8/mx05UeMIAX0/s400/CaseStudy_LincolnCtr.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141104399335721378" border="0" /></a>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-75172323485954208452007-12-03T23:36:00.000-05:002007-12-18T21:29:43.678-05:00uh huh<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-AU"><blockquote>First, many of the writers find that the Turkish project of modernity, in the way it was conceived under the sponsorship and priorities of the nation-state, has been flawed and problematical from its inception, compromised precisely by some of the things that were done in the name of modernity. Second, they agree that both politically and intellectually, the current critical climate is an opportunity, albeit a precarious one (without any convincing indication so far that the opportunity has been seized), for rectifying the initial flaw toward a more democratic, pluralist, and creative unleashing of the country’s potential.</blockquote>from <span style="font-style: italic;">Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey</span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span lang="EN-AU"> </span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-10764705593462390992007-11-29T13:50:00.000-05:002007-11-29T14:01:09.494-05:00Draft Table of Contents (Thesis Prep Document Countdown: 25 days more or less)<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY: RE-IMAGINING THE <span style="">ATATÜRK</span> CULTURAL CENTER IN <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">ISTANBUL</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >1. HISTORY/THEORY STUFF<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Picturesque and <i style="">Picturesque’</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span>Cultural theory and identity construction (Appadurai…)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >History of constructed identity in Taksim/Turkey (Republican era modernism, Taksim mosque depate, AKM debate)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Cultural Landscape (artificiality, constructedness, naturalness, evenness, difference)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Secularism and Islam<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >History in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region> (address founding of republic, political timeline, progression)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Debates today: headscarves, AKP, threat of military coup, bid for EU membership, public representation (city seal of <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Ankara</st1:city></st1:place>, historicist building campaign)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >2.<span style=""> </span>CULTURAL CENTERS<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Atatürk Kültür Merkezi<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >History<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Mission</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Current Controversy: maintain or demolish and rebuild?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Existing Program (block diagram + spreadsheet)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >AKM in popular imagination / public role<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Precedent Studies<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >(size, location, founding/current mission, who funded/built it, public/private, activities that occur there, target audience/constituency, production of social space, degrees of difference…)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Lincoln</span></st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > <st1:placetype st="on">Center</st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Seattle</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > Public Library<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Idea Stores<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Rivington Place</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Peabody</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > Terrace?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Walker</span></st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > <st1:placename st="on">Art</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Center</st1:placename></span></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Cardiff</span></st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > <st1:placetype st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > Opera?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Example of mosque cultural center…?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >3.<span style=""> </span>CITY / SITE<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Istanbul</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > Demographics / AKM Constituency<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Cultural Centers in <st1:city st="on">Istanbul</st1:city> and <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Map locations (size, type, audience)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Typologies (bank, shopping mall, performance space)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Role of “Culture” in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Istanbul</st1:city></st1:place> Life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >What is considered “culture”?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >High and Low culture (do these categories exist? How distinguished?) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Participants in cultural activities (How do they participate?<span style=""> </span>How often? Where?)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Importance of cultural activities to the life of the city and its inhabitants<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Site Research<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Site Plan<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Transportation study (public transportation modes, frequency, accessibility; vehicular traffic, pedestrian flows)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >User group study (see above—interviews w/ public in <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Taksim Square</st1:address></st1:street>)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Study of Cinemas in Taksim/Beyoglu (map location, size, group into high/low culture + clientele, identify type of film)<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Study of Music Performance Spaces in Taksim/Beyoglu (map location, size, group into high/low culture + clientele, identify type of music)<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Study of Theaters in Taksim/Beyoglu<span style=""> </span>(map location, size, group into high/low culture + clientele, identify type of theater)<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Study of Mosques in Taksim/Beyoglu (map locations + sizes)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style=""> </span>Study of Churches in Taksim/Beyoglu<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Land Use (Commercial, mixed, residential, cultural…)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Photographic survey of fashion? (starting with website + photos downloaded)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Interviews<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Tabanlioglu, architect of the AKM<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Omer Kanipak, founder/manager of <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Arkitera</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s premier architectural website<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >AKM staff: building director, ensemble directors<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >People involved in cultural productions: music, arts, theater, film<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Patrons of the AKM<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Public inhabitants of <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Taksim Square</st1:address></st1:street><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Jenny White, BU<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >4.<span style=""> </span>PROGRAM<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Proposed Program<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Multiple options (what they produce: degrees of difference, social conditions)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Additions/Subtractions<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Final Program proposal<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Registers of Difference…?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Categories of evaluation…?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >5.<span style=""> </span>ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Things I’ve read<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="">-<span style=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Things I intend to read<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-37061350490993367882007-11-15T02:30:00.000-05:002007-11-15T02:38:44.560-05:00Deploying the picturesque in a cultural mode<p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">Picturesque : Landscape <i style="">= </i>Picturesque’ : Cultural Landscape</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Picturesque</span> - an artificial/constructed mode of revealing the actuality of the environment or landscape through sensory experience in motion, especially along a serial/unfolding/undulating path that carries the viewer through layered and juxtaposed perceptions of space.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Landscape</span> - a constructed physical environment, possibly understood in a pictorial mode as an expanse of scenery that can be seen in single view from one perspective; visible features of an area of land, including physical, living, abstract, and human elements; [an extensive mental viewpoint].</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Picturesque’</span> – an artificial/constructed mode of revealing, through sensory experience, some of the complex and interwoven relationships and positions which, taken collectively, approximate/approach the cultural/social actuality, especially as achieved by enticing the subject through layered and juxtaposed perceptions of space which that subject would not otherwise inhabit.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cultural Landscape</span> - the layering/overlapping/imbrication of varied subjectivities which are multiply projected by a vast number of isolated/embedded perspectives onto particular groups that may be identified as possessing common social, physical, or temporal relationships; a subjective abstract construct; [an extensive mental viewpoint].</p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-34925941834030188172007-11-14T16:52:00.000-05:002007-11-15T02:36:13.157-05:00Humphry Repton's Picturesque<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rztuw3BsSXI/AAAAAAAAANM/4MB9CAO48GI/s1600-h/deceit_revelation.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rztuw3BsSXI/AAAAAAAAANM/4MB9CAO48GI/s320/deceit_revelation.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132817986002635122" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The single view is never complete. It is only by moving through space, and viewing the same thing from multiple positions, that one can acquire a richness of understanding. Deceit eventually leads to revelation.ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-13327301254660989132007-11-05T23:58:00.000-05:002007-11-06T00:25:40.199-05:00be strategic. be-e strategic. s-t-r-a-t-e-g-i-and-c.<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><blockquote>…interventions in places become self-constitutive acts.<span style=""> </span>The state intervenes to control space, to dictate the meaning of urbanity, to shape the evolution of the public sphere, and to suppress contending ideologies.<span style=""> </span>It does so by strategically placing squares, parks, statues and monuments, cultural centers, and public buildings; by monitoring architectural styles; by dictating urban design and development agendas.<a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2891803676687614381&postID=1332730125466098913#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=";font-family:";" >[1]</span></span></span></span></a></blockquote><a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2891803676687614381&postID=1332730125466098913#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=";font-family:";" ></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"> One quote that didn't make it into my paper for Schoeberlein's Culture Wars, but which reminds me at this juncture of the usefulness of the concrete. Although Çinar</span><span style="font-size:11;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> is operating more at the level of urban design here, what we do as architects is generally, I think, a similar act of strategic spatial arrangement, only deployed at a different scale. I've been wading somewhat self-indulgently (and unapologetically) in cultural theory and all that talk doesn't necessarily inspire doing or making...which is why it's safe and indulgent and warm and fuzzy. Okay, time to get strategic and specific.</span><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <div style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <!--[endif]--> <div style="" id="ftn1"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2891803676687614381&postID=1332730125466098913#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10;" >[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Alev Çinar.<span style=""> </span><u>Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region></st1:place>: Bodies, Places and Time</u>.<span style=""> </span><st1:city st="on">Minneapolis</st1:city>: <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Minnesota</st1:placename></st1:place> Press, 2005: 101.</p> </div> </div>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-39716828116335955932007-11-02T15:50:00.000-04:002007-11-02T16:22:19.986-04:00more useful things from last weekendWhile in New Haven, I ran into R. Mehta who's in the Rex studio (the program: an opera in Istanbul) and he pointed out that the Istanbul Biennial, which ends this weekend, has an exhibit <a href="http://www.iksv.org/bienal10/english/detail.asp?cid=4&ac=burnitornot">"Burn it or not?"</a> in the Ataturk Cultural Center (in Turkish, Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, hence AKM). And yes, the title of the exhibit does indeed refer to the AKM...burn it or not? Keep it or destroy it? Some excerpts:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.iksv.org/bienal10/index.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RyuFIlQwnXI/AAAAAAAAAMU/bfSY83E8Mrg/s320/istanbul_biennial2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128338983179296114" border="0" /></a><br /><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"></st1:country-region></st1:place><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region></st1:place>, as one of the first non-western modern republics and a key player in the modernization of the developing world has proved to be one of the most radical, spectacular and influential cases in this direction. But, a fundamentally crucial problem is that the modernization model promoted by the Kemalist project was still a top-down imposition with some unsolvable contradictions and dilemmas inherent within the system: the quasi-military imposition of reforms, while necessary as a revolutionary tool, betrayed the principle of democracy; the nationalist ideology ran counter to its embracement of the universality of humanism, and the elite-led economic development generated social division. Populist political and religious forces have managed to recuperate and manipulate the claims from the “bottom” of the society and have used them to their own advantage.</p><p class="MsoNormal">...<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To critically reexamine “the promise of modernity”, we have chosen some of the most significant modern edifices and venues including the AKM, İMÇ, Antrepo, santralistanbul and KAHEM. They symbolically and physically mirror the various facets and models of urban modernization in the city. In these sites, the utopian project of the republican revolution and modernization meets with the lively, ever-changing and “chaotic” reality, at once harmonious and conflicting. They are sites where the top-down vision of the modern city clashes with the bottom-up imaginations and actions promoting difference and hybridity.</p><p class="MsoNormal">...<br /></p> <p>Architecture has always been closely related to political projects. Public institutions are the most visible images of this relationship. This has not changed in the Modernist age, despite it being a more democratic period of history; instead, it has been enforced. But modernism is, in fact, idealist and utopian, and based on economic, political, socio-cultural and technological progress, solidarity, social justice and democracy. It envisions perfectly the ideal of a modern political utopia. Monumentality and the spectacular become the characteristic language to express such an utopian vision. Situated in <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Taksim Square</st1:address></st1:street>, designed by Hayati Tabanlıoğlu and reconstructed in the early 1970s, AKM is İstanbul’s major public site of cultural and political ceremonial events and performances by the “high arts”. Its archetypal socio-modernist style makes it a perfect symbol of the utopian vision of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Turkish</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Republic</st1:placetype></st1:place>: that of a secular, progressive and modern nation-state guided by Atatürk’s farsightedness and political power. <o:p></o:p></p> <p>However, this highly interesting edifice is now facing a fatal crisis; it is now under the threat of being gentrified by the force of the neo-liberal economic power, hand in hand with the populist political power. A fancier, “post-modern”, probably corporate-like complex is being planned to replace it. Its demise and gentrification are now intensely debated. Its origin is full of irony. Newly constructed, the building was burnt down in 1970 during a performance. A few years later, after huge efforts in reconstruction and conservation, like a phoenix, the building rose from its ashes. AKM is now facing a second round of fire -this time, by the forces of globalization, a neo-liberal economy and political cynicism. <o:p></o:p></p> <p>AKM, burn it or not? This is the question.</p> </blockquote>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-32454697260747368182007-11-01T16:05:00.000-04:002007-11-02T16:24:08.737-04:00Constructing the Ineffable<p class="MsoNormal">I left <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">New Haven</st1:place></st1:city> this weekend thinking that the YSOA’s conference on sacred space (<i style=""><a href="http://www.architecture.yale.edu/?q=lectures/sacredarchitecture">Constructing the Ineffable</a>: Contemporary Sacred Architecture</i>) had little relevance to my thesis.<span style=""> </span>I didn’t expect it to be especially revelatory, but I had hoped that Friday’s topic, <i style="">Memory and Identity</i>, would at least give me something to think about.<span style=""> </span>Now, a few days out, I’m thinking that maybe it did give me something to consider.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The weekend’s proceedings lingered over the question of what makes space sacred, with words such as “transcendent,” “beautiful,” “aesthetic,” and “symbolic” surfacing repeatedly.<span style=""> </span>While I am not explicitly interested in spaces of transcendence, I am concerned with spaces that transport or translate—that re-frame the view or re-position the viewer.<span style=""> </span>Everyone at the conference seemed to agree that sacred space was somehow special, apart from daily life, and that its meaning was personal yet also communal, deriving its significance in part through historical narrative.<span style=""> </span>I suspect that these same terms apply to the kind of space in which I am interested—space that shifts and re-frames.<span style=""> </span>At the very least, both types of space are trying to do something, to provoke an altered state, rather than merely accommodating or sheltering.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve been preoccupied with the construction of identity and the way such identity is perceived.<span style=""> </span>At the conference, Miroslav Volf spoke of sacred memory that shapes identity to define sacred communities, claiming that architecture becomes sacred only when it is a site of remembrance, of sacred memory.<span style=""> </span>He also spoke of the manifestation of the sacred as unpredictable and experiential—its meaning found through experience and presumably thus variable based upon individual subjectivity.<span style=""> </span>Interestingly, Volf framed [sacred] memory as concerned with the future (“remembering the future”) insofar as memory shapes our hopes (for the future) and hope influences memory.<span style=""> </span>Sacred space is thus a space not only of experience—of the past made present—but also a horizon—the present projected to the future.<span style=""> </span>Sacred memory defines horizons of expectation: Who we are; Where we belong; What we expect; and What or Whom we ultimately trust.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">These four parameters, which Volf identifies as abstractions of the marks of sacred memory, are certainly connected to memory and identity.<span style=""> </span>Whether or not they actually characterize the sacred doesn’t really matter to me, but I do feel the need for some other term to stand in for <i style="">sacred</i> (a term which I haven’t yet found, or at least haven’t claimed).<span style=""> </span>I’m interested in space that—through its relationship to memory, to self-consciousness, to the positioning of self—looks toward Volf’s “horizons of expectation” without being explicitly sacred space itself.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Given that the manifestation of [sacred] space is unpredictable and experientially based, and that it occurs through inherently personal processes and with probably a high degree of specificity, how can it be…designed?<span style=""> </span>Or, as Mark Taylor put it: if the sacred is ineffable, if it cannot be thought, then how can it be figured?<span style=""> </span>His response was to suggest that perhaps it may be figured through de-figuring.<span style=""> </span>I don’t know what this means, but it sounds snappy.<span style=""> </span>Also snappy was his assertion that violence and the sacred are inseparable, that both provoke terror.<span style=""> </span>He asked what it would mean to memorialize, to imagine, to figure absolute terror, to figure the unfigurable.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Peter Eisenman suggested one possible approach in presenting his Berlin Holocaust Memorial, noting that what is important is the memorial’s silence, its denial of image.<span style=""> </span>And <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Taylor</st1:place></st1:city> suggested that (rather than dwelling on the absence of sacred representation) architecture should embody the failure of representation through its gaps and fissures—through the “unavoidable imbrication of the rational and the irrational.”<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Gaps and disjuncture; silence; layering; re-positioning experience; shifting perception by moving through space—these are the thoughts that I’ve come away with.<span style=""> </span>Hopefully not so ineffable after all.</p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-14747715693898739592007-10-24T10:14:00.000-04:002007-11-02T16:23:14.743-04:00Imagining Taksim Square<span style="font-size:10;">Public spaces<st1:country-region st="on"></st1:country-region> have been and continue to be central to the nationalist project that defines secular <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>Abundant images of Ataturk, the benevolent dictator who is revered as the father of modern Turkey, reinforce the triumph of the secular state over alternative ideologies (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Islamist</span>, Kurdish) and also tie local spaces into the larger space of the nation, creating a sense of national unity.<span style=""> </span>While public space continues to represent the secular state, it has become a site of conflict over nationalist ideologies.<span style=""> </span>The current government has co-opted public space to reproduce the image of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Islamism</span>, representing national identity as Islamic, Ottoman, and Eastern.<span style=""> </span><st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Taksim</span> Square</st1:address></st1:street> in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Istanbul</st1:place></st1:city> is a prime example of contested space, both physical and cultural.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9YN-gn9vI/AAAAAAAAALk/df9X2rvpTu4/s1600-h/ataturk.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 265px;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9YN-gn9vI/AAAAAAAAALk/df9X2rvpTu4/s400/ataturk.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124911898112292594" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9aEugn9zI/AAAAAAAAAME/K2kP_27QA6Q/s1600-h/taksim_repub_monument.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 263px;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9aEugn9zI/AAAAAAAAAME/K2kP_27QA6Q/s320/taksim_repub_monument.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124913938221758258" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9ZMugn9yI/AAAAAAAAAL8/uSRxFxAbPEY/s1600-h/taksim_square.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 197px; height: 264px;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9ZMugn9yI/AAAAAAAAAL8/uSRxFxAbPEY/s320/taksim_square.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124912976149083938" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><br />Left: Mustafa Kemal <a href="http://www.geocities.com/tsaatumd/images/ataturk2.jpg">Ataturk</a>. Middle: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrygodwinfoto/572351510/">Republican Monument</a>, Taksim Square. Right: </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://static.flickr.com/72/207469682_3fffe1a402.jpg">Taksim Square</a>, located in the European part of Istanbul, is a major shopping district and leisure district. It is also in many ways the public face of modern Istanbul.</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10;">This public space, also</span><span style="font-size:10;"> known as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Taksim</span> Republic Square, was re-appropriated by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Kemalists</span> as a new center for the city in the late 1920’s.<span style=""> </span>Their choice was one of geographic and cultural distancing from <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sultanahmet</span> Square</st1:address></st1:street>, which had been the heart of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Istanbul</st1:place></st1:city> under Ottoman rule.<span style=""> </span>Home to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Hagia</span> Sophia and the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Sultanahmet</span> Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), as well as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Topkapi</span> Palace, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Sultanahmet</span> Square was so saturated with symbols of Ottoman/Islamic power that it simply could not be re-imagined as a public face for the new nation.<span style=""> </span>On the other hand, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Taksim</span> Square, in European Istanbul, was largely devoid of Ottoman/Islamic presence: it housed no mosques (and in fact was surrounded by the churches and synagogues of Istanbul’s non-Muslim communities)—and, important to the psychological distancing from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Sultanahmet</span>, the grand mosques of the old city were not even visible from this hilltop site.<span style=""> </span>Thus, <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Taksim</span> Square</st1:address></st1:street> became the site in1928 for the construction of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">Republic</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype st="on">Monument</st1:placetype></st1:place>, a prominent marker of secular Turkish identity and ideology.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9Tlegn9tI/AAAAAAAAALU/mliAdJuDFy0/s1600-h/sultanahmet_square.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rx9Tlegn9tI/AAAAAAAAALU/mliAdJuDFy0/s400/sultanahmet_square.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124906804281079506" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/turkey-cinemascope.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Sultanahmet</span> Square</a> in winter. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, they converted the Byzantine <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Hagia</span> Sophia into a mosque and built the larger <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Sultanahmet</span> Mosque -the only mosque in the world with 6 minarets - across the square.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span style="font-size:10;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Taksim</span> Square</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style="font-size:10;"> is a contested space.<span style=""> </span>In the mid-1990’s <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Tayyip</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Erdogan</span>’s <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Islamist</span> city administration came into power and controversially pushed for the construction of a mosque in the square.<span style=""> </span>The need for a mosque had far more to do with the cultural landscape of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Taksim</span> and the marked, highly intentional absence of Islamic identity within that landscape than with the worship needs of local populations.<span style=""> </span>Today, a strong marker of secularist identity in <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Taksim</span> Square</st1:address></st1:street> is under attack: the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Ataturk</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Cultural</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>This cultural center and opera house is an institution of western enlightenment, and it is also by virtue of its namesake a symbol of secular nationalism.<span style=""> </span>The current <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Islamist</span> government has proposed the demolition of the Ataturk Cultural Center under the argument that it is both architecturally and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">programmatically</span> outdated, but pro-secularist Turks are adamantly opposed to the prospect of its removal—primarily on ideological grounds.<span style=""> </span>This battle is not merely a question of public space—it lies at the heart of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s identity as a nation and as a people.<span style=""> </span>It is a site where cultural landscape and physical landscape are so densely layered as to be basically indistinguishable from one another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-45666138261316963402007-10-21T01:12:00.000-04:002007-10-25T08:59:44.174-04:00Starting to Think About Cultural LandscapesWhen we think of the physical landscape, it’s easy to conceive of it as the interplay of contrasting and complementary forms, textures, materials, and so on.<span style=""> </span>It is also fairly straightforward to think of landscape as layered: we have been conditioned to think of the spatial layering of the landscape in terms of fore-, middle- and background; we are aware of the historical layering of landscape as it is uncovered through archeological investigation; and landscape is also, of course, the physical manifestation of geological layering.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxrhY-gn9qI/AAAAAAAAALI/5dvv9iSmCZo/s1600-h/SanfordRobinsonGifford_GorgeInTheMntns.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 315px;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxrhY-gn9qI/AAAAAAAAALI/5dvv9iSmCZo/s400/SanfordRobinsonGifford_GorgeInTheMntns.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123655345300305570" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rxrg5Ogn9oI/AAAAAAAAAK4/3YsktcNsqmU/s1600-h/geological+map+of+PA.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 253px;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/Rxrg5Ogn9oI/AAAAAAAAAK4/3YsktcNsqmU/s400/geological+map+of+PA.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123654799839458946" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:geneva,arial,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" > Left: S</span><span style=";font-family:geneva,arial,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >anford Robinson Gifford,</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:geneva,arial,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" > A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove)</span><span style=";font-family:geneva,arial,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >, 1862; Right: Geological Map of Pennsylvania, 1960</span><br /><span style=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Appending the term “landscape” to a description of culture implies that the cultural is not unitary, that culture never exists as a discrete, objectifiable, or constant expression but rather results from the layering and overlapping of different elements.<span style=""> </span>Even a relatively specific cultural subset could not be equally and uniformly experienced by all those who construct it.<span style=""> </span>Take, for example, Pennsylvania Dutch as a cultural mode identifiable by characteristic sartorial, culinary, ideological, linguistic, and practical markers.<span style=""> </span>Like any cultural mode, it is the product of those who identify themselves according to its terms and who conversely establish the parameters by which it is defined as a cultural mode.<span style=""> </span>But while there are many similarities amongst those who participate in the construction of Pennsylvania Dutch culture, not all participate in cultural production to the same degree, nor do they share constant, uniform attributes of and attitudes toward said culture.<span style=""> </span>They could be described as polythetically overlapping—as occupying distinctive positions but with enough overlap to identify commonly as a group.<span style=""> </span>Enlarging the frame of cultural reference from the specific to the broad brings us to the concept of American culture.<span style=""> </span>If the fairly specific Pennsylvania Dutch cultural mode was itself marked by a layering and overlapping of distinct positions, then the broader mode of American culture must be necessarily more densely layered and divergently experienced.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Returning to the idea of physical landscape as layered assemblage, I would suggest that the way in which one perceives a landscape reflects more upon the position of the viewer than the inherent properties or composition of the landscape itself.<span style=""> </span>Experienced from different perspectives, the landscape resolves into a multiplicity of distinct views.<span style=""> </span>One achieves a varied experience of landscape primarily by moving through it—that is, by engaging it both spatially and temporally.<span style=""> </span>It seems clear that the perception of a cultural landscape is also entirely dependent upon the position from which it is viewed, but while most individuals have the mobility to move through the physical landscape, our relationship to cultural landscapes is basically limited by our very subjectivity, by the degree to which we are embedded in our own constructed identities.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This raises several questions:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">How does one become aware of the layering of the cultural landscape?<span style=""> </span>Can one view a cultural landscape from any perspective other than that of individual, embedded subjectivity?<span style=""> </span>And…what role can architecture play in revealing the multiple experiences of cultural landscape?<span style=""> </span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-23670921423869718892007-10-16T09:22:00.000-04:002007-10-16T21:42:13.105-04:00Workshop Exercise: Method<span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><b style="">The element under consideration: </b><o:p></o:p></span></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">One chapter, <i style="">Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,</i> from Arjun Appadurai’s <u>Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization</u><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><b style="">The means of analysis:</b> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">Reading the article with an interest in the construction of identity.<span style=""> </span>Pulling out the key points of the article, summarizing Appadurai’s argument, and then filtering that argument through my specific interest in the constructedness of identity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><b style="">The evidence adduced: <o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">Cultural material is fluid and as such, it flows across boundaries, including national boundaries.<span style=""> </span>The elements comprising the flow of culture include flows of people, flows of technologies, and flows of finance, as well as flows of information and ideology.<span style=""> </span>These latter two comprise (at least in part) the landscape of images, and as images, they contribute to the construction of imagined worlds—that is, of imagined or constructed identities.<span style=""> </span>Although all of these flows are interwoven and overlap, they are also disjunctive.<span style=""> </span>Appadurai describes these flows as being fundamental fractal, but equally importantly, they overlap polythetically.<span style=""> </span>This polythetic understanding of culture is important: different modes of cultural production resemble each other and overlap while at the same time possessing unique combinations of defining characteristics.<span style=""> </span>The total separation of cultural modes (or the definition of cultures primarily in opposition to each other) is thus artificial.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">Appadurai writes of <i style="">imagined </i>communities,<i style=""> constructed </i>ethnicities, and<i style=""> invented </i>homelands, and he describes “<i style="">the imagination as a social practice</i>,” using language that emphasizes the active construction of culture and identity by both individuals and communities. <span style=""> </span>The imagination is a site of cultural production; it is “a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility.”<span style=""> </span>Because the imagination is situated and is specific to individuals, communities, and places, it is impossible that all fictional landscapes produced map directly onto realistic landscapes.<span style=""> </span>Imagined landscapes must to some degree impact realistic landscapes, but there must also be disjunctures between the two.<span style=""> </span>The idea of a realistic landscape is one that I have not fully explored and have not yet been able to define through Appadurai’s text.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxS8hOgn9lI/AAAAAAAAAKc/3LWUI1XG3Es/s1600-h/women_womens_Day_march.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 313px; height: 204px;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxS8hOgn9lI/AAAAAAAAAKc/3LWUI1XG3Es/s400/women_womens_Day_march.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121925955243734610" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxS8sOgn9mI/AAAAAAAAAKk/Rqd-Bki3hNM/s1600-h/women_anti-pope.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 275px; height: 206px;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxS8sOgn9mI/AAAAAAAAAKk/Rqd-Bki3hNM/s400/women_anti-pope.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121926144222295650" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">LEFT: 8 March 2005 Istanbul, Turkey- International Women's Day<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"> RIGHT: 11 Nov 2006 Istanbul, Turkey Women Protest the upcoming visit from the Pope</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">Appadurai suggests that the further the agent is from the world s/he imagines, the greater the likelihood that the imagined world will be “chimerical, aesthetic, even fantastic objects,” especially when judged in light of another imagined world—say, that of an adopted country.<span style=""> </span>This is especially the case with deterritorialized populations who have to reproduce their identities in foreign contexts, without the reinforcement of their traditional cultural landscapes.<span style=""> </span>Individuals and groups create their own (potentially conflicting) imagined worlds, and when these worlds do not correlate sufficiently, cultural conflict can arise (this point demands further study).<span style=""> </span>Appadurai notes that women play an especially important role in the reproduction of culture and identity since they frequently are responsible for maintaining heritage through family. <span style=""> </span>“In short,” he states, “deterritorialized communities and displaced populations, however much they may enjoy the fruits of new kinds of earning and new dispositions of capital and technology, have to play out the desires and fantasies of these new ethnoscapes, while striving to reproduce the family-as-microcosm of culture.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><b style="">The claim relevant to architecture, based on above evidence:</b> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;">The cultural landscape as imagined landscape is reflected in the cultural landscape as built reality.<span style=""> </span>The built environment carries strong markers of identity and can be used as a tool to reflect cultural identities—and potentially to influence the construction of cultural identity as well.<span style=""> </span>Given the degree to which identity is constructed (rather than inherent), it follows that identity may be re-constructed over time, and that it is fluid, as are the processes that shape cultural interactions.<span style=""> </span>It is possible, then, that architectural agents may be able to heighten disparities between various imagined cultural landscapes; to mediate those disparities and encourage more reciprocal relationships between identity constructs; or to make visible the very constructedness of those identities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-12207645257831908292007-10-13T19:55:00.000-04:002007-10-16T22:29:58.397-04:00culture/religion/place<span style="font-size:100%;">Excerpts from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2188274,00.html">The Guardian</a>, 10.11.2007</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />In Italy the mayors of Bologna and Genoa last month cancelled or delayed planning permission for mosques after a vociferous campaign by the far-right Northern League, one of whose leaders, Roberto Calderoli, threatened to stage a "day of pork" to offend Muslims and to take pigs to "defile" the site of the proposed mosque in Bologna.</span><br /> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">This opposition is on a collision course with an Islam that is now the fastest-growing religion in <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place> and which is clamouring for its places of worship to be given what it sees as a rightful and visible place in west European societies.</span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">"The whole idea of having these huge mosques is about being part of <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place> while having your religion," says Thijl Sunier, a Dutch anthropologist. "You have young Muslims showing their confidence, stating we are part of this society and we want our share. And you have growing anxiety among many native Europeans."</span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">"We've got nothing against prayer rooms or mosques for the Muslims," he insists. "But a minaret is different. It's got nothing to do with religion. It's a symbol of political power."</span></p><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxFcCugn9iI/AAAAAAAAAKE/zySq8GL42nk/s1600-h/anti-mosque.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxFcCugn9iI/AAAAAAAAAKE/zySq8GL42nk/s400/anti-mosque.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120975453211325986" border="0" /></a></p><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RxFcCugn9iI/AAAAAAAAAKE/zySq8GL42nk/s1600-h/anti-mosque.jpg"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></a></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Built form is a powerful representation of identity.<span style=""> </span>In the Swiss <st1:place st="on"><st1:placetype st="on">village</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Wangen</st1:placename></st1:place>, citizens are mobilizing against a Muslim meeting house that wants to erect a minaret.<span style=""> </span>The meeting house (described as a nondescript house with a prayer room in the basement) is not a problem in and of itself.<span style=""> </span>It’s (supposedly) fine with the mosque’s ethnically/historically Swiss neighbors for Muslims to meet and pray in their neighborhood.<span style=""> </span>But they will not tolerate the 6-meter high minaret that has been approved…because it is un-Swiss.<span style=""> </span>It’s a problem of representation.<span style=""> </span>The majority of the village residents want their hometown to represent them and their identities which, having defined (or been defined by) the character of the village throughout living memory, they take to be quintessentially Swiss.<span style=""> </span>They want no visible symbols of Islam in their hometown—or perhaps even their country—because Islam is not Swiss.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">The article describes protestors’ (and legislators’) efforts to “keep [their] country culturally Christian.”<span style=""> </span>Notable here is that keeping Switzerland Christian is not what matters so much as keeping it <i style="">culturally</i> Christian, which probably has less to do with religion than lifestyle.<span style=""> </span>Again, it’s a problem of representation: people may believe whatever they wish to believe, but they need to blend into the perceived cultural landscape (which is in many ways a matter of visually blending in).<span style=""> </span>Also of note is the implied claim to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region> as <i style="">our</i> country, not <i style="">theirs</i>.<span style=""> </span>Muslims are the <a href="http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35487.htm">largest religious minority</a> in Swizterland, but it is implied that they are still guests; they don’t belong there, and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Switzerland</st1:place></st1:country-region> is not (and never will be) <i style="">their</i> country.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Individual identity is closely linked to place.<span style=""> </span>If a Swiss village no longer looks “Swiss” because its skyline is punctuated by a minaret, then the city’s historically Swiss residents may perceive the city as an inaccurate reflection of their personal identities, and when the city no longer reflects the individual, the individual looses some of his or her sense of place in the world.<span style=""> </span>Thus, the built environment becomes a staging ground for deciding who belongs and who doesn’t.<span style=""> </span></span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-71227460512780539962007-10-09T00:14:00.000-04:002007-10-09T00:32:48.398-04:00Ideology, Cultural Politics, Intellectuals"...analysis...must also recognize that knowledge and cultural values play a central part in maintaining and transforming social orders, and that defense of one or another value participates in this. As a result, culture and intellectual activity are <span style="font-style: italic;">inherently</span> political (not <span style="font-style: italic;">underlain</span> by politics, but <span style="font-style: italic;">interwoven</span> with it), at two different levels: that of their encounter with alternative values within their own sphere, and that of their place in reproducing society."<br /><br />"Political struggles are quintessentially about 'the very representation of the social world...[which] can be uttered and constructed in different ways' (Bourdieu 1985: 723,726)."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Katherine Verdery (1991) in Introduction to <span style="font-style: italic;">National Ideology Under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausecu's Romania</span> (19, 17).</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-29598390746280006332007-10-03T23:47:00.001-04:002007-10-05T10:44:40.687-04:00can there be a productive ambivalence?<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">Bernard Khoury’s early work (1998-2002) feels antagonistic yet it is largely ambivalent.<span style=""> </span>Khoury is obsessed with the willful amnesia of elite post-war <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:city>, and his buildings are redolent with reminders of the conflicted past.<span style=""> </span>But despite being hung up on the negation of social memory, he doesn’t really want to do anything other than remind people that memory is still present.<span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RwRijugn9eI/AAAAAAAAAJE/S9JnBQEMg8g/s1600-h/bk-photo1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_L33eNbX0_ak/RwRijugn9eI/AAAAAAAAAJE/S9JnBQEMg8g/s320/bk-photo1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5117323442519537122" border="0" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">B018 Beirut, Lebanon</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">His formal language speaks sharply of violence and power in B018, a subterranean club on the site of the French quarantine (which could easily be mistaken for an underground bunker or missile silo) and decay in Centrale, a chichi restaurant near the demarcation line between east and west Beirut (the crumbling historical façade of which he encases in steel mesh), and yet he does not admonish the socialites who frequent these places for having forgotten their city’s recent troubled past.<span style=""> </span>His buildings don’t have a didactic imperative, they simply state what he sees as blunt realities: this is a site of former violence, this is the product of decay, and you are seeking pleasure in this place.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">What, then, do these projects actually produce?<span style=""> </span>Given their popularity as absurdly decadent social venues for the well-heeled of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:city>, it would seem that these buildings do not make their inhabitants uncomfortable.<span style=""> </span>Do they even cause people to pause and reflect?<span style=""> </span>And are they any more or less successful if they do?<span style=""> </span>Khoury’s projects are mirrors on the current social climate in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:city>—they reflect an unapologetic culture of consumption while referencing the political and social backdrop against which pleasure now occurs.<span style=""> </span>As Khoury notes, his projects “are not moralistic projects; they are not about what is good or what is bad.<span style=""> </span>They are about the harshness and sometimes the beauty of those realities.”<span style=""> </span>Khoury’s architecture, as I have already stated, feels very antagonistic to me (this is why I like it).<span style=""> </span>And yet it does not antagonize.<span style=""> </span>Is that good or bad? <span style=""> </span>I’m leaning toward the latter.<span style=""> </span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In a recent interview in Metropolis (Jul/Aug 07), Khoury says of his work:</span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >"My projects are not manifestos. They take a very specific situation and try to dig into that situation, push and reinterpret it, and flip around these realities in the most pertinent way. But I am not being cynical here, because I think each of these projects has a dose of pleasure in them and that pleasure is extremely important to me."</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">10/5: After talking with T. Hyde this morning, I think my earlier statement requires an acknowledgment that ambivalence is, at the very least, an active stance in Khoury's case. I took Khoury's lack of commentary as, perhaps, a lack of theorization. One of the few questions he explicitly asks regarding/through his architecture is 'what does it mean to rebuild?.' It may be that in the face of on-going strife in Beirut, this question can't be answered. Khoury's ambivalent response is an active deferral that maintains the possibility of change. TH pointed out that the program--the bar--is the very image of deferral, of biding one's time, glass of champagne in hand...<br /></span>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-66638635050699897342007-10-03T23:33:00.000-04:002007-10-03T23:59:01.738-04:00draft statement<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Religious Space and Social Identity</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >I find myself fascinated with extremes of religion and the galvanic power of such extremity to drive politics and mass movements in multiple forms.<span style=""> </span>I’m not interested in religious space as worship space—the architecture of the church or mosque.<span style=""> </span>I’m interested in [religious] space as a medium of social coherence.<span style=""> </span>This space is not necessarily local in nature; it may not be a place in the physical, concrete sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >While group identity transcends local space—groups can coalesce across great distances via mass media; they can be fluctuating and mobile—place (and space) remains (or may remain) highly important to the construction and maintenance of identity.<span style=""> </span>But what role does space actually play?<span style=""> </span>How does space heighten/moderate/inform social identity?<span style=""> </span>My primary interest is in collective identity, and while religious identity does not have to be a part of a collective social identity, it very often is.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Religious Terrorism as social expression</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Consider identity politics mobilized at a global scale but with local impact: terrorism is a manifestation of identity that plays out in real space and registers itself against the built environment.<span style=""> </span>Terrorism is a means of social expression that makes something visible—that (arguably) creates agency through a public, violent act.<span style=""> </span>I seek to relocate agency through architecture, to make visible that which otherwise lacks voice.<span style=""> </span>I believe that architecture can be transformative.<span style=""> </span>I also acknowledge that architecture occurs through concrete spatial relationships.<span style=""> </span>I want to develop a discursive architecture that addresses the spatial dimension of identity construction through the production of specific conditions.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Istanbul</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" > and its identity crisis<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >I am planning to draw on <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Istanbul</st1:place></st1:city> as a site for my thesis investigation.<span style=""> </span>The underlying theme of my interest is social identity, so often characterized by difference.<span style=""> </span>Group identity remains a persistent question for <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Istanbul</st1:place></st1:city> and its residents, and often seems to present itself in dual terms: past and present, east and west, religious and secular, rural and cosmopolitan, conservative and liberal.<span style=""> </span>The impulse to define identity based on otherness is inherently problematic for a city that is, literally, both European and Asian.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >The idea of common identity, of Turkishness, has been present in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region> since its forming and was a necessary construction allowing it to emerge as a modern nation state.<span style=""> </span>Today the constructed identity of the Turk is increasingly challenged.<span style=""> </span>It is my goal to mobilize architecture in the construction and acocmodation of multiple identities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-91219906146062913662007-10-02T22:08:00.000-04:002007-10-02T23:17:51.584-04:00Culture Wars readings<span style="font-style: italic;">"As David Edwards has pointed out, establishing the other as fanatical denies him or her moral status, since he or she exists beyond the realm of rationality, and gives those whose moral superiority is thus affirmed a free hand in defending their interests."</span><br /><br />from Khalid, Adeeb. (1998) Chapter 2: "The making of a colonial society" in <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia </span></span>, p.52. Berkeley: University of California Press.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"...borderlands are not just arenas of civilizational struggles, of semiotic inequality, that produce and reflect relations of power where the colonizer seeks to define and program the borderland as 'other' and 'same' and, as Ashis Nandy argues, its inhabitants as an 'intimate enemy,' but are sites subject to peculiar social contradictions and interactions. THese spawn, by a kind of local magic, the possibility of a new community and a subtle, not always conscious, but genuine resistance to colonial situations."</span><br /><br />from Lazzerini, Edward J. (1997) "Local accommodation and resistance to colonialism in nineteenth-century Crimea," in D.R. Brower and E.J. Lazzerini, eds: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Russia's Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917 </span>, p. 172. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2891803676687614381.post-37348198183696350192007-10-02T22:03:00.001-04:002007-10-04T00:01:21.802-04:00snippets<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >"Where there is consumption, there is pleasure, and where there is pleasure, there is agency." </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Appadurai MaL-7</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Shopping, terrorism, architecture. Take your pick.<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><br />"...global processes involving mobile texts and migrant audiences create implosive events that fold global pressures into small, already politicized arenas, producing locality in new, globalized ways." </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Appadurai MaL-9<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >"...concerned not with forms/objects, but with shaping the conditions under which forms or objects emerge..."</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />M. Speaks, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Any </span><span style="font-size:85%;">24:44-47<br /></span>ricetablehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07666809672715831798noreply@blogger.com0