Proceedings - Radical Space In Between Disciplines

INTERNATIONAL INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
RADICAL SPACE IN BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
RCS 2015
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
EDITORS
Romana Boškovi
Miljana Zekovi
Sla ana Mili evi
NOVI SAD / SERBIA / SEPTEMBER 21-23 / 2015
Radical Space In Between Disciplines
Conference Proceedings
Editors:
Romana Boškovi
Miljana Zekovi
Sla ana Mili evi
ISBN: 978-86-7892-755-3
Leyout: Maja Momirov
Cover design: Stefan Vuji
Published by Department of Architecture and Urbanism, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad,
Serbia
DISCLAIMER
The Conference Proceedings contain papers approved by the Conference Programme Committee. Authors
are responsible for the content and accuracy.
Opinions expressed may not necessarily reflect the position of the individual members of the International
Scientific Committee of RSC2015.
Information in the Radical Space In Between Disciplines Conference Proceedings is subject to change
without notice. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of the Organising
Committee of RCS2015.
Copyright © RSC2015
All rights reserved by the Radical Space In Between Disciplines International Interdisciplinary Scientific
Conference.
e-mail: radicalspace.uns@gmail.com
www.radicalspaceconference.com
ORGANISERS
SCEN – Centre for Scene Design, Architecture and Technology
Department of Architecture and Urbanism
Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTS)
University of Novi Sad (UNS)
SPONSORS
Svetlost Teatar d.o.o.
hiCAD d.o.o.
German National Tourist Board
SUPPORTERS
Provincial Secretariat for Science and Technological Development, Province of Vojvodina
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia
OISTAT – International Organisation of Scenographers Theatre Architects and Technicians
CONFERENCE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
dr hab. Paweł Dobrzycki, professor, The Academy of Fine Arts, Warszawa, Poland
dr Juliet Rufford, honorary research fellow, University of Exeter, UK
dr Dorita Hannah, professor, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
dr Dana Vais, professor, Universitatea Tehnica din Cluj-Napoca, Romania
dr Marina Mihaila, professor, University of Architecture and Urbanism ‘Ion Mincu’, Bucharest, Romania
dr Aleksandar Brki , professor, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
dr Silvija Jestrovi , associate professor, University in Warwick, Great Britain
dr Marina Radulj, assistant professor, University of Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
dr Irina Suboti , professor emeritus, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Svetozar Rapaji , professor emeritus, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
dr Radivoje Dinulovi , full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Na a Kurtovi Foli , full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Alpar Lošonc, full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Radoš Radivojevi , full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Milena Dragi evi Šeši , full professor, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
dr Miomir Miji , full professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Slobodan Danko Selinki , full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Branislava Stefanovi , full professor, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
dr Mila Pucar, research fellow, Serbian Institute for Architecture and Urbanism, Serbia
dr Darko Reba, associate professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Jelena Atanackovi Jeli i , associate professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Tatjana Dadi Dinulovi , associate professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Jelena Todorovi , associate professor, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
mr Darko Nedeljkovi , associate professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Milena Krklješ, assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Dragana Konstantinovi , assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Milica Kostreš, assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Mia David, assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Romana Boškovi , assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Miljana Zekovi , assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
dr Radivoje Dinulovi , full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Aleksandar Brki , professor, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
dr Jelena Atanackovi Jeli i , associate professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Jelena Todorovi , associate professor, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
dr Dobrivoje Milijanovi , assistant professor, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
CONFERENCE ORGANISATION COMMITTEE (FTS)
dr Dragiša Viloti , vice dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences, full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Sr an Kolakovi , vice dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences, full professor, University of Novi Sad,
Serbia
dr Dragan Šešlija, vice dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences, full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Vladimir Kati , vice dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences, full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Valentina Vrebalov, chief of the dean‘s office, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad,
Serbia
CONFERENCE HONORARY BOARD
dr Rade Doroslova ki, dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences, full professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Radovan Pejanovi , acting rector, University of Novi Sad
dr Dušan Nikoli , newly appointed rector, University of Novi Sad
Vladimir Pavlov, secretary, Provincial Secretariat for Science and Technological Development
Louis Janssen, president, OISTAT, Taipei, Taiwan
CONFERENCE INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANTS BOARD
Michael Ramsaur, professor, Stanford University, California, USA
Marina Raytchinova, professor, National Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
Sean Crowley, professor, RWCMD (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Wales, UK
Bruno Forment, professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
Carl Walling, professor, University of Findlay, Ohio, USA
Duncan Ei-Eu Chang, vice president, OISTAT, Taipei, Taiwan
Bert Detterman, director, the Rotterdam City Theatre, the Netherlands
Markéta Fantová, vice president, USITT, USA
Wanjung Wei, general manager, OISTAT, Taipei, Taiwan
CONFERENCE EXECUTIVE TEAM (FTS)
dr Romana Boškovi , assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
dr Miljana Zekovi , assistant professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Sla ana Mili evi , assistant, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Maja Momirov, assistant, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
INTRODUCTION
What more is to be said about Space? Inexhaustible in its meanings, potentials and
inspirational capacities, this phenomenon has captured our attention for centuries. Looking
broadly, more than a great number of topics, it unites disciplines and professionals in a
constant search for the new answers. By proposed theme Radical Space In Between
Disciplines we aim at reaching educators, theorists, architects, designers, theatre practitioners,
performers, artists, curators, writers, sociologists and all other professionals interested in this
topic, to gather around our mutual interest – to offer opinions, to make statements, to share
experiences, ideas and doubts. Seeking a debate on space as a radical, original, fundamental,
extreme, yet overwhelming transdisciplinary phenomenon we aim at establishing new
creative collaborations alongside a new holistic approach to the spatial perspective.
We offer three main sections as the leading lines of the Conference:
SPATIAL DESIGN
Spatial design as a relatively new interdisciplinary field, is direct evidence that scientific,
theoretical and artistic cooperation between disciplines is not a goal per se, but rather a basis
for new and bigger goals. Founded on and shaped by architectural, phenomenological,
anthropological, sociological and artistic issues, this creative field of study focuses on a
deeper understanding of space, with a strong sense of place, genius loci, fluid space and
human relations between the inhabitants of the space in diverse contexts. In continual search
for new challenges, with the aim to develop creative thinking, architectural discourse meets
its core potential though spatial design. The aim of this thematic section is to consolidate and
contrast different approaches from architectural, design, artistic and other related professional
disciplines, based on professional experience, research and experimentation.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE
The term radical implies a core, fundamental character of an entity. On the other hand, the
term between usually points to ambivalence of a certain field that draws its core character
from its boundary entities. The topic of the conference emphasises precisely these two
contrasting terms, focusing on a hypothesized paradox – that foundations should be sought
precisely in that spatial ambivalence, i.e. that it is possible to build and to discover core
substandard structures in a space considered empty by default. This thematic section therefore
seeks to promote diverse perspectives on this specific paradox inscribed in the radical nature
of the space in between. The fundamental question raised by this approach is the question of
the potential of the space in between for generating new (id)entities, as well as the issue of
relations, change and future movement of entity fields taking part in the process.
TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH
The definition of technology, implying systematic use of art (from the Greek term techne,
referring to (artisan) skills, but art as well, and logia – a study of a subject) clearly implies the
essence of this phenomenon, as well as its position between disciplines. The distinctness of
the technological approach is regarded through relation of technology and space of a stage
event in a broader sense, i.e. through questioning of possible approaches to contemporary
stage event design, as well as technological systems inherent to them. Specifically, use of
technology (processes and technical/technological systems) is analysed in creating a stage
event in different spatial contexts. The sophisticated and complex nature of contemporary
technical-technological methods requires a shift in habits and motives of users and implies a
wide range of interdisciplinary skills and competencies, rendering education in this
progressive field a true challenge.
Editors
Review of Conference Proceedings
RADICAL SPACE IN BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
Edited by Romana Boškovi , Sla ana Mili evi and Miljana Zekovi
This collection of essays on the transdisciplinary problematic of space represents an important
step forward in the production and exchange of knowledge across a number of different arts,
humanities, and social and hard sciences. The editors - Romana Boškovi , Sla ana Mili evi
and Miljana Zekovi - have ventured outside their disciplinary comfort zone of architecture to
enter that difficult yet rewarding territory where conversations can be had with people who
view space in markedly different ways, who employ unfamiliar research methodologies, and
yet share with one another significant overlaps of concern. What makes this step so
worthwhile taking is that it offers a rich variety of perspectives on questions affecting not
only academic thought and practice but also on everyday life beyond the university. By
leading us into that uncertain ‘in-between,’ where we have to navigate disciplinary tensions,
Boškovi , Mili evi and Zekovi enable us to identify commonalities of approach and to
begin to see how and why different understandings and deployments of space exist. Taken all
together, the proceedings address three linked themes: spatial design (itself a burgeoning
multi-disciplinary field), theoretical perspective and technological approach. In truth,
however, the wealth of overlap between theoretical, artistic, technical and contextual modes
(as well as between disciplines) is testament to the integrative ethos that characterises research
at the University of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Technical Sciences / Department of Architecture
and Urbanism.
The essay collection is especially effective in charting a number of current trends. First, it
reveals to what extent we are approaching questions of space as complex wholes requiring the
insights of several specialisms. It is clear from the essay ‘Space as Dimension of Social
Identity,’ by Radoš Radivojevi and Sonja Peji , that understandings of the impact of space
on identity formation require the combined insights of human and economic geography,
social history, and identity politics. Only by folding these various understandings into
building projects can architects hope to operate within today’s globalised and increasing
corporate urban cultures while validating individuals’ feelings, experiences and identities. But
the shift that takes place not only in this study but in many of the papers offered by
conference delegates is not simply a change in direction from thinking and practising along
‘straight’ disciplinary lines to engaging the more convoluted but richer territory of
interdisciplinarity. It is also a shift away from the old division between theory and practice,
and a plea to architects to meaningfully synthesise (multiple) theoretical perspectives with
lived experience. This is amply demonstrated in those papers that re-think the 1960s fine art
genre of site-specificity as a performative and critical spatial practice in the present (see, for
instance, the essays by dramaturg and playwright Jorge Palinhos, and by members of the
Ephemera Collective, whose practice-based research into site-specific performance and
architecture is transforming both disciplines and bringing them into closer contact with local
spectators and users).
Second, the essays demonstrate deep understanding of the framing and mediating effects that
one discipline performs for another. For instance, the central claim of Ivana Maraš’s piece is
that the design of the modern city, and the representation of the city through the medium of
film are caught up in a reciprocal dance, in which notions of space, time and movement are
conjoined. What comes out of Maraš’s project is a suggestion that, if real-world productions
like architecture and spatial design are filtered through mimetic or representational arts and
practices (specifically, in her work, today’s cultural dominant of film), hard distinctions
between the real and the fictional begin to break down. Moreover, the author suggests that it
is this break down that provides the opportunity for imagining alternate, improved urban
environments precisely because it takes us beyond the physical limitations of real city
constructs.
Third, several of the writers whose work appears in the ‘Radical Space’ conference
proceedings are combining disciplines that have traditionally been centred on the study of
space, and thinking not merely between them but through them to issues that lie beyond. In
Matthew Teismann’s essay on cartographer James Wyld’s georama - The Monster Globe architecture and cartography provide the means to think not only about spatial concepts and
spatial perception but also about social changes under the politico-economic systems of the
modern imperialist world and the global sphere of late capitalism. Indeed, it is Teismann’s
suggestion that the architectural form that Wyld used to achieve his representation of the earth
as a singular connected surface anticipated - perhaps, precipitated - those very changes by respatialising our perception, and thus by shaping our social, political and economic
imaginations. In other words, at the same time as inviting people into this novel and quite
theatrical space, the architecture of The Monster Globe is operating allegorically as a diagram
of political power and is, indeed, producing those changing socio-spatial and political
conditions ontologically.
Fourth, and to shift the terms of this review from theory and epistemology to artistic practice,
we are discovering new hybrid practices as a result of technological developments. The
productive combination of emerging technologies with postdramatic performance theory
posits new methodologies for making performance. By re-conceiving technology not as
ancillary (that is, as so-called ‘tech support’) but as lying at the root of creativity and
theatrical possibility, investigations such as that by Chris Bruckmayr and Dobrivoje
Milijanovi of Ars Electronica Futurlab challenge artistic hierarchies while recalibrating the
relationship between science, technology, and theatricality along new lines. And, that is also
the thrust of Milica Stojši ’s argument that stage lighting, which was once simply the means
to illuminate the actor, now enjoys its own more independent role. In a fitting allusion to
Jacques Rancière’s ideas about spectatorship, Stojši uses the word ‘emancipated’ to describe
the re-positioning of the stage lighting at the centre of the contemporary stage experience.
Fifth, the present collection marks an interesting development in the history of inter- and
trans-disciplinarity. Whereas previous generations of interdisciplinary scholars enlarged the
scope of their subject areas by acquainting themselves with the theories, methodologies and
practices of cognate disciplines, this volume reveals a more radical redefition of the
boundaries of study and posits unfamiliar new pairings - occasionally, groupings - of subjects.
Thus, essays on physics, metaphysics and architecture (by Sla ana Mili evi ) sit alongside
pieces exploring space and place in the literary genre of magical realism (by Jelena Mitrovi
and Višnja Žugi ) and articles on spatial tropes within the history of fine art (by Georgia Jules
Vlassi) enter into dialogue with those on gaming, gender identity and urban design (by Jelena
Atanackovi Jeli i and Igor Maraš, and also by Dejan Ecet, Radomir Koji and Milenko
Radovi ) and with discussions of virtual and/or sonic spaces (see, for example, Marina
Carevi and Milica Kostreš’s piece on datascapes, and Marko Todorov and Ivana Miškeljin’s
argument about the balance between the physical and the virtual in contemporary
architecture). At the same time, several of the essays revivify the study of close cognates - for
example: architecture, urbanism and the politics of space; the relationship of space to time;
and, the spatial and the scenographic - reinvigorating ongoing debates.
One key theme that recurs throughout this collection is that of the politics of space. Urban
space today in many other places around the world today stands at the nexus of real estate,
civic ideology, and the politico-economic management of the city. Given this state of affairs,
what Vladan Peri ’s paper on the political messages of architectural chronotopes
demonstrates is the need to ask not only how architecture, urban space and everyday life
encounter one another but also: what conditions that relationship, and to what ends? From
there, Peri asks: how might we re-frame space, finding in that gap or breach between civic
imperatives and the places in which we live ways to (re)politicise the urban landscape?
Another of the book’s themes is that of the space-time relationship. The notion of spatiotemporality is gaining currency across academic schools and departments and, as Jelena
Todorovi puts it in her subtle and searching investigation of the legacy of the Baroque period
on W. G. Sebald’s psychogeography, is alerting us to the ‘polycentricity’ and ‘temporal
maleability’ of experience. Space, time and memory are folded together in ‘The Stadium as a
Space of Processing the Past,’ when Jovana Karauli asks how we process events which use
the same spectacular spaces and staging strategies to convey wildly dissimilar ideological
messages about past events and collective memory. Meanwhile, Maja Momirov, in her
consideration of architecture as a ‘stopover’ in today’s fast-flowing world, contrasts the heavy
presence of built space with the fleeting nature of our work/leisure attachments.
Finally, the essay collection teases out new strands within the scenography-architecture
problematic. This is accomplished through essays on sceongraphy in the theatre (as one might
expect) and through pieces that link exhibition design and scenography. Curator of the 2004
Serbian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale Slobodan Danko Selinki explores the
architectural and scenographic strategies he employs to form ‘hybrid spaces’ while outgoing
artistic director of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space Sodja Lotker
explains her notion of the performing exhibition as one that includes live scenography and
performative elements over which the curator has only partial control. Interestingly, though, it
is the consideration of real cityscapes that raises most questions about the differences and
continuities between architecture and scenography. Authors Dijana Brklja , Milena Krklješ,
Aleksandra Milinkovi and Stefan Škori consider the high proportion of passages and
courtyards in the city of Novi Sad as offering spaces that are at once visually enticing and
programmatically varied. Such spaces act as informal stages for planned and unplanned
‘dramas’ and for a visual dramaturgy that can be consciously exploited in order to enhance
pedestrian experiences of the place. Similarly, Milena Krklješ and Dejana Nedu in, in writing
about the ‘Scenic Spaces of Post-Socialist Cities,’ remind the reader that “the environment in
which we live both shapes us and is being shaped by us, physically and imaginatively,” and
ask: how are we to read the ideological and architectural ‘spectacle’ of socialist urban design
at a very different moment in our history?
While the spatial theories of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre continue to inspire essays
across the disciplines and sections represented in this volume, the collection also reveals a
growing interest in Deleuzian notions of ‘immanence’ and ‘rhizomatic space,’ Bruno Latour’s
‘networks’ and the recent turn towards ‘nomadism’ and ‘mobilities’. This makes for a vibrant
and timely study. Indeed, as we press further into the twenty-first century, we are increasingly
likely to explore space in terms of the dynamics of its use, and of users’ needs and
experiences of space while becoming evermore alert to the co-imbrication of science and art,
and old and new technologies of space. This collection of work will be useful for those
teaching, studying or writing about space as a social, cultural, historical and/or political
phenomenon beyond the scope of any one discipline. Impressively internationalist and
original in their approach to scholarly debate, Boškovi , Mili evi and Zekovi have brought
together in-depth analyses, and opened up new spaces for future exploration.
Juliet Rufford, BA (English Literature and Language / University of London) MA (Text and
Performance Studies / Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London) PhD Architecture and Performance
/ University of London)
Author: Theatre & Architecture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
Co-Editor: Performing Architectures: Contemporary Projects, Practices and Pedagogies
(Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
Co-convenor of the International Federation for Theatre Research: Theatre Architecture Working
Group
Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Exeter (Drama Department)
Review of Conference Proceedings
RADICAL SPACE IN BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
Editors: Romana Boškovi , Miljana Zekovi , Sla ana Mili evi
It is not easy to be truly interdisciplinary and avoid being cynical about it, in a world of truly
superficial interdisciplinarity, where in the spaces of post post everything there are so many
universal experts. The importance of the conference and the conference proceedings “Radical
Space in Between Disciplines” lies in the attempt to explore the borders of disciplines, as well
as borders of different understanding of spaces within and between those disciplines.
Architects challenging the approaches of theatre studies (i.e. Željka Pješivac) or studies of
literature (i.e. Jelena Mitrovi and Višnja Žugi ); cultural managers contextualizing the
society of spectacle in the local historical narratives (i.e. Jovana Karauli ); art historians
taking the space as a way of seeing (i.e. Jelena Todorovi ); are just some of the examples for
this approach.
In the same way it was needed in any other liminal historical period, we have a need today
for constant inquiry, re-definition, re-positioning, questioning of existing and introduction of
bold new approaches to some of the “basic” notions such as space. And what is even more
important about these conference proceedings is the intersection between the thinking and
doing – most of the authors presented here are not only desk researchers that are exploring
and challenging these concepts on paper. They are also dream engineers and artivists, people
who sometimes do and then think about what they learned from doing, not being afraid of
placing action research in the center of their research methodology.
This kind of work is important for our (Serbian, Southeast European, European…)
academic/scholarly environments that are in a desperate need for rethinking and redesigning.
In spite of certain methodological inconsistencies and a need for a more rigorous approach to
reviewing of few articles, these conference proceedings are brave and important contribution
to the space of inquiry in the academia. Some of the articles are important contribution for
further studies of different dimensions and discourses of space, while editors – Romana
Boškovi , Miljana Zekovi and Sla ana Mili evi – managed to develop an inspiring and
important collection of essays.
Having all this in mind, I recommend these conference proceedings for publishing, hoping
that they will be actively used in the curriculums of undergraduate and postgraduate studies
from different domains of science and arts.
Reviewer,
Dr. Aleksandar Brki , Lecturer
LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
Singapore/Belgrade, December 2015.
CONTENT
IS THERE SUCH THING AS A PHOENIX OR WE JUST TALK ABOUT
ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT AND ITS NEAR-DOPPELGANGER
Marijela Cveti ........................................................................................................................................1
ON THE QUESTION OF TEXT WHILE STUDYING ARCHITECTURE:
WORKING WITH DIFFÉRANCE WITHOUT THE NOMINAL POWER
Tiina Vainio .............................................................................................................................................7
THE REALMS OF ETERNAL PRESENT -THE TEMPORAL
AND SPATIAL PLURALITY IN W. G. SEBALD’S HE RINGS OF SATURN
Jelena Todorovi ...................................................................................................................................13
WEAVING OF THE MAGIC AND THE REAL: NOTION OF PLACE
IN THE MAGICAL REALIST NOVEL
Jelena Mitrovi , Višnja Žugi ...............................................................................................................25
THE INVERTED VIEW: OF CRYSTALS, MIRRORS, AND GLOBES
Matthew Teismann .................................................................................................................................33
SPACES OF DE- AND RETERRITORIALIZATION IN
ROBERT WILSON’S OPERA “EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH“ (1979)
Željka Pješivac ......................................................................................................................................41
VISIBILITY OF (IN)VISIBLE SPACE - PLACE OF PROJECT
PROMOTION IN THE EXPANDED FIELD OF ARCHITECTURE
Marijeta Lazor, Tatjana Babi ................................................................................................................51
SPACE AS A DIMENSION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY
Radoš Radivojevi , Sonja Peji ..............................................................................................................61
SPACE AS THE PRACTICE COMMENSURATION/HOMOGENIZATION,
AND THE COMMODITY IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM
Alpar Lošonc, Vladimir Gvozden ..........................................................................................................71
SCENIC SPACES OF POST-SOCIALIST CITIES
Milena Krklješ, Dejana Nedu in ...........................................................................................................81
LOUD PLACES: POLITICAL MESSAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL CHRONOTOPES
Vladan Peri ..........................................................................................................................................89
REPOSITIONING STRATEGIES OF SITE-SPECIFICITY: EXTREME 1
Višnja Žugi , Miljana Zekovi , Dragana Konstantinovi .....................................................................97
SPATIAL NARRATIVES OF THE INDUSTRIAL PAST – MATERIAL CITY
AS A STAGE FOR SOCIAL NARRATIVES
Sanja Peter ............................................................................................................................................105
STAGING THE WORLD: PERFORMANCE SPACE AS AN UNIFIED FIELD
OF DRAMA AND SOCIETY
Jorge Palinhos ......................................................................................................................................115
CITY INTERSPACES - THE SCENIC SPACES OF PASSAGES IN NOVI SAD
Dijana Brklja , Milena Krklješ, Aleksandra Milinkovi , Stefan Škori .............................................123
SETTLING THE IMAGINARY: FROM THE CITYSCAPE
TO THE CINESCAPE AND BACK
Ivana Maraš ..........................................................................................................................................131
URBAN, NATURAL AND WILD: NEW VISIONS FOR PARADISE
Georgia Jules Vlassi .............................................................................................................................139
ON DESTRUCTION: THE CITY AND THE THEATRE
Bora Yasin Özku ................................................................................................................................149
DATASCAPES – IN BETWEEN SCIENCE, FICTION AND ARCHITECTURE
Marina Carevi , Milica Kostreš ..........................................................................................................155
RHYTHM OF OPEN URBAN SPACES
Darko Reba, Milica Kostreš, Ranka Medenica ...................................................................................163
INDUSTRY VS. URBANISM – CASE STUDY OF SPLIT METROPOLITAN REGION
Dujmo Žiži , Hrvoje Bartulovi ..........................................................................................................173
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE – NOTES ON THEORY, DESIGN
AND ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIENCE
Jelena Dmitrovi Manojlovi ..............................................................................................................183
CONTRIVANCES ON ARARATIAN STREET: AN IDEOLOGY
OR AN URBAN PUBLIC SPACE
Sarhat Petrosyan, Nora Topalyan ........................................................................................................189
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AND ITS ROLE BETWEEN PHYSICAL
AND VIRTUAL SPACE
Marko Todorov, Ivana Miškeljin .........................................................................................................199
A MODEL OF ACTIVE SPACE
Dennis Lageman ..................................................................................................................................205
THE STADIUM – AS A PLACE OF PROCESSING THE PAST
Jovana Karauli ...................................................................................................................................213
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EXISTING
Saša B. voro, Malina voro ...............................................................................................................221
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE COULD NOT BE READ IN TEXT FORM
Na a Kurtovi Foli .............................................................................................................................227
ARCHITECTURE AS A STOPOVER: PLACE IDENTITY IN TIME OF
CONTEMPORARY NOMADISM AND PHYSICAL DETACHMENT
Maja Momirov......................................................................................................................................235
RADICAL SPACES OF MUSEUM CLUSTERS: EDUCATION
IN BETWEEN MUSEUMS
Mila Nikolic ........................................................................................................................................243
THE THEME OF MOTHERHOOD IN CLASSICAL GREEK TRAGEDIES
IN THE CONTEXT OF IDEAS OF SCENE DESIGN
Jelena Janev ..........................................................................................................................................253
THEATRICALITY OF RESIDENTIAL SPACE: FROM INTIMATE
TO PUBLIC SPACE – HOUSE AS A THEATRE, DIVANHANA AS A STAGE
Jelena M. Stepanov ..............................................................................................................................263
SPACE DYNAMICS IN ESTABLISHING A NEW URBAN TECTONICS
Katarina Stojanovi ..............................................................................................................................273
THE SCENE DESIGNER AS A SCHOOLMASTER
Monika Ponjavic ..................................................................................................................................283
PERFORMANCE SPACE IN THE PARTICIPANT’S THEATRE
SET DESIGN FOR A PLAY FOR THE HUNGARIAN KÁVA
DRAMA/THEATRE IN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Zsofia Geresdi .....................................................................................................................................293
EMPTY SPACE IN BETWEEN PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
Sla ana Mili evi .................................................................................................................................301
(THEORISING) INFINITESIMAL SPACE
Dragana Konstantinovi , Zekovi Miljana ..........................................................................................311
RADICAL FENCES IN BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
Piroska É.Kiss ......................................................................................................................................317
PERFORMING EXHIBITIONS – A CURATORIAL GLOSSARY
Sodja Lotker ........................................................................................................................................325
THE EXHIBITION BETWEEN STAGE ART AND ARCHITECTURE:
HYBRID SPACES
Slobodan Danko Selinki ....................................................................................................................339
ACOUSTIC DESIGN CHALLENGE IN TOTALLY FLEXIBLE
CONFIGURATION OF THEATRE HALLS
Miomir Miji , Dragana Šumarac Pavlovi , Romana Boškovi ..........................................................347
LIGHTING THE STAGE: TECHNOLOGY BETWEEN MEDIUM AND TEXTUALITY
Milica Stojši .......................................................................................................................................353
RADICAL NOISE: TRANSFORMING SPACES IN LIVE AUDIOVISUAL
PERFORMANCES “QUADRATURE” AND “THE SIXTH WAVE”
Dobrivoje Milijanovi , Chris Bruckmayr ............................................................................................363
AIR CONDITIONERS IN SERBIA – COMPROMISING THE AESTHETICS
OF BUILDINGS AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Mila Pucar, Marina Nenkovi Rizni ..................................................................................................371
ADDRESSING GENDER ISSUES WITHIN GAMING
AS A METHOD OF URBAN DESIGN
Jelena Atanackovi Jeli i , Igor Maraš ...............................................................................................379
GAMING AND MODEL-BASED APPROACHES TO URBAN DESIGN
Dejan Ecet, Radomir Koji , Milenko Radovi .....................................................................................385
GAMING APPROACH TO GREENFIELD URBAN DESIGN
Jelena Despotovi , Saša Medi , Milenko Radovi .............................................................................395
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS PROBLEM SOLVING
Jelena Despotovi , Dejan Ecet, Saša Medi , Milan Rapaji ................................................................405
IS THERE SUCH THING AS A PHOENIX OR WE JUST TALK ABOUT
ARCHITECTURAL OBJECT AND ITS NEAR-DOPPELGANGER1
Mariela Cveti
1
1
Faculty of Architecture, University in Belgrade (SERBIA)
marielacvetic@yahoo.com
Abstract
The proposed paper discusses the most extreme form of architectural reconstruction
(reconstruction considered as returning a damaged building into a known earlier condition by
introduction of new materials; different than restoration and preservation): creating the
complete replica of a completely destroyed building. There is a lot of examples of
reconstructed and replicated buildings and the most prominent among them are those in
German cities: Dresden, Lubeck, Berlin.
This paper presents a case study of the recent reconstruction of the building of Berlin City
Palace (Berliner Stadtschloss). The Berlin City Palace was originally built in the 15th century,
heavily damaged in World War II and finally – being part of the East Berlin – demolished in
1950 by the German Democratic Republic. A new large modernist building built at the same
place from 1973 to 1976 – the Palace of the Republic – was demolished in 2006 in order to
start rebuilding of the Berlin City Palace.
The paper is focused on the replica building considered as a kind of “falsification of history”
or a mode to produce “false original” where signifier changes its signified in different
historical circumstances and different political conjecture.
This case study shall be compared to the German director Christian Petzold's film “Phoenix”
from 2014. If the film can be read as a German self-deception in the post-war era, than the
rebuilding of the Berlin City Palace can be understood – similar to the film where the
invention of the “near-doppelganger” is an opportunity to access the (undeservedly) fortune –
as opportunity to gain new (undeservedly) political face.
Keywords: replica, reconstruction, the Berlin City Palace, Phoenix, original, doppelganger
1
INTRODUCTION
Walter Benjamin wrote in the “Theses on the Philosophy of History” about the relation
between the past and present and their photo-montage like overlapping. In accordance to
historical materialism, he wrote:
“The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up
at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again. “The truth will not run away
from us”: in the historical outlook of historicism these words of Gottfried Keller mark the
exact point where historical materialism cuts through historicism. For every image of the past
that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear
1
This paper was realized as a part of the project "Studying climate change and its influence on the environment: impacts, adaptation and
mitigation" (43007) financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia within the framework of integrated and
interdisciplinary research for the period 2011-2015.
1
irretrievably. (The good tidings which the historian of the past brings with throbbing heart
may be lost in a void the very moment he opens his mouth.)” [1].
The past is always constructed, always in the process of construction and therefore „the news
from the past“ are ever possible. Different meanings of the past are produced in the present.
Monuments (and buildings) constitute both social memory and social oblivion. In Lacanian
formulation superego is the harbinger of the imperative: “enjoy!”; here, “forget!” and
“remember!” intervene forcedly and violently in similar materialistic formula. [2]. Creation of
total replica of a completely destroyed building, as one of the most extreme form of
architectural reconstruction, is also a process of memorizing and forgetting. Replica building
can be considered as a kind of “falsification of history” or a mode to produce a “false
original” where signifier changes its signified in different historical circumstances and
different political conjecture.
2
THE BERLIN CITY PALACE: CONFISCATED MEMORY
There are a lot of examples of such reconstructed and replicated buildings in the world,
especially in the end of the 20th century. The most prominent among them are buildings in
German cities of Dresden, Lubeck, Berlin as well as the famous example of the Cathedral of
Christ the Saviour (
) in Moscow, Russia. In 1812 Tsar Alexander I
ordered the erection of a cathedral commemorating Russia's victory over Napoleon, but the
project of the architect Alexander Vitberg was never realized until 1839, when Nicholas I
chose another architect Konstantin Ton. The cathedral became an important religious centre
and an accustomed urban spot. After the Soviet revolution this place was selected for the
largest monument to be built – the Palace of Soviets which was never completed due to
resistant terrain of the site. Finally it became the largest heated outdoor swimming pool in the
Soviet Union: instead of ritual water baptism hygiene the physical fitness took place. In 1994,
government made a decision to rebuild the original cathedral, so the rebuilt Cathedral of
Christ the Saviour became a symbol of the "unity and repentance of the Russian people." The
re-building of the the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, destroyed during the
war in early nineties is one of such examples in the former Yugoslavia.
The Berlin City Palace reconstruction is just the latest in a slew of historical reconstructions
across Germany and Central Europe that includes the Alte Kommandantur, a former Baroque
palace just next door to the Schloss and the Stadtschloss in Braunschweig, which has become
a mall. One of the project of complete reconstruction of the buildings in Germany, after the
reunification, in 1989, was The Dresden Frauenkirche, a Lutheran church, which was
completely destroyed in the bombing of Dresden during WW2. The church was rebuilt
starting in 1994, the reconstruction of its exterior was completed in 2004, and the interior in
2005.
The Berlin City Palace was originally built in the 15th century, between 1443 and 1451,
ordered by Fridrich II. The construction of The Berlin City Palace began in 1695 as a
medieval castle that was eventually transformed into a baroque palace. The palace was the
seat of royal power until 1918 when it has become a museum. The Berlin City Palace was
damaged in WW2. After the war the Berlin City Palace served as a museum, the main
exhibition space for artworks considered degenerate in Nazi Germany. Finally – being part of
the East Berlin – it was demolished in 1950 by the government of the German Democratic
Republic as an emblem of Prussian militarism and imperial power. Walter Ulbricht, a German
communist politician, saw in the Berlin City Palace an embodiment of Prussian militarism
and fascism. “The destruction of the Schloss was an efficient, modern way to surgically
remove the past. The GDR was proclaimed to be the nation of antifascists; the fascists,
2
supposedly, were all in the Western sector. Many East German children began to think that
their parents fought together with the Red Army, not with the Nazis”. [3] Svetlana Boym
refers to Joachim Fest who argues that “the destruction of the Schloss was an exercise in
controlling the masses: "In the worldwide conflict that lies behind us, not the least of our
goals was to prevent the advance of that kind of control. If the destruction of the Schloss was
supposed to be a symbol of its victory, reconstruction would be a symbol of its failure."
Reconstruction then becomes a form of symbolic retribution” [3].
A new large modernist, bronzed glass-and-steel building was built at the same site from 1973
to 1976 – the Palace of the Republic. The palace hosted the East German parliament but also
served as clutch of restaurants, theatres, art galleries etc.: the palace was an ambivalent site, at
once the site of power and a place for the people. According to Boym “The Palace of the
Republic is present in its physical form but disempowered; the Schloss is absent but
politically strong” [3].
In 1993 next to the Palace of the Republic a steel scaffolding was erected with a canvas
representing the facade of the Berlin Schloss in actual size and in the exact place of the
destroyed building. The ghostly presence of a baroque palace that had been demolished fortythree years earlier arose. The scaffolding hosted a pavilion with exhibition presenting the
history of the destroyed Schloss and projects for the future reconstruction of the square. “Of
course the artful trompe l’oeil also contributed to the overall idealization. Thanks to its canvas
alter ego, which reacted to every gust of wind, the bombastic Schloss gained a lightness the
original had never had.” [3]
The Bundestag rejected all the petitions for the preservation of the Palace of the Republic and
decided in favour of a complete demolition. After many years of planning the new Berlin City
Palace, the Palace of the Republic was demolished in 2006 in order to start rebuilding the
Schloss. The plan was to erect a fake Baroque palace, a copy of The Berlin City Palace.
Architect of the project Franco Stella designed three of the four original facades and much of
the interior courtyard, but the fourth facade is led to his own. The inside of this new Schloss
was supposed to be a museum of non-Western art, library, restaurants and cafes – it was
named “the Humboldt Forum”, rather euphemistic, but actually it is “A Schloss-shaped mall”.
What a museum of non-Western cultures might look like within this imitation of an imperial
palace is still vague.
Fig. 1: The Berlin City Palace, 2015
3
3
THE DOUBLE
The idea of the double was emerged in writings of Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank,
Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues – “The Double: A Psychoanalytic Study” (“Der
Doppelgänger. Eine psychoanalytische Studie”) which deals with the phenomenon of the
double as found in the literature. The double refers to a representation of the ego that can
assume various forms: shadow, reflection, portrait, double, twin. The double doesn’t function
only as a subject double, but, concerning architectural objects/houses, rather as literal space
doubling of the space itself, or doubling of architectural objects/houses.
In accordance to the Friz Lang's film “The Secret beyond the Door” from 1948, where the
theme of doubling of the architectural spaces is the central one, it is possible to question: Is
There a Secret behind the Facades and what this secret is? What lies behind the exterior, not
only in terms of content, but in terms of meaning: is rebuilding of the palace a step toward
healing the wounds inflicted by the Cold War division or an attempt to override the East
Berlin history. Or, is this attempt showing glorification of the German pride and
magnificence?
Like the destruction of The Berlin City Palace was an efficient way to surgically remove the
past, the destruction of The Palace of the Republic was at the same trace: rebuilding the
earlier building, the Schloss, will not only heal the wounds of the post-WW2 and Cold war
past, but also will revive the past that the Schloss implied: here is at stake the revival of the
past through the doubling of the architectural objects. Svetlana Boym quotes philosopher and
architectural historian Hoffmann-Axthelm arguing that if there is no Schloss, it is easier to
forget the past: “that the Schloss is not merely 'an arthistorically or urbanistically important or
even irreplaceable building' but rather a site that enables the discussion of aesthetics and
politics, of guilt and expiatory sacrifice. The Schloss is a topos in two senses of the word - a
concrete place and a place in discourse: 'it is entangled in that historical and at the same time
moral discussion for which there is almost no place in our modern society'.” [3] An Old
Testament low – Lex Talionis – seemed to be developing: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth; a house for a house.
It is phoenixlike projects one after another, re-building of the double that was destroyed.
Although it is not possible to craft ‘faithful’ reconstructions, these restorations /
reconstructions are even undertaken and their pastiche nature is already designated. Here, the
signifier – reconstructed buildings – changes its signified in different historical circumstances
and different political conjecture. According to Barthes: “The city is a discourse and this
discourse is truly a language: we speak our city, the city where we are, simply by living in it,
by wandering through it, by looking at it.” [4] Same is with buildings. Architecture is part of
space-time structure that serves to simulate social life.
Architectural phoenixlike doubling can be compared to medical, plastic surgery proceeding of
face reconstruction. Reconstruction – both as architectural or medical term – is a term whose
precise meaning varies, depending on the context in which used. "Reconstruction" means
returning a damaged building into a known earlier condition by the introduction of new
materials. Therefore, the rebuilding of the Schloss is similar to the face reconstruction in
German director Christian Petzold's film “Phoenix” from 2014. If this film can be read as a
German self-deception in the post-war era, than the rebuilding of the Berlin City Palace can
be understood – similar to the film where the invention of the “near-doppelganger” is an
opportunity to access the (undeservedly) fortune – as opportunity to gain new (undeservedly)
political face.
4
In the film “Phoenix” Nelly plays a German-Jewish night club singer who has survived a
concentration camp, but with her face disfigured by a bullet wound. After undergoing
reconstructive surgery, she emerges with a new face, one similar but different enough that her
former husband does not recognize her. She walks into a dangerous game of duplicity and
disguise as she tries to figure out if the man she loves may have been the one who betrayed
her to the Nazis. Her husband does not recognize her, he just sees in her similarity with
herself. In this strange near-doppelganger play he finds an opportunity to gain her heritage.
And, she makes endeavour to look more like herself (or how other sees her); she begins to see
herself through a different pair of eyes as well. There are similarities to Hitchcock’s film
“Vertigo”, where a man remaking a woman in the image of somebody else, even though it
turns out that she is exactly the same person who he’s thinking of in the first place2.
4
NEAR-DOPPELGANGER
The film “Phoenix” can be read as a cautionary tale about German bad faith and selfdeception in the post-war era. Here the question of site arises: what is the true face of the site?
and if the face of the site is the face of memory? Svetlana Boym's question in The Future of
Nostalgia is: “Is this a nostalgia for the future, for the postcontemporary moment that
transcends the contemporary discussion of the defended memory sites?” [3] Like the heroine
Nelly who rises from the ashes, but doesn’t manage to brush them off, the Schloss is in the
same position. It is not possible to arise from the zero ground and become the same (face person, building) along with getting rid off the ashes: the remains of the previous are
inevitable. Being phoenix means to obtain new life by arising from the ashes of its
predecessor, but not all the same as late: there is no double, doppelganger, only neardoppelganger. As Boym argues: “The obliteration of memory is at the foundation of each new
project. The erection of each new symbol enforces a collective amnesia about past
destructions that have occurred as if by some uncanny ritual every fifty years. What is being
forgotten here is forgetting itself. Umberto Eco has argued that forgetting, especially when it
is enforced, has its own strategies. The ars oblivionis operates through enforced confusion and
"multiplication of false synonyms" (pseudosynonymy): one forgets "not by cancellation, but
by superimposition; not by absence, but by multiplying presences." [3] The replica of the
Schloss is a kind of pseudosynonymy (near-doppelganger) that tries to replace memory and
history.
2
there is an old noncertified story about Elvis Presley entering an Elvis look-alike contest incognito and coming only third!
5
Fig. 2 Phoenix, 2014, dir. Christian Petzold
REFERENCES
[1] Benjamin, Walter. 1968. Theses on the Philosophy of History in Illuminations, p.255. New York: Harcourt,
Brace & World
[2] Cveti , Mariela. 2012. Monumentalna memorijalna politi ka skulptura u Srbiji in Šuvakovi , Miško
Umetnost u Srbiji 2, Beograd: Orion art
[3] Boym, Svetlana. 2001. The Future of Nostalgia. Basic Books
[4] Barthes, Roland. 1999. Semology and the Urban in Leach, Neil. The Anaesthetics of Architecture. p.166172. London: The MIT Press
6
ON QUESTION OF TEXT
WHILE STUDYING ARCHITECTURE:
WORKING WITH DIFFÉRANCE
WITHOUT THE NOMINAL POWER
Tiina Vainio1
1
University of Helsinki (FINLAND)
tzvainio@gmail.com
Abstract
The question, posed by this paper to the corpus below, addresses the notion of text and
Applied Derrida. In the two first volumes, the specific interest of the author has been to
address Derrida. Among the great names in the architectural theory, Derrida belongs to the
imports of the late 20th century. However, the question of text seems to keep pending beyond
the aesthetic quest for truth. This paper addresses not only the discursive spaces employed by
the corpus. It hovers into the derivations applied, the narrative constructions inhabited, as well
as the questions of différance.
The language of Finnish is verb driven. The syntax of this non-Indo-European mode of
coming together leaves spaces to inhabit and explore for anyone wishing to exit Greek. Where
this strikes the most are those fields of explorations where to be is the only, thus taken for
granted bed rock among all the verbs available: To seed the nominal rain of both men and
concepts.
The notions of housing and architecture carry all kinds of nominal and logocentric derivations
along. Instead of proceeding by doing, thus leaving the notion of architecture in the hands of
its All Mighty, my choice is the Other: This paper proceeds by closereading some of the
recent outcomes in the library of architecture; Oikeat ja Väärät Arkkitehdit. 2000 vuotta
arkkitehtuuriteoriaa by Dr. Prof. Timo Penttilä; Writing Architecture by Dr. Sari Tähtinen;
Joustavan Asunnon Tilalliset Logiikat. Erilaisiin käyttöihin mukautumiskykyisen asunnon
tilallisista lähtökohdista ja suunnitteluperiaatteista by Dr. Jyrki Tarpio.
The frame of reference here hinges through the question of text, adopted and applied in the
spirit of Applied Derrida; the man I had the pleasure to know and work with. Applying
Applied Derrida in the context of Studying Architecture is the key here. As much as I would
feel for transcending his work, it might serve my conditions of possibilities only half way.
The
quasi-transcendental
in
the
midst
of
the
eidetic
thereness
of
architecture_as_the_pragmatic_usual is the challenge to be faced and argued.
Keywords: différance, literal corpus, text, studying architecture
1
INTRODUCTION
This essay is a brief and initial visit in a corpus of architectural literature. The topic of the
paper concerns the question of text while studying architecture; how and why the question of
text may indeed be necessary in ending the tyranny of architecture without return. The focus
lies upon 'working with différance' and how this conditions itself in the literacy of the corpus.
The interrogation implies a thorough reading of a later defined slice of an architectural library,
where Jacques Derrida's early exchange on différance sets the locus in motion. The chosen
corpus will be presented in a minute.
7
While reading this work, please do keep in mind everything that has been curated, exhibited,
designed, and argued in the name of architecture and deconstruction. The advances and
radicality of Jacques Derrida's oeuvre has in few places been so eagerly entertained, and, in
my opinion, overtly missed than just in the Academy of Architecture: On a literal field of a
public chorus awaiting yet another name to signify the law and order of the as if incontestable
'architectural'; To open, reveal and rejoice its secrets for my eyes only; To be seen and
performed first and foremost for and through the eyes of an architect. Opening the history of
ideas is a topic of another investigation: Constituting the European Self Indulging Subject, its
consequent cultural heroes and the genesis of its visionary omnipotence which keeps
subsuming the academic life ever since the division of having and being were attested as if the
origin of representing a vice. Let me proceed by calling for the ‘architectural’ to emancipate
itself in the context of ‘architecture is what architects do’. Why? The Academy of
Architecture owes itself a closer intimacy with Applied Derrida. For the sake of ethics,
aesthetics and simple planning in complex environments, to end the epoch of 'architecture'
without return, and to welcome studying architecture with return.
2
CORPUS
The corpus in question consists of three recent Finnish pieces of architectural literature.
Professor Timo Penttilä is known as the Director of the Vienna School of Architecture, as
well as from his concrete block buildings, such as the City Theatre of Helsinki or the Sampola
Community House in Tampere, Finland. His retrospect, diary alike, yet theoretical fiction
Oikeat ja väärät arkkitehdit: 2000 vuotta arkkitehtuuriteoriaa, Proper and Improper
Architects: 2000 Years of Architectural Theory, by Helsinki University Press 2013, is an
intriguing read for anybody wishing to learn how a life in architecture might swing like.
Affirmed by the volume's extradiegetic – an all embracing and omnipotent – narrator,
architecture is a religious act void of time. The protagonist, the uncanny of architecture, is
posed by the lead of the storyline. As a result, Gods keep their mighty power over the heads
of wannabees, calling for the proper ones to secure the rule: To sacrifice their work in the
shrine of propriation. Penttilä's contribution stamps Derrida to be whisked in the audience:
While watching différance being joined in ontology with the Vitruvian conceptualization of
inclinatio el mundi.
Writing Architecture, published by Aalto University Press 2013, is the doctoral thesis of Ms.
Sari Tähtinen, architect and member of the Finnish Architectural Association. The title of the
book addresses an exploration of architecture as if différance. Contrary to this task, the study
has been set to follow an immanent path. The conceptual definition of ‘writing architecture’
as material image making strikes Applied Derrida as an unnecessary decoration in the chosen
context. The initial enthusiasm and pathos of the author, appraising Derrida's cv and repeating
his publications in both French and English in the list of references, turns into excavating the
imagological rules of architectural practice. The interrogation seeks for multiple sources – in
speech, master plans and photographs. The protagonist gives voice to the ‘I’ or the occasional
‘we’. The personal pronouns transfer the leading figure into an advocate of architecture. S/he
defends the cause and effects of image making adrift from the title and its gerund, writing
architecture. The delivery by the thesis’ organization of text effectively excludes the curiosity
of a reader from participating in the inscription and dissemination of the work: The subject of
the volume is and remains ‘architecture’ in all its image producing efficiency. The bubble or
world of architecture is sealed and uprising? Not only does this leave reading the title half
way: The 'writing' has been nominalized to play the part of a participle. The verb in its gerund
is getting lost without the study making an effort to move and follow on this. Writing, in the
title, is there to enhance in volume the effects of ‘architecture’. Reading the title proceeds one
8
way, without return, and leaves the subject conceptually intact. The chance to study the force
of law has been given up for the sake of the rule of law.
Another doctoral thesis in architecture presents the third member of the corpus. Spatial Logics
of Resilient Dwelling: On Spatial Basis and Design Principles for Multipurpose Dwelling or
Joustavan asunnon tilalliset logiikat by Mr. Jyrki Tarpio has been chosen to this corpus for its
academic merits. Tampere University of Technology, Department of Architecture is alive and
kicking: The question of text is no stranger here. Tarpio’s work calls for contesting the wealth
of abundance in order to discuss the subject in question: To organize, account and
problematize the question of spatial logics for resilient dwelling. The panoptic protagonist of
the volume performs the figure of an archivist in a strictly lit house of architectural legality,
without actually ever consummating its cause: By labeling ‘empirical’ in fact all of his study
material – be it conceptualizations of design, theories of planning, floor plans, or day trips
into an outdoor museum of old houses – the question of affirmation has been let loose: It's
also the reader's delight to participate. The double affirmation in its ambiguity welcomes the
audience to have their say. As an occasional scholar of différance Tarpio provides an actual
contribution for the Academy of Architecture. I will return to discuss this later on.
3
DIFFÉRANCE
Jacques Derrida's original exchange on différance in 1968 has been published in both Marges
- de la philosophie and in La Voix et le Phénomène. The question of question, non-complete,
non-simple, deferring and differing, addresses the conditions of possibilities of anything and
everything. Since this is no concept, it cannot name anything. For the shortness of this paper,
let me rephrase Derrida in my interpretation of Différance published in Margins, Of
Philosophy.
Working with différance leads into welcoming the notion of double affirmation. Derrida reads
the term into problematizing the structural dichotomy of langue and parole, the play of chess
on the as if bottomless board, supplemented by the uncanny frames inscribed and
disseminated in the timbre of voices; into the ontological difference argued by Heidegger;
into the solipsism enveloping a phenomenological subject in its eidetic reduction; into the
tradition of Western Thought. Instead of reading things in time and space, for Derrida a thing
does not exist. Thus, writing addressed to deliver a thing doesn't exist either: There is no
'there' there. Something is out of joint without lessening the mediation of any conceptual
order. Instead of concentrating in a sublime effort of championing the as if uncontestable,
Derrida's oeuvre risks the sensual and sensible limits of a conceptual as if same. The double
affirmation does this by acknowledging the same in its specters, shadows and posted
supplements. Applied Derrida instructs the scholars: Rather, the same is différance.
I don't recommend dripping the conceptual glue upon Applied Derrida, such as trying to
conceptualize différance by inventing some intent for it. A scholar would be better off by
tracing the logocentrisms taken for granted on her field. Loyal to the tradition, the
‘architectural’ has been domesticated as the taken for granted blind spot, the as if origin, for
studying ‘architecture’. ‘Architectural’ and logocentrism united punch the line of academic
aporias, dead ends, such as lost origin, or signing without nominal propriation. Lost origin
does not exist in logic. Logic is the as if origin in science. Signing without nominal
propriation is impossible, doesn’t count, where the concepts have been institutionalized as the
proactors for possibilities. Architecture and Economics are two disciplines decorated and
choreographed as if forerunners of abstract aesthetics. Logocentrism of architecture might
stand for design principles, price, habit or ‘architecture’ itself. Any daily ‘untouchables’ could
be studied as if différance.
9
The contesting of French structuralism on the borderlines of German idealism has intrigued
Derrida scholars to the point where the conditions of possibilities have become a trademark of
the exchange. Any logocentrism is easier to establish apart from its point. As far as the
question of architecture calls for the architecture of architecture, Applied Derrida provides an
academic tradition which Studying Architecture had a lot to source from. That's why this
presentation, this paper, this question of text while studying architecture.
4
ARCHITECTURE WITH RETURN
Timo Penttilä (2013) has left us a good read, a delicate, yet passionate confession of a life in
architecture. His conceptualization of architecture, as an act of religion void of time, provides
monuments, temples, erected whereabouts of designs, which keep delivering as far as the
proper thereness of things will hold. The text in this book is the tomb of signs, each buried in
pyramids of their own. Penttilä's language is descriptive, derivative from the as if communion
of the beautiful, proper, and the real. His theoretical fiction cultivates references from Ptah,
Egypt, Middle Ages, and Hegel, into the sacred language of Kabbalistic Hebrew in its
mundane use.
Thriving, conditioned by Penttilä's frame, assumes a devotion of a man to his aspirations no
matter what. The quest of affirmation calls for joining the parish. Curiously, architecture in its
multiple contexts remains secondary. The thing for Penttilä is an architect who becomes
proper by the affiliation beyond. This might be the reason why Penttilä seems to have
incommensurable difficulties with Applied Derrida: After all, we the architects have the
access to the light; we in the profession possess the birth right to the architectural; Which is
assumed to precede the sight; The prophesy of the celestial clarity is given, where we the
architects are the chosen ones. How could anything possibly strike as a question mark to this?
How about getting closer to Applied Derrida? But no, in Penttilä's work, he cannot.
According to him ‘différance is inclinatio mundi’ instead of the Vitruvian inclinatio mundi
investigated as if différance. Emphasis is mine.
Sari Tähtinen (2013) should be congratulated for pulling a doctoral thesis out from a School
of Architecture. In Tähtinen’s work, immanent imagologies constitute the notion of
architecture portrayed and defended by the narration. The scenes indicated and stages visited
by the protagonists, the 'I' or the 'we', bridge the question of architecture to its architects,
instead of hinging 'architecture' with the 'architectural'. Differential derivations, Sari
Tähtinen’s abstract of her work, fed into the title of Writing Architecture, fill the pages with
visual aspirations. Digging into the scholarship of architecture where the conceptual counts?
Pursuing architecture as if différance? The fragmented narration of the opus does recognize
the literal notion of architecture with return, but doesn’t proceed to it. The immanence will
seize the argument: The material ethics overpower the thesis' any attempt to pose otherwise.
Take a selfie with Applied Derrida?
Jyrki Tarpio (2015) presents an act by an architect in an encyclopedic magnitude. His tableaus
and renderings will provide food for thought as far as studying architecture in the names of
dwelling, housing and living are concerned. What Tarpio calls the 'empirical' spins the
conductor of his architectural orchestra into a hermetic spiral of anything and everything; yet,
the performance of a hinge can be detected: The display of arrangements depending on the
order and dramaturgy of what has been presented earlier on. Tarpio’s display serves to frame,
shadow, and underline any reading of the as if modern planning; The infamous institution of
presumed omnipotence, which conditions its possibility in the claim of ‘delivering from the
present origin’. Tarpio manages to deconstruct the notion of immediate vicinity: The question
of a design’s origin remains the subject of discussion.
10
5
ARCHITECTURE AS IF DIFFÉRANCE
Supplementing the oath of a servant, the death of the tyrant may rejoice a double affirmation:
Signing without the present origin draws all of the questions in play. Where is the border
between the inside and the outside of 'architecture' if and when the question of origin remains
unanswered? For Applied Derrida, there is no phonetic writing, there is no self sufficient
subject in language. “There is no 'there' there” is another way of addressing the question of
différance in langue and parole, where the literal of a language is constantly addressed – not
only by the diacritics of the language but also – by the oral of the act and vice versa.
Every thought may and may not be an act. Jyrki Tarpio presents an encyclopedic display of
floor plans. The wealth of material for discussing the design purposes is astonishing. Pages
after pages after pages, on the left hand side of the layout: Tarpio keeps drawing villas, blocks
of flats, apartments and town houses in order to name the categories of an accounted order.
The in the beginning of the book announced 'empirical' literacy extends into the archival, the
peer reviewed architectural, the outdoor museum material. The analytical confusion eclipses
into textual, into allowing the hospitality of supplementary logic to choreograph the scene.
From a more conservative point of view, one could criticize the nominal spotting of
everything as empirical. While the outcome of the work is the enlightened serenity of the
seven typologies called the logics of spatial thought. The notion of every thought being an act
echoes the Hegelian origin: The legend and the heritage of an architect as if possessing if not
mediating the intent of a higher cause.
An encyclopedia of dwelling, addressed to accommodate the question of a flexible space,
displays items as if belonging to the same. The comparative perspective and the bubble of
architectural egoism aside, the economy of drawing remains to be explored. Reading Tarpio’s
study is an extravaganza into an encyclopedic form. His research rivals next to Denis Diderot
and his 18th century folios. By supplementing the raison d’être, among modern planning
professions domesticated isolation in functionality, Tarpio shatters the blind faith in the
fundamentals of modern design and planning. The art of dwelling in the literal spheres
inscribes the question of other and architecture apart from the architect and his patronage. The
author manages to convince anybody of his academic curiosity. Thanks to the overall thesis
design and its choice of vocabulary, the research question remains open: Whether adding any
more of the 'empirical' would twist or turn the outcome? Tarpio's study provides generous
moments on how to draw an investigation: By not erecting its symbols and meanings written
in stone. Design is design is design.
Reading an encyclopedia provides a battle field for an author and his reader: The displays
alone do not constitute their meaning. It would require a reader to do his work. Tarpio's
devotion has succeeded in stirring the fight for signification by providing an ocean of
'empirical' for anybody to drown into. The uncanny of architectural is here to stay.
REFERENCES
[1] Derrida, Jacques. 1988. The Original Discussion of “Différance” (1968). in Derrida and différance, 83-96.
eds. David Wood, Robert Bernasconi. Northwestern University Press.
[2] Derrida, Jacques. 1986. Différance. in Margins - of Philosophy, 1-28. translated with notes Alan Bass,
University of Chicago Press 1982, reprinted by New York, NY: The Harvester Press.
11
[3] Derrida, Jacques.1973. Différance. in Speech and Phenomena, and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of
Signs, 129-160. transl. with introduction David B. Allison. Northwestern University Press.
[4] Penttilä, Timo. 2013. Oikeat ja väärät arkkitehdit: 2000 vuotta arkkitehtuuriteoriaa. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
[5] Tarpio, Jyrki. 2015. Joustavan asunnon tilalliset logiikat: Erilaisiin käyttöihin mukautusmiskykyisen
asunnon tilallisista lähtökohdista ja suunnitteluperiaatteista. Tampere: Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto,
Arkkitehtuuri # 18.
[6] Tähtinen, Sari. 2013. Writing Architecture: Textual Image Practices, A textual approach in architectural
research. Helsinki: Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture 132.
12
THE REALMS OF ETERNAL PRESENT THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL PLURALITY IN W. G. SEBALD’S
HE RINGS OF SATURN
Jelena Todorovi
1
1
University of Arts in Belgrade (SERBIA)
jelena.a.todorovic@gmail.com
Abstract
Through decades, the early modern scholarship strove to present how different elements of
the Baroque cultural heritage influenced our time. This heritage was mainly visible in the
field of philosophy, in the sphere of the visual arts, or in the arts of theatre and urban
planning... But these are not the only legacies that the Baroque bestowed upon us. There is
also, a less visible, but equally significant, heritage that endured through centuries and still
defines greatly the way we perceive the world. It is particularly evident in two fundamental
concepts, those of Time and Space, that experienced such a pivotal change in the age of the
Baroque.
Both temporal and spatial plurality presents that hidden legacy that in our time could be well
perceived in the field of contemporary literature. They are pronounced in the highly complex
landscapes of time that prevail some works, or in the liminal worlds they create in their
narratives. One of the most poignant representatives of this hidden Baroque heritage is the
novel The Rings of Saturn by contemporary German writer W.G. Sebald.
Keywords: Sebald, Rings of Saturn, Baroque, temporal and spatial plurality
1
INTRODUCTION
Through decades, the early modern scholarship strove to present how different elements of
the Baroque cultural heritage influenced our time. This heritage was mainly visible in the
field of philosophy, in the sphere of the visual arts, or in the arts of theatre and urban
planning... However, all these diverse legacies were usually viewed only as mere precursors
of later developments that these fields of human endeavor underwent in the 19th century, in
that great dawn of the modern world. The role of the Baroque thus often seemed important
but indirect, and was perceived as the period that rarely left more than a fleeting shadow in
our present.
But these are not the only legacies that the Baroque bestowed upon us. There is also, a less
visible, but equally significant, heritage that endured through centuries and still defines
greatly the way we perceive the world. It is particularly evident in two fundamental concepts,
those of Time and Space, that experienced such a pivotal change in the age of the Baroque.
There is almost no period in the history of culture that was so profoundly marked by Time in
all its different manifestations - from Time as the Great Destroyer to the A-Temporal of ideal
worlds and Heavenly realms. But above all, it is the complex experience of different temporal
domains and the changed notion of the past, that most influenced our understanding of
temporality. The prospect of existing in different times simultaneously opened almost endless
possibilities for our own existence, while the completely novel view of the past shaped greatly
our own relationship to time. From the fixed and immutable, the past in the Baroque world
suddenly became changeable, rewritable and mealable category. Equally complex and equally
13
elaborate was the Baroque understanding of Space. With its rich varieties of liminal worlds,
of meta-spaces and shadowy lands, that populated the world of 17th and 18th centuries, the
notion of space seamlessly complemented the temporal profusion that opened in front of the
Baroque man.
Both temporal and spatial plurality presents that hidden legacy that in our time could be well
perceived in the field of contemporary literature. They are particularly pronounced in the
highly complex landscapes of time and the liminal worlds they create in their narratives.
I would like to present a true space between disciplines, a veritable liminal realm. It is the
curios liminal space that exists between contemporary literature and Baroque visual culture on
the example of the work of German writer W G Sebald and his book The Rings of Saturn.
2
SEBALD
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald is truly a hybrid work, as hybrid as Baroque culture itself
was. It is simultaneously the composition of a memoire, travel book, a visual document and a
fiction. Sebald himself claimed that his literature does not belong to any fixed category, but
that it unites all of them. In the same way that many Baroque artworks evade usual
classification and transcend genres becoming the hybrids of different arts and media.
Hybridity was not only the formal characteristic of the Baroque art, but it also resided in the
very essence of then contemporary cultural idiom. It gave it the much needed flexibility and
power of amalgamation that transformed the arts of the Baroque from the purely European to
the first global culture.
This almost Baroque hybridity is even more pronounced on the temporal level in The Rings of
Saturn – Sebald’s book constantly overlaps the past and the present, the time evoked and the
time perceived. It stands between memory and fiction, between record and recollection. Its
narrative consists out of several constantly overlapping entities – that of the personal
observation, the realm of the documentary and the one of the historical study.
The entire book is composed as a pseudo – documentary record, partly real partly fictional, of
an almost pilgrimage walk along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is the book that uses
movement, time and nature as its key lightmotifs, the elements that, as it would be presented,
figured greatly in the art and culture of the Baroque age.
Sebald commences each of his chapters on the level of the real, tangible, presence, with the
almost topographically precise rendering of a space or a landscape, often underlined with
visual material, that subsequently engenders a personal recollection. The landscape thus
becomes the stage where different pasts, both real and imaginary, cherished or forgotten,
emerge. These recollections are as hybrid and fragmentary as the book itself, they are
constructed out of the fragments of memory and shards of the past that are as real for the
reader as the coastal landscape that the narrator walks through. The hybridity of both form
and content is even more pronounced by Sebald’s use of photographic material in his work.
All the photoes, regardless of their subject matter, have the semblance of the documentary or
archival material. But like the text itself, they are presenting to us a fained authenticity. With
its black and white colouring, the creased and worn surfaces they are created to deceive the
reader in believing them to be the record of the past, to be the proof of veracity.
In such way Sebald manipulates the past in fashion similar, to that of his Baroque
predecessors. Throughout the entire book the reader is left to unravel the level of reality in
Sebald’s work, to discover, as it is the case with many Baroque creations, where history
ceases and imaginary begins.
14
The connection between Sebald’s book and the Baroque aesthetics is not accidental. The
Rings of Saturn is deeply connected with the curious work of a 17th century medic and
philosopher Sir Thomas Browne. It is through both his works Religio Medici and The Urn
Burrial that Sebald makes the constant, if not always explicit, dialogue with the Baroque
aesthetics and we could even say, with Browne himself. Like our writer, Browne was highly
interdisciplinary man of letters both a medic, philosopher and even natural historian who
devoted one of his key works, The Urn Burrial to the ethnographic study of the same territory
Sebald would use in his The Rings of Saturn – the coast and region of Norfolk. Beside other
philosophical concepts present in Browne–s work, the most momentous one is that of the
thoroughly novel sense of space and time with was left to our age as one his most important
legacies. Browne sees the concept of time, as one inseparable temporal plane of eternal
present where different times and spaces co–exist simultaneously. For him, as for Sebald,
there is no past or present just one uninterrupted temporal continuum. Therefore Sebald`s
book ought to be considered as a work of someone who deeply understood Baroque
perception of the world, of the movements through space and time.
3
THE NATURE OF TRANSIENCE
There is one quality, that of transience, which above all else, makes Sebald’s book utterly
Baroque in its worldview. It deals, beyond history, beyond time and nature, with that
perpetual Baroque subject, the fragility of human condition. Sebald sees transience
formulated as destruction, violence, war and terror in all forms that surround him. From the
depths of the forests, under the gentle heather hills, beyond the last lights on the horizon
surfaces a shadow of past destructions.
Such an image of history demonstrates the necessity of the man’s awareness of the past, of
that ever present merging of the temporal fragments that form our consciousness of the world.
It shows, even further, the inevitable inseparability of life and death in the fabric of our
existence. This coexistence of life and death in Sebald’s book mirrors that particular Baroque
obsession with the flickering nature of ourselves.
This concept is visible in that terrifyingly modern epitaph from the tomb of one of the most
powerful man of Baroque age Cardinal AntonioBarberini Here lies body, ashes and nothing.
The idea of death as the end of one’s time might seem quite uncommon for 17th century.
However, the entire notion of fatality was not singular to few poets or highly educated
individuals of the age, but formed an integral part of the then-contemporary perception of
dying, which was a highly intricate one.
It existed between two extremes – the death as annihilation was on one, while the idea of the
good death stood at the other end of the scale. In front of death, although prepared, the man
denounced everything, including himself. It was both the striking self-awareness of the
reality of death, and the Christian belief in the destruction of the body that brought on such
complexity of feeling.
Most of the reflections, in the mirror of time held by Sebald in his The Rings of Saturn, are
those very meditations on brevity of life and fragility of our mortal selves that populate the
culture of the Baroque. The book both commences and ends with the meditation upon death
and departure. It begins with Thomas Browne’s burial, and ends with the departure of the soul
also described by Brown in his Urn Burrial from 1658.
Even the landscape Sebald’s narrator walks though, is the one of transience. The cost of
Norfolk is among the most unstable ones on the British isles, with its lime and sand structure
15
constantly changing and escaping our perception, just like the life itself, just like those
slippery sands of the Baroque hourglasses.
How easily you slip from my hands! /Oh how you slide away years of my life…(de Quevedo)
Fig 1. Anon., Memento mori, oil on panel, 17th century, State Art Collection Belgrade; Photo by author
16
Thus the real and literary landscape in Sebald–s The Rings of Saturn become one, that of
transience. In such a landscape, not only history evidences to the past destructions, but the
land itself is often the image of the slow decay, which is inherent to the very substance of
nature.
The history how that melancholy region came to be, is closely connected not only with the nature of
the soil and the influence of a maritime climate but also, far more decisively, with the steady and
advancing destructions that extended over the British isles after the last Ice Age. (Sebald (1998)
169)
There almost could not be a vista in The Rings of Saturn that is not the reminder of what was,
or the object and the creation of man that was not subject to decay. Every seascape and
crumbling wall, every abandoned house and the pile of driftwood are for Sebald the initiation
to the meditation of our own finity.
It was indeed the Baroque age that first fully explored the landscape of destruction as one of
the main visualisatons of the irreversible power of Time. If one role of time was the
paramount in that period it was the one of the Great Destroyer. The irreversible passage of
time brought destruction and annihilation to the world, and it was most often represented
through the images of vaste land both in poetry and the visual arts. The German poet
Gryphius pointedly expressed his anguish at the all destroying power of time:
Wherever you look, you see nothing but vanity on earth.
What this one builds today will pull down tomorrow.
Where now there are towns, there will bea meadow tomorrow,
where a shepherd’s child will play with flocks.
(…)
The glory of lofty deeds must vanish like a dream. (Gryphius (1975) 187)
The most fitting illustration of the vaste lands of time’s destruction described by Gryphius can
be seen in the works of a Neapolitan sculptor Gaetano Zumbo. He made a series of wax high
relief works that depicted the landscapes of annihilation where Time the Great Destroyer
reigned supreme. In his Trionfo del Tempo he represented the novel sense of transience for
the Medici court in Florence in 1690s. It is a high relief object that opens in front of spectator
an entire world of destruction. In this somber teatro del mondo the allegory of Father Time
himself `draws the curtain` and presents us with the landscape of world swept by time. The
scene of broken pillars and pediments, dead bodies of man women and babies, dilapidated
walls and withering plants trails into the infinite distance of the vista. Time as Death spears
nothing, not even the author himself whose portrait lays under Time`s feet. And as it is, it was
from the beginning of history – pyramids and Roman arches in the distance tell us that even
the greatest empires could not withstand the flight of time. Vivid intensity of both form and
content of this tableau is greatly magnified by the medium it was executed in – wax. Working
in wax had two important advantages – it was malleable, while its colour and texture
resembled that of human flesh. Images created in it were more vivid, more lifelike and thus
more credible to the beholder. Furthermore, in this case, the usage of wax was more than
appropriate – its existence was as ephemeral as the life itself.
But for Sebald, as well as for his Baroque predecessors, the destruction is not only visualised
through allegory and the image of the dying world, it was also connected with flame, the
smoke and the concept of burning and annihilation that the fire stood for. It was Thomas
Browne in his Urn burial who said that Life is pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun
within us (Browne (1658) 49). Browne’s idea is not of burning as the brilliant shining of
17
Providence, or the glow of Divine creation, but that of self-destruction and of the irreversible
process of decay.
The image of burning and smoke spoke eloquently through 17th century poetry and visual
arts. For the Baroque poet Gryphius the man is just but a smoke on strong winds carried, and
for his contemporary poet from Dubrovnik Dživo Buni the fire is a metaphor for the human
life itself: Let us remember that man’s years on earth, re tempest, fire, shadow, mist and
nothing. (Dživo Buni -Vu i , 1640s)
Sebald develops the idea of burning even further as the supreme process of annihilation. In his
book, he reminds us that the destruction of the world and of ourselves lies behind every
principle existing:
Like our bodies and like our desires the machines we have devised are possessed of a heart
which is slowly reduced to embers. From the earliest times, human civilization has been no
more than the strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which none can say
when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away. (Sebald (1998) 170)
It is as if the verses of Baroque poet Gongora echo in the background of Sebald’s sentences:
You hardly be pardoned by the hours,
The hours that keep on wearing ‘way the days.
The days that keep on gnawing ‘way the years. (Gongora (1973) 203)
The time for Gongora, Browne and Sebald is merciless in its unstoppable flight. Its passage
spares and pardons none. Only the waste land remains.
Everything round about rots, decays and sinks into the ground. There are only two seasons: the white
winter and the green winter. (...) In the white winter everything is dead, during the green winter
everything is dying. (Sebald (1998) 105)
It is thus not surprising that Sebald closes his book with the reference to Browne’s treatise in
the Urn burrial and the passage that describes the departing of the soul, not as a voyage to
eternal glory, but as a somber ascent into nothingness. Same nothingness that Cardinal
Barberini understood so well:
... in the Holland of his time (Browne’s) it was customary, in a home where there had been a death, to
drape black mourning ribbons over all the mirrors and all canvases depicting landscapes or people
or the fruits of the field, so that the soul, as it left the body, would not be distracted on its final journey,
either by a reflection of itself or by a last glimpse of the land now being lost for ever. (Sebald (1998)
296)
By the end of The Rings of Saturn, of this book of multiple travels, of perpetual going and
leaving, this final voyage just becomes one of many. Thus, the Baroque sensibility towards
death and time, towards this intertwining of the beginnings and ends in one infinite loop,
precisely complements Sebald’s travels through landscapes of history and destruction.
18
Fig 2. Hall of Mirrors, Villa Pellagonia, 18th century, Photo by author
4
THE LANDSCAPE OF FORGOTTEN PASTS
There was one other role that the 17th century culture endowed upon landscapes – they were
the depository of the collective memory. In that capacity the landscape became the domain of
dual time, where the seen and the remembered, or seen and constructed, constantly coexisted
in one perpetual instant.
The connection between nature and time, which was so crucial for Sebald in his expression of
the landscape of destruction as the emblem of human fragility, has its deep roots in the
perception of nature that was formulated back in the 17th century. In the age when man
began, for the first time in the visual arts, to give the key role to the image of nature,
landscape was one of the media for transporting complex conceptual contents. Thus the
landscape was hardly ever a chosen fragment of nature, a privileged view, it was a significant
vista enriched with respective political, religious or philosophical ideas. It was the ideological
construct, but above all, the depository of different manifestations of temporality. In the
Baroque visions of nature, as in Sebald’s book, the times and spaces stood superimposed upon
each other.
The recorded view of nature served in the landscapes of Claude Lorain, Nicholas Pussin,
Anibale Carracci, Roysdel or Hobbema, only as a stage of different temporal or special
significations. While Claude and Pussin created landscapes that were in their essence the
reflections of Arcadia, of a realm that never have been, their Dutch counterparts used their
depictions of nature for far more mundane purposes, to express the patriotic delight over their
land. Whether it was paradise or the land of patria they strove for, the countryside firmly
remained in the domain of the conceptual.
19
The Baroque time of nature thus, as the time in The Rings of Saturn, was simultaneously the
past and the present, the topography and memory depicted. Nature was used as a tool of
evocation, of enliving the past, whether real or imaginary. Such interaction of the past and
present is evident in those very prospects of land that are made to remind the viewer of the
possession that is now only belonging to memory.
Particularly poignant are vistas of land in those societies whose existence was precarious on
the political map of the early modern Europe. One such example are the landscapes created in
the Archbishopric of Karlovci, a Serbian Orthodox domain that existed in the shadow of the
Habsburg Catholic empire. All the landscapes produced in this particular Baroque centre
(1730s to 1770s) always represented dual temporal and spatial domains. They were, on the
surface, precise topographical renderings of the monastery grounds belonging to the Orthodox
Archbishopric in the Habsburg territory (prints by Orfelin and Žefarovi ). But on closer
analysis of the symbolism used (with references to hills vineyards and woods belonging to
other place and different times) these landscapes became the images of the land that was no
longer. Beside their topographical function, through their symbolism they illustrated the
precise territory that the Serbian people, with their exodus to the Habsburg Empire,
abandoned to the Ottoman occupation. They functioned as symbolic portraits of the past that
was once glorious and now lost forever.
Sebald’s use of landscape is also essentially one of evocation and sometimes even one of
invocation. But it is not the land that matters, it is the past which it evokes, the reflections it
engenders that is the key protagonist of Sebald’s book. His recorded landscape serves as the
literary and visual equivalent of memory, the memory that, like the one emerging from the
visions of nature in the Baroque age, is never an individual subjective recollection, but a
collective memory of the past.
Footsore and weary as I was after my long walk from Lowestoft, I sat down on the bench on the green
called Gunhill and looked out on the tranquil see, from the depths of which the shadows were now
rising...I felt as if I were in a deserted theatre, and should not have been surprised if a curtain had
suddenly risen before me on the proscenium and I had beheld, say, on the 28th of May1672, that
memorable day when the Dutch fleet appeared offshore from out of the drifting mists, with the bright
morning light behind it and opened fire on the English ships in Sole Bay. (Sebald (1998) 76)
The tide was advancing up the river, the water was shinning like a tinplate, and from the radio masts
high above the marches came an even scarcely audible hum. (…) And then through the growing dazzle
of the light in my eyes, I suddenly saw amidst the darkening colours, the sails of the long-vanished
windmills turning heavily in the wind. (Sebald (1998), 237)
The memories of the past submerged, are shattered and fragmentary, appearing in The Rings
of Saturn on surface of the landscape and on surfaces of the pages, vehemently like the
changes of the coastal line of Norfolk.
Over the centuries that followed, catastrophic incursions of the sea into the land of this kind happened
time and again, and, even during long years of apparent calm, coastal erosion continued to take its
natural course. (Sebald (1998), 158)
Moreover the functioning of the remembrance itself, the very process of recollection, is
crucial for the understanding of Sebald’s book. Both its inner and outer structure recall the
pattern of our own invocation of the past whether personal or collective, real or imaginary.
20
The discussion of the principle of remembering is re-occurring, like the memory itself,
randomly but consistently throughout The Rings of Saturn.
But the fact is that writing is the only way in which I am able to cope with the memories which
overwhelm me so frequently and unexpectedly. (...) Memories lie slumbering within us for
months and years, quietly proliferating, until they are woken by some trifle and in strange
way blind us to life. (Sebald (1998), 255)
This very principle of recollection, and the fickle nature of nature itself complement each
other, as they did centuries before in the Baroque images of land. The landscape and memory
are truly united in their very nature of randomness in which they coexist with our own time.
Like meta-spaces of Baroque visions of the past that are embedded in then-contemporary
landscapes, Sebald inscribes both the most diverse and most disturbing parts of the European
history in the land of East Anglia.
5
THE ETERNAL PRESENT
Rings of Saturn is truly a collection of fragments both in the conceptual and formal sense. The
fragments of text and imagery are merged in the same way in which different times and
spaces overlap in Sebald’s narrative. The past and the present do not exist for Sebald in their
usual linear, chronological sequence. They inhabit a mutual space of eternal present that
particular a-temporal domain already defined by the Baroque philosopher Thomas Browne in
his Urn Burial. Thus we could say that Sebald’s time is also Browne’s time, the time that
exists in temporal intersection of our presents and our pasts, forever captured in one atemporal instant.
The Baroque age, to which Browne belonged, brought about new cosmological and
geographical discoveries, it remapped the known, and charted out the new world, and offered,
in exchange for the old dogmatic worldview, a new fragmentary universe. This new vision of
the world was manifested in different visual regimes, in diverse illusionistic pictorial systems,
in the striving for plurality both spatial and temporal.
One could say that Baroque was the time of the eternal moment, it was the moment of action
and even more the moment of passion and emotion. The captured instant as a leitmotif not
only exemplified the Baroque attitude towards time, but also brought on a new relationship
between the beholder and the sacred, or profane, work of art. The chosen instant was always a
vivid, dramatic culmination of the represented narrative that for its very immediacy could
establish a new psychological relation to the audience. The image of the captured moment,
both in the visual arts and literature, ensured a more immediate response to the narrative
presented and the easier identification with its content.
One of the most striking visualizations of Browne’s eternal present is not just one of the
Baroque highly dramatic martyrdoms, but a genre scene by El Greco Boy Lighting a Candle,
now in the Capodimonte museum in Naples. Perceived only on the first level of narrative, El
Greco`s painting seems fairly simple – a young boy is depicted at the moment of blowing on
the ember to light up the candle he holds in his right hand. The image is steeped into darkness,
and the only light illuminating the scene emanates from the glowing ember in the foreground.
The whole image is highly naturalistic that heightens even more the feeling of presence
evoked by the glowing light. His face is full of serious concentration and solemnity that at
first seems out of tune with the commonplace of the scene depicted.
21
However, the action we are dealing with is a complex one. El Greco represents the movement
which seems like a total absence of motion; he depicts a scene that lasts a fraction of a
second, but looks like an illustration of eternity. It is an image where time looks suspended,
almost annihilated.
At the same time, the painter tells us that the motion we perceive is a conceptual perpetuum
mobile – the air the boy produces to create light also makes him visible to us. Invisible air
produces visible light, in the same way that stillness engenders motion. Here the action and
visibility are dependent upon each other. El Greco thus depicts a double time – the swift
almost barely noticeable fraction of the second that the initial action of blowing on the ember
lasts, and the very same moment, now suspended and turned into timelessness. He plays on a
very ambiguous border between the visible and invisible, between the movement and its
suspension in order to treat more profound issues of time, duration and transience.
Sebald’s narrator is not unlike El Greco’s boy, to him only the moment belongs, the moment
that is at once the past and the present, the action and its recollection.
There are indeed moments, as one passes through the rooms open to the public of Somerleyton, when
one is not quite sure whether one is in a country house in Suffolk or some kind of no-man’s land at the
Arctic ocean or in the heart of the dark continent. Nor can one readily say which decade or century it
is, for many ages are superimposed here and coexist. (Sebald (1998) 36)
Sebald’s protagonist is thus similar to a Baroque man, who, standing on the stage of the
world, witnesses, simultaneously in one single instant, the passage of different pieces of real
or imaginary history, the imagery of pasts lost or pasts forgotten. He is, walking along the
coast of Norfolk, also poised on the crossroads of time and encounters those shatters of the
past whose perpetual ambulations form the fragmentary landscape of our own present.
The multiple field of vision that Sebald elegantly uses to surface different pieces of the past in
his book, was one of the key characteristics of the Baroque sense of both space and time. It
could be said that the Baroque aesthetics preferred the visual plurality manifested both in the
multiplicity of picture planes and in the saturation of the visual information offered to the
spectator.
The aesthetic response to the new conception of space as interminable is visible in the diverse
visual forms, but it is at its most poignant in the illusionistic representation of infinite spaces
that decorate the ceilings and domes of Baroque palaces and churches.
Such unification of different temporal and spatial entities is the most elaborate in the Hall of
Mirrors of the Baroque Villa Pellagonia in Sicily. Built in 1715 by one of the richest princes
in Sicily Prince of Baggheria, this villa offers a profoundly novel understanding of
fragmented temporal and spatial realms. Upon entrance to the Hall of Mirrors, situated at the
piano nobile of the villa, a curious space of multiple realities opens up in front of the
spectator. Upon the walls of the room, an imaginary Arcadian garden revolves, while the vast
ceiling is entirely covered with pieces of mirrors of different sizes. On all the walls of the Hall
of Mirrors and in the bottom part of the mirrored ceiling the artist created a fantastic pastoral
world full of fantastic plants and birds, while through the windows of the salon, the view
opens on one of the most lavish and imaginative gardens of the period. There is no longer a
border between the outer and the inner world, between the Arcadian one and the reality. Upon
entering this room the spectator discovers a curious polycentric world, not unlike Sebald’s,
that is a complex unity of different imaginary realms.
22
Although in my dream I was sitting, transfixed with amazement, in the Chinese pavilion, I was
at the same time out in the open, within a foot from the very edge, and knew how fearful it is
to cast one’s eye so low. (Sebald (1998) 174)
Beholding the marvels of Villa Pellagonia the beholder is, if only for an instant, offered a
glimpse of the ideal world of Vergil’s eclogues. While viewing the multiple visions of himself
in the glittering mirrors of the ceiling, he literally participated in that eternal present of
Browne’s. The real and the fictional have been multiplied to the infinity, expanding to the
furthest corners of his field of vision. Like in Sebald’s landscapes, the spectator-reader cannot
not sense any longer the confines of reality, only the limitless world that is both the past and
the present.
The principle of Browne’s eternal present is ultimately manifested in The Rings of Saturn
through the movement of the main protagonist and the reader through the narrative. And that
voyage is personified through the image of the silk and the act of weaving that stands as a
constant although almost invisible, leitmotif of the book.
At its beginning the reader is informed that Browne’s father was a silk merchant, while
Sebald devotes the last chapter to the story of silk production in East Anglia. The last pages of
the book are even covered with the images of silk.
The weaving and spinning of the silk thus becomes a perfect metaphor for The Rings of
Saturn. All the pasts, and all the presents, all our fears and our desires, are united in one
continuous thread that is unraveling in front of us. Just like the irreversible thread of time, or
the thread of life itself.
REFERENCES
[1] Sebald, W. G., The Rings of Saturn, London, Harvill, 1998
[2] Browne, Thomas, Religio Medici, London, 1643.
23
24
WEAVING OF THE MAGIC AND THE REAL: NOTION OF PLACE IN
THE MAGICAL REALIST NOVEL
Jelena Mitrovi
1
Višnja Žugi
2
1
2
Independent scholar (SERBIA)
Teaching Assistant, Department of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
E-mails: mmitrovicjelena@gmail.com, zugic.visnja@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
This paper considers diverse places of the magic realist novels, and the parallels that could be
drawn between the qualities of these imaginary places and the places found in reality.
One of the main characteristics of the magical realism in literature is the overlapping of real
and magical in such a way that the latter is strongly embedded within the known constructions
of the real world. As a result of the interaction of these two contradictory realms, a field of
tension arises and becomes the fertile ground for impossible situations – thus allowing the
merge of the magical and real. The element of magic is anchored in history and mythology,
enabling its connection to the realm of the real (Faris). Therefore, in these novels, places filled
with layers of meaning are built. The main reason behind the allure of the magic realism is
precisely the fact that the strong interweaving of the elements of magic and the reality bears
the main role in delivering the narrative of the novel to the reader.
Through thorough analysis of the places in novels The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende,
and The Green Mile by Stephen King, this paper will establish which qualities of real places
got a further upgrade through the novel, and the way they influence the characters and the
readers of the novel. It is presupposed that understanding these qualities can lead to further
improvements of spatial imagination and spatial design practices.
Keywords: space and event, magic realism, spatial narrative, spatial imagination, spatial
design, liminal space, spectacle
1
INTRODUCTION
A number of different definitions of magic realism exist in the literary theory and critique;
therefore, a vast majority of works are either included or excluded as members of the genre.
The main discussion refers to the nature of the magic found in the novels. For the purpose of
this paper, one of the main recognized characteristics of magic realism is the act of finding the
marvellous in the real world, and portraying it as a quotidian element. The element of magic
is tightly embedded within the known constructions of the real world. It is for this precise
reason that novels belonging to this genre offer complex and imaginative spatial descriptions.
The importance of place in delivering the narrative to the reader inspires further research on
this subject. This paper will concentrate on recognizing the methods used in building these
places, its ambient and morphological qualities, and the ways these places influence the
characters and the readers of the novel. The theoretical framework for this research consists,
on the one hand, of essays exploring magic realism as a literary genre, from a critical
standpoint, and on the other hand, of theories related to the art history and architectural
theory. The paper offers a comparative analysis of the places in the novel The House of the
Spirits by Isabel Allende, and The Green Mile by Stephen King, first of which belongs to the
magic realist genre, and the second to the genre of fantasy. A closer understanding of the
25
aspects of places important for the novel is considered a starting point in developing methods
for the improvement of spatial imagination, and spatial design practices.
2
MAGIC REALIST PLACE AND SPATIAL IMAGINATION
Klaske Havik, from the University of Delft, in her dissertation Urban Literacy proposes the
use of the literary methods in spatial design practices [1]. She mentions magic realism as a
genre that offers a different perspective on the nature of real space – finding the marvellous in
the everyday – and that the lessons learned from the places in the novel could be useful in
spatial design.
Spatial imagination is politically and culturally specific, “it is the process through which
social groups work out the relation between social and physical phenomena, establishing links
between bodily attributes of people, objects, and other sensory attributes such as sound, smell,
and the nonphysical dimensions of ideas and ideals” [2]. Peg Rawes and Jane Rendell from
the Bartlett School of Architecture claim that in the current architectural discourse the spatial
imagination is seen as something arbitrary and frivolous, even though it is an important factor
in understanding the cultural, social and historical value of the built environment, and that the
sensory relationship with space derives from this ability [3]. In the workshops they organize,
students have a task to write stories about space, thus exploring the potential of the
overlapping of the real and the imaginary - „our nascent interests in how imagined space
exists simultaneously and dialectically with real space“[3].
The concept of spatial imagination, defined in this manner, emphasizes the role of space as a
social phenomenon, and the fact that each place is imbued with a set of values dependent on
its social and political context. Theo D’Haen, in his essay Magic realism and postmodernism:
decentering privileged centers, explains the social role of the element of magic, as a way of
giving a voice to the socially marginalized groups, excluded from the main historical
discourse: „My argument would be that magic realist writing achieves this end by first
appropriating the techniques of the "centr"-al line and then using these not, as is the case with
these central movements, "realistically," i.e. to duplicate existing reality as perceived by the
theoretical or philosophical tenets underlying said movements, but rather to create an
alternative world correcting so-called existing reality, and thus to right the wrongs this
"reality" depends upon“ [4]. Magic therefore, can be considered as a vessel for specific values
of the novel.
The element of magic, as it is previously stated, is firmly rooted in the elements of the real
world. Wendy Faris divides these irreducible elements of magic as the magic tied to the
landscape, and the magic tied to the characters [5]. The fact that the magic is often tied to
specific places, its qualities and meaning, is precisely the reason why the place of magic
realism is seen as rich in potential for the development of spatial imagination. Overlapping of
the real and the magical – juxtaposing two contradictory worlds, has the effect of “disturbing
the received ideas of time, space and identity” [5]. This effect is a result of a careful use of a
number of methods employed in the writing process.
3
BUILDING OF THE MAGIC – WRITING METHODS
Writing methods recognized as important for the research in this paper are:
1. Lack of explanation of the unusual events by the narrator. Magical events are not
considered as in need of a further explanation;
2. Strong presence of the phenomenal world in the novel [5];
3. Magic is anchored in a place, or in a landscape [5];
26
4. There exists a strong demarcation between the place with magical properties and the
rest of the space – “the text contains a physical boundary (border), that facilitates the
magic behind the real”[6];
5. The presence of ghosts “as residual elements of past ideals” [6];
6. The existence of folktales “as a grounding element to counterbalance the magic in the
text”[6].
All of these methods, especially the lack of explanation of unusual events – considering
magic as something just about as real as anything else leads the reader toward inventing his
own story in order to find a coherent explanation and fill in the gaps left by the narrator. It is
right here where the connection can be made with the other theoretical perspective important
for this research – the notions of liminal space, and the spectacle in baroque society.
4
LIMINAL SPACE AND THE MARVELLOUS
Liminal space is defined by Miljana Zekovic as “an active, dynamic, uneven and unstable
space created in synergy of real architectural space, an actual artistic/performative event that
takes place in this space and the ability of the spectator to feel, recognise and employ all
relations that occur in the given space-time framework, leading to full experience of the
artistic vision“[7]. Forming of a liminal space is, therefore, a precondition for a complete
understanding of a work of art. Zekovic further defines liminal space as “any type of space
occurring in the real space-time continuum that provides a spectator with an illusion of the
Great Idea, spanning beyond its limits“[7]. As it is previously stated, the experience of
reading a magical realist novel requires the reader to invent his own story, compensating for
the lack of explanation. This inventing of a story can be seen as an attempt at finding out the
Great Idea, the existence of which is suggested and felt throughout the novel. In the light of
understanding the concept of liminal space, the role of a spatial framework given in the novel
is recognized more profoundly. Spatial references of virtual places built in the novel, strongly
connected to the morphology of places found in the real world, become a starting point for the
further imagination and development of these virtual places by the reader.
The substantial role of place, in delivering values of the event to the audience is marked by
Jelena Todorovic in her research of the concept of spectacle in baroque society. The role of
spectacle is forming of an image of the ideal state [8]. Todorovic recognizes that “there has
always existed a need for the event itself to be raised above the domain of the real, and to be,
for the sake of perpetuation and celebration of power, seated in the domain of eternal,
mythical and imaginary”[8]. This is achieved through the forming of the liminal space.
“Being a scene event, spectacle necessarily implies the unity of time, space and event”[8]. It
is precisely this unity that enables the forming of a liminal space – and therefore delivering, in
this case, political values, to the audience. Todorovic furthermore categorizes the time and
space, as found in the building of a spectacle. Spectacle uses present time, past time, and the
timelessness. The past evokes the ideal world, the one that was lost, and the one whose return
is seen as a projection of an ideal future of one state [8]. The existence of ghosts, “as residual
elements of past ideals” [6] is already recognized as one of the writing methods for the magic
realist novel. It can be concluded that the presence of the past time is an important factor in
the forming and delivering the narrative of the magical realist novel to the reader. The
timelessness in the spectacle is evoked through the metaphors of Heaven, in order to represent
the ideal government as something utopian and therefore eternal, and celebrated as such [8].
The timelessness is also found in the magical realist novel where it is evoked through
mythology, with the idea of grounding magic, of offering a world where magic is not only
possible but completely quotidian. The timelessness in the spectacle and in the magic realist
27
novel therefore share a similar purpose – the purpose of enabling a specific world-view
removed from reality, and projected in the domain of the imaginary, where certain values, in
the first case of the government, and in the second case the author, are housed and delivered.
“The places of spectacle necessarily bear a vast symbolic weight, they are the symbols of the
grounding and legitimization of power [8].” Jelena Todorovic refers to these places as
ceremonial spaces, and she distinguishes three categories of these spaces: “the unchangeable
spaces that, in every society, become the focus of the society spectacle (church/temple,
residence), the spaces that always change and belong to the territory of the city, and
metaceremonial spaces” [8]. Metaceremonial spaces are spaces that do not exist in reality –
their existence is on a conceptual level, “they are the ones containing the projection of the
ideal, they are the ellipse that transfers the narrative of the spectacle in the past and in the
future time” [8]. “The domains of these spaces are symbolic and emblematic – from labyrinth,
through the rebus and palindrome, heraldic and symbolic landscape [8].” Metaceremonial
spaces can carry multiple meaning, more so than other ceremonial spaces, and that is the
reason why this conceptual spatial category is recognized as important in discussing the
nature of spaces found in the magical realist novel. This research states that the places filled
with magic in these novels actually belong to the domain of metaceremonial spaces. Virtual
spaces built in these novels are built not only for the purpose of giving a setting for the
characters. The fact that the place is often the vessel for magic supports the claim that one of
the roles of the place is to contain layers of meaning and values. Part of the values and
meaning are previously loaded by the author, and the other part is added by the reader. This
paper, therefore, states that the novels of magic realist genre enable reading in spatial values
more so than the novels belonging to other genre such is, for example, the fantastic genre.
5
PLACE IN THE NOVEL
In order to support this claim, this paper offers a comparative analysis of two examples. The
first example, as previously said, is the novel House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and the
second example is the novel The Green Mile, written by Stephen King. The first novel
belongs to the genre of magic realism, and the second one to the fantastic genre. All of the
writing methods mentioned in the third chapter can be recognized in the House of the Spirits.
The author builds spaces filled with magical attributes. While it contains the elements of
magic, however, The Green Mile does not belong to the genre of magic realism. Nevertheless,
King creates strong and elaborate spatial descriptions and sets a detailed scene for the events
of the novel to take place. This is the reason behind choosing The Green Mile for the
comparative analysis. Through the juxtaposition of these two examples, the qualities of the
magic realist novel that support the claim of this paper will be recognized and elaborated
more clearly. The difference in genre results in the different treatment of time and space in
these novels, which are analysed as important for the creation of the specific experience of the
novel.
In the House of the Spirits, the place that holds the magic is the big house at the corner
belonging to the Trueba family. The following passage of the novel gives one of the most
inspiring spatial descriptions:
„He could hardly guess that that solemn, cubic, dense, pompous house, which sat like a hat
amid its green and geometric surroundings, would end up full of protuberances and
incrustations, of twisted staircases that led to empty spaces, of turrets, of small windows that
could not be opened, doors hanging in mid-air, crooked hallways, and portholes that linked
the living quarters so that people could communicate during the siesta, all of which were
Clara's inspiration. Every time a new guest arrived, she would have another room built in
28
another part of the house, and if the spirits told her that there was a hidden treasure or an
unburied body in the foundation, she would have a wall knocked down, until the mansion was
transformed into an enchanted labyrinth that was impossible to clean and that defied any
number of state and city laws“[9].
The house is dual in its essence – it has a strong, clear face presented to the world, within
which a complicated labyrinth is built. The contrast between the never changing facade and
the ever-changing interior further emphasizes the labyrinthine structure. The morphology of
the interior space is not completely known even to the inhabitants of the house. The
labyrinthine structure is also present at the level of certain rooms: “His bedroom was a tunnel
of books, the walls covered from floor to ceiling with shelves full of volumes no one ever
dusted because he always locked his door; they made a perfect nest for spiders and mice [9]“.
Magic in the novel is represented through ghosts of the ancestors, that haunt the entire house,
and that to an extent communicate with the protagonists of the novel. During the time the
house is almost empty, after the death of Clara, the ghosts are seen as a remainder of the time
of the prosperity of the house and the family. The big house at the corner is therefore an
enchanted labyrinth, haunted by ghosts, and therefore it belongs to the domain of
metaceremonial space. Labyrinth, as a symbol, carries multiple meaning, and presenting it as
an actual inhabited place, is only possible in the virtual space of the novel. A characteristic of
the morphology of the labyrinth is the incomprehensibility of its structure. This quality is
further emphasized through the existence of ghosts as its integral part. As a result of this, the
reader of the novel is not only invited but compelled to create his own spatial image of the
places the characters of the novel inhabit.
In The Green Mile, Stephen King writes a detailed description of the E Block, at the Cold
Mountain prison, called The Green Mile: “The wide corridor up the centre of E Block was
floored with linoleum the colour of tired old limes, and so what was called the Last Mile at
other prisons was called the Green Mile at Cold Mountain. It ran, I guess, sixty long paces
from south to north, bottom to top. At the bottom was the restraint room. At the top end was a
T-junction. A left turn meant life-if you called what went on in the sun baked exercise yard
life, and many did; many lived it for years, with no apparent ill effects (...) A right turn,
though - that was different“[10]. The description goes on and sets the entire layout of the E
Block for the reader. King not only explains the morphology of the places, he also
concentrates on the ambient qualities of space, such as light, temperature and sound:
“Outside, the wind gusted again. In the angles formed by the beams, cobwebs shook in
feathery drafts, like rotted lace. Never had I been in a place that felt so nakedly haunted (...)“
[10]. He creates a clear setting for the events of the novel. The magic of the novel is however,
tied to the character, and not to the place. It is also treated as something extraordinary, which
classifies the novel as the fantasy genre. Seeing magic as something unusual, and performed
as such by a single character in the novel, enables the reader to understand this magic as an
extraordinary occurrence in the laws of the everyday. Therefore, the reader is not compelled
to find a way of reconciling two contradictory world views. Decisive, determined spatial
descriptions are found in this novel. While they offer a chance to imagine and feel the
atmosphere of places, its completely finished structure does not require further explanation by
the reader.
6
CONCLUSION
The interest in analysing places in literature derives from the obvious fact that the logic
behind building a place of the novel is very different than the logic behind building physical
places. The utilitarian function of the place of the novel is not considered – the main interest
is not how these places function when inhabited, but how they reflect the characters, or
29
deliver the specific atmosphere the author has in mind. The function of places in the novel is
carrying certain values and meaning, and bringing them closer to the reader. Therefore,
analysing the methods used in building these specific atmospheres can offer an instruction on
how to engage other qualities of real places. The question asked in this paper is whether
certain genres of literature can prove to be more inspiring in this matter than others. Through
the juxtaposition of two examples, a statement that magic realist novel is more suitable in this
task is confirmed. This comparative analysis also pointed out the main difference in writing
methods between these different genres responsible for the ways created places engage with
the reader.
The main characteristic of the treatment of place in magic realist novel is the fact that it is
given on a conceptual level. The exact structure of these places, therefore, creates a feeling of
incompletion. Morphology of these places involves the use of symbols (metaceremonial
space), that are already imbued with a certain amount of meaning. Places with foreshadowed
structure, with specific atmosphere derived from embedded values, create a strong ground for
the reader to individually imagine and consequently complete these places. Therefore, the first
line of further research on this subject can help in the forming of teaching methods engaged in
the development of the spatial imagination.
It is not only the treatment of space that is responsible for the overall effect on the reader. The
existence of magic, reflected, as it was already explained, through the treatment of time
(ghosts, mythology), acts as a destabilizing factor for the reader – he is compelled to actively
engage while reading the novel, in order to explain the unexplainable. When the magical
aspect is explained by the narrator, the complete active immersion of the reader does not
occur. The treatment of space in the novel, therefore, cannot be discussed without the
treatment of time. Both are equally important.
Magic realist novel influences the reader through the forming of liminal space – the unity of
space and time in the novel and the act of reading, using methods similar to the methods
engaged in building baroque spectacle. This can be the basis for the understanding of the
manipulative power of space. Fuller grasp of these potentials, achieved through analysis of
literary places, points out to all of the means that could and must be engaged in order to
influence the observer/inhabitant in a certain way. This leads to the second line of the possible
further research, which consists of developing methods that would enable a deeper
understanding of the complexity of space as a phenomenon, and improving the ways it is used
in spatial design practices.
REFERENCES
[1] Havik, Klaske. 2012. Urban Literacy: A Scriptive Approach to the Experience, Use and Imagination of
Place. PhD dissertation, TU Delft.
[2] Chattopadhyay, Swati. 2014. Architectural History and Spatial Imagination. Perspectives on History.
Available at American Historical Association website. Accessed 10.10.2015.
http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2014/architecturalhistory-and-spatial-imagination
[3] Rendell, Jane and Rawes, Peg. 2007. Spatial Imagination. In Tom Inns (ed.) Designing for the 21st Century,
205- 218. London: Gower Ashgate.
30
[4] D’Haen, Theo L. 1995. Magic Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers. In Lous
Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris (eds) Magical realism: theory, history and community, 191-208.
Duke University Press.
[5] Faris, Wendy B. 1995. Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction. In Lous
Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris (eds) Magical realism: theory, history and community, 163-190.
Duke University Press.
[6] Wills, Ashley Carol. 2006. Borderlands of Magical Realism: Defining Magical Realism Found in Popular
and Children's Literature. San Marcos: Texas State University.
[7] Zekovi , Miljana. 2014. Liminal Space in Art: the (in)security of our own vision, in Dramatic Architectures:
Places of Drama - Drama for Places Conference proceedings, (eds.) Jorge Palinhos and Maria-Helena
Maia, Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo CESAP/ESAP, Porto, 2014. 70-82.
[8] Todorovi , Jelena. 2010. Entitet u senci: mapiranje mo i i državni spektakl u Karlova koj Mitropoliji. Novi
Sad: Platoneum
[9] Allende, Isabel. 1986. The House of the Spirits. New York: Bantam Books
[10] King, Stephen. 2010. Zelena milja. Beograd: Alnari.
31
32
THE INVERTED VIEW: OF CRYSTALS, MIRRORS, AND GLOBES
Matthew Teismann
University of Technology Sydney (AUSTRALIA)
Faculty of Design, Architecture, and Building
Matthew.teismann@uts.edu.au
Abstract
One month after the opening of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry in London in
1851, one of the most compelling purpose-built panoramas was erected by cartographer
James Wyld in Leicester Square. Known as the Monster Globe, this gigantic hollow sphere
depicted land formations in colour relief on its surface: a georama. The globe is inverted,
however, so that the exterior surface of the earth is conveyed on the interior surface of the
hollow sphere. Before the invention of the georama there were no cartographic means, either
through map or model, to achieve a representation of a singular connected surface of the
earth. Transcending traditional cartographic means, the Monster Globe represented emerging
spatial conceptions, which subsequently enabled new spatial perceptions - evident in the allseeing allegorical gaze of the map: an inverted view.
Keywords: Monster Globe, Georama, Architectural Theory, Nineteenth-Century Empires,
Allegory, Great Exhibition
1
INVERSION OF THE GLOBE
In the afternoon of May 29, 1851, members of the London press were invited to visit a
curious new building in the center of Leicester Square. The guided tour of the construct, a
gigantic globe over sixty feet in diameter, was orchestrated by cartographer James Wyld.
Opening only three days later to members of the public, most of whom were visiting London
to attend the Great Exhibition, the globe was the largest model of the earth ever constructed.
A georama - the globe is inverted so that the exterior surface of the earth is conveyed on the
interior surface of the hollow sphere. First named the Monster Globe by The Observer, it
stood in Leicester Square for a little more than ten years, and was called ‘one of the most
interesting and perfect geographical monuments that has ever been constructed in any
country.’ [1]
Dismantled and never rebuilt, the Monster Globe was a cartographic experiment that
eradicated representational limitations of the spherical Earth. Although the largest and most
detailed of its kind, Wyld’s Monster Globe was not, however, the first georama, nor was the
notion of an inverted globe first conceived in 1851.
33
Fig. 1. Section of Monster Globe 1851-1862, Illustrated News London, 1857 June.
1.1
Birth of the Georama
Twenty-five years earlier Charles Delanglard opened a georama in Paris, which offered a
panoramic view of the earth’s surface from an interior center. Delanglard was the first to use
the term georama, defining the inverted globe as a ‘machine with which it embraces almost at
a glance the entire surface of the earth.’ [2] Forty-feet in diameter and an initial success, it
was soon eclipsed by the Monster Globe of London in 1851.
Wyld’s Monster Globe, however, has largely been forgotten. Relatively unknown and
understudied, the few mentions one finds treats it as either failed spectacle or merely an
episodic instance in the larger trend of exhibitions occurring at that time. Its importance,
however, lies elsewhere as a symptom of an emerging imperial construct.
James Wyld’s ambitious scheme to respatialize human perception originates in an equally
ambitious Great Exhibition of 1851. The Monster Globe and Crystal Palace form part of a
nineteenth-century movement that sociologist Tony Bennett calls ‘the exhibitionary complex.’
[3] Similar to the Great Exhibition’s role to promote British manufacturing, the Monster
Globe likewise promoted the British Empire through what I have called allegory.
I am contending that the concomitant Monster Globe - although not as important as the Great
Exhibition - deserves closer scrutiny because of the formal way it allows us to understand its
episteme. With expanding imperial trade routes, transatlantic telecommunication, and the
daguerreotype process of photo-production, the mid-nineteenth century is a moment in history
that allowed a radical new way of thinking, and subsequently seeing, to emerge. In other
words, the earth-in-the-round could be realized cohesively, which Wyld mapped and
modelled in the Monster Globe.
34
To understand the Monster Globe’s lineage, however, this story must begin more than a halfcentury earlier in a small room of the Pennsylvania State House on June 19, 1787. It was here,
now known as Independence Hall, delegates of the Constitutional Convention debated the
legislative structure of the United States - the first colony to achieve independence from the
most powerful empire the world has ever seen. That same day more than 3,500 miles away in
London, a Specification Patent was granted to Robert Barker, then known only as a portrait
painter, for what would become the world’s first 360 degree panorama. [4]
It wasn’t until seven years after the granted patent, however, that Barker was able to construct
the circular building. Opening in Leicester Square in 1794 Barker introduced the emergence
of a new architectural type: panorama. Built according to its purpose, it was designed to
achieve illusion in two perfunctory ways: by removing limitations on painting size, and
eliminating its frame. [5]
Wyld’s Monster Globe and Barker’s Panorama are part of a larger group of architectural
projects characterized by the way in which things on display becomes the display itself. [6]
This genre, of which the Monster Globe is a particular type - a georama - narrates an image
though the gaze, and I will therefore refer to them as optica. The aim of optica was ‘nothing
less than to deceive observers into believing that they were in the presence of the authentic.’
[7]
As such, this genre is traceable back to knowledge of perspective and the science of
amorphism, which through prescribed viewpoints created a hyper-realism. This new way of
seeing is symptomatic of a nineteenth -century interest in what Peter Sloterdijk calls an ‘art of
immersion.’ Immersion for Sloterdijk is the deep engagement with an artificial environment,
usually assisted by technological apparatus, as a means of developing a narrative within its
given structure. Describing its process and effects, he argues that:
“A core aspect of artificial immersion, as a phenomenon, is the potential replacement of
whole environments.... Immersion as a method unframes images and vistas, dissolving the
boundaries with their environment.” [8]
That is to say, an immersive act conflates the real with its representation to enhance the
illusion of both. This description led Sloterdijk to conclude that immersion originated in
panoramas in the early nineteenth-century. [9] From panorama to diorama to georama, optica
operate through three progressive strata of narrative to produce a corresponding conception or
knowledge: image, rhetoric, and allegory.
2
AN INTRODUCTION TO ARCHITECTURAL ALLEGORY
Barker’s panorama exhibits image in its raw form. Annihilating the constrictions of a framed
picture, the Panorama literally manifests a flat, albeit curved, image, where all locations are
merely equal points on a surface in relation to the viewer. In its de-framing it frames a new
way of seeing, not a linear perspective, but a pan-perspective view, or pan•o•rama (view of
the whole). From a singular viewpoint the panorama moves beyond the framed picture to
relationships we can’t see without it.
If the image is arrayed, yet static, its refinement is a rhetorical narrative where the art is
discursive. Considered more a theatre than a painting, Louis Daguerre developed the diorama
at the time when he was an established theatrical set-designer. He would later become one of
the fathers of photography with his invention of the Daguerreotype. [10] Daguerre eclipsed
the limited ability of the panorama by bringing a painting to life.
35
A purpose-built edifice, the diorama surpassed mere representational image through rhetorical
engagement. Telling a particular story, the diorama melds independent paintings into a single
representation. The intrinsically complex mechanical apparatus hidden behind the scene is
exemplar of its illusion. The effect was so subtle and finely rendered that both critics and the
public were astounded, believing they were looking at a natural scene. [11] If the innate
limitation of panoramas is their static immovability, the diorama uses exaggerated display
through time to make its image more compelling. The diorama persuades the visitor what they
are seeing is not only real, but really happening.
The panorama gives us a surface-level image of an event, static and unchanging. The diorama
narrates the scene through predicated rhetoric. The diorama has two stages; it has a picture
and it actively narrates the event. The georama needs a third step. It is itself a type, a globe,
that we construct the story about, and then we have to construct a story about the story, which
is the allegory. The allegory, therefore, has three stages. Whereas metaphor is a kind of dyad,
allegory is a triad - the media itself switches.
Absent of superficial representation the allegory is only conceivable as a trace in the actual
image. [12] Allegory is expressionless. In other words, it is neither an ontic entity nor does it
represent one. [13] At first only available through a glimpse, or an oblique, once read the
allegory supersedes the medium of image and overwrites its accompanying rhetoric.
The Monster Globe instantiates these allegorical conditions. While it requires the image of the
map to communicate, the Monster Globe’s allegory is not directly visible, but only attainable
through the perfomativity of the reflected imperial gaze. To fully realize how an allegory
operates, therefore, we must understand its non-representational aspect. For that, we need the
postulations of Foucault & Latour.
2.1
Latour’s Oligopticon and Non-Representational Power
While the allegory culminates a three-phase progression of narrative from panorama, diorama,
to georama, there is another internal movement that operates laterally. Non-representational,
this anachronistic lateral movement is analogous to Foucault’s description of architecture as a
diagram of political power mechanisms. An unformed action of cause and effectual relations,
the diagram is an invisible social, cultural, and idiosyncratic force that acts within a
predominately closed system. [14] Whereas the vertical progression of narrative is
representational, its companion lateral movement of the diagram is inherently not
representable.
If we are to claim that the Monster Globe operates allegorically, we need to position it at the
intersection of this bidirectional movement between representation and diagram. To do so, we
will need the assistance of another architectural provocation, Bruno Latour’s oligopticon. In
contradistinction with Foucault’s appropriation of Bentham’s Panopticon, in Reassembling
the Social Latour claims that he is ‘not looking for utopia but rather places on earth that are
fully assignable.’ [15]
36
Fig. 2. Comparison between the original scheme by Mr. Welch and the scheme as built by Mr. Abraham. Top:
The Builder, Vol. ix, No-426 April 1851. Below: ‘Wyld’s Great Globe’ by Thomas H. Shepherd.
37
Rather than all-seeing, the oligopticon sees too little. In its narrow views, however, the
oligopticon suggests the entirety of a connected whole. [16] Like Foucault’s diagram, the
oligopticon intuits a distant allegorical potential but does not, however, show it to us. By its
very nature the oligopticon is incapable of representing allegory, as the oligopticon itself is
unrepresentable. The oligopticon does not look like anything. It is neither visible nor
representable. Latour, therefore, hints at an allegory with his oligopticon, but does not
actualize one. The Monster Globe, on the other hand, makes the latent allegory attainable.
Both Latour and Sloterdijk fail to realize that the georama, like the cells of the Panopticon,
offers glimpses into an imperial power structure. This system of control, while hidden from
view is nevertheless omnipresent through the imperial gaze of the map.
Projects like Barker’s panorama or Wyld’s Monster Globe are both spatially and socially
formed. They mirror structural relations embodied in panopticism, yet their representational
narratives allow a visual transmission of power through exhibition. [17] The Monster Globe is
not merely a geological map. Transcribed through Beverly’s paint and plaster is an allegorical
foundation of a global framework itself.
As the Chambers Edinburgh Journal concludes, the Monster Globe was the ‘finest
representation of our earth, unique in its design, unparalleled in its magnitude, and
unsurpassed in its accuracy. In fact, since the world was a world it has never contained such a
portrait of itself.’ [18] Before the invention of the georama there were no cartographic means,
either through map or model, to achieve a representation of a singular connected surface of
the earth. Mapping the world created the world anew.
2.2
Conclusion
As shown in this paper, the Monster Globe not only represents changing conditions in the
bidirectional dialogue between representation and diagram, but also produces them ontologically - through spatial allegory. The Monster Globe doesn’t just offer an allegory. It
offers the allegory - the most important one - that of existential space in our contemporary
global condition. Contemporary architecture can learn from the Monster Globe, insofar as it
is possible to meld physical and existential space through allegory. The Monster Globe does
just that. It allegorizes ontologically. The claim is that architecture, while not causing
globalization, gives an emergent spatial condition shape - both representational and illegible through its type. Like Sloterdijk’s existential spherical enclosures, the Monster Globe is an
architectural construct with spatial provocations.
REFERENCES
[1] ‘Mr. Wyld’s Monster Globe’, The Observer, (London), Feb. 9, 1851, p.7.
[2] C.F.P. Delanglard, brevet n° 1779 du 25 mars 1822, et n° 2555 du 3 février 1825. Cité par L. Mannoni: Le
Grand Art de la lumière et de l’ombre: archéologie du cinéma, (Paris: Nathan-Université, 1944) p. 176
[3] Tony Bennett, ‘The Exhibitionary Complex’ in Thinking About Exhibitions, Greenburg, Reesa (ed.), (New
York: Routledge, 1996) p. 82.
[4] Richard Daniel Altick, The Shows of London (Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1978) p. 129.
38
[5] Richard Daniel Altick, The Shows of London (Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1978) p. 133.
[6] Thomas Markus, Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types
(Routledge, 1993) p. 213.
[7] Thomas Markus, Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types
(Routledge, 1993) p. 214.
[8] Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Architecture As an Art of Immersion’, orIginally published as ‘Architektur als
Immersionskunst’ in Arch+, 178 (June 2006), p. 105.
[9] Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Architecture As an Art of Immersion’, originally published as ‘Architektur als
Immersionskunst’ in Arch+, 178 (June 2006), p. 105.
[10] Richard Daniel Altick, The Shows of London (Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1978) p. 163.
[11] Lambourne, Lionel, Victorian Painting, (London: Phaidon Press, 1999) p. 156.
[12] Richard Wolin, Walter Benjamin, An Aesthetic of Redemption, (New York: Columbia University Press,
1982) pp. 66-67.
[13] Richard Wolin, Walter Benjamin, An Aesthetic of Redemption, (New York: Columbia University Press,
1982) p. 64.
[14] Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, (University of Minnesota Press, 1988).
[15] Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social (Oxford University Press, 2007) p. 181.
[16] Richard Wolin, Walter Benjamin, An Aesthetic of Redemption, (New York: Columbia University Press,
1982) p. 64.
[17] Tony Bennett, ‘The Exhibitionary Complex’ in Thinking About Exhibitions, Greenburg, Reesa (ed.), (New
York: Routledge, 1996) p. 83.
[18] Robert Chambers, & Wiliiam Chambers, ‘The Great Globe Itself’, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, New
Series (Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers), August 23, 1851, p. 118.
39
40
SPACES OF DE- AND RETERRITORIALIZATION IN ROBERT
WILSON’S OPERA “EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH“ (1979)
Željka Pješivac1
1
Research Fellow, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (Serbia)
zeljkapjesivac@gmail.com
Abstract
In opposition to logocentric and mimetic concepts of space of traditional theater, and
autonomous space-time concepts of modernist theater, postmodern space-time concepts of
theater are constructed around intertextual (inter-theatrical) usage, transitions and
transformations of various texts of society, culture and arts. Exactly, space-time concepts of
Robert Wilson’s opera “Einstein on the Beach” are one of the paradigmatic examples of
(inter)textual concepts of postmodern theater, culture and society that are based on the
negative that is relative deterritorialization. In other words, with the artistic forms of iteration,
deterritorialization and reterritorialization, the postmodern opera “Einstein on the Beach”
produces chaos out of an order, that is, textualization of space that destroys expressive
(expressible) function of the structuralist regime of signs. The theoretical starting point is to
be found in the works of: Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Julia Kristeva, Émile Benveniste,
Benoit Mandelbrot and Kenneth Wilson.
Keywords: frame, territory, chaos, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, Einstein on the
Beach
1.
ROBERT WILSON: FRAME, TERRITORY, CHAOS
Robert Wilson’s theater is exemplary theater of frames and framing. It does not aspire to
successful recognition of a picture, some glorious narrative (which would correspond to the
motif of theatrical presence; mimetic, expressive and linear theater), but to the lived theatrical
presence of body gestures and forms of movements. Frame belongs to the image, architecture
is also an art of framing. A bit like baroque art, everything begins and ends here - with
framing. Even there, where Wilson leaves classical frame of stage, Wilson immediately
creates a frame of light, space and sound (as for example, in Persephone, at the open Delphic
stadium, where the upper part of the ancient race field, where the play was performed, was
split into fields and bands of light, resulting in the appearance of a framing system1). Wilson’s
strategy of multiplication of framed theater means enables that every detail gets its own
exhibition value. Framing effects are produced, for example, by special lighting surrounding
the bodies, by geometrical fields of light defining their places on the floor, by the sculptural
precision of the gestures and the heightened concentration of the actors.2 A sudden walk, a
raised hand, a turn of head, raise as phenomena in a new visibility. A non-hierarchical
succession of phenomena is connected with their excessive precision and framing which
emphasize, highlight and point out, a bit like in the tradition of Classicism, New Objectivity
(Neue Sachlichkeit), Surrealism, and above all, Baroque aesthetics emphasized (especially in
painting and architecture) by framing within the framing.
1
2
Hans Thies Lehman, Postdramsko kazalište, Zagreb-Beograd: CDU, TkH, 2004
Ibid., p. 151
41
In Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s terms, the frame is what establishes ‘territory’ out of
Chaos. “The frame is thus the first construction, the corners, of the plane of composition. With
no frame or boundary there can be no territory, and without territory there may be objects or
things but not qualities that can become expressive, that can intensify and transform living
bodies. Territory here may be understood as surfaces of variable curvature or inflection that
bear upon them singularities, eruptions, or events.”3 Territory exists when rhythm has its
expressivity. Territory is defined with the acts of territorialization, but also, it is inseparable
from certain coefficients of deterritorialization.4
In opposition to territorialization, that is in paradoxical metaphysics of Deleuze and Guattari
connected to the acts of rhythm that become expressive or to the components of milieu that
become qualitative, deterritorialization is in relationship with movements of transition.
Deterritorialization is the movement by which one leaves the territory5, where territory could
be system of any kind: conceptual, linguistic, social, affective. Conversely, reterritorialization
refers to the ways on which deterritorialized elements are recombined and enters into new
relations in constitution of a new assemblage or modification of the old. Systems of any kind
always involve ‘vectors of deterritorialization’, while deterritorialization is always
‘inseparable from correlative retteritorialization’6. Deterritorialization can have negative or
positive form. It is negative when the deterritorialized element is subjected to
reterritorialization that obstructs or limits its lines of flight. Among regimes of signs, the
signifying regime attains a high level of deterritorialization, but because it simultaneously sets
up the whole system of reterritorialization on the signifier and on the signified.7 As in this
case, reterritorialization blocks the lines of flight, it is about negative deterritorialization.
Deterritorialization is positive, when the lines of flight prevail over the forms of
reterritorialization and when it manages to connect itself with the other deterritorialized
elements in the way that continues its trajectories or even leads to reterritorialization creating
a completely new assemblage. Among regimes of signs, Deleuze and Guattari state the
subjective regimes of signs with its passionate and conscious deterritorialization that is
positive (but only in a relative sense of meaning). These two major forms of
deterritorialization are not in a simple evolutionary relation to each other: the second may
break away from the first, or it may lead into it. But as Deleuze and Guattari state, “there are
all kinds of mixed figures, assuming highly varied forms of deterritorialization”8, that is very
different levels of deterritorialization.
Besides negative and positive deterritorialization, Deleuze and Guattari differentiate absolute
and relative deterritorialization. “The absolute expresses nothing transcendent or
undifferentiated. It does not even express a quantity that would exceed all given (relative)
quantities. It expresses only a type of movement qualitatively different from relative
movement. A movement is absolute when, whatever its quantity and speed, it relates ‘a’ body
considered as multiple to a smooth space that it occupies in the manner of a vortex.”9
Absolute deterritorialization is connected thus to the movements of transition in smooth space.
“A movement is relative, whatever its quantity and speed, when relates a body considered as
One to a striated space through which it moves, and which it measures with straight lines
(...).”10 Relative deterritorialization is connected thus with the movements of transition in
striated space. Deterritorialization is negative or relative, “when it conforms to the second
3
See: Elizabeth Grosz, Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth, New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, pp. 11-12
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, Minneapolis - London: University of Minnesota Press, 1987, p. 326
Ibid., p. 508
6
Ibid., p. 509.
7
Ibid., p. 508
8
Ibid., p. 509
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid., p. 509-510
4
5
42
case and operates either by principal reterritorializations that obstruct the lines of flight, or by
secondary reterritorialization that segments and work to curtail them. Deterritorialization is
absolute when it conforms to the first case and brings about the creation of a new earth, in
other words, when it connects lines of flight, raises them to the power of an abstract vital line,
or draws a plan of consistency.”11 Now what complicates all this is that this absolute
deterritorialization is not separable from relative deterritorialization and vice versa. Absolute
deterritorialization “necessarily proceeds by way of relative deterritorialization, precisely
because it is not transcendent. Conversely, relative or negative deterritorialization itself
requires an absolute for its operation: it makes the absolute something ‘encompassing’,
something totalizing that overcodes the earth and than conjugates lines of flight in order to
stop them, destroy them – rather than connecting them (…).”12 A limitative absolute, namely,
already exists at work in negative, or even relative deterritorialization, and vice versa a
negative and positive exists in an absolute. There are thus at least four forms of
deterritorialization that confront and combine each other.13 This division between absolute
and relative deterritorialization is in correspondence with the ontological distinction which
Deleuze and Guattari make between virtual and actual orders of things: absolute
deterritorialization takes place in virtual field while relative deterritorialization is related only
with the movements within the absolute. In the terms of theirs ontology of assemblage, virtual
order of becoming is that which leads a fate of any actual assemblage. Absolute
deterritorialization is an underlined condition of all forms of relative deterritorialization. It is
an immanent source of transformation, freedom or movement in reality activated when
relative deterritorialization occurs. Relative deterritorialization concerns the historical
relationship of things to the territories into which they are organized, including the manner in
which these territories break down and are transformed or reconstituted into new forms, while
absolute deterritorialization concerns the a-historical relationship of things and states of affairs
to the virtual realm of becoming or pure events that are imperfectly or partially expressed in
what happens.14 Relative and negative deterritorialization are in relationship with the flows of
conjugation, while absolute and positive deterritorialization are in relationship with the flows
of connection. The flows of connection and conjugation are in relationship with the flows of
disjunction. Namely, as Chaos in Deleuze’s philosophy is in relationship with pure disjunctive
diversity (a diverse branching of heterogeneous series (signifying and signified) that do not
exclude each other but are put in relationship of communication), that is, with the sum of all
possibilities, we could say that using the acts of de- and reterritorialization ‘one’ does not
produce order out of chaos but chaos out of order.
The ancient notion of Chaos is conceived as a primal abyss or gap point, where the gap is “an
opening between two already existing things (e.g., earth and sky) and an opening between
them (i.e., that which brings about the differentiation of these two things in the first place). A
gap has boundaries and thus a form, however primitive; it is not and indefinite, much less an
empty and endless, space. As John Burnet remarks, Chaos for Hesiod ‘is not a formless
mixture, but rather, as its etymology indicates, the yawning gulf or gap where nothing is as
yet’. Nothing may yet be in Chaos, but Chaos itself is not nothing. As a gap Chaos is a
primordial place within which things can happen.”15 Chaos thus should not be understood as a
scene of disorder – or what is commonly known as ‘the chaotic’. “It is a scene of emerging
order. Such a scene cannot be an utter void, a merely vacant space. It is a scene of spacing, not
just gapping but ‘gapping’ in a cosmogonically active sense. To be chaotic in this sense is not
11
Ibid., p. 510
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Paul Patton, “Political Normativity and Poststructuralism: The Case of Gilles Deleuze“,
www.uu.nl/en/file/11099/download?token=fyD8tkbb, p. 8
15
Edward Casey, The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997, p. 9
12
43
to destroy order but to create it. Indeed, on Hesiodic account Chaos can be seen as the first
stage of creating. (…) As G. S. Kirk , J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield put is, Chaos is ‘not
eternal precondition of a differentiated world, but a modification of that precondition’. As an
action and not a permanent state, Chaos is not eternal. It occurs.”16 But it occurs in Deleuzian
and Guattarian sense as ‘space’ of becoming. It is not an empty space but space filled with
intensities and potentialities, with disjunctive diversities. Using the procedures of connections
- the acts of synthesis of decoded and deterritorialized flows, and then the procedures of
conjugation - the acts of codifications of one dominant flow using procedures of
reterritorialization, it is possible to produce not order out of an dis-order/’chaos’ (in other
words, codified, regulated, dominant, universal global system of society and culture) but disorder out of an order (in other words, non-regulated signifying system that enables production
of multitude of meanings and sense). In other words, it is possible to produce a special kind
of field of ‘non-relations’ that naturalize the dominant, major narratives/systems of society
catching them in the act of becoming minor, a special kind of space that does not privilege
neither of these narratives/systems a priori.
Returning to the Wilson’s opera “Einstein on the Beach”, I will observe Wilson’s frames,
framing and de-framing as artistic forms of de- and reterritorialization. In other words, I will
try to prove that space-time concepts of the opera “Einstein on the Beach” are based on the
negative that is the relative deterritorialization. That is, with the artistic forms of iteration, deand reterritorialization, the postmodern opera “Einstein on the Beach” produces chaos out of
an order, i.e. textualization of space that destroys expressive (expressible) function of
structuralistic regime of sign.
2 “EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH”: SPACES OF DE- AND
RETERRITORIALIZATION
The opera “Einstein on the Beach” (performed for the first time in 1979) is postmodern work
of art inspired by Albert Einstein. But, it is not about a historical reconstruction of Einstein’s
work nor about precise chronological overview of Einstein’s biography. The postmodern
opera “Einstein on the Beach” is poetic work inspired by Einstein.
The mere idea of this opera is conceived around the number - three. Thus they are, for
example, three main pictures (visual themes): a train, a trial and a field with spaceship. Nine
episodes of these images are distributed in four acts with the aim of achieving every possible
variation of these three numbers. Although, the numbers (one, two and three) are repeated
continuously, theirs repetition does not allow duplication, but iteration. The result of this
organization is the structure that appears in the following way:
K1
Act I
Sc 1 Train (1)
Sc. 2 Trial (2)
K2
Act II
Sc.1 Field/Spaceship (3)
Sc. 2 Train (1)
K3
16
Ibid.
44
Act III
Sc. 1 Trial (bad/prison) (2)
Sc. 2 Field/Spaceship (3)
K4
Act IV
Sc.1 Building from a Train (1)
Sc.2 Bad from a Trial (2)
Sc.3 Spaceship – interior from previous Spaceship (3)
K 5 17
As composer of this opera Philip Glass states, we can speak here about taking the tripartite
structure and spreading it over the three two-piece structure. “Consider for a moment the three
acts – every of them are acts of the two sections (Sc. 1, 2), against which are placed the two
tripartite structures (1-2-3, 1-2-3). That is something that we do in music all the time. The
fourth act is the sum of all of them, the sum of the first three acts”. 18
Also, tripartite structure is present in the organization of the stage space. As Robert Wilson
states, we can see here three traditional ways of looking at an painting which are three
traditional ways of measuring space that are still life in portraits and landscapes: (1) portrait;
(2) still life, (3) wide field of landscape.19 “When I put the hand in front of my face, I see it as
a portrait; space is that between the hand and my eyes. If I put my hand over here and look at
it, I see it with others things (still life), but if I take photography of my hand and put it four
miles over there, it becomes a portrait of a landscape.“20 The first aspect of space – 'portrait' is
used for knee plays. They are put the closest to the audience. The scene of the train, the trial
and the building are seen as 'still life', while the dance is put in the frames of a zen landscape.
Space in which the dance is performed is the greatest, 'energy in it is different, the perspective
also'21.
The usage of these three perspectives in four acts creates a kind of gradual order (implying a
quasi development). Moreover, reappearance of images implies a kind of quasi development.
For example, a series of images starting from the train scene (in the first act), to the 'night
train' (in the second act), and at the end (the fourth act) to the building that in perspective
reminds on the night train that goes away, is series of images in reductive order 22(each of
them reminds less and less on the train, but at the same time every following image becomes
more emphasized and stronger).
The same is with the distribution of the main musical themes through the play. At first, the
play looks as it is built in tripartite structure based on the three different themes: (1) the scene
of the train, (2) the building scene and (3) the spaceship. However, these themes do not appear
one after the other, but they are gradually juxtaposed. As Philip Glass states, “every
appearance of the theme arises from the previous themes“23. In other words, what we can see
here is not something that we could characterized as a feature of mirror reflection or mimesis,
17
K – knee play; Sc - sequence.
Laurence Shyer, Robert Wilson, New York: Theatre Communication Group, Inc, 1989, p. 220
Robert Wilson in Chris A. Verges, Glass/Wilson: Einstein on the Beach, Changing Image of Opera, DVD, 2012
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
See: Sanjin Juki , (ur.), Arhitektura u teatru: Robert Wilson, Sarajevo: Profesionalna zajednica profesionalnih pozorišta Bosne i
Hercegovine, 1991, p. 93
23
Laurence Shyer, op. cit., p. 221
18
19
45
but as the capacity of extrusion, that is as the fractal geometry based on the recursive
symmetries.
The term fractal (lat. fractus – broken or fractured) was first used by mathematician Benoit
Mandelbrot (1924-2010) in 1975 in order to explain and extend the concept of theoretical
fractional dimensions to geometric patterns found in nature. According to Mandelbrot, fractals
are irregular geometric shapes whose elements formed in a smaller scale contain
characteristics of elements formed in a larger scale. In other words, the fractal set contains its
general characteristics in the other set, but it never repeats exactly the same pattern. The basic
characteristics of the fractals, according to Mandelbrot, is thus self-similarity, iteration or
recursive symmetry. The idea of recursive symmetry was developed by Nobel-winning
theoretical physicist Kenneth Wilson (1936-2013) who analyzed a behavior of turbulent flow
and change (from smooth movement toward the dynamic shifts). Kenneth Wilson
demonstrated the presence (persistence or spread) of microscopic changes on a macroscopic
scale, through the relationship of complex symmetries repeated across different levels of the
complex system. In linguistics, the term recursive is attributed to grammatical feature, element
or rule in which the part of output is used as an input to the same rule, as for example in the
sentence: “This is the house that was built by Milan. This is the cat that lives in the house built
by Milan and so ad infinitum.“ Recursive symmetries in Wilson's art could be seen: (i) in
verbal (linguistic) text; (ii) in body language/space (for example, in extremely slow motions
of performers in the knee-plays where we can see the presence of repetition of movements
with difference, that is with an asymmetric symmetry of performer's movements); (iii) in light
as a text (in a small circles of light within the larger one, in a small beam of light, but one that
is mobile, within the larger wider beam of light); (iv) in sound conceived as a text (a sudden
scream in repetitive sound elements); (v) in music as a text (based on repetition of rhythmic
circles with difference and superimposition of two different rhythmic patterns with the one);
(vi) in interior elements as a text (the glass floor set parallel in relationship to the opaque floor
of the stage); (vii) in mere space of 'landscape' (in which from the close ups Wilson moves us
to perspective space of Western landscape arts, and than to empty space – empty field of
intervals of Japanese gardens, where elements of the first landscape are present in every
following landscape but with certain modifications), etc.
What we can remark here is not a duplication, but the presentation, the play with similarities
through differences, that is exposition of iterations rather than 'repetition'. In the system we
encounter the points that are stable, analogously to the presence of strange or chaotic
attractors in the theory of dynamic systems. Attractors define the long-term tendencies of the
system, that is, the state the system will adapt if we wait long enough to allow it to settle
down.24 The strange attractor never repeats the same path as the stable attractor. While the
fixed point of an stable attractor centers and limits the potential, strange (or chaotic) attractor
opens potentiality, just as an order emerges out of a chaos, a chaos can also emerges out of an
order.
Strange attractors thus create universe that is at the same time predictable and unpredictable,
consistent and variant, stable and unstable, expressible and inexpressible, sayable and
unsayable. Take for an example the series of numbers that are repeated in Wilson's opera in
the following verbal text:
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88
24
See: Manuel de Landa, Intensive Science & Virtual Philosophy, London - New York: Continuum, 2002, p. 126
46
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88
11 22 33 44 1234
11 22 33 44 1234
11 22 33 44 1234
211 222 233 244
211 222 233 244
211 233 234 244
211 222 233 244
211 222 233 244 ...25
The numbers are repeated around invariant part of the system, bringing in every subsequent
repetition a little change. This is a specific kind of a repetition with difference, of movements
of transition, where territory is crossed and recrossed again but with certain modifications in
combination. It is not about processes of connection (of positive deterritorializations) but
about processes of conjugation (negative deterritorialization inseparable from certain degree
of reterritorialization). In other words, Wilson offers relation based on the lines of negative
that is relative deterritorialization. Wilson offers thus system that is variable rather than
consistent. It is open to unpredictable and very complex. It is strange in its predictability and
fractal in its irregularities and fragmentation. In other words, it combines complexity and
unpredictability, imprints and foldings, stereotyped and non-stereotyped in a strange
combination.
3 SPACES OF DE- AND RETERRITORIALIZATION IN THE OPERA
„EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH“ AS TEXTUAL CONCEPTS OF POSTMODERN
CULTURE
Space-time concepts of Wilson's opera “Einstein on the Beach“ are: poststructuralistic,
discoursive, signifying, (inter)contextual, (inter)textual, subjective and certainly postmodern.
They are poststructuralistic because they are derived from the critique of structuralistic
reductive logic based on binary pairs, that is on an excluding disjunction.
To draw on the discourse of the linguist Émile Benveniste (1902-1976), (who established the
difference between discourse and language, and discourse and narrative26), we could say that
the spatial concepts of the opera “Einstein on the Beach“ are discoursive because: (1) they are
not narrative (in classical sense of this term), that is they are not based on some textual model
that strictly follow cause-effect chain of events; (2) they suppose the speaker or the listener,
that is the subject (in opposition to narrative statements in which we do not know who is the
speaker) and (3) the statements uttered in the play are not based on the firm linguistic rules.
Although the opera is inspired with the life and the work of Albert Einstein, it is not based on
the cause-effect chain of historical events and dates related to Albert Einstein. In the play they
are only a few references related to his work presented in a rather fragmentary way: (a) the
theory of relativity, putting the emphasis on context and contextual understanding of some
phenomenon; (b) the presence of some reason that stays beyond an event in the Universe, and
(c) the mysterious experience of space as an emotion that stands at the basis of the true art and
science, etc. The statements that are uttered in the play are not based on the logical
relationships of elements in the sentence. They do not have some specific meaning. The
25
26
Glass/Wilson: Einstein on the Beach, Changing Image of Opera , DVD, 2012
See: Emil Benvenist, Problemi opšte lingvistike, Beograd: Nolit, 1975
47
spectators are those who give them the meaning, who inscribe in them an eventness. The
eventness arises thus from tripartite contingent act of uttering: the first directed toward the
given subject, the second toward the given collocutor and the third part toward the given
situation. Thus, uttered statements exist only in the moment of their uttering and they are
related to the reality. Discourses namely give these 'language elements' eventness, that is
space-time punctuality, opening them to a number of meanings and interpretations.
As this play is not about a materialization of some signified in the 'text', but about material
bearers of meanings, we can speak here about offering of networks of signifiers that perform
intervention in its semiotic environment. Hence, the spatial concept of the opera “Einstein on
the Beach“ are signifying. The elements of some pre-existent text are not perceived as
expressions or bearers of some stable a priori established meaning (which would correspond
to structuralism), but since material, that means socially determined – they are perceived as
drivers and producers of numerous independent meanings that 'text' realizes in concrete
intervention in its semiotic context (which would correspond to poststructuralism). Meanings
of the text are thus just a moment in an arbitrary play of signifiers, the play of mere
materiality freed of transcendental signified.
The structures of space are not closed, nor static, but fractal, open and in the continuous
process of development, growth and becoming. To use Julia Kristeva's terms we could say
that this play is about offering not one made structure of space, but a structuration of space as
a means that produces and transforms a meaning before the meaning is created and put into
circulation. In other words, in the opera “Einstein on the Beach“ Wilson offers space of
signifying, space in which the open game of signifiers prevents and resists the final
structuration, bringing it (the structuration) into uncertain intertextual space. In that space,
structural unconscious of the text dominates over its conscious, symbolic modality, subverting
the possibility of a structural closure of its structure, as well as the possibility of its correct
interpretation.
Hence, space-time concepts of the opera “Einstein on the Beach“ are (inter)textual. They are
conceived as fields and processes of intersections, refraction, conflicts, re-readings,
challenges, neutralization and transitions of other surrounding texts of culture, society and
arts, among which one text appears and works. The fractal text about the life and the work of
Albert Einstein enters thus into different textual circles (frames) of culture and society (of
past, present and future) and arts (theater, film, painting, architecture, music), being
continuously re-read, fractured, disputed, neutralized, de- and reterritorialized.
The fractal narrative structure of the text has also an influence on the construction of a fractal
subject, metaphorically speaking, of a schizophrenic subject of poly-genre and plural
synchronicity differing in the rift of voices. This is a kind of subject that aspires to coincide
with his/her parts – it is at the same time Whole and many that mirrors the Whole and it is
therefore always the Non-Whole (that is a reflection of the Whole in particular scattering of
images, senses and meanings). As this is about deconstruction of a universal subject, that is
about construction of subject as a product or effect of intersections of texts or theirs nets, we
could say that spatial concepts of this opera are subjective.
As they appear in a dense network of surrounding texts of culture, society and arts, that is of
different contexts, as they become defined by them but also for them (contexts) determining,
spatial concepts of this opera are (inter)contextual. What becomes here important is less
circularity of signs, as well as multiplicity of contextual circles (frames) and chains. Like
spatial concepts of Deleuze and Guattari's signifying regime, the sign here does not refer only
to other signs in the same circle (context), but to the signs in other circles (contexts) or spirals.
Analogously to the signifying regime that is not simply faced with the task of organizing
48
circles and signs emitted from every direction, Wilson's spatial concepts constantly promise
expansion of circles and spirals, constantly produce center with many signifiers, overcoming
an entropy inherent in the system, and create the new circles of meanings.
Moving between predictability and unpredictability, order and disorder, linear and non-linear,
determinant and non-determinant, state/product and process, full and empty spaces, sayable
and unsayable, expressible and inexpressible, without privileging neither of these opposites,
the spatial concepts of Wilson's opera “Einstein on the Beach“ are postmodern. In other
words, in opposition to arborescent, traditional spatial concepts, Wilson's fractal geometries
based on self-similarity, recursive symmetries or iteration, that is on de- and
reterritorialization offer rhizomatic spaces in which continuous branching and heterogeneity
of connections prevents synthesis. Meaning in them is never stable, but always in a
continuous flux, in a continuous process of modification, transformation and transition from
one milieu toward another.
REFERENCES
[1] Lehman, Hans Thies. 2004. Postdramsko kazalište. Zagreb, Beograd: CDU, TkH
[2] Grosz, Elizabeth. 2008. Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth. New York: Columbia
University Press
[3] Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis - London: University of
Minnesota Press
[4] Patton, Paul. “Political Normativity and Poststructuralism: The Case of Gilles Deleuze“. Accessed:
18.05.2013. www.uu.nl/en/file/11099/download?token=fyD8tkbb
[5] Casey, Edward. 1997. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press
[6] Shyer, Laurence. 1989. Robert Wilson. New York: Theatre Communication Group, Inc.
[7] Verges, A. Chris. 2012. Glass/Wilson: Einstein on the Beach, Changing Image of Opera DVD
[8] Juki , Sanjin (ur.). 1991. Arhitektura u teatru: Robert Wilson. Sarajevo: Profesionalna zajednica
profesionalnih pozorišta Bosne i Hercegovine
[9] DeLanda, Manuel. 2002. Intensive Science & Virtual Philosophy. London, New York: Continuum
[10] Benvenist, Emil. 1975. Problemi opšte lingvistike. Beograd: Nolit
49
50
VISIBILITY OF (IN)VISIBLE SPACE – PLACE OF PROJECT
PROMOTION IN THE EXPENDED FIELD OF ARCHITECTURE –
MSc Marijeta Lazor1, MSc Tatjana Babi
2
1 Centre for Development of knowledge society HORIZONT 21, Novi Sad (SERBIA)
2 Department of Architecture Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
marijeta.lazor@gmail.com, tbabic@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
Scientific and empirical knowledge about the impacts of integrated marketing
communications to project management, in this paper focuses on brownfield sites as part of
the architectural heritage, but also places for potentially "revival" throw events. Starting point
for interdisciplinary research of the visibility in projects space in expanded field of
architecture was developed from the relevant conclusions of the research - from market trends
locations in Novi Sad and European experiences on brownfields to the conclusions of the
thematic conferences on the need for "public promotion of the idea of activating and
revitalizing Brownfield Sites in Serbia "and relevant scientific papers that assess the lack of
recognition and utilization by" brownfield architectural heritage, as the characteristic
architecture of the past, can contribute to the branding of the city" [1]. The research topic is
the interdependence of space and projects in the real and virtual life of Novi Sad, the most
relevant examples of several brownfields. Scientific basis for models of "revival" of space,
presenting papers in the field of marketing F. Kotler and associates [2] and specialized
management disciplines - project management [3] and event management [4], as well as in
architecture by B. Tschumi [5]. The basic hypothesis that there is a direct correlation between
the promotional activities of the project that includes brownfield sites and events that promote
architectural and urban potential, the authors verified through the experience of the public and
civil sector in Novi Sad.
Keywords: promotion of projects; expanded field of architecture; brownfield sites; marketing
of projects; events.
1
PERCEPTIONS OF VISIBILITY
Interdisciplinarity of approach to research, conditions a few starting points in considering
visibility - as a result of the actions and act in the sense defined by George Herbert Mead, the
theorist of everyday life and (micro)sociology; subjective perception of space, or creation a
"cognitive map" known in psychology, recognized not only in social and regional, but also in
cultural and political geography [6, 7, 8, 9] and spatial planning [10, 11]; Palmer from the
standpoint that "the perception of the process of acquiring knowledge about objects and
events in the environment" [12]; influence the perception of the function of promoting, in the
manner they see Evans and Berman, etc.
Starting from the ways in which individuals select, organize and interpret stimuli into a
meaningful and coherent picture of the world, the authors discussed the hypothesis that there
is a direct correlation between the promotional activities of the project, that includes
brownfield sites and events that promote architectural and urban potential. Without pretending
to explain in more detail the psychology results of perception, cognitive science and
51
neuroscience, the importance of these processes for research visibility area of brownfield sites
and the potential for projects in the expanded field of architecture, was studied with the idea
that the behavior of individuals to some extent structured and routinized, but always there is
place for human initiative and creativity, as viewed Herbert Blumer. Especially the point of
accepting Isaac Thomas and Florian Znanjecky that society and culture affect individuals, and
individuals also influence on society and culture.
The analysis of the visibility of messages on the Internet about brownfield locations in Novi
Sad, as a subject of research in this paper, has shown the quality and volume of information
available in order to test the claim that "images that stimulus leave in the minds of consumers
- ie its positioning - mainly the more crucial for its the ultimate success, but the actual
characteristics of the product" [13] and represent the core of the marketing mix.
By researching visibility of brownfields from a marketing perspective in the expanded fields
of architecture, activities designed to reinforce the link between space as goods, services, and
promotions as the idea for the activation of the civil and public sectors, with the aim of
satisfying the needs and wishes of the owners and users of brownfields - the authors have
opened primary question: "Whether and how information on brownfield sites that Novi Sad
has come to target users?" From this, opens a whole new set of questions in the survey: what
is the objective of supply of brownfield sites; who is interested in brownfield sites; What are
the characteristics of brownfield sites in Novi Sad; Who are the competitors offer brownfield
locations in Novi Sad; whether and how segmented target users; what are the needs and
desires of specific groups; what are the channels and tools to interact with them; who offers
brownfield sites to potential investors; whether, when and how one deals with selecting one or
more segments that will target your marketing mix; what are the geographic, demographic,
psychological, socio-cultural and anthropological segmentation of these target groups ...
All answers are beyond the current analysis, but point to the complexity, the need for an
interdisciplinary approach, the long-term effects, the need for construction related to the
general a transaction between the parties concerned. Because "market relations includes
identifying, specifying, implementing, maintaining, and sometimes disintegration of longterm relationships with key customers and with other participants in the mutual exchange
market"[8] research of available information and methods for their placement in the online
world and allow the assessment "of working together to solve common problems" of the local
community, citizens, domestic and foreign investors. Just in relationship marketing,
marketing aimed at creating solid, long-term relationships with core target audiences, it seems
that everyone in this process feel good, allowing some sort of personal involvement.
2
PUBLIC IN EXPANDED FIELD OF ARCHITECTURE
In modern theories as well as the colloquium, there are some uncertainties as regards the
determination of the public. In one sense, the public understands as the subject of public
opinion, and as the audience, while the second meaning of the terms imposed by the public as
a field of social communication. But the contradiction of modern conceptions of the public is
the fact that its critical functions slowly turned into manipulative. Rather than force the public
to become the borders, it is her „training ground“.
Information Age heralds the end of mass communication: instead of domination of the mass
media, increasingly are present interactive media. Communicators are less well-off in physical
and more in cyberspace - that does not have a unique design nor the structure, but tends to
universality. In scientific papers that analyze theory and empirical research on social,
psychological, cultural and other consequences of using the Internet as an intermediary in the
communication process, it is concluded that communication via the Internet affects the
52
quantity or quality of communication through other media, as well as the frequency and
quality of relations "face in the face "- whether to replace communication via phone or live,
whether it stimulates other modes of communication and social presence and engagement.
Researchers conclusions of virtual communication indicate that the so-called e-culture
showed such synergistic value to "real community" and can not ignore it.
Accepting the notion that contemporary conditions of competitiveness is based on two
strategic factors - "the growing interdependence of economies, capital markets and money and
that competitiveness at the same time became a matter of politics, media, power and
manipulation," [14] with the help of information and communication technologies in the
modern day are now possible consequences and global reach implicitly acknowledging the
existence of "network society" by Manuel Castells.
For this work is important and expanded field of building relations, or "architecture of
relations" in the virtual community. In the real world, for example in Novi Sad, these are
individual initiatives by representatives of different sectors of society that are in the expanded
field of architecture brownfield sites theme or context in which push the boundaries.
3
PUBLIC EXAMPLES OF BROWENFIELDS IN NOVI SAD
According to the original definition, term brownfield is applied only to the devastated
industrial sites. For more complete meaning, applied in Serbia, has developed land formerly
used and which, due to economic or other reasons, physical or abandoned property (RAPP,
2009). Today, it has a much broader scope and includes all abandoned, neglected and
underutilized facilities and areas with visible impacts of the previous application and usually
located in urban areas, which may have environmental burden and for whose apprehension
new purpose necessary to provide some financial resources [15]. Brownfield investments
therefore involves the purchase or rental of brownfield sites and investment capital in its
activation (Vanheusden, 2007). At the beginning of 1980 as a consequence of deindustrialization in developed countries, primarily the United States, England, France and
Germany started the trend of brownfield regeneration. This topic is discussed in many
significant processing document over the next decade. A number of innovative projects in this
category was implemented in American and Western European cities with the inclusion and
involvement of all stakeholders. Transitional changes and the trend of de-industrialization in
the central and eastern European cities has caused the devastation of large industrial
complexes. Although they have historical value and Cultural these complexes are very
dilapidated. Intensive urban sprawl in most cases in very poor condition industrial plants
occupy important sites in the urban fabric. As a result, "the working group of the European
project CLARINET in its report pointed to the importance of designing specific approach to
regeneration of each site, with the involvement of local authorities, investors, owners,
professional consultants, members of the community, the financial sector, and so on." [16].
The number and size of unused, abandoned and derelict sites and buildings in the central
zones in the cities of Serbia today is immense. Cities and municipalities are not registered it
as a major problem of the urban structure, as well as a significant opportunity to increase the
attractiveness and economic performance of urban settlements. The paper does not researched
all channels of obtaining information on brownfields (diplomatic missions of their own
countries in Serbia, SIEPA and VIP fund consulting company, Serbian Chamber of
Commerce, representations of foreign chambers of commerce in Serbia, fairs, conferences,
direct contact with local governments ...), but publicly available information on websites of
relevant institutions and non-governmental sector from Novi Sad.
53
Brownfield sites in this study considered only as a product that belongs to the city, as part of
an urban space that city manages. Brownfields belongs to the people who essentially make the
city community, but also to owners who have invested capital in some of the analyzed sites.
All can be seen in the "customer" role of brownfield area - from the customer's physical
space, to the customer's image. The needs of different actors in the process of activating
brownfields is often diverge, so the dialogue, with the participation of various specialists and
representatives of civil society, is the basic premise of establishing the necessary balance
between public and private interests. In order to achieve synergies and achieve the desired
results requires a structured and coordinated use of various promotional tools and techniques
described in the previous section. In developing each of promotional instruments, it is of
utmost importance to first determine the central theme of promotional message which will
then be used consistently through all the promotional activities. Research degree online
visibility of brownfield sites in Novi Sad clearly indicates six levels of awareness of
brownfields - from ignorance, meeting, recognition, belief to action.
Whether it is a greenfield (land for construction) or brownfields (land with previous
construction) project, which offers location-based Agency for the Promotion of investments in
Serbia (SIEPA) for each entry is listed land use - industrial, agricultural or urban building.
With each location has been entered in the database is listed mileage to the most important
roads, Corridor X highway and the main road, and to the nearest railway station, river port or
airport. Using the base is completely free and can be accessed via the website SIEPA. Within
SIEPA web presentation works and the online database of suppliers and exporters with a view
to potential foreign investors with information about raw materials, raw materials and other
production inputs and services from the territory of Serbia they can count once raise its
production capacity. One of the objectives is the convergence of supply of goods and services
of domestic producers to potential foreign trade partners. For the territory of Vojvodina there
is a similar base, created by the Vojvodina Investment and Promotion Fund (VIP). It currently
contains details for a total of almost 100 brownfield sites, and are available on the website of
the institution.
Fig 1. Agency for the Promotion of investments in Serbia (SIEPA) – Web presentation (http://serbialocations.rs/locations-srb/location.php?ID=21) Location: Free zone Novi Sad
54
Industrial complexes Novi Sad were deployed in peripheral areas of the city. North I business
zone and business zone North II located along the canal DTD and Work Zone West in the
eastern part of New Villages in the vicinity of marshalling yards were covered in the study:
"Analysis Brownfild and grejfield selected locations in Novi Sad," published in August 2015
on the site Public Enterprise "Urbanism". In the work zone Sever III (North III) is located and
the complex "Agrohem" recognized as a brownfield sites in the works of several researchers,
in particular a doctoral dissertation of Dejana Nedu in, work of Anica Tufegži and text a
group of authors published in thematic collection of international scientific conference
BROWNINFO. About other objects of industrial heritage located in the part Podbara, Anica
Tufegdži wrote in the Proceedings of the "Almaška Zone." Other areas with also abandoned
certain facilities, such as: Work zone North IV and Work Zone East - Victory („Pobeda“) in
Petrovaradin are not treated as sources of brownfields. During the research of available
documents were mapped and several brownfield sites in the central zone of Novi Sad. Soap
factory "Albus", medical supplies factory "Niva" and warehouse space in Sumadija street on
Podbara not covered in the study, but as mentioned complex "Agrohem" of interest to
students of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of Technical
Sciences in Novi Sad. They are within their diploma and master works considered potential
objects and their possible improvement through the introduction of new programs. The former
production facilities "Jugoalat" and "Jugodent" belonging to the western part of the city were
not the subject of research. By studying the structure of the industrial architectural heritage of
Novi Sad, it was noted that certain sites often been the subject of detailed analysis of a large
number of researchers. For example, the Chinatown and the factory complex Petar Drapšin
and builder of writing Dejana Nedu in, the authors of the research study center kuda.org,
Scenatoria associations and groups of authors in the work of the conference BROWNINFO.
In addition to the locations mentioned Public Company "Urbanism" and authors of the study
published by kuda.org speak about objects at close range - the Czech warehouse, a former
industrial zone Liman 3 in the Boulevard of Despot Stefan and shipyard.
Fig 2. Industrial heritage located in Podbara, Novi Sad. Foto: Stanislava Vu eti and Radovan Milinkovi
As in most cities in Serbia, military buildings and complexes represent a significant segment
of brownfield fund of Novi Sad [17]. Barracks in streets of Duke Bojovic, Joseph Runjanin
and Archibald Reiss barracks in Futoska street; Jugovi evo and Majevica next to Detelinara
(with the airport), a complex of barracks "Janko NH melik" and ancillary facilities on
Trandžament in Petrovaradin and complex Navy: "NH Dušan Vuksanovi Diogenes" at
Liman, as the spatial potential are recognised almost all the previous mentioned researchers.
Apart from the aforementioned brownfield locations, members of the civil sector involved in
solving the problems of architectural heritage of the city are also processed scenic locations
that have potential. The project and the publication "Architectural Heritage as scenes" also
55
analyzed military hangar at the Petrovaradin Fortress, Barutana Joseph in the complex of the
Lower Town, Railway Tunnel Old and bathroom Jodna Spa. During 2014 this association, in
cooperation with the artists of the city, realized several events at these locations precisely in
order to familiarize the public with the resources of space.
As a significant brownfield site represented in many works, we can add complex marshalling
yard on which writes Dejana Nedu in and study by authors from Public Company
"Urbanism", which in the study include the brickyard with Bukovac road and Castle in
Kamenica park.
4
MARKETING IN AREAS OF PROJECTS
In the conditions of globalization, without borders, present a specific form of competition
between cities, municipalities, states and regions. All of them are trying to attract and retain
the resources that are necessary for economic and social prosperity. It is about attracting and
retaining investors, businesses, tourists, staff, organizers of events and anything else that can
positively influence the development of the local community and quality of life. Exploring the
secondary structure of the project activities in Novi Sad, authors proved very commonly
usage of construction "project attracting investments," "projects for investment locations" and
"projects to improve the investment climate."
The word "project" is used as a homonym. It’s derived from the Greek pro (front, above, in
front, forward, earlier) and Latin ejecere (out). It refers to the project as an image of predicted
future condition or situation. In the context of project management that is timed efforts to
produce a unique product, service or results (PMI). "The project is usually defined as a
complex and unique venture which is being undertaken in the future to achieve the objectives
in the allotted time and with projected costs." [18]. In the field of architecture project in
general terms refers to a complex technical documentation needed for the construction of the
future building. In addition the project as part of a "paper architecture" includes the
presentation of the results of experiments and researches. An extension of the architecture and
meaning of the term project changes and now includes a number of documents.
From a conceptual point of view, project marketing and project management have exsisted for
years as separate disciplines. Each having developed independetely from other. Evolutions in
project managament edged the project out of its strict time frame in order to re-position it
within a stretegic, long-term and costumer-oriented approach. [19]
Brownfield sites are high unit value, complex and expensive, and must be adapted to the
needs of individual consumers and require service before and after the sale. Therefore,
individual building sales is necessary. Practice shows that, with large individual differences,
in most cases, location selection process consists of three stages: 1) compiling extensive list
of locations; 2) creating a narrower list of locations; 3) final selection.
In the literature and practice it is known that targeting is extremly importnat for focusing the
limited resources on those target groups that are most likely to attract. That helps, in case of
Novi Sad, for defining the product – value of industrial zones, infrastructure... but also in the
creation of strategy for the most effective promotions and a proactive approach to the
promotion of investment and leverage in negotiations with the investor. From the reviewed
material on sites which promote brownfield sites in Novi Sad, is not entirely clear whether
and how segmented the market - neither geographically nor demographic, socio-cultural,
according to the utility etc. Projects aimed at activation of brownfield sites (mainly in the civil
sector) is very limited contributions for marketing of sites. But, for the sustainability of the
56
project required the implementation of all processes in the formation, differentiation and
positioning - or promotion.
Competitive analysis is crucial for the activation of brownfields projects since it involves
several important phases - from determining comparisons factors; choice of competing sites
and collect data to compare specific locations with competitive locations and formulating
unique sales message, communication, positioning and presenting offers in a way that meets
the interests of the target group of investors and promotion, ie. construction of a desired
image.
In the first chapter is indicated the importance of perception, from existing research of
perception of potential investors; defining the desired perceptions; communication for
targeted groups in order to build a positive image of local government as a potential
investment location, or promotions.
Investment marketing at the local level involves a combination of elements of the business
environment or a specific business offer (product), costs of business in specific municipality
(price), instruments for presentation of investment potential in municipality (promotion) and
the efficiency of the process of realization in investment projects (distribution). Elements such
as the benefits of investing, geographic location, infrastructure, labor, economic structure,
industrial zone, taxes and incentives, success stories of investors... are important elements for
publicity or propaganda as a component of the promotion. For communication marketing mix
in the areas of projects, the paper's focus on advertising and public relations and publicity,
while encouraging sales, personal selling and direct marketing are not considered.
It is clear that there is a market place of brownfields sites, given the fact that investments are
one of the main drivers of faster local economic development and the most frequent targets of
state and government lokal, one of the instruments of the state and local governments use to
attract new investments is to promote investment that refers to communicating the benefits
and conditions of investment in a particular location, with the ultimate goal of increasing the
number of investments in the country. Building awareness and understanding, effective
reminder, presentation and persuasion are the main functions of advertising on commercial
markets. From the data collected in an online environment in which to advertise brownfield
sites in Novi Sad, do not receive the aforementioned effects or implement the necessary
functions of advertising, which directly points to the need for a strategic approach to the
visibility of brownfields.
At the same time, looking at theoretical and practical approaches to project management,
communication is one of the key activities in 44 groups of project management processes,
based on the complexity, risk, size, timing, resource availability, quantity and quality of
information available... Sustainability all five groups of activities, methodologically classified
in accordance with the broadest PMI methodology was applied, depending on the events that
have become a practice and a reality for customers. On the other hand, the process of
architectural design of the project plan, project task, the investment program, urban
conditions, building law, and location information, also depend on users and events that
"bring to life" filled space, a modern conception of architecture as an event, as to define
Tschumi and Šuvakovi [20] can be brought into direct contact with the projects just activated
abandoned space.
However, as the project management must be able to coordinate complex activities in a
limited period of time, for clients are two important constraints - the beginning and end of the
project. Discontinuity events, as a model of activation of brownfields, is a particularly central
limit for project management and marketing projects. Because the characteristics of the
57
transaction in projects, uniqueness and complexity, with a population of customers is a
marketing approach activation of brownfields.
5
CONCLUSION
Taking into account the reasons for the lack of brownfield investments in Serbia, presented in
the framework of these studies, it can be concluded that visibility and activation of brownfield
potential in Novi Sad needs the following:
-
Create a comprehensive register of potential brownfield sites
Include the issue of brownfields in the strategic and action plans for local
development, as well as urban and spatial planning documents;
Involve professional and general public in the decision-making process on the
future purposes;
Raise awareness of the problem, the importance and benefits of brownfields
Increase the capacity and knowledge to solve problems
Make the choice of priorities for the activation, the allocation of the necessary
funds from the local budget
Manage the promotion of brownfields at the strategic level
Create a separate access to each regeneration sites
Establish a balance between the economic interests of investors and current owners
and future use of brownfield, assessed in the broader context of social interest, and
environmental requirements, which would reduce any negative consequences;
Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that Novi Sad is entering a phase of recognition
of its brownfield potential and attracting investment for its activation.
Adoption of „project thinking“ necessitates a culture shift for organisations, since in many
ways it is contrary to tradicional organization and managerial structure and how tradicional
public sector works. Also, new age requires open communication between sectors and teams,
stakeholders and customers. This open communication can see to be a beneficial attribute, and
it is; however it also comes with increase client engagement which might not work well in all
environments.
REFERENCES
[1] Conference: "Overcoming obstacles in land recycling - to revitalize Brownfield’s in Serbia", Belgrade, 2007
[2] Kotler, F. Vong, V., Saunders, Dz, Armstrong, G., 2007. Principles of Marketing, Zagreb, Mate
[3] Jovanovi , P. 2010. Project Management, Belgrade, Zuhra
[4] Van der Wagen, L. 2010. Management events, Zagreb, Mate
[5] Tschumi, B. 2004. Architecture and disjunction, Zagreb, AGM
[6] Paasi, A. 1999. Nationalizing Everyday Life: Individual and Collective Identities as Practice and Discourse,
Geography Research Forum, Roca, Z., Oliveira, A., Roca, M. N. O. 2011. Claiming Territorial Identity and
Local Development: From Wishes to Deeds, u: Landscapes, Identities and Development, (ed. Roca, Z.,
Claval, P., Agnew J.), Ashgate Publishers, Farnham
58
[7] Norton, W. 2006, Cultural Geography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Oliver, L & Associates “The Scale
and Nature of European Brownfield’s. In Proceedings of CABERNET 2005: The International Conference
on Managing Urban Land, 274 - 281. Land Quality Management Press, Nottingham, 2005.
[8] Federwisch, T. 2007. The Politics of Spatial Identity: Regional Governance and the Strategic Constitution of
Regional Identity, Nordia Geographical Publications 36/4
[9] Agnew, J. A. 2011. Space and Place, u: The Sage Handbook of Geographical Knowledge, (ed. Agnew J. A.,
Livingstone D. N.), London Sage
[10] Roca, Z., Roca, M. N. O. 2007. Affirmation of Territorial Identity: A Development Policy Issue, Land Use
Policy, 24/2
[11] Oliveira, J., Roca, Z., Leitão, N. 2010. Territorial identity and development: From topophilia to terraphilia,
Land Use Policy, 27/3
[12] Zdravkovi , S. 2008. Perception, Zrenjanin, City Public Library, p.307
[13] Schiffman, L.G, 2004 Consumer behaviour, Zagreb, MATE, p. 141
[14] Lovreta, S., Berman, D., Petkovi , G., Veljkovi , S., Crnkovi , J., Bogeti Z.: 2010.Customer Relationship
Management", Belgrade, Faculty of Economics, p. 57
[15] Marinkovi , D. 2007. Introduction to Sociology – basis aproaches and themes, Novi Sad, Mediterran
Publishing, p.185
[16] CABERNET - Concerted Action on Brownfield and Economic Regeneration Network 2006: 10
[17] Nedu in, D. 2014. The post-socialist city - changes in social and spatial structure of Novi Sad in the period
of transition, PhD Thesis, Novi Sad, UNS, FTN, p. 192
[18] Jovanovi , P. 2010 Project management, Belgrade, High School for Project Management, p. 5
[19] Cova, B., Salle, R. 2005 International journal of project management 23, p. 354-359
[20] Šuvakovi , M.2011. Glossary of art theory, Belgrade,Orion art
[21] World Investment Prospects Survey, United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment (UNCTAD)
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60
SPACE AS DIMENSION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY 1
Radoš Radivojevi 1, Sonja Peji
2
1
2
Faculty of Technical Sciences (SERBIA)
Faculty of Technical Sciences (SERBIA)
rados@uns.ac.rs,anael@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
This paper analyzes the developmental interconnection of social and spatial identity, as well
as the strengthening of spatial dimension of social identity in a modern society which is, on
the one hand, reflected in the formation and strengthening of global spaces and, on the other
hand, in the formation and strengthening of elite spaces.
Keywords: Social structure, spatial structure, social identity, globalization, elitization
1 SOCIAL AND SPATIAL IDENTITY SECTION
Throughout the entire developmental phase, social communities have tended to build their
own characteristics, their social identity which can distinguish them from other communities.
Social identities have always been best expressed by social classes and organization of one
social system, nation, culture and spatial organization of a society. Spatial dimension of social
identity did not draw much attention of the scientists who believed that space was only a
physical form of expression of social identity but who disregarded the fact that space,
organized as a form of permanent settlement, was not only a frame within which human
nature could be expressed but the groundwork and the most optimal form of development of
human social nature because there would not have been any possibility for development of
language, consciousness, spirit, or even humans without spatial community of closely related
people. When space is permanently inhabited by people it becomes socialized over time. The
space gradually loses physical and acquires social, cultural and emotional characteristics
because, on the one hand, people create their own social and cultural space by shaping the
physical space, and on the other hand, the birth, growing up, and living in some space brings
life to this space full of joy and memories about the world where one grew up, about the
growth, life. This space becomes socially and emotionally colored.” City is a piece of work
similar to artistic work. Space is not only organized and established; it is also shaped,
accepted by a group in accordance with their requirements, ethics, aesthetics,
ideology.’’(Lefebvre in Vujovi ,, 2005:165)
The connection between social and spatial identity has not been described so accurately by
anyone else but the Indian chief Seattle who referred to the collective experience of his own
tribe when he was signing the contract with the Governor Isaac Stevens. »We are two distinct
races and must ever remain so, we are divided by our origins, by our destinies. There is little
in common between us. The ashes of our ancestors are sacred, and their final resting place is
hallowed ground, while you wander away from the tombs of your fathers seemingly without
regret... Our dead never forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its
winding rivers, its great mountains and its sequestered vales. Every part of this country is
1
This work is the result of work on projects called Transformation of social identity in Serbia during crisis and its influence on European
integration (179052), and Smart electro-distribution networks based on systems of distributive management and distributive network
(42004) which are financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia
61
sacred to my people. Every hill-side, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed
by some fond memory or some sad experience of my tribe. Even the rocks that seem to lie
dumb as they swelter in the sun along the silent seashore in solemn grandeur thrill with
memories of past events connected with the fate of my people. And the very dust under your
feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours because it is the ashes of our
ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the
life of our kindred.« (Grul,1985:53)
According to Mamford, history of architecture shows the development of civilization from the
savagery until the modern times which implies that the history of architecture shows spatial
materialization of social identities. Even the establishment of cities, their historical
development and growth of modern cities indicates that the spatial identities were and still are
very important form of confirmation of social identities. Fortress was the central core of a city
and it was the material base for further growth and expansion of the city. Based on the
architectural structure of the central part of the city (palaces, temples, granaries and
fortifications) it can be concluded that the main reason of emergence of the cities were
economic, political, military and religious power of certain social groups whose intention was
to protect and increase their power, and the most efficient way to do that was to build strong
forts surrounded by solid walls which protected the palace, temple, and granary (Mamford,
1988:35). The city walls and physical enclosure of old and medieval cities represented the
status symbol and status validation of political, religious and military elite compared to people
who lived outside those city walls, but in order for a city to function it needed the labor force
which forced those political, military and religious elite to build residential quarters that
represented a status symbol, social distinctiveness and unavailability to the poor labor force of
their cities. Except for the Greek cities where spatial identity was not that significant form of
affirmation of social identity, all other cities (Roman, medieval, modern) saw spatial identity
as the ultimate confirmation and absolute form of their class self-affirmation. The Greeks did
not achieve the affirmation of their social identity by building and taking up land, but by
developing spiritual identity and public sphere. For them, subjecting the life and public sphere
to private interests was an insult to human dignity and they referred such people as idiots.
2
SOCIAL AND SPATIAL IDENTITIES IN MODERN SOCIETIES
Spatial and architectural landmarks of the cities and their parts represent the interests of the
most powerful social groups. Urban areas are symbolic and spatial manifestations of the most
powerful social forces. Skyscrapers are built because they are expected to bring profit, but
those tall buildings also ,, symbolize the power of money over city by using technologies and
self-confidence; they are the cathedrals of the growing corporate capitalism" (Castels,
1993:558). However, state services also, indirectly, affect various aspects of life in the city by
building roads, public buildings, landscape designs, and so on. Spatial form of a city is the
result of the class nature of one society, forces present on the market, political power of the
state, and also national, global and corporate culture.
2.1
Class structure and spatial identities
From political aspect, modern societies are democratic with officially equal rights, but those
are class societies from economic aspect. Basically, there are four classes in modern societies
and those are the ruling class, middle class, lower class and the subclass. Numerous
sociologists divide the ruling class into the ‘’old class’’, or the class of ‘’old money’’ which
earned its fortune through the generation long inheritance, and the '' new class'' which earned
its fortune by hard work and not by inheritance. The new class is most commonly made of
successful people who are active in the fields of new economies, software, media, internet,
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and telecommunications, but also in the world of pop music, film, and sport. Gidens believes
that the old class is gradually being overpowered by the new class, and that the number of
people from the new class is increasing among the wealthiest in the world. (Gidens,
2007:297). The middle class comprises people with professional qualifications who sell their
expertise and skills to private companies or state institutions. The position of this class in one
society depends on the importance of the expertise to the society. This class is socially not
homogenous because it covers a vast number of different professions which are, from material
aspect, valued differently on the market. The subclass comprises the poorest who are
unemployed or have part time jobs and whose income is not enough to meet their basic needs
and the needs of their families. Class differences in modern societies have increased. Only one
percent of the wealthiest people in the USA own 38.1% of personal wealth, and the next 19%
of the wealthiest people owns 45.3%, which means that 20% of the wealthiest people own
83.4% of personal wealth. ’’Thus, 20% of Americans owns most of the wealth; the rest of
them own some wealth in the form of mortgage or pension insurance’’. (Tarner, 2009:283).
One percent of the wealthiest people in Britain owns 75% of corporate stocks, and 5% of the
wealthiest people owns 90% of total value of stocks” (Gidens, 2009:194).
P. Bourdieu thinks that modern social classes differ based on economic capital, which
comprises money, cultural capital, which comprises education and culture, social capital,
which is social networks, and symbolic capital, which is ideology. These Bourdieu's class
distinctions should be added with spatial capital ’’because space is essentially unequal and
social groups use their power while governing the country and market in order to acquire
favorable locations and access to resources; decisions made by the strategically appointed
guardians of resources have crucial influence on the distribution of those resources among
different social groups who fight for the most wanted spatial resources’’( Saunders Quoted
from Vujovi , 2005:171). Besides the great power and wealth, this class is also characterized
by particular life style. Common culture at one place develops interactive relationships
between the members of the class, and this creates greater sense of community and
strengthening of class identities which are made stronger through socialization and marriages
with the members of their own class. The ruling classes, although conceal their wealth, like
showing their wealth with the life style. They buy and build houses in the most elite parts of
the city and, in time, those parts of the city become the elite settlements of the rich where the
price of houses and land is so high that those with average wealth cannot buy a house in such
settlements. The houses are huge, and their style, size and luxury are intended to draw
attention to the wealth and power of their owners. They possess big houses at most luxurious
and expensive summer holiday resorts, as well as the apartments in popular cities and capitals
in the world. There was an interesting attempt of the Stockholm city government to create
socially democratic quarters in the second half of the twentieth century.’’The city government
of Stockholm ensured that every citizen has adequate accommodation, a full spectrum of
advantages to enrich everyday life, and full protection of existence. However, within a period
of only three decades, the attitude of people started changing. The citizens, especially the
younger population in Stockholm, did not choose the predictable community where
everything is taken care of and accounted for, but instead, they hurried in rapturous waters of
private housing market and started buying densely built houses that reminded of the worst
type of American suburbs.’’(. Bauman, 2009:95)
In the USA, suburbanization, ex-urbanization and elitization, and gentrification of central
parts of the cities are predominant ways of the ruling class to create spatial identity.
Suburbanization in the USA started as a racial process and a protest against the law on mixed
race schools, and it was an idea of wealthy white Americans to move from the city center to
suburbs in order to prevent mixing of their children with the children of black people. During
63
the sixties of the last century, the growth rate of central parts of the cities and suburbs was 10
and 48% of inhabitants, respectively. By moving to suburbs, families gained the opportunity
to enroll their children to schools which were attended by white children only. ‘’Even today,
American suburbs are mostly inhabited by white people. In 1990, the minorities made only 18
% of total number of population in the suburbs. Out of four Americans of African origin,
three continued to live in central urban areas, which, in case of white people, was 1:4 ratio.
Most of black population lives in the suburbs that are near those parts of the city where most
of the population is black ’’ (Gidens, 2009:592). If the suburbs were initially formed in the
race related process, then this racial process gradually turned to a class process because today,
in the suburbs, besides the wealthy white Americans, there is an increasing number of wealthy
Americans of Latino and Asian origin. In the USA, there are more and more ex-suburbs of a
community which are related to the development of the edge cities, like technological parks,
and which just like the suburbs offer more qualitative life style and higher degree of
community (Tarner, 2009:250). In contrast to suburbanization, numerous cities in the USA
and Canada, as well as Britain, experience the elitization, gentrification, moving of young,
successful and wealthy people to central parts of the city. Several reasons have led to this
process. Companies want these people to work long hours, to be dedicated to work and
available at all times, which is the reason for their moving. Over time, this makes those
settlements elite and it also attracts other wealthy and successful people to settle in the city
center which provides them with easier access to rich and various cultural and entertaining
events when compared to the suburbs. The second reason are incentive measures and grants
introduced by the state in the process of renovation and elitization of some old central parts,
and the third reason, very important for American cities, is the introduction of zero tolerance
policy, which reduced the crime rate in the city centers, and police hour.’’. Since 1991,
number of serious crimes in ten biggest American cities dropped by 34%.’’ (Gidens,
2009:595)
When compared to the returning elitization in American cities, the elite in European cities did
not leave city centers and the process of elitization was slightly different. ’’New managingtechnocratic and political elite create new exclusive spaces, segregated and isolated from the
city, big as some bourgeois quarters of the industrial society. In European centers, unlike
those in America, exclusive residential areas aim at adopting urban culture and history by
concentrating in the renovated parts of the city center; this emphasizes the fact that with
clearly established and strong dominance the elite does not need suburban exile like the weak
and cowardly American elite which escaped from the control of urban population (except for
New York, Boston and San Francisco)’’ (Castels, 1993:190). In Serbia, the period of
transition occurred at the same time as the process of suburbanization, with the growth of
Dedinje, Top ider and Senjak, and that was also the period of residential process when the
new economic and political elite started conquering central parts of the city (Dor ol, Vra ar).
The society class structure is spatially formed based on the degree of economic power. Elite
settlements are places where the wealthiest members of the society live and who aim at
making their urban space closed to the rest of the population. They have huge wealth, similar
culture, strong social networks of interest, and their individualistic and materialistic ideology,
and cohabitation in the same space make them exclusive, special, and extraordinary; this
strengthens their social identities and creates a community with joint interests and
experiences, which additionally stimulates the development of social identities. According to
a research, the attitude a dweller has to the part of the city where he/she lives is based on
personal experiences, ideas, which are acquired in the process of socialization, and symbolic
ideas about the city ( Žoa and Šuler quoted from Vujovi , 2005:249).” The war against
security, dangers, and risks is now waged inside the city. Heavily armed trenches and bunkers
aimed at separating, keeping away, and barring the entry of strangers, are fast becoming one
64
of the most visible aspects of contemporary cities-even though the designers are trying to
adjust their designs to the urban landscape by „normalizing" the extraordinary conditions that
the urban dwellers, security addicts, live in. The most common form of defense walls are the
increasingly popular „gated communities'' in the brochures handed by the real estate agents
and in the practice of the dwellers) with obligatory security and surveillance cameras at the
entrance. The number of „gated communities" in the USA has already exceeded 20.000, and
their population is over eight million. The meaning of the „gate" has broadened over the
years; for example, the residential complex in California named „Desert island" is surrounded
by a 100.000 m2 rampart. ’’( Bauman, 2009:97)
On the opposite pole of social structure, there is the subclass, urban poor people who, just like
the elite, live in special parts of the city which are both socially and urbanistically neglected.
In the USA, ''there are about 30 million poor people who do not have adequate income,
accommodation, health insurance, clothes, food and other basic things for living. We all feel
that poor people are potentially dangerous because they are angry about their personal
unhappiness ... poverty is related to the young and ethnic groups... In America, the darker the
skin the more chance that the person is poor. When the lowest layers of a class system have
too many members in the minority categories, the anger is doubled and people are furious
because of the discrimination, as well as its consequences – the poverty’’ (Tarner, 2009:289).
All big cities have quarters where poor urban population lives; those parts are unarranged and
dilapidated, swarming with vice and crime where the rich never go. Urban quarters with poor
population are mostly present in the big cities of less developed countries.” Around one third
of population in the cities from less developed countries lives in centralized slums or new
settlements developed on the city edge. By the end of the nineties, the number of ’sq tt r’
population was around 4 million people in Mexico City, and 2 million people in Seul and
Calcuta, and these numbers double every six years. Around Rio de Janeiro (with a population
of about 10.5 million), between the hills, highways and oceans, there are around 500 favelas,
some of which have up to 50.000 people.” (Puši , 1998:332). The subclass creates its own
culture, the poverty culture, just like the elite which develops its own elite culture as a
dimension of social identity. On a level of individual consciousness, the culture of poor
people is expressed as a feeling of being on the margin, powerless, inferior.. The poor have
their own language, behavioral standards and values, their own psychology and attitude to
life, and their life and culture are completely different from the life and culture of the elite.
The poor transfer their culture from one generation to another which means that many
generations remain the prisoners of their cultures. Their poor position in the society conditions
the culture of poverty, and the culture of poverty reproduces poverty instead of encouraging
the overcoming of poverty. Still, a part of this class, under the influence of general
merkantilization, individualization, and consumer patterns of mass culture has completely
different social reaction. Considerable number of younger population, without any prospects
for future and completely aware of their inability to change that situation and to integrate in
the society, accepts criminal activities as a vocation but also as a rebellion against global
social community which excommunicated them, as well as the instrument and method for
using illegal activities and acquiring wealth which in turn includes them in the consumer
behavioral models that are imposed by the capital. ( Podruzini and San ez,, Quoted from
Vujovi , 2005:328).
2.2
Globalization and spatial identity
Globalization is a process of economic, cultural and political integration of different national
communities in one supernational social community. Globalization increases interdependence
of some societies and by doing this it reduces their economic, political and cultural
differences, thus making a completely new, global, universal community of people. Main
65
characteristics of this global community are suppression of national identities and imposing of
global identity in the forms of global popular culture, liberal democracy, neoliberal ideology,
and materialistic system of values, that is, social identities of economically most developed
countries. Multinational companies and information technologies have the key role in the
globalization process.
Expansion and growth of multinational companies are conditioned by economic interests of
the multinational companies, that is, by the logic of capital and profit. Main goal of the
companies is to earn profit and the profit can be earned by increasing the sale on the one hand
and with rational organization of production on the other hand. Both ways of achieving profit
stimulate the globalization and global actions of companies.. Economic interests of
multinational companies need, on the one hand, free flow of commodities, capital, people,
knowledge and technologies between different countries as the precondition for development
and expansion, while on the other hand, they need open borders and elimination of barriers
between certain countries that prevent freedom of business and trade. Such economic
requirements result in multinational companies demanding for equalization of economic and
political systems of some countries, as well as in the creation of global cities as new world
control centers which can successfully rule the world by means of information technologies.
Global cities integrate regional, national and world economy in one system. (Robinson quoted
from translation by Vujovi 2005:302). Functioning of new global economy depends on a
wide range of central locations which have developed information infrastructure and
„hyperconcentration" of capacities. Those points are the places where globalized ''business'' is
run and further directed from.. According to Saskia Sassen, a global city is a city which is the
center of such big, transnational companies, financial, technological and consulting services.
The centers of global cities develop concentrated locations where business interactions from
the entire world take place. In New York, 350 foreign banks have their branches, as well as
2.500 other foreign corporations; every fourth bank clerk in the city works for one of the
foreign banks. ’’We arrive at fundamental dualism of our time. It confronts cosmopolitism of
the elite, which is connected to the entire world on daily basis (functionally, socially,
culturally) with tribalism of local communities which are striving towards the control of their
space as the last resort in the battle against the macro forces which shape the lives of
communities and they cannot do anything about it. The fundamental dividing line in our cities
is the inclusion of the cosmopolitans in the making of the new history while excluding the
locals from the control of the global city to which ultimately their neighborhood belongs’’
(Castels, 1993:565). A spatial structure is developed within the global cities based on the
principle of „centrality and marginality". Extreme poverty and flamboyant abundance stand
side-by-side; even though these two worlds exist together they have no contact... there is
intentional 'fencing' of some parts of the city against the poor. Public places once accessible to
everyone are replaced by buildings with high walls, equipped with electronic recording
devices, and „corporate fortresses''. In order to minimize the contact with the pariahs, urban
development turned once vital pedestrian zones into drain channels for the traffic, and public
parks became temporary residence of homeless and other piteous people. The American city
... is systematically changing inside-outside – or more like outside-inside. Accepted space for
new megastructures and super shopping centers is focused on the city center, while the space
bordering the street is completely bare. Public activities are performed in spaces strictly
determined based on their functions and every kind of movement is under the watchful eye of
private police. (Gidens,2009:607)’’
2.3
Corporate culture and spatial identity
The headquarters of corporations and big department stores represent the main elements of
urban public spaces, but the increasing number of corporations moves from the city center to
66
artificial environment which is designed in accordance with urban characteristics in order to
emphasize the specificity and exclusiveness. ‘’As an example of such a trend, full of symbols,
is a wide range of corporate offices in Copenhagen located on the sea shore; they are
impressive, like some huge fortifications, enclosed with foundations, and designed to be
looked at only from a distance, like the walls without windows, La Difense in Paris – they can
be looked at but not visited. Their message is clear and precise: the corporate clerks inside
those buildings settle in some global cyber space, and their physical connection with the city
is only formal, conditioned and fragile. Those inside are in the space where the buildings were
built, but they do not belong to that space. Their interests are no longer in the city where they
are, by chance... Richard Rogers, one of the most respected and famous British architects
warned the participants of a symposium about urban planning in Berlin in 1990: Public space
was the first collateral victim of the city which lost the battle trying to stop or slow down the
severe growth of the globalism force. Finally, Rogers concluded that „what you basically need
is the institution which can protect the public space"(Bauman, 2009:93).
According to Michelle Fuco, the architecture of buildings of modern corporations is more and
more having the function of pointing to the social power of those organizations, and to the
hierarchical power of management “The work places of employees in the highest positions in
the managing hierarchy of the organization are typically on the last floor of the building – the
higher the position of the employee, the higher floor his office is on. On the other hand, Fuco
believes that the architecture of buildings should also enable visible control over the work of
employees which is why the employees responsible for routine jobs are typically located in
big rooms for easier control.
2.4
Personal identities and space
Personal identity implies having full consciousness (self-consciousness) of individual’s
biological and social identity as well as of individual features from the aspect of values,
moral, intellect and emotions. It is a self-consciousness of ‘me’, of one’s personal
characteristics, of one’s view of the world and life. Personal identity is a relatively stable
image of people’s personal characteristics; it is as stable as social identities that we belong to,
that is, it is stable to the extent to which we can manage to be acquainted with ourselves
objectively and present stable view of life, world and ourselves. Preservation of permanently
stable identity is not a simple process because a man goes through different social and
biological phases that affect his/her personal features and, in this way, consciousness of
his/her own personality. Personal identities can be divided into collective (traditional) and
individual (modern) identities. Collective identities are completely socialized personal
identities and individual identities are completely individualized social identities. However,
considering the fact that a village is a birthplace of collective identities and spatial structure
and spatial organization of economic, social and cultural life in a village stimulate
development of collective identities, and that a city is a birthplace of individual identities and
city’s spatial structure and spatial organization of economic, social and cultural life stimulate
development of individual identities, very often individual identities in literature are regarded
as urban, and collective identities are regarded as rural identities.
Collectivistic culture with collectivistic value system played crucial role in the development
of collective identities and individualistic culture with materialistic value system played
crucial role in development of individual identities. The main cause for dominance of
collective consciousness and collective values in societies can be found in economic
(existential) and social subordination of an individual to a collective. An individual could not
survive socially or economically without the help of a collective he/she belonged to.
Subordination of an individual to a collective was the result of high degree of economic and
67
social cohesion between an individual and a collective. Since a collective is more important
than an individual, the collective stimulates the growth of cognitive apprehension of life and
world and of those moral values and norms which foster collective and collective spirit, and
those collective values and norms are imposed to individuals through socialization. The main
characteristics of collectivistic culture are collective values, traditionalism, conservatism, fear
of changes, restraint of individualism, high value of a delegate of collective authority,
localism. Traditionalism is reflected in the fact that people cling to the past in cognitive and
valuable terms. The next characteristic of collectivistic culture is restraint of individualism,
individual initiative, individual spirit and individual success. Collectivistic cultures value only
those individual actions which are in accordance with collective values, and which contribute
to the strengthening of those values and the collective, while they have negative attitude to the
individual actions which aim at making an individual independent with respect to the
collective In the collectivistic cultures, the worshiping of a collective is shifted to the
worshiping of the leaders of collective. The collective leader is viewed as the embodiment of
the collective and collective values, and considering the fact that the individual is not valued,
there is great disproportion between the respect that one has for someone with collective
authority and self-respect of people, that is, there is great difference in the power. On the other
hand, the authority that individuals acquire by means of their personal skills such as talent,
knowledge, professional success, success in life, is not valued.
Village, with its spatial structure and organization of economic, social, and cultural life and
entertainment, strengthens the integrative connections between people which improve
collective identity, on the one hand, and on the other hand, social events and processes have
common framework, identity which additionally strengthens collective identities. All
economic, social, cultural and entertaining events in the village take place outside in the open,
and almost all members participate, which provides the same life experience to all
participants. From social, economic, cultural and entertaining point of view, spatial isolation
of village with respect to broader social community has caused strengthening of internal,
integrative connections, common values and common spirit. Common space integrates
different social experiences and gives them spatial identity which, by means of socialization,
transfers to future generations as collective experience.
Establishment of individualistic (modern) cultures was started with development and
expansion of market production. Unlike traditional work (agriculture, craft) which objective
was to meet personal, limited local needs, the objective of market production is earning profit
while the fulfillment of other people's needs is just an instrument for personal profit. The
beginning of market type of production is connected with the expansion of trade in European
cities in the 14th and 15th centuries which stimulated the growth of craft business and
eventually has led to the creation of industrial type of production. Market production has
created completely new system of values, new behavioral standards, new life goals. Economic
interests, material wealth, and money have become main social values. Money is the new
God, and earning money is the religion. Just like everything used to be subjected to God and
religion in the past, everything in market society has become subjected to money and its
earning.
This victory of individualism (capitalism) over collectivism was described by Marx in the
following words: "The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all
feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley of ties that bound
man to his “natural superiors”, and left remaining no other nexus between men than naked
self-interest, than callous “cash payment.” It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of
religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of
egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value." (Marx, 1977:382).
68
Basic characteristics of an individualistic culture are individualism (private initiative,
entrepreneurial spirit), rationalism (the establishment of a rational relationship towards the
world and among people), pragmatism (everything in life and society is valued from the
standpoint of practical environmental benefit), universalism (striving for the establishment of
universal values). Individualist cultures create favorable value conditions for the successful
economic development of society. People raised in these cultures are very dedicated to
working, because to them work represents a fundamental tool for career advancement, while a
successful career is attributed a high life value. Their dedication to work is also amplified by a
high regard for material wealth. The quantity of material wealth appears as a criterion for
personal success and confirmation in life and society, which further encourages commitment
and responsibility in their work.
The city, like the country, with its spatial structure and organization of economic, social,
cultural life and entertainment influences the reinforcement of individualist identities. In
spatial terms the city is divided, and with its physical size exceeds the needs of the people
who are generally bound to the neighborhood where they live and the public areas, and those
areas are experientially and emotionally perceived, while other parts of the city remain
unknown and foreign to them. Some parts of the city remain unknown to some people and it is
difficult to find a person who, based on experiences, feels familiar with the entire city.
Economic, social and political activities take place indoors and our unique experience of these
activities can only be based on the external appearance of the building. Cultural activities and
entertainment are separated according to different needs and tastes, which offer to meet the
needs of different categories of people, however this also does not contribute to shared
collective experience but rather to the strengthening of individuality. The spatial concentration
of a large number of people also encourages individualism because it offers a greater selection
of models and forms of imitation. ''From the very beginning, cities have been places where
strangers live together in close proximity to each other while remaining strangers... It is the
public places where urban life reaches its ultimate form, with all that sets it apart from other
forms of human community, together with its most characteristic joys and sorrows,
premonitions and hopes.'' (Bauman, 2009:94)
The value system of the city is derived from the individual value system. All that is valuable
to the individual in the city is justified in terms of value, apart from actions that threat the
integrity, freedom and rights of others. This way, a very broad framework for free expression
of individual differences is created, as well as for strengthening individualism as well.
Cultural, political, intellectual and social life in general, in the city, creates favorable
conditions for individuals to build their own identity, a sense of the uniqueness of their own
personality, as well as the awareness of the society and the time in which they are living.
2.5 Globalization and personal identity
The need for identity and self-realization, in the majority of people over the course of history,
was not developed as an authentic need. People used to attain their identity by identifying
with some aspects of wider social community, such as family, tribe, nation, country. While
the need for self-realization was achieved by subordinating their values and goals, that is
individual traits of their personality, to the demands of broader social collectives to which
they belonged. The paradox in this form of self-realization is reflected in the willingness of
the individual to sacrifice his life for the realization of collective goals and to interpret this as
the highest form of expressing their individuality, even though such a form of expression
represents a denial of individuality. Only in modern society does self-realization become a
real human need and it is reflected in a desire and effort of an increasing number of people to
choose the profession and the kind of work that enables them to have a high degree of
69
autonomy and creativity. No longer is a well-paid job the most highly valued, but rather a job
that is both well paid and which provides opportunities for expression of creative abilities.
With the development of modern society, the social dimension of identity that hampered the
development of personal identities (religious, national, cultural identity) gradually lost their
influence in the formation of personal identity, while the dimensions which encourage the
development of personal identity have strengthened, (professional, education, class identity)..
Simply, social identities are individualized and functionalized in terms of value according to
the developmental needs of individual identity. The authors who claim that modern identities
are fluid (Bauman, 2009 ), torn (Harriet Bradley) regard modern identities from the standpoint
of collectivist social identities, while not realizing that they have lost significance, but that
personal identities have not thereby become weaker but have on the contrary gained strength,
because they do not base their personal identities on fluid social identities (nation, religion,
national culture) but rather on professional identities and expert knowledge, and professional
roles and expertise (education) allow the most complete and most objective perceptions of
your personal identity to be formed. Globalization with its new knowledge, new professions
and pluralistic cultures has even further extended the frame in which personal identities are
created and strengthened. Gidens points out that constructivist identities are getting stronger
in the present, personally created identities according to their own internal needs and personal
goals and values (Gidens, 1998; 118). Now that the traditional signposts have become less
important, the world confronts us with an almost dizzying array of options on what to be like,
how to live and what to do-without, in the meantime advising us on which choice to make.’’
(Gidens, 2009:50).
REFERENCES
[1] Bauman, Z. (2009) Fluidni život. Novi Sad: Meditteran Publishing.
[2] Castels, M. (1993) Europen cities the international society and global economy. Journal of Economy and
Social Geography
[3] Gidens, A. (2009 ). Sociologija. Beograd: Ekonomski falultet.
[4] Gidens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-identity. Cambridge: Polity press.
[5] Gidens, A. (1998), Posledice modernosti. Beograd: Filip Višnji .
[6] Grul, H. (1985) Jedna planeta je oplja kana. Beograd: Prosveta.
[7] Mamford, L. (1988) Grad u historiji. Zagreb: Naprijed.
[8] Marks, K. (1977) Izabrana dela, t. 7. Beograd: Prosveta.
[9] Saunders, P. (1995) Towards a Non-spatial Urban Sociology. Brighton: Urban and Regional Studies.
[10] Tarner, Dž. (2009) Sociologija. Novi Sad: Meditteran Publishing.
[11] Puši , LJ. (1988) Grad, društvo. prostor. Beograd: Zavod za izdavanje udžbenika.
[12] Vujovi , S. (2005) Urbana sociologija. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike.
70
SPACE AS THE PRACTICE OF
COMMENSURATION/HOMOGENIZATION AND THE COMMODITY
IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM
Alpar Lošonc1 Vladimir Gvozden2
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
2
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
alpar@uns.ac.rs, vgvozden@open.telekom.rs
Abstract
The space is privileged in commodity-based society. It is well known that the economic space
in the 19th and 20th centuries rapidly managed to subordinate all other areas "conveying and
instilling in them their own meanings and goals" (Ž. Milatovi ). A new form of space that
qualifies commodity society was created, marked by dualities: openness-closeness, privatepublic, sameness-difference. This paper is an attempt to criticize the usual analysis of the
categories of commodity-space, linked to the ambivalent role of the state as a guarantor of the
functioning of the commodity-based society, as well as its controlling instance. The
increasing delocalization of the political changes the nature of the space in the commoditybased society. Privileged areas are produced that create an illusion of protection of
consumers (shopping malls, gated communities, theme parks, video surveillance), while at the
same time social differentiation and identification are produced through the symbolic order of
commodities and a sense of inclusion or exclusion from that order. At the same time, the
examples of tourism and selling places demonstrate that such a commodity-space unusually
easy reconciles sameness and difference. It entails uniformity to help achieve the fluctuation
of goods, while insisting on the local as different, especially in terms of the role of
particularity in the global trade. Therefore, one should not have illusions: this space can not
be effective without inequality. But skeptics may also ask: is it really the consumer society
based on competition, or the myth of competition is produced as a kind of cognitive
blindness.
Keywords: commodity, commodity-space, historicizing, capital, selling places, biopolitics
1
INTRODUCTION
The dealing with the space could begin with the ontological reflexions. For example, the
controversial thinker, Carl Schmitt has developed a spatial ontology pointing out the „original
spatialization“: due to his frequently debated reasoning there is a strong identity between
„spatialization as ontological gesture“ and „ordering“.[1] In this sense political configuration
per se contains spatial horizons: the mentioned strong identity includes the spatial ontology as
the intertwinement between spatiality and politics. Thus, following the argumentation based
on the spatial-political ontology we could find the conditions for the radicalization of the
space, or the account for the existence of radical spaces. If the „ordering” is always spatial,
the radicalized spaces are inherently ontological as well.
As far as our treatment is concerned we acknowledge that the spatial ontology offers a fresh
and provocative account contrasting the situation that is so characteristic in different domains,
namely, the neglecting of the space. Indeed the spatial ontology corrects certain deficits. At
the same time, we see the impasse of spatial ontology à la Carl Schmitt as paradigmatic one:
the extrapolation of the spatial ordering on the transhistorical level as if the spatial ontology
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provides the frame for all historical sequences without sensitivity to the historical specifities.
We do not refuse the legitimacy of the balancing between the historical and ontological
features but stress the indispensable status of the historical reflections on the spatiality and
spatialization. This line of thinking starts out from the structural interpretation of the
capitalism depicted as the commodity-based society that entails the totalization of the
commodity-determined relations. That is, for us the structural logic of commodity appears as
the point of issues in the context of the spatial „ordering”. More precisely, the spatialization is
to be portrayed by the commodity-determined dynamics with the play between differences
and practice of settings of the equivalents. Our approach could be classified as the critical
one; it considers the modes of spatializations and the spatiality as the „material for the
thinking” - from the critical perspective.
2
SPACE AS HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIPS
In fact, the historical reflection and the „historicizing” are here affirmed as the act of the
critical set of reflection that resists to the naturalization of the existing social relationships and
structures of the space. Thus, what is indispensable for our thinking on space is the act of
historicizing. This includes the persistent orientation in accounting the historical
determinateness of the space, and all categories connected to the internal differentiation of the
space. And, this is the elementary condition to shape the contours of a non-negative theory of
a space: in fact this declarative statement is in contrast, for example, to the French cultural
theorist and urbanist Paul Virilio [2] who is otherwise of great importance for us due to the
articulation of bunker archaeology or the meaning of fortification, yet we oppose to his claim
that the acceleration of communication substitutes the space with time. And we contradict to
the account that the space appears to be only as the residue, in fact, in accordance to this logic
we are dealing with the space only by the reason that the crucial dimension of time, namely,
the transcendence has disappeared. But the space proves to be co-constitutive moment of the
modern society with the time: it is not a remnant feature.
What about the space as the radically historical category? There is no continuity between the
spatium in classical Latin and the space that is a modern phenomenon; there is no constancy
between the well-known urban reform of Cleisthenes in Athens and modern practices of
enclosures, or gentrification. We could, for example, treat the exodus as the installment of the
radically created space in the premodernity and in the modernity as well: recall the path
breaking practice of exodus as spatial practice in the Bible, or evoke the exodus as the modern
spatialization in the sense of making distance. But the, deep discontinuity as the trace of the
work of history makes the deep caesura between modernity and pre-modernity: in fact, the
premodern man is not oriented by the space. We could not describe her as the represent of the
practice of re-location that is of decisive importance for our understanding of the space. The
pilgrim movement is not proves to be a relocation, but an orbiting-practice around the
sacralized epicenters, and the medieval cartography reflects the body of the Christ or the
master [3]. This is not a modern Cartesian-based coupling of map and planning with the twodimensional visual configuration that intends to control the world by the measures and
different metrics. The premodern spatiality is embedded in the geometrical logic and does not
know the borders in the modern sense of the word that frame the territoriality with the
commodity-based metrics and calculated measures mediated by the logic of capital.
From the perspective of premodernity it is impossible to explain the enormous significance of
the land as commodity that frames the construction of the USA, or the enclosures that are
orientated toward the household by the debt practices, or the reinscribing of domesticity, [4]
or the speculation related to the estate as the triggers of today’s crisis-ridden economy.
Pursuing the axioms of premodernity we could not highlight the modern morphology of the
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space connected to the borders, fragmentations of urbanity, re-locations of the borders,
topology of the fences within the unlimited chain of re-locations. The refugee camps or
concentration camps as the form of exceptional, bounded spaces lead us genuinely into the
domain of modernity. The territory and the territoriality are not the eternal categories, but they
condense the complete modern apparatuses of politico-economical technology concerning the
land, acquisition, and dialectic between exclusion and inclusion, actually, it involves the
complete modern imaginarium and conceptual settings. To be short, as the horizon of
radicality the space could be not treated as the repository, but as the strategic field with the
co-constitutive configuration of power.
There is a radical theory on the space that inspires us, especially the works of Henry Lefebvre
and David Harvey with their extraordinarily sensitivity to the spatial determinations of history
and to the connection between the space and commodity-based society. Henry Lefebvre’s
theory serves as the starting point for our thinking in the following way: he has connected the
space and abstraction pointing out the category of the space as the condensation of “concrete”
abstractions and emphasizes the special interest of state in comprehensive cartographic
procedures [5]. Besides, the so-called postmodern orientations are characterized by the wellknown thinker, Fredric Jameson as the obsession with the space contrasting the preoccupation
of the moderns with the space. His argumentation refers to the experience of the posturban
cities, of the masses on the streets, and of the gentrified urban structures: Jameson portrays
the postmodern space-obsession as the result of the ending of the modern temporality or as
the result of the dismissing the future, and the transcendence from the horizon of temporality.
Jameson's analysis is very convincing and in addition he influences our treatments in different
ways, yet, we would develop our argumentation opposing to the logic of historical succession
(modern/postmodern; time/space). From the standpoint of the commodity there is always the
spatio-temporal structurality tout court and independently from the historical phases. From
the perspective of the commodity in the context of capitalism we could project the structural
matrix of the spatio-temporality that pervades all segments of the society. (Evidently, we do
not have opportunity in this article to demonstrate the forms of manifestation of the spatiotemporality or the simultaneous materializations of the space and time) We have mentioned
our remarks considering Jameson`s logic of temporal succession: an similar problem (mutatis
mutandis) occurs in Lefebvre’s work. The French theoretician does not provide an adequate
account of the spatio-temporality as the structural matrix for capitalism; in point of fact he
does not explain the structural links between spatialisation and temporalization in capitalism.
But, his endeavor proves to be a breaking point for the analysis of the space.
There is an point in Jameson's analysis of special importance for us: he stresses the act of
separation („The secret of capitals spatiality”) [6] as the crucial moment for the capitalist
dynamic and for its creative destruction. We could mention here the examples such as the
separation the town from the country, the agriculture from the industry, the workers from the
tools of production and production as such. Separation in this sense could be for us even the
candidate for the link between the ontological and historical level of approach: on the one
hand, the separation proves to be an ontological feature for it means the existence of the
primordial distinction and distance („no two bodies can occupy the same position”, therefore
the issue of separation opens up the problem of otherness and the body, or the corporeal
position), on the other hand, the separation is embedded into the processes of capitalism as the
mediator of the technology of power. The separation is accordingly to Jameson to be treated
with its “counterpart”, i.e. with the widespread practice of expansion. The expansion of
capital as the societal relationship combined with the acts of separation highlights the
dynamic of the commodity-based society such as the uneven geographical development and
the dialectic between differences and sameness.
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3
SPACE AND COMMODITY/COMMODITY-BASED SPACE
The space could not be separated from the movement of commodity and its form, namely, the
capital and its metamorphosis. In this sense the space is not a neutral medium. And, this is the
result of the constellation that the commodity-determined society is deeply spatially
determined. All these affirm the radical aspects of space as well: not by chance the
researchers intensively explore and recognize the bifurcation of the contested spaces, the
complex spatiality of enclosures, and separations and fences in urban structures that express
the multifarious transformations in the socio-economic configuration. The space in this sense
becomes the frame for the articulation of its radicality and the abstract space made by the
politico-economic technology of state is the precondition to understand the practice of
homogenization, assimilation and global-mondial dissemination of the commodities and
expansion of commodity-chains. The space is simultaneously the instrument and goal: by it is
possible, for the sake of example, to conquer the land, or as we will call it today: land
grabbing, but it is essential to recognize the space could not be reduced to the status of
instrumentality; its constitutive status inhibits such a reduction. The spatialized politicoeconomic technologies make possible to conquer, to measure and to bound the spaces: this
include the fact that the space is the reflexive determination in modernity.
This does not mean that we have defined the space once for all: there are always the processes
of creative destruction, a persistent combination between fixity and fluidity in the context of
space. There is an endogenous differentiation of the space, and its dimensions, even nowdays
we are witnessing the transformation of the relationship between its dimension, scales and
places: therefore the Cartesian mapping based on the two-dimensionality of space appears to
be inadequate. Virilio (already mentioned), analyzing the Atlantic wall and the given
geometric, physical and political aspects, tends to emphasize the constitutive nature of
horizontal against the vertical plane: by dominating the air the military logistics and violence
in the 20th century inscribes into the space the neglected volumetric dimensions [7]. Actually,
the well-known figure of globalization suggests a smooth space without any fractures or
breaches, but as we see it refers to the fragmentations/segmentations, and what is named as
the materialization of the „walling”. Instead of the flat space, the new forms of territorial
rationality, the spatial dynamic, and the re-hierarchizing of the places establish an extreme
complexity [8]. What is more, the analysis of the differentiation of the space implicates the
considerations of such phenomenon as „spatial alienation” (Charnock).
Since the early modern era the accumulation of capital cannot be attributed only to the time
differential (differentia temporis), but to the spatiality of the market where the greater
emphasis belongs to the difference between places (differentia loci), which further contributes
to the creation of new forms of physical distancing [9]. But, exactly at this moment we are
confronted with the problem of representation of space debated by Lefebvre as well: it is
evident that the space always involves the regimes of representation. The space becomes
intelligible through its regime of representation. In fact, the experience of complexity recalls
the old account of Kevin Lynch, an US urban Planner in his book The Image of the City
emphasized by Jameson as well [10]. By describing the complex intertwinements of urban
transportation, urban orders and transformations, „porous membranes”, dwelling-conditions
place-shaping processes aligning with the ordering of things, commodities, segments of
everydayness that feed the political antagonisms, Lynch has problematized the “imageability”
of the city. We could translate this notion as the “imageability” of the space structured by the
complexity. Lynch denotes this confrontation with the urban totality as the cognitive
mapping. We could add to this delineation our problem of cognitive mapping related to the
commodity-determined space. The urban space as the frame for the urban totality includes as
aesthetic dimensions as politico-economic abstractions. The term of cognitive mapping
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implicates practical meaning: how to be positioned in relation to the complexity; how to be
orientated in the constellation of unlimited complexity? Therefore, the term of „cognitive
mapping” implicates the couplet of epistemological and practical meanings as well.
We could argue that the commodity space has similar function for capitalism as the museum
gallery for art. The ideology of consumer society insinuates that life might become the work
of art, in the sense that it can be transformed in an expression of aesthetic taste. In this view,
the commodity is primarily aesthetic object because it occupies our consciousness in its
materiality and sensuality as an object. Of course, this is not about the beauty, but about
sensual experience of objects. It is not necessary further to explain the importance of spatial
dimension of the experience. It is enough, together with Bauman, say that the consumer is
primarily gatherers of sensations, and that they are gatherer of things only in secondary and
derivative sense [11].
We will consider just two examples to illustrate biopolitical and cognitive mapping of
commodity society: these are the cultural tourism and the selling places. Undoubtedly, the
desire for commodity is connected with our need to belong to a community or group and to be
accepted and recognized within certain space. In the first decades of twentieth century, the
society which defined, or self-decepted itself in leisure facilities became also the society that
aestheticize itself: "Art" provides a collective display of "private" life based on rituals of
stimulation. A good example of the aestheticisation of everyday life is tourism as a form of a
democratic type, which since its creation has been associated with "high" culture. Namely, in
Stendhal’s use in the book Memoires d'un Tourist (1838), written in the period of formation
of this expression, the word "tourist" means a man who travels in order to improve personal
culture, which is primarily built through the admiration of the masterpieces of Italian
Renaissance painting. In contrast to the period when the journey, usually in the form of the
Grand Tour, was considered a skill and privilege of the selected few, during the last decades
of the 19th century in the West, due to the increasing number of passengers the tourism
started to lose its former elitist status, but it also accounted for its own past atavism.
4
CRUCIAL EXAMPLES
Background of above mentioned change is political and economic since the number of
privileged or wealthy passengers increased compared to earlier periods, but there was also a
different organization of the space. Still, it was not yet a mass tourism like today, but the
development of railways and steamship traffic already led to significant price cuts for
travelers. It is the capitalist process that led to the liberation of free time that was more and
more used for the leisure activities. Tourism is a consequence of the democratization of travel
experience, but it also led to their uniformity. One can point to "structural differentiation" that
occurs in the age of modernism, which refers to the establishment of separate, autonomous
spheres of economics, family life, state, science, ethics and aesthetics. Each of these spheres
in the first decades of the 20th century in Europe was rapidly developing and establishing
their own conventions and methods of evaluation. There is a downside in the form of vertical
differentiation, and refers to a number of distinctions: between culture and everyday life,
between high and low culture, between learned art with aura and popular pleasures, as well as
between elitist and mass forms of consumption. Tourism is a consequence of this forms of
differentiation, including also political differentiation: we must not, in fact, forget that
tourism, despite its prevalence, does not belong to experience of the world as a common
world, but the tourist space is since its inception not only symbolically, but also physically
fenced in different ways: there always were ethnicities, price of tickets, police dogs,
bureaucratic border checkpoints, barbed wire and expulsions.
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According to Roland Barthes’ famous analysis published in 1956, tourist guidebooks as
commercial commodities are "agents of discomfort" that direct the attention of travelers on a
limited scope of features of the landscape, thus concealing the real "view" on human life and
history, but at the same time providing the illusion of cultural stability and continuity. French
semiotician, in an article about the “Blue Guide” (Guide Bleu) on Spain, deconstructs the
mystification of social and political reality thanks to the exclusive interest of the guidebook
for the history and monuments. The guidebook leaves no room for Spaniards of flesh and
blood, but only shows the ideal types, which are identified with illness of essential thinking,
which purport the bourgeois mythology of man [12]. Barthes still does not lead us to extreme
consequences: this approach also speaks of the "cleansing" of space for the final triumph of
global commodities and irrevocable instrumentalization/actualization of the local in the
process of globalization. As a decade later points Jean Cassou in an important article in the
journal Communications (1967), passive tourists experience only what has already been
experienced by the guidebooks, they watch for what he says, they feel predictable feelings,
they buy the recommended food, they purchase predictable commodities. Tourist look to the
space conditions the perceptions and experiences, and the real journey unfolds as a series of
well-planned visit through precisely mapped area that does not allow any deviation [13].
One should therefore re-examine the very category of "tourism" as a model of the space in
commodity-based society because when asked where begins tourism and where starts trip to
the magical world of culture, it becomes clear that it is a term that, given the accumulated
experience, deserves deconstruction. On the one hand, the main aporia of tourist experience
lies in the search for what we want to find: we learn what we have already had known before
traveling. On the other hand, in terms of Adonis garden of modernity there is no Archimedean
point: the rejection of tourism can be part of an attempt to convince ourselves that we
ourselves are not tourists, which is not easy to prove. Reality is not divided into aesthetics and
everyday life, but they are intertwined in a complex space of the commodity society. Thanks
to arrangements of visual, textual and symbolic representations of certain places, tourism
today is making a key contribution to the development and recognition/identification of the
space within which operates the commodity world: it generates a key surpluses in relation to
reality, or aesthetically acceptable (pleasing, beautiful, attractive ...) symbols in the indexing
of reality. In short, one might say the following: where tourism exists commodity society won
the space, whether in terms of homogeneous regions or scattered points on the globe.
Let us consider our second example. In the last decades, we have witnessed an increased
growth in the practice of selling places. This means that the place is presented and sold as a
commodity. Every act of place marketing is a commodification of place. Cities, regions and
nation compete in a frenetic selling process, always stressing their comparative advantages of
their particular place. How to transform abandoned factories in marketable commodities of
heritage and leisure experience? How to make traditional resorts competitive with new ones?
How to attract investments of car makers and other multinational companies? How to become
‘cultural capital’ in the new Europe? How to stage world championship or Olympic games?
The ongoing process of selling places became normalized in the discourses of advertising,
public relations, subsidies, development projects, flamboyant architectural and urban design
statement, trade fairs, cultural and sporting spectacle, heritage, public art, street festivals [14].
Certain mythology purports the selling practices, addressed mainly to two agents, visitor and
investor. Plurality of experience, cultural differences and multiplicity of meaning are set
aside, and the new mythology of marketable place is saying that everything is well ordered
and ready to accept visitors and investors. Our place is transparent and all problems are
played down in the higher interest of its commodification. But to whom this interest belongs?
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Of course, the process of selling places is nothing new – it began in the heyday of industrial
capitalism, for example with the spas and baths in the 19th century (remember Ibsen's An
Enemy of the People and desires of the community to get rich by selling the poisonous water),
but now there is a difference: there is a successful wedding between culture and commodity.
Consumer society would not have been successful without reference to culture, but the
interference of economic and cultural spheres as a consequence has an increased uncertainty
arising from the mixing of forms and genres in the triumphant march of eclecticism. Told in
Ward's words, culture was a "cherry" on the cake, now it is part of the cake [15]. However,
the latter easily becomes tasteless, although the consequences appear to be irreparable.
Almost every place stress its own difference, but the rhetoric of sales is transferred in a
timeless and non-local way the message and the image of capitalist ideology that especially
likes "structural adjustment", "security", "professionalism", "competitiveness". Therefore, the
sale of the place enters into a complex web of differences and sameness that is typical for
capitalism.
As pointed out by Žarko Milatovi , the particularity and difference of certain place must be
erased because it cannot play the role of authority: they have to be abandoned and reduced to
an ideal of quality (or excellence in today's discourse) [16]. But in this vicious circle no one
knows what is the content of that quality (or excellence). Stephen Ward points out that the
place selling is connected with economic change and instability [17], or to what is today often
named as the "politics of fear". Place selling also reveals the ambivalent role of the state. On
the one hand, the state is the producer, designer and organizer of the space. On the other hand,
the state creates a new form of space that qualifies commodity society as more valuable than
any other form of social organization. The state, which builds social relations in space, was
necessary for capitalism because the feudal society could not achieve the homogenization on
the base of circulation of commodities. In one observation, "(...) the basis for achieving full
socialization in terms of commodity (which is realized in this century) is grounded on the
socialization on the national and state basis as the terms and conditions for its development"
[18]. The socialization based on the commodity had as its condition the existence of the state,
without state it would not be possible (national currency, national market, national industry,
etc.). In the commodity society after World War II welfare state receives a new function: to
defend the social fabric of profound disorganization which threatens the operation of the law
of the market and commodity relations [19].
Today when the commodity relations have developed, when the shopping and selling have
become a way of life and life itself, there is no privileged space (even the medical patients or
museum visitors become customers, students also are defined as consumers), the nation-state
becomes a limiting factor or simply appears as a co-investor in the capitalist enterprise.
Finally, the space has become a commodity, with all the irony of the phrases that have entered
the use (for example, green field investments). The result is obviously the empowerment of
experience and the rise of emotivism. The concrete place becomes an abstract site for the
working of capital. But this process is not neutral at all. If we appropriate multi-layered
meaning of places into one-dimension marketable commodity we must expect the growth of
parallel worlds that will attract people as a privileged space of communication. These worlds
are sometimes escapist, sometimes cynical and sometimes very aggressive, as in the case of
the rise of neo-Nazism, for example. The ruling paradigm of emotivism, within which the
moral claims are seen only as expressions of preference always already, has its dark side. The
main task of contemporary states is more to allow then to correct trade relations. This task
often ignores its function to appease violence – except by sheer force – which is part of the
bare commodity relations. In the early nineties, Milatovi wrote that the task of the state is to
protect the commodity society from the effects of commodity relations [20]. Today we can
77
safely say that the state itself has become part of commodity-based relations of which
societies almost never protect themselves, and individual lives in the figure but also a
metaphor of refugee are reduced to bare life examples caught between violence and
consumption.
Let us reconsider the problem of historicizing. In the age of Adonis's garden, in which all fast
flourishes and veins, it is naive to believe in strict dichotomies. The process of gaining
commodity character of everything during the 20th century increasingly was directed by idea
of "beautiful". Degraded aesthetics of modernity, which is becoming everyone's, produced the
iconography related to the suspended time of passive identification with the imaginary
museum’s past. The problem is that, despite the wishes and expectations of different actors in
the social field, these two surpluses – economic (capital) and symbolic (art) – are necessarily
interconnected. This means that neither is quite interested not quite disinterested, which
means that neither of them can be easily believed in their separateness. This creates the
impression of a timeless culture obsessed with presentation of itself in time, and atavism of
the past serve as a convincing ideological means. It is well known that the economic space
during the 19th and 20th centuries rapidly ascended itself to subordinate all other areas
"conveying and instilling in them their own meanings and goals" [21]. A new form of space
that qualifies commodity society was created, marked by dualities: openness-closeness,
private-public, sameness-difference… The image of a good life in the paradise-like form
makes consumer society seductive. As noted, the Western form of consumption, and the wide
space of its operation and effectiveness, can be the most successful Western influence in
world history, much more successful than the ideal political democracy [22]. This radiant
image instills fear in us that we do not remain outside the privileged space of contemporary
Garden of Eden.
5
CONCLUSION
The space is privileged in the commodity-based society: it creates the impression that there is
a privileged, protected space within which the individual chooses their lifestyle according to
his or her needs and desires. This space is synchronized with the ideology of choice.
Generally speaking, the segmented market creates a sense of an increased possibility of
choice, reinforcing the motivation for buying. The fact that this space is the field of conquest
and power needed to be hidden by the final enthronement of an entire "neutral" science. In the
1970s one important process took place: the economy becomes imperial doctrine, which
allows the illusion of overcoming the political sphere including the ethical basis of economic
thinking and replacing it with the concepts of simple epistemology that emerged from the
belief that economic thought was a reflection of the political and social situation, but also the
expression of the structure of space that is "valuable" for us. This means that if we are not
able to look critically at the process of selling places, we are actually blind regarding the
identity of the resulting work practices and lifestyles. Place selling proves Paolo Virno’s
diagnosis that opportunism, fear, and cynicism enter into production [21]. Place on sale is
actually an operational requirement, a special tool of the trade and these insight clearly applies
to it: “Insecurity about one’s place during periodic innovation, fear of losing recently gained
privileges, and anxiety over being ‘left behind’ translate into flexibility, adaptability, and a
readiness to reconfigure oneself” [23].
It is, therefore, necessary to consider critically the usual categories of analysis of commoditybased space, related, inter alia, to the role of the state as a guarantor of the functioning of the
commodity-based society, as well as its control instance. In addition, increasing delocalization
of the political influences the nature of the homogenization of space in the commodity-based
society. As a result, increasingly occur privileged spaces within which is created an illusion of
78
protection of consumers (shopping malls, theme parks, and video surveillance), while at the
same time we witness an ongoing process of social differentiation and identification through
the symbolic order of commodities and the sense of inclusion or exclusion from that regime.
The protection, meanwhile, became literal. Mike Davis describes the modern urban fortress,
speaks about "ecology of fear", not at all about communities of trust and solidarity. Let us
forget about the Indian reservations, which are characteristic of non-space of the modern
America. According to this author, around 3000000 Americans, almost a whole people, live
in gated communities, established “medieval” enclaves with guards and gates [25]. Every
space of commodity is marked by the ethos of competition, which means that it must have
winners and losers, successful and unsuccessful. Therefore, one should not have illusions: this
space can not be effective without inequality. But skeptics may also ask: is it really the
consumer society based on competition, or the myth of competition is produced as a kind of
cognitive blindness.
REFERENCES
[1] Minca, C. Rowan, R. 2015. The question of space in Carl Schmitt, Progress in Human Geography, Vol.
39(3): 268–289.
[2] Virilio, P. 1984. L’espace critique. Paris: C. Bourgois.
[3] [3] Poulantzas, N. 1981. Država, vlast, socijalizam. Zagreb: Globus.
[4] [4]. Mitropoulos, A. 2012. Contract and Contagion: From Biopolitics to Oikonomia, New York: Minor
Composition.
[5] [5] Lefebvre, H. 2009. It is the world that has changed. In N. Brenner & S. Elden (Eds.), Henri Lefebvre:
State, space, world, 153-164. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; Wilson, J. 2013. The Devastating
Conquest of the Lived by the Conceived: The Concept of Abstract Space in the Work of Henri Lefebvre.
Space and Culture, 16(3): 364 –380.
[6] [6] Jameson, F. 2011. Representing Capital, London: Verso
[7] [7] Elden, S. 2013. How Should We Do the History of Territory? Territory, Politics, Governance,1: 5-20.
[8] [8].Castree, N. 2009, The Spatio-temporality of Capitalism, Time & Society, VOL. 18 No. 1,. 27–62
[9] [9] Hutchinson, M. G. 1978. Early Economic Thought in Spain 1177–1740. London: Allen &
[10] Unwin.
[11] [10] Lynch, K. 1960. The Image of the City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
[12] [11] Bauman Z. 1999. The Self in Consumer Society. The Hedgehog Review, 1 (Fall): 35-40.
[13] [12] Barthes R. 1957. Mythologies. Paris: Seuil.
[14] [13] Cassou J. 1967. Du voyage au tourisme. Communications, 10: 25-34.
[15] [14] Ward, S. V. 1998. Selling Places: The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities 1850[16] 2000. New York: Routledge.
79
[17] [15] Ibid., p. 4.
[18] [16] Milatovi , Ž. 1992. Prostor sveden na robu. Zbornik Matice srpske za društvene nauke, 92-93: 7-21
(here p. 11).
[19] [17] Ward, S. V. 1998. Selling Places: The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities 1850[20] 2000. New York: Routledge, 291.
[21] [18] Milatovi , Ž. 1992. Prostor sveden na robu. Zbornik Matice srpske za društvene nauke, 92-93: p. 8.
[22] [19] Ibid., 9.
[23] [20] Ibid., 10.
[24] [21] Ibid., 19.
[25] [22] Stearns, P. 2006. Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire. New York and
London: Routledge, p.80.
[26] [23] Virno, P. 1996. The Ambivalence of Disenchantment, in Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics,
eds. Paolo Virno, Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis
Press, p. 13.
[27] [24] Ibid., p. 16.
[28] [25] Davies, M. 1999. Fortress Los Angeles: The militarization of public space. In M. Sorkin's (ed.),
Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space. New York: Hill and Wang,
pp. 154-180.
80
SCENIC SPACES OF POST-SOCIALIST CITIES
dr Milena Krklješ1, dr Dejana Nedu in2
1
2
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
milenakrkljes@gmail.com, dejana_neducin@yahoo.com
Abstract
The importance of scenic spaces can be found in the fact that the environment in which we
live both shapes us and is being shaped by us, physically and imaginatively. The design of
urban spaces has an impact on people’s perception, but although the structural qualities are
the most visible ones and first perceived, the metaphorical and symbolic meanings also
stimulate imagination, thus creating a scenic environments. Cities and their scenic spaces
have represented a valuable instrument of socialist propaganda, but are they still a theatre set
for programmed and controlled operations and are the post-socialist scenic urban spaces also
places for representation of new ideologies? What are their structured and structuring qualities
from today's perspective? As in many Central and East European cities, urban spaces in Novi
Sad, Serbia, still carry many features that correspond to the communist heritage. The research
will depict to which extent those spaces have been transformed by implementation of new
concepts and ideas during the post-social period.
This paper will discuss the general outlook of the post-socialist urban spaces and possibilities
for their scenic transformations. The research will be based on physical, economic and
symbolic values of public spaces that derived as indirect consequences of transitional reforms.
If we consider the fact that urban scenery consists not only of buildings, spaces and places,
but also of expressions of cultural values, social behaviour and individual actions, the
question that raises is whether we can speak about scenic spaces as derivatives of socialist era
and how those spaces correspond to post-socialist times. This paper aims to explore
interrelations between post-socialist social structure of Novi Sad and urban spaces that might
be seen as transmitters of cultural needs, with an emphasis on architecture as a medium.
Keywords: scenic spaces, transition, urban transformation, post-socialist city
1
INTRODUCTION
Starting from the one of the basic human's needs, the socialization, we should consider what
are nowadays places designed for numerous spontaneous or organized events that attract
people to gather. Public spaces are the most popular places in cities that are meant to be used
as everyday locations of various activities by different age groups. Urban solutions of public
spaces and architecture of surrounding buildings are unavoidable scenery for all gatherings.
Therefore, urban spaces are no longer connected only with human existence, but their
importance has sprung from the basic environmental relations into the world of various
experiences and emotions that have certain meanings. All those meanings are important for
understanding of an ideology that stands beside one city and one society in certain time.
Public spaces are closely related with people's needs for socialization that is reflected through
numerous spontaneous or organized events that attract people to gather. No matter if people
have gathered for some short performance or they have intentions to stay longer at public
81
spaces, urban design and architecture of surrounding buildings are unavoidable scenery for all
kind of gatherings, defining some scenic ambiances within the city.
According to Pamela Howard, space is “...everywhere where there's a certain meeting point
between the actors and their potential audience. It is precisely there, in the limited space of
this encounter and, through establishing of such a contact, that scenographers build their art”
[1], and the same thing she stated for the theatre we can use to describe the everyday
performances on the streets of our cities. If we think about public spaces as a stage for
everyday life, all of us are actors at the stage that is created by architects and urban designers.
The design of urban spaces has an impact on people’s perception, but although the structural
qualities are the most visible ones and first that are perceived, the metaphorical and symbolic
meanings also stimulate imagination, thus creating a scenic environments. The importance of
scenic spaces can be found in the fact that the environment in which we live both shapes us
and is being shaped by us, physically and imaginatively. Although our perception and relation
to surrounding spaces can be cognitive or affective, it always aimed to create certain
equilibrium between the man and his environment. Scenic spaces in this research are seen as a
phenomena that are much more than purely functional spaces created between the built
environments, more then just places of numerous events, festivals, and other performances,
spontaneous or organized gatherings.
If we consider the fact that urban scenery consists not only of buildings, spaces and places,
but also of expressions of cultural values, social behaviour and individual actions, the
question that raises is whether we can speak about scenic spaces in Novi Sad only as
derivatives of socialist era and how those spaces correspond to post-socialist times. Can we
consider what are their structured and structuring qualities from today's perspective and to
which extent those spaces have been transformed by implementation of new urban planning
concepts and ideas during the post-social period.
The general outlook of the post-socialist urban spaces has been significantly changed and
possibilities for their scenic transformations are experienced as very weak. Researching the
physical, economic and symbolic values of public spaces that derived as indirect
consequences of transitional reforms, we can try to realise to what extent ideology of some
time is visible, not only in central public spaces, but on small scenic spaces of open
surrounding within housing neighbourhoods of the city.
2
URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN THE POST-SOCIALIST CITY
Most of socialist cities and their scenic spaces have represented a valuable instrument of
propaganda, but the important question is what are they representing nowadays and are they
still a set for programmed and controlled operations. Numerous spontaneous or organized
events attract people to gather everyday in different types of spaces and participate in various
events. As Thompson says the public spaces in cities are "places that celebrate cultural
diversity, the natural processes involved in the preservation of memories." [2] Scenic spaces
are seen as urban spaces that are reflecting certain ideology through urban transformations
within the post-socialist urban matrix, representing new ideologies, but with some different
physical, economic and symbolic values of public spaces that derived as indirect
consequences of transitional reforms. Most of transition changes have influenced that those
spaces have been transformed by implementation of new concepts and ideas during the postsocial period and that the general outlook of the post-socialist urban spaces and possibilities
for their scenic transformations have different expressions and meanings.
82
2.1
The collapse of the socialist regime
For understanding the meaning of spaces in post-social city and their ideologies it is necessary
to have a look at the wider concept of city development after the World War II. First major
changes in the outlook of the city were initiated in 1950s due to a growing need for housing
construction. All through the socialist period it was state sponsored from various collective
residential funds, while the residents were only given the right of their use. The Master Plan
of the City of Novi Sad recommended increase of population density of the existing
residential districts by erecting new buildings through a process of reconstruction [3], and
significant number of new buildings were constructed. Most of the multi-family buildings
from that period were designed by principles of Modern Movement, providing their
inhabitants with decent overall housing quality.
In the sense of economy, the socialist model of housing construction and urban planning
primarily relied on the centralized economic system and absence of land market. That could
thus be considered as the most important features that have shaped a distinctive structure of
socialist cities, but at the same time representing a certain ideology, especially in the design of
public spaces.
Changes that have happened at the end of 20th century - the collapse of the socialist regime
and following transition period, have influenced the shift in market forces that led to the
emergence of private entrepreneurs who started having important roles in future urban
development, like in many other cities in the East Europe [4]. Those has resulted with
substantial changes in the outlook of the city, through urban interventions within inherited
urban fabric of less density. Through that process, city has faced with numerous construction
projects, mostly organised by private investors, whose only interest was their only profit,
sometimes even neglecting the legislative.
2.2
Changes in the urban structure of the city at the end of the 20th century
After 1990s, when the collective residential funds were no longer capable of funding housing
construction, it became market orientated and sponsored by the private sector. That caused
significant transformation from the traditional collective ownership over housing, typical for
the socialist period, to the private one. Given that at the same time the lack of housing needed
to be instantly resolved, private investors relied on the guidelines from the valid master plan
that recommended permanent reconstruction, that was a consequence of difficulties to provide
additional financial resources for the new infrastructure that was necessary for the territorial
sprawl of Novi Sad [5]. Radical transformation of existing urban matrix happened through
replacement of single-family housing with the new ones, with the aim of improving the
quality of housing, increasing the population density and reaching a more suitable degree of
rationalization [6]. As this Master Plan was brought in 1985, at the time when the real-estate
market was not still liberalized, buying off and replacing individual houses on individual lots
with multi-family dwellings on the existing allotment turned out during 1990s to be the most
feasible solution for new private entrepreneurs. Their only aim was to achieve quick and easy
profit, neglecting the existing planning documentation that relied on socialist laws or
recommendations for improvement of living environment, infrastructure and design of public
spaces. That radical transformation of existing residential neighbourhoods in Novi Sad began
at the end of the 1990s and resulted in changes of previous individual to multi-family housing
of high construction and population densities [7], resulted in the transformation process that
signifies also the changes of the ideology.
83
3
NOVI SAD - A CASE STUDY
City, as a very complex system, consisting of indoor and outdoor spaces that are
interconnected and are creating specific system, usually represents the whole society within
certain period. Human scale of scenic spaces is the basic characteristic, even more
accentuated because of the possibility of perceptual and psychological overview.
For the purpose of this research, scenic spaces (like main squares and boulevards) from the
central area of the city were intentionally omitted from the analyses, because they are usually
main spaces for direct representation of the ideology that is present in political life of the city
or the state. The central city area is seen as the most representative and most visited scenic
space where events in Novi Sad are taking place. It consists of different areas such as large
open spaces, squares and terraces that are allowing mass gatherings for a wide range of
events, sometimes very closely related with specific ideology. Therefore, only housing areas
of the Novi Sad, two of them that were built during socialist period and two that were
transformed in the post-social time, were chosen for this research to see how ideology of
specific time is represented and could be recognised through housing construction and design
of surrounding public spaces.
As urban development of Novi Sad was a highly interdependent process and strongly
influenced by the overall situation in the country, changes in urban structure followed the new
economic and social context that emerged during the 1990s. The socialist legacies of housing
construction, architectural design and urban planning strategies were transformed in some
areas by the new morphological structures of post-socialist times, representing the ideology of
the transitional period, that brought to the collapse of social values that influenced
architecture and enabled investors to implement their own ideas without considering the
population's need for quality housing.
At the same time, urban fragments of Novi Sad that were built during the socialist period, like
Limani and Novo Naselje, started to be desirable neighbourhoods for living, providing their
inhabitants with much more housing comfort and open spaces for various purposes, but at the
same time enough commercial programs for everyday needs. Therefore, it is interesting to see
and compare how pre and post socialist ideologies have influenced the construction of those
housing areas, their relations to the open public spaces and what it means for everyday life of
inhabitants.
3.1
The Limani neighbourhood
The housing construction in this area started in the early 1960s, on the vacant land and four
parts of the settlement were developed chronologically. The first one was Liman I with
University campus, than Liman II and Liman III, up until Liman IV that was built towards
almost at the end of 1990s. Although it was considered mostly as housing area, with
apartments predominantly meant for working class, socio-economic situation during 1970s
provided opportunities for expansion and construction of both multi-family building and
public buildings such as faculties, schools, kindergartens and commercial ones. Most of those
buildings as well as surrounding public spaces were created after the ideas of the Modern
Movement. Open spaces were mostly spacious courtyards framed by multi-family housing,
green areas, and playgrounds for all children. Nowadays, those wide spaces in greenery are
valuable scenic spaces for children’s play, walking and having some cosy time outside of
housing units. Although some of those spaces have been devastated during times, they have
also been refurbished and again very nice for gatherings. The whole area is on the other side,
very vivid space, with a lot of commercial and leisure programs.
84
3.2
The Novo Naselje neighbourhood
The first concept for Novo Naselje was mentioned in the Master Plan of Novi Sad from 1963
and revised in 1985 with more construction to the western part of the city. This
neighbourhood was built in the period 1977-80 during massive construction and
reconstruction of the infrastructure facilities (roads, water supply, heating, sewage, electricity,
telephones). Housing in this area was improved in the sense of living quality by the
construction of elementary school, kindergarten, health centre and some other commercial
buildings, as well as with various small shops on ground floor of buildings. The construction
continued up until nowadays, but with reduced intensity, towards Detelinara and in far west
part of the neighbourhood. Some non-residential programs were introduced to this area in
recent times as well. The urban structure at the beginning of the housing construction was
mostly in line with principles of the Modern Movement. Later on, at the beginning of 21st
century, some of the buildings were designed in a postmodern style. But, most important are
articulated open spaces, spacious courtyards framed by multi-family housing, green areas, and
children playgardens. Those are scenic spaces that are welcoming various spontaneous
gatherings and cultural manifestations organized in open spaces between multi-family
buildings, transforming the whole area in the scenic environment.
Figure 1. Novo Naselje neighbourhood and its wide, open green spaces, with various public events.
3.3
Transformation of Detelinara neighbourhood
Detelinara neighbourhood, formerly an old suburb part of the city with mostly rural
characteristics, faced its first transformation in early 1960s, through demolition of an entire
street front and the insertion of slab and tower multi-family buildings designed by principles
of the Modern Movement in an already existing allotment of spacious courtyards of singlefamily houses. When during mid 1990s increased the demand for housing construction,
private investors with large capital, have started to build residential buildings that caused
significant changes in the existing urban fabric of the neighbourhood. The outcomes of the
transformation in past 15 years - forced replacement of housing typology through a profitorientated residential construction that ignored basic principles of quality living. The
architecture of new residential structures characterises fragmented open spaces within blocks
used almost solely as parking places, public spaces do not correspond to the new-built urban
fabric, a large number of small housing units, use of poor quality materials, façades without
coherence in their forms and colours, randomly organized architectural elements, neglecting
of the principles of quality housing from the aspect of interaction between a building and its
surroundings.
85
3.4
Transformation of Grbavica neighbourhood
First significant changes within the urban fabric in Grbavica neighbourhood happened at the
time of the construction of the Oslobo enje Boulevard during 1960s. This important
construction of the main city boulevard had a strong effect on the city development and the
urban character of this urban fragment. At that time, the area was characterised by
predominantly ground-floor single-family and complex housing of diverse quality. Its
location on the outskirts of the city’s core, made it to become an attractive location for the
construction of multifamily buildings in a regime of reconstruction. Level of intervention
within its tissue defined by the Master Plan implied that residential blocks may be
restructured but that inherited street network must be preserved. The scenic spaces of small
streets with trees planted along their sides have changed with the construction of residential
slab blocks and towers in the spirit of the Modern Movement. Further changes started to be
visible during the late 1980s when urban blocks were defined by a slightly modified street
network with a range of typologies: complex housing in directions of the city core, multifamily housing in the new street network; single-family housing which included the city’s
oldest houses of this type and somewhat newer villa-type assemblies. Almost complete
reconstruction took place in the Grbavica neighbourhood during the 1990s. Multi-family
residential buildings replaced single-family houses on their parcels, causing significant
problems in the sense of enough greenery, public spaces, parking places, and infrastructure...
The living quality decreased in this area with the construction of new multi-family buildings
that were implemented in an old street network.
Figure 2. Detelinara (left) and Grbavica (right) neighbourhood with their fragmented urban blocks and open
spaces, narrow streets and lack of parking places.
4
CONCLUSION
During the socialist times, cities and their scenic spaces have represented a valuable
instrument of the propaganda, at both central public spaces and newly built housing
neighbourhoods. Looking at nowadays public spaces within the post-socialist urban matrix of
housing areas, we can ask ourselves what is the ideology that they are representing and are
they still set for programmed and controlled operations, or they are simply the outlook of
transition times.
Scenic spaces connect physical features with cultural and socially constructed significance.
New concept of designing them should meet the demand for holistic interpretations in many
fields. But as urban development is always a highly interdependent process, changes in urban
structure followed the new economic and social context that emerged during the 1990s caused
the appearance of new architectural design and urban planning strategies that happens to
86
become new patterns and morphological structures of post-socialist cities, offering to
inhabitants some new scenic spaces for new ideologies.
Formed under the influence of social, economic, political and other forces, scenic spaces of
the city determine its physical and psychological identity, having numerous social and
symbolic values and irreplaceable functions within the needs and context of specific time. If
everyday life on streets is seen as a happening that aims to bring different meanings and
personal messages in public space we can come to the conclusion that it is a complex system
that causes a reaction on all inhabitants, no matter what ideology is representing.
Acknowledgement
The paper was done within the project “Optimization of architectural and urban planning and
design in function of sustainable development in Serbia” (TR36042), funded by the Ministry
of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia.
REFERENCES
[1] Haward, P. 2002. What is scenography? Beograd: Clio
[2] Esbah, H., Deniz, B., Cook, EA. Isolation Trends Of Urban Open Spaces. Jun 2006.
http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVI/8-W27/esbah02.pdf
[3] Technical Report on Master Plan of the City of Novi Sad from 1950. Novi Sad: Urbanisti ki zavod
[4] Tosics, I. 2005. City development in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990: The impacts of internal forces
In Transformation of cities in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards globalization, Hamilton F.E.I.,
Dimitrovska Andrews K., Pichler-Milanovi N., eds. 44-78. Tokyo: United Nations University Press
[5] Nedu in, D., Cari , O., Kubet, V. 2009. Influences of gentrification on identity shift of an urban fragment:
A case study. Spatium, No. 21, 66-75.
[6] Master Plan of the City of Novi Sad until 2005. Novi Sad: Skupština Grada Novog Sada, 1985.
[7] Nedu in. D., Krklješ M., Kubet V. Transformacija stambenih kvartova u tranzicionom društvu od
jednoporodi nog u višeporodi no stanovanje – studija slu aja naselja Detelinara, Novi Sad, Srbija. 1st
International Academic and Professional Conference "Architecture and Urban Planning, Civil Engineering,
Geodesy - Past, Present, Future". Banja Luka: Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. pp. 365-374.
87
88
LOUD PLACES: POLITICAL MESSAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL
CHRONOTOPES
Vladan Peri
1
1
Faculty of Technical Science (SERBIA)
vladanperic90@gmail.com
Abstract
Starting from the previously established definition of the architectural chronotope,
understood as spatially and temporally limited connectedness of meaning of spatial frame and
an unexpected event that is introduced into that frame, this paper aims at discussing the ability
of this spatial phenomenon to convey a specific political message.
Depending on the intentions and goals of its participants and organizers, any event organized
in public space has the potential to affect its socio-political surroundings. The political
narrative of chronotopes established in this manner originates from the dramaturgy of the
event that is introduced into the spatial frame. On the other hand, this paper seeks to analyze
examples of such chronotopes which political messages originate from the exploitation of
ideological capital of the place.
Ideological capital of a certain place could be established trough the architectural program,
more specifically its role in the broader social context, and the history of events that took
place in that particular spatial frame. Referring to meanings established on these foundations,
introductions of events in these spatial frames can have a strong political message, even if the
events by their nature are not strictly political.
Analyzed and understood in this manner, the potential of chronotopes to convey a political
message that is based on the ideological capital of the place, could be exploited as a
theoretical foundation for any kind of site-related, socially engaged, spatial design practices.
Keywords: chronotope, spatial design, site-related, political, socially engaged
1
INTRODUCTION
While exploring the notion of radicalism in spatial design one must first acknowledge the fact
that spatial design is a radical term in itself. It represents a creative, interdisciplinary field of
artistic and scientific research that combines methodologies and knowledge of a wide range of
disciplines that are usually not connected in order to better understand and produce space. It
breaks down disciplinary boundaries in a way in which few fields of creative work do, and by
doing so it becomes a radical activity in today’s education and professional work. Further
exploration of radical aspects of spatial design must take into consideration two important
practices of spatial design.
First of them is the social practice of spatial design. It represents all the ways societies
produce spaces, mostly public, with different characteristic. These ways of production have
been explored at large by great thinkers of the 20th century. This is especially noticeable when
discussing second half of the 20th century and the spatial turn in social sciences. Thinkers like
Michel Foucault, Jean Francois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida and maybe most of all Henri
Lefebvre have all explored the ways in which society produces spaces and is in turn produced
by them.
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Second important practice of spatial design that must be taken into consideration is the
artistic, or broadly understood, creative practice of spatial design. Traditionally it means field
of architectural, urban, and interior design, but in the frame of this research this creative field
expands on to landscape art and architecture, theatre, scene design, scenography, performance
art, installation, and most of all, different kinds of site-related creative work. In other words it
takes into consideration all forms of artistic and creative work that take space into
consideration, either as a starting point of creative process, an important input during the
creative work or as the end result.
One of the more radical characteristics that can be assigned to and examined in the
intersection of these two major practices of spatial design is politicality. It is a characteristic
that both the social and creative practices of spatial design possess, and it is one characteristic
that, if emphasized, can make spatial design a radically influential field of work. In a time of
great political fluctuations and change, most recently observed trough the refuges crisis in
Syria, we find ourselves in need of a way to speak about these states of the world in a
creative, productive and helpful way.
With this in mind, this paper will explore the potential of different spatial design practices to
convey a specific political message. It will do so by relying on previous theoretical and
creative work through which a specific way of understanding space and time in spatial design
was achieved. The final result of that previous work was the concept of architectural
chronotope whose political attributes and potentials will be examined in this work. After the
initial setting of theoretical frame, this paper will turn to a case study of different types of
architectural chronotopes in order to examine specificities of their political potentials.
2
CHRONOTOPE IN ARCHITECTURE
In order to understand the concept of chronotope in architecture one must first understand the
theory of functions of architecture and the process of dramaturgy of space that leads to the
creation of this specific spatial concept.
2.1
Functions of architecture and dramaturgy of space
This paper relies on theory of functions of space. According to this theory every architectural
space performs a number of functions in its physical and social context. During the design
process a hierarchy of these functions is established as an open and flexible system. In the
context of theory of functions of space the process of establishing vertical hierarchy of
functions of architecture represents ‘the essence of the process of architectural design’. [1]
The flexibility of hierarchy of functions allows for their transformation, and transformation of
meanings they reflect.
This flexibility of hierarchy of functions also enables the process of dramaturgy of space.
‘Dramaturgy of space is understood as a process of transformation of meaning of space, that
is reflected in the transformation of functions of space, and that is caused by introduction of
an event into space, for which that space is not designed.’ [2] The process of dramaturgy of
space represents a complex system of relationships between three main elements of this
process that are new functions that space performs, functions of space whose character has
been changed by this process and the functions of space whose position in the hierarchy has
been changed by this process. The final product of this process in architectural chronotope.
2.2
Architectural chronotope
In order to better understand the process of dramaturgy of space and to define its final product
term chronotope has been borrowed from the literary theory. Word chronotope comes from
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the Greek words
– time and
– space, and is literally translated as time-space.
This term was introduced into literary theory by Russian scholar M. M. Bakhtin who defined
it as:
‘Intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed
in literature. What counts for us is the fact that it expresses the inseparability of space and
time (time as the fourth dimension of space). We understand the chronotope as a formally
constitutive category of literature; we will not deal with the chronotope in other areas of
culture.' In the literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one
carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes
artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time,
plot and history. This intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes the artistic
chronotope.’ [3]
If Bakhtin’s definition of literary chronotope is applied to process of dramaturgy of space,
architectural chronotope, that is the final product of this process can be understood as
‘spatially and temporally limited connectedness of meaning of architectural space and an
unexpected event that is introduced into that space.’[2]
The meaning of chronotope, that is formed during dramaturgy of space is, at the same time,
the product of meaning of space and the meaning of the event. The meaning of space that
forms the chronotope is reflected in the hierarchy of functions of space. The meaning of the
event is a product of inner dramaturgy of the event and is formed between actions of the
event, objects that are used during the event, and the human body and the way it moves
during the event.
3
CHRONOTOPE IN ARCHITECTURE
In order to examine, understand and define the political potentials of architectural
chronotopes this paper will examine four examples as a case study. The examples have been
selected so that two of them represent social practices of spatial design and two of them
creative practices of spatial design. Two main qualities that will be examined and illustrated
are political relevance of these examples and the relation to space that these examples
establish. The second criteria is especially important in order to reach a conclusion regarding
the potential of spatial design to be politically relevant. When discussing the potential of a
concept such as architectural chronotope, that is composed out of qualities of both event and
place, it becomes evident that this concept can be political if the unexpected event that is
introduced into spatial frame is political in itself. Such examples are political protests that
take place in any public space that is large enough to accommodate the group of protesters.
Such chronotopes are political regardless of place that they occupy. On the other hand it is the
intention of this paper to illustrate, explore, and classify those architectural chronotopes
whose political messages originate from the place, its meanings, position in a certain social
context and its history. By understanding this kind of architectural chronotope we have a
greater chance of understanding and harnessing the potential of spatial design to be politically
active and relevant in today’s society.
3.1 Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street was a protest held in Zuccotti Park in Wall Street financial district in New
York from 17th September 2011 until 15th November 2011. The goal of the protest, and the
entire Occupy movement was the fight against class inequality that was consequence of
uneven distribution of economical wealth between 1% of the rich and 99% of the rest of the
population.
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The protest was an example of a “compressed residential program” established massively in
public space that had dramatic impact on hierarchy of functions of that space, and in doing so
it created an architectural chronotope.
Zuccotti park is an example of privately owned public space, and during the protest it was
property of Brookfield Office Properties. As a public space owned by a corporation Zuccotti
park was recognized by protesters as a space that symbolizes massive influence that
corporations have on state institutions in USA, against which Occupy Wall Street fought.
Despite the fact that one of the main functions of park is to enable socialization, location and
ownership of the space made this impossible in case of Zuccotti park. It served as a
representation of power, of corporation that owned it, and as such it was a place of
demarcation between the rich, that owned the space, and everyone else, that was not the part
of the ruling class.
During the two month protest between 100 and 200 people lived in tents in the park. The
protester organized a public kitchen, library and a computer center. By living in a public
space owned by a corporation the protesters send a clear message about the economic state in
the USA. They managed to use to meanings of the space, determined by its position and
ownership over it to make their voices heard trough the simple act of living. Unlike other
protests that rely of paroles and megaphones to shout their message, protesters that occupied
Wall Street used the place to convey their message. By placing it in a specific place, they
turned everyday activities such as eating and reading into a political act.
Chronotope established in Zuccotti park during this protest is an example of a chronotope
whose characteristics are at the same time, symbiotically influenced by both the place and the
event that is introduced into that place.
3.2 Torre David
Torre David is an incomplete tower in Caracas, Venezuela. The construction of the tower
started in 1990. Six buildings that make up the complex of the tower were indented to house
offices, hotels and residential spaces. In 1993, when the main investor died the government
took over the project. Since 1994, due to an economical crisis the construction of the Tower
stopped, and it has not been continued to this day. In 2007 the tower was populated by 700
families, or around 2500 people who have lived in the Torre David until 2014. During this
time Torre David was the worlds largest vertical slum.
In a similar way as the Occupy Wall Street protest, Torre David is an example of an
architectural chronotope in which political message was created and conveyed trough the
simple act of living in a certain space. Unlike the previous example the residents of Torre
David were not motivated to only send a message. Their act of spatial occupation, production
and in the end one can say design of space was the result of a basic, existential human need
for a shelter, for home.
The residents of Torre David modified the space with more or less ephemeral means. They
changed the morphology of the space, and ambient, as well as its social role. Torre David was
intended to be a symbol of economic power of a single investor. Its size and position, as well
as the programs that were intended for that space served the sole purpose of symbolizing the
economic power of the investor. By occupying this space, the residents, unintentionally send
a message about the state of the world we live in. They showed that an entire neighborhood
can be populated inside a space created as a symbol of power of a single man. By creating a
society with its own special rules of conduct, social norms and structures they managed to
create a very specific architectural chronotope that conveyed a powerful political message.
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Just like the protesters in Wall Street, the occupation of Torre David used the meanings of
space, reflected in the ownership over the space, and the relationship between size, position
and intended use to speak about the current problems.
3.3
Detroit Collaborative Design Centre – Fire Break
Fire Break is a series of spatial installations created in Detroit by Detroit Collaborative Design
Center and the members of the local community. Every spatial installation is created by
artistic interventions on and in abandoned family houses in Detroit. These installations deal
with the questions of disappearance of cities and the destruction of local community that is
the result of physical decay of the city. So far five of these installations have been created:
Sound house in 2001, Hay House in 2001, Wrap House in 2004, House Ware in 2008 and
Publishing House in 2008.
These series of artistic events created a cumulative process and a cumulative architectural
chronotope, that as a whole conveyed a stronger message than a single event could. By
creating an artistic installation in an abandoned house the architects and the community
members relied on the poetics of an abandoned family home to create and send a message.
First of the installations, Sound House was designed in 2001. An abandoned, burned down
house was inhabited by local musicians. For couple of hours they played music, turning the
abandoned place into a source of enjoyment end serenity for the surrounding neighborhood.
Hey House was designed the same year, by the local community members, who filled the
abandoned house with hay. Wrapped House was designed by wrapping nylon film around the
entire house, and House Ware was made as a symbolic model of a house and property around
it, created with soil samples from the yard. Last one, Publishing house was created by writing
verses and messages on the façade of an abandoned home. Each of the project was done by 20
to 30 members of local community. These installations use ‘simple acts of living such as
listening, hanging laundry, decorating with higher social activities, such as painting, playing
and reading poetry to bring back activities in abandoned houses.’ [4] Also ‘installations are
built on the tradition of gathering communities in order to celebrate joined work and strength
amongst the neighbors.’[4]
By changing the morphology and the ambient of the spaces these installations create
architectural chronotopes in which the qualities of the chronotope are result of the new
ephemeral spatial configuration, and the event that changed it. Also, as a series, this project
creates a cumulative chronotope, whose meanings become greater and more complex with
each new intervention.
The politicality of this example is double. The first layer of politicality is the message about
the problem of abandoned places and diminishing community that is the result of failed
industry and economy of city of Detroit. By artistically engaging with abandoned spaces, and
emphasizing them by turning them into installations, the architects in charge of the project are
trying to turn the attention to a serious socio-political problem that their city faces. The other
layer of politicality is achieved through involvement of the members of local community in
the design process and the realization of installations. By turning spatial design into a
collaborative effort of the artist and citizens the creators of this project are solving one of the
problems they are turning our attention to. Through the process of spatial production and
design they are straightening the relationships between members of the local community.
This example embodies both social and creative practices of spatial design, that are
intertwined in order to achieve new level of politicality of spatial design that is, at the same
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time communicative (it sends a message) and pro-active (it attempts, and to certain degree
manages, to solve a concrete socio-spatial problem).
3.4 Zlatko Kopljar – K9 Compassion
K9 Compassion is a performance by Croatian artist Zlatko Kopljar. It was fist performed in
New York in front of iconic city spaces and buildings. In 2005 Kopljar performed K9
Compassion + in front of state parliament and international centers of political power. K9
Compassion at Home was performed in 2010 at Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, in front of the
grave of former Croatian president Franjo Tu man.
In this example, the values of architectural chronotope were created in the interaction between
meanings of specific body positioning and the meanings that iconic spaces carry with them.
All of the K9 Compassion performances utilize the communicative functions of architectural
spaces in order to send a message through the medium of photography.
Every time the artist positions himself in the keeling position in front of a selected space. The
artist is always wearing black suit, and he is keeling down on a white handkerchief. The
spaces in which the performance takes place represent a ‘significant dimension of cultural,
social and political power whose symbolism is even with the architecture of a certain
building.’[5] The kneeling position that artist puts himself in during the performance has a
defined and established meanings in a broad cultural context. ‘observed in different contexts
of carefully chosen buildings, the humbleness of the artist becomes contextualized by the
spaces he is facing, bringing each time a whole new level of meaning and semiotically
redefining the otherwise unchanged body language.’[6]
Architectural chronotope created during these performances is one that is at the same time
dependent on the meanings of the posture of the body, and the meaning embedded into the
architectural space in front of which the performance takes place. Because of the political role
of these places, their symbolism and power that they represent the position of the artist body
sends a clear and powerful message about his view of these institutions.
Even though the message is conveyed trough the medium of photography, the fact that it is in
such a great measure dependent on meanings of space, clearly establishes this example as a
creative practice of spatial design.
4
CONCLUSION
First concussion of the case study is that social practices of spatial design are a broader term
than creative practices. Despite the fact that the examples of the case study were selected and
divided as social and creative practices of spatial design it is noticeable that once they become
political, creative practices always became social.
By relying on the meanings of a specific place, created by its history, use, ownership,
symbolism or representative power, different social and creative activities managed to send a
strong political message. The meanings of place were so strong in these examples that they
managed to turn ordinary, everyday activities such as eating, reading and socializing into a
strong political statement.
Even an intimate activities, such as family life itself was turned into a fight against capitalism,
just because it was conducted in a certain place. The political potential of place was in some
cases so strong, that politicality of architectural chronotope was created without the intention
of the creators. In some cases those messages were, unintentional byproduct of the process,
but as such they are still a valid object of research for this paper.
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The fact that different disciplines such as architectural design, social activism, performance
and others are capable of creating a specific spatial concept such as architectural chronotope,
proves that spatial design is a radical new field of activities that has a potential to explore the
politicality of spaces around us, and that can help us to try and change the world.
REFERENCES
[1] Dinulovi , R. (2012): The ideological Function of Architecture in the Society of Spectacle in International
Conference Architecture and Ideology, Proceedings, Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Board
of Ranko Radovi award, Association of applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUDS).
[2] Peri , V. (2014): Dramaturgy of Space - Establishing ephemeral chronotope in architecture, in Dramatic
Architectures: Places of Drama - Drama for Places Conference proceedings, (eds.) Jorge Palinhos and
Maria-Helena Maia, Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo CESAP/ESAP,Porto, 2014. 337-348.
[3] Bakhtin, M. (1981) Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel. In M. Holquist (Ed.) The Dialogic
Imagination (pp. 84- 258) Austin, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS.
[4] Bonnemaison, S.; Eisenbach, R. (2009): Installations By Architects: Experiments in Building and Design.
New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
[5] http://kopljar.net/> [15.8.2015.]
[6] Žugi , V.; Zekovi , M. (2013: „Performative vs. Co-performative: Functions of Space in Performative
Events“ in 3rd Global Conference: Time, Space + Body, Proceedings, Mansfield College, Oxford, United
Kingdom, September, in print.
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96
REPOSITIONING STRATEGIES OF SITE-SPECIFICITY:
EXTREME 1
Višnja Žugi
1
Miljana Zekovi 2, Dragana Konstantinovi
3
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
3
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
E-mails zugic.visnja@uns.ac.rs, miljana_z@uns.ac.rs, konstan_d@uns.ac.rs
2
Abstract
th
Beginning with the second half of the 20 century until today, site-specificity has been used
to mark a specific relation of an artwork with the site of its realisation or representation.
Having been qualitatively easily applicable to a wide range of artistic practices, and used in
different contexts for more than half a century, it has become the most commonly used term
to refer to almost any possible relationship of an artwork and space it occupies. Inspiring and
intriguing in its nature, the concept of site-specificity has evolved to such an extent, that it is
possible to recognise two conflicting but interrelated processes: while suggesting diverse
approaches to site-specificity, its development consequently leads to defining different
categories of site-related qualities within the term. At the same time, this process often
unfolds towards questioning the meaning of the term itself, due to its vast and uncritical
application.
This research aims at marking the strategies of site-specificity, through proposed specific
typology of approaches within this phenomenon. The main objective of the work is to address
this issue from the standpoint of architectural theory and spatial design practices. Thus, the
crucial criteria for establishing such a typology refers to the role of space in chosen examples,
with a specific focus on methods and procedures that led to their development. From
recognising the practices of minimalist sculpture and the strategies of spaces writing over
each other, to considering the possibilities of site-specific theatre, this research offers a
theoretical construct of yet another extreme of the site-specific phenomenon, deeply rooted in
architectural practice and education.
Keywords: site-specific, site-related, installation, spatial design.
1
INTRODUCTION
According to Paul Allain and Jen Harvie, site-specific performance (similarly as
environmental theatre) aims explicitly to “alter the conventional spatial practices of
performance to enhance both the relationship between performers and audience and the
performance’s engagement with its space and site of production” [1]. Although this statement
refers above all to site-specific artwork from the field of performing arts and theatre, the
efforts of defining and analysing site-specific work in general, have always been conducted
through discussing several main criteria referred to in the cited statement. The existing body
of research in the field of site-specific art, regardless of the type or form of artistic expression,
shows that the dominant precondition for site-specificity develops from questioning the
relationship towards spaces of production and representation of the artwork. Most often, it is
marked by the necessity to leave a priori determined or institutionally codified spaces of
conventional galleries and theatres, and results with an active involvement and integration of
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space and physical context into the effects of the very artwork. As an outcome, these efforts
always establish, to some extent, an active dialogic relationship between the artwork and its
site. The second criteria crucial to site-specific art develops from the need for activating and
reaching the widest audience possible. The causes for the active involvement of audience span
from affecting certain spheres of cultural and social reality to phenomenological experiments
with the perception of an artwork. In any case, the audience in site-specific art becomes active
in a specific way, and, by many authors, this activity is usually considered to be one of the
key criteria of site-specificity.
The potential that the term site-specific contains is mostly visible through the number of
different domains from which theoretical research about site-specific art is coming: sculpture,
installation art, performance art, theatre, conceptual art, happenings, contemporary dance or
architecture. Since the second half of the 20th century, the term has been used in a wide
interdisciplinary field, and consequently, it has become one of those theoretical and artistic
terms whose scope is not defined precisely enough. Inspiring and intriguing in its nature, the
concept of site-specificity, which has, among other meanings, always implied strong
deflection from conventional and institutionally determined artistic practices, became
particularly susceptible for the wide and uncritical application. Soon, the notion of sitespecific expanded so much that it started to be used to describe almost any possible
relationship that an artwork develops with its space of representation.
This trend also influenced theoreticians to question the way the term is used. Some authors
emphasise that the notion of site-specific became related to an overall, cumulative term,
demanding its more precise usage [2]. At the same time, exploring the question of possibility
to separate a site-specific artwork from its site, numerous authors, mostly originating from
performing arts and theatre, became aware of different sub-typologies within site-specific
performances. Such development required the introduction of new terms, which would more
accurately mark specific strategies and approaches to space. This practice of including an
increasing number of terms within the scope of a single one developed in parallel with
attempts of sharpening the very concept of site-specificity. The two, almost conflicting but
interrelated processes, are recognised as the main outcomes of problematising the term sitespecific and its use.
Taking into account existing body of research, we have identified the possibility for
repositioning the strategies of site-specificity. The main goal of this process is resetting the
criteria of site-specificity to the level which could be operatively used and widely applicable,
regardless of the artistic field.
2
THEORISING SITE-SPECIFICITY
In theoretical texts that consider site-specific art, it is possible to distinguish several main
approaches to defining conditions under which something is referred to as site-specific. The
most common approach developed from the awareness that the space an artwork occupies is
not a neutral envelope, but, to some extent, it influences the perception of the artwork. On this
occasion, an artwork and space are considered to be two separate entities, which establish a
certain form of dialogic relationship. This relationship becomes crucial for the artwork itself
and is considered to be its constitutive element. Such an approach to defining site-specificity
is relying on the analysis of different types of spaces and spatial categories, which coexist
within a single site-specific work of art. Marking these categories as “virtual space” and “real
space”, Nick Kaye recognises one of the key strategies of site-specificity, which he names
“spaces writing over each other” [3]. This strategy describes the process in which virtual
space of an artwork “inscribes” its narratives and meanings over the existing space of
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representation, and vice versa. These two spatial categories correlate in various ways, from
cases of being “defined only in each other”, through semiotic interventions of one space into
the other, to blurring the distinctions between the virtual and the real [4]. Similar spatial
relation, in the work of some authors, is described as the relation between “ghost” and “host”
architecture [5]. These theories emphasise the “coexistence of distinct ‘architectures’
inhabiting one another” rather than the accomplishment of a “synthetic whole” [6]. In the
complex overlapping of narratives, the “ghost” architecture of the artistic intervention
resonates with formal, thematic, characteristic, historical or narrative structures of “host”
architecture – ranging from supporting one another, to a complete conflict.
These strategies are consistent with the theorisation of spatial approaches in site-specific
performance art, developed by Michael McKinnie. Namely, he recognizes three basic
relationship qualities that an artwork establishes with its space: the heterotopic, the dialectic
and the palimpsestic (the spectral) [7]. Heterotopic site-specific performance “selfconsciously puts actual and imaginary places into play at the same time”, dialectic
performances “enter into productive „dialogue“ with place”, while palimpsestic or spectral
site-specific performance “negotiates an environment’s past use”, precisely by rewriting the
existing space through the new ways of occupation [8]. Whether the relationship between
entities of an artwork and the site is thought of as interruptive or assimilative, “site-specific
art initially took the site as an actual location, a tangible reality”, and is “formally determined
or directed by it” [9]. Richard Serra’s famous statement regarding possibilities of moving his
site-specific sculpture to another location: “To move the work is to destroy the work” [10],
demonstrated the position which was most radical about the organic interrelation between the
work and the site.
At the same time, practitioners recognise the necessity of the third entity – the viewer – as the
final base point for establishing a triad of elements that constitute site-specificity. While sitespecific work reflects an indivisible relationship between the work and the site, it also
demands “the physical presence of the viewer for the work’s completion” [11]. Precisely, sitespecificity is often defined through challenging the viewer’s privileged position of a reader
“outside” the work [12].
Another important idea the theories of site-specificity are concerned with belongs to
becoming of place through site-specific practice. Namely, rather than thinking of site as a
precondition to work, it becomes generated and structured by the work. In that sense, the
definition of site moves away from the physicality and a literal interpretation of a specific
location, and, by Miwon Kwon, transforms into an ungrounded, fluid, virtual “discursive
vector” [13]. While the idea of discursive site-specificity has been criticised as the term that
“suffers from a potential referential reductiveness” [14], one cannot neglect the tendency of
relativising the very term “site”, when speaking of the development of theories of sitespecificity. This is precisely the point where theory is introduced to new terms such as
society-specific or context-specific artwork, and where it becomes accessible to semiotic
questionings.
3
SEMIOTIC QUESTIONING
One of the most important questions of debating site-specific performance and theatre
developed around the notion of “fitting” to the site. Theatre practitioners have been posing the
question if site-specific implies site-exclusive, and if it is possible to tour site-specific
performances [15]. Creating new terminology, as one of the ways of dealing with this issue,
became especially useful in this context. Each new term refers to a different level of
connection to the location of performing and marks different sub-typology of site-specific
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theatre/performance. The group Wrights & Sites proposed a possible continuum between
extreme approaches to the site-specific theatre – category of being In theatre building, as the
starting point which refers to conventional theatre practice, and category of Site-specific
performance, as an opposition to it [16]. The proposed diagram marks as site-specific only
productions which are exclusively developed for an actual location, which do not tour and do
not perform pre-existing scripts. Between the two extremes, the group proposes categories of
Outside theatre (productions conceived inside the theatre building, but performed outside),
Site-sympathetic (existing performance texts which are physically articulated in relation to the
morphology of a selected site) and Site-generic (productions which are generated for a
number of similar sites, with an idea of possible touring). Slightly different in terminology,
but essentially compatible with Wrights & Sites’ diagram, is the typology of site-specific
dance performances proposed by the choreographer, Stephan Koplowitz [17]. He recognises
four different categories of site-specific dance: Reframing the known (placing an existing
performance work in a non-theatre venue, where the form or content of the work do not
change significantly, but the physical context of performing influences the experience of the
work); Studio-site (the process of intentional placement of an existing work into a specific
location, where the work changes in relation to physical characteristics of the site, but doesn’t
change its thematic content); Site-adaptive (a process of developing a choreographic work in
relation to number of morphologically similar sites, so the work could be relocated and
adapted for different locations); and Site-specific (refers to a production which is developed
being inspired by only one specific location, and relates to it both thematically and
physically).
It is interesting to note that in cases of both typologies, “site-specific” is marked as a separate
and rigid category, which is not open to possibilities of touring, relocation or adaptation, and
is firmly grounded in the site on every possible level. However, both scales (and the one
proposed by Koplowitz explicitly) are referred to as typology of site-specific performances.
This strange case, of giving both scales the same name (denoting the whole typological
classification), and applying the very same name to one specific category within it once again,
brings in focus two crucial conclusions: firstly, it confirms the need for a clear and explicit
extraction and definition of the category of site-specific, and secondly, it calls for a precise
naming and understanding of what site-specific is not.
4
DISTILLATION OF “THE PURE”
Regardless of different criteria for defining or classifying approaches to space in the sitespecific work, or different positions from which theories of site-specificity have been
developing, the idea of “the pure”, or “true”, or simply “The site-specific” has been
consistently present in almost all academic writings, with one common thesis: the pure sitespecific relates to the site in both – its content and its form.
The process of repositioning strategies of site-specificity called for a deeper analysis of the
idea of “pureness”, and articulation of criteria which are crucial for defining the extreme
position of The Pure Site-Specific. Offered through analysed theoretical approaches as an
interesting indication, is the fact that most of those observe the artwork and the space as two
entities which could be theoretically abstracted from one another, regardless of the level of
interaction that is established between them. As a reaction to that, we propose the idea of the
pure site-specific as an artwork that develops from an intervention in space, where the
artwork appears as a result of this specific action. In that sense, the pure-site specific artwork
refers to an absolute whole, a singular phenomenon. In this case, the artwork does not exist
outside the realm of “its” space, and at the same time, space alone does not imply the artwork.
The artwork is only established through the specifically driven intervention. There are three
100
key criteria necessary for reaching the extreme of the pure site-specific: the intervention has
to be determined simultaneously by the morphology/ambient, the theme and the spatial
evidence of a specific location. It appears as an extremely strict and hermetic system, it is
neither movable nor open to external references. Thus, pure site-specific could be described as
a particular form of a spatial design practice because it is organically and ultimately
conditioned by space.
5
EXTREME 1: ADOLF
Embracing “the pure” extreme of the site-specific work demands a certain clarification of the
aforementioned criteria. Regarding the established quality of the synergic effect of the site’s
morphology, ambient or simply the genius loci dialogical trope, together with the very theme
of the work and the spatial evidence found on the location, it is necessary to understand each
of these forces in creation of what has been marked as “the pure”. A practical illustration of
these theoretically developed qualities is given through a brief introduction to the site-specific
work Adolf, realised by joint forces of the Pasteur Institute of Vojvodina and the Ephemeral
Architecture team from Novi Sad University in the Museum Night 2015 [18].
Taking place in the abandoned and devastated Dekker shack – the home of late Dr Adolf
Hempt, the founder of the Pasteur Institute in the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina and his family,
this site-specific work lasted for a day prior to and through the Museum Night. In an effort to
raise the awareness of the city to this important desolate location, hence reconstructing it into
Dr Hempt’s museum, the Pasteur Institute decided that they needed a specific sort of help in
this endeavour. What came out as a result of cooperation between the two parties, was a
complex, delicate and superb spatial installation inside the ruin, which revitalised the
forgotten microcosm of the Hempt family everyday life. Guided tours through this half real –
half imagined world helped the audience connect to the story and lives of the family
members, leaving the site assured that they have helped with the Hempt’s museum
establishment.
Looking almost as if it has been completely artificially installed at the location, a ruined shack
stands in the central spot of the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina complex, surrounded by a
ruthless realm of the Polyclinic building and the Pasteur Institute on one side and radiology
building on the other. Communications among these buildings are external in type and are
happening daily around the shack, which creates a specific atmosphere itself. Almost
intangible in this context, the microcosm of the shack offered a treasure in spatial evidence –
the artefacts found inside the structure (bottles, test tubes, laboratory vessels and other objects
used in the Dr Hempt’s cabinet for the examination of viruses and vaccines). Thus, the story
of Dr Hempt’s professional life developed into the site-specific installation in the ruined part
of the shack which used to be a cabinet, through the designed system of artefacts and the
narrative taken from the Hempt’s daughter diary, led by the ambient and the morphology of
space itself. Being unsafe to enter by the audience, the installation (this one in the cabinet was
one of five, all of them realized with the same means and aims) was observed through the
open window while the guides told the story of the Hempt’s family to the smaller groups of
spectators. Connectedness of the three core values in this installation marked it as a
potentially “pure” site-specific work. It was hermetically sealed from any outer influence or
resources, developed and designed purely from the information the space together with its
memory provided. As the installation was pure on every level at the moment of its creation
that was the closest it got to represent the theoretically established “pure” extreme in practice.
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Fig 1: An ephemeral site-specific installation in Dr Adolf Hempt’s former cabinet – a look through the window.
6
CONCLUSION
However, what happened after the day turned to night was crucial for the further
understanding of the ever-vivid, alive and unstable relation of theory and practice in the
domain of understanding and applying the principles of the site-specificity. Being created as a
“pure” extreme, the installation in Dr Hempt’s house lost its ultimate theoretical status
regarding the further decisions brought by the design team. Marking the spectators’
experience in the Museum Night as crucial in comparison to simple maintaining the pureness
of the work, additional changes have been made: all installations in the shack, as well as all of
the rooms at the upper floor were lighted by the artificial light sources brought into the
structure as external resources. This decision enveloped the Hempt’s story with completely
unexpected poetical layers of different atmospheres and the shadows’ dance, exploiting the
dramatic potential of the constellation to its very best.
Introducing a specific order into previously established theoretical categories, definitions and
notions we propose a new theoretical scale, featuring the pure site-specific as one of its
extremes. Resulted from a severe selection of the pure conditions which together form an
extreme of the site-specific maximum, the question raises around the dilemma: does the
theoretical maximum equal the maximum experience?
Concluding from this precise example that as provocative as it may be in thought, or in
writing – the theoretical extreme of the “pure” site-specific is possibly achievable in practice,
but also possibly susceptible for the further upgrade in terms of the effect on the audience’s
experience. In other words, we do seek further development of the theoretical framework but
only in an active and reversible conjunction with the practical work. This is the only way both
views could grow further.
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RFERENCES
[1] Allain, P, Harvie, J. 2006. The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, 148. London and New
York: Routledge
[2] Field, A. 2008. “Site-specific theatre? Please be more specific” Theatre blog, 6.2.2008. 1.7.2015.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/feb/06/sitespecifictheatrepleasebe.
[3] Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation. London and New York:
Routledge
[4] Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation, 33. London and New York:
Routledge
[5] Mc Lucas C. in Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation, 53. London and
New York: Routledge
[6] Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation, 53. London and New York:
Routledge
[7] McKinnie, M. 2012. Rethinking Site-specificity: Monopoly, Urban Space, and the Cultural Economics of
Site-specific Performance, in Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practice, Eds. Anna Birch
and Joanne Tompkins, 21-36. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
[8] Ibid.
[9] Kwon, M. 2002. One place after another: Site-specific art and locational identity, 11. London, Cambridge:
The MIT Press
[10] Serra, R. 1994. in Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation, 2. London and
New York: Routledge
[11] Kwon, M. 2002. One place after another: Site-specific art and locational identity, 12. London, Cambridge:
The MIT Press
[12] Kaye, N. 2006. Site-specific art. Performance, Place and Documentation, 25. London and New York:
Routledge
[13] Kwon, M. 2002. One place after another: Site-specific art and locational identity, 29. London, Cambridge:
The MIT Press
[14] Demos, T. J. 2003. Rethinking Site-Specificity. Review of One Place after Another: Site-specific Art and
Locational Identity. Art Journal 62 (2). College Art Association: 98–100
[15] Wilkie, F. 2002. Mapping the Terrain: a Survey of Site-Specific Performance in Britain. New Theatre
Quarterly 18: 140-160
[16] Stephen Hodge’s contribution to Wrights&Sites’ performance presentation at Performance of Place
Conference, University of Birmingham, 2001. 7.9.2015. http://www.misguide.com/ws/documents/politics.html
[17] Koplowitz, S. 2013. Lecture notes Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works. Online lecture,
Coursera, Calarts.
[18] More information on Adolf project: https://www.behance.net/gallery/27752119/Adolf.
103
104
SPATIAL NARRATIVES OF THE INDUSTRIAL PAST – MATERIAL
CITY AS A STAGE FOR SOCIAL NARRATIVES
Sanja Peter1
1
Göteborgs Stadsmuseum (SWEDEN)
sanja.peter@kultur.goteborg.se
Abstract
Most of the space in a city is defined by its urban development through history. Gothenburg as the second largest city in Sweden - has imposing remnants of its industrial past that until
now defined the city’s identity. Therefore, some objects are recognised as monuments of
cultural heritage.
The crane at the old Shipyard Eriksberg is listed as a cultural monument, with the purpose of
defining the city’s industrial past. It is now a monument and as such it is venerated for its
enduring historic significance in association with city’s shipbuilding and maritime history.
Large and visible in the urban landscape the shipyard Eriksberg’s gantry crane became a part
of the collective memory. Thus the monument creates an important spatial imprint in the
mental picture of the city. It is commemorating a part of its civic past, has monumental
proportions and represents a highly potent epoch of industrial activity in Gothenburg’s
history.1
Another monument of the industrial era is the Volvo factory and office; once largest in
Europe. But Volvo is not altogether Swedish anymore and the production is not really that
large at the home plant. Tracks of the industrial past are evident in specific buildings or left
over machinery. The city is simply no longer the same industrial city as it was in the twentieth
century. Also, the generations that were involved in the city’s industrial past are disappearing.
The Cultural Heritage unit in the city is providing methods to secure the continuity of the
narratives through listing and preserving the city’s built heritage. The belief is that saving
cultural heritage makes way to secure a long-lasting identity of a place. The basic aim of
preservation of physical structures is after all to preserve a credible narrative of the social
past. But is it applicable to the mega structures of the twentieth century?
Keywords: Cultural heritage, Twentieth-century building, Modern monuments, urban
planning, identity, Göteborg, Sweden, etc.
1
INTRODUCTION
This text is about cultural heritage and identity. More specifically it tries to present and
confront the legacy of the twentieth century industrial heritage.
Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city and founded in 1621 as a strategic port towards
waterways in the west. The narrative of the 20th century industrial heritage is most evidently
marked by the city’s maritime industry. The municipality of the city of Gothenburg proudly
1
Swedish National heritage board defines monument as a memorial or a marker of some historic happening - minnesmärke. Monument is
venerated for its enduring historic significance in association with something or someone. Monuments can even be representing something
ordinary yet significant for a common history.
105
markets the identity of the city with its maritime legacy. This identity is important for the
tourism, economy and physical expansion.
In this paper I am focusing on the heritage of the record-years (1955-75) of the twentieth
century, their imprint on a physical structure of the city and consequently the identity they
will be generating for the future. All examples are from the western Sweden and the city of
Gothenburg.
2
SUMMARY
A constant change and technological confinement is one of the definitions of the twentieth
century modernism. Built heritage from the late twentieth century in Sweden is characterised
by modernistic ideals and affluent rise of western society; which also resulted in a huge
quantity of production.
But, there can be some discrepancies in the way a society promotes that past. The heritage of
the modern has quite different scales. Modern monuments could be industrial plants and large
machinery as well as ordinary buildings in living areas where industrial workers and their
families were residing.
A narrative of a city is defined by its landscape and the layers of preserved material history.
Preserving identity of the twentieth century built heritage is also remembering the people, the
still existent generations, who lived through that recent past. Consequently, it is important not
to preserve a single sided imprint into that landscape. Thus, listed monuments ought to be
representing not only the system of the society, with all the factories, railroads and court
houses, but even the life world, with housing areas and other social functions. Examples of
industry harbour, housing and utilities in this text aim to illustrate this dilemma.
Planning and evaluation methods which can save and share a cultural-historic message - even
in the context of modern heritage – ought to be monitoring a balance between the system and
the life world. With evidence from some planning methods, like those in Frihamnen,
Gothenburg, there is hope that integrated planning even will ensure some continuity of
heritage preservation, so that a complete narrative of the modern city – both maritime,
industrial and other contemporary, small and large - will survive.
Furthermore, new challenges with climate and environmental issues require new kinds of
spatial planning. Possibly encompassing the restructuring of the legacy of the “modern
world”. These new ways may be quite a contrast to the legacy of the rationalised planning
system of the twentieth century. Resulting in: that only the opposite of the modern and
rational can preserve its legacy.
In Gothenburg, city planning is nowadays opening the planning practice and broadening the
definitions of social and physical planning. This may be a way to secure inclusion of a
memory of the life-world into the preserved city narrative and broadening the concept of
heritage.
3
3.1
DOCUMENTS AND PRACTICE OF HISTORIC CONSERVATION
– A tradition of international engagement
There has been a long tradition in and awareness of the importance of preserving built
heritage in Europe since the Second World War. It is often said that Cultural heritage is our
debt to the past or our promise to the future.
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The concept of cultural heritage conservation broadened in the second half of the 20th century
to - besides individual buildings - include larger areas of towns or villages and subsequently
even the intangible heritage. A series of resolutions, recommendations and conventions were
taken by international worldwide and European organisations especially UNESCO, and its
related agencies the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), etc. One of
the early documents to influence the practice of preservation in Sweden is the declaration of
Amsterdam from 1975. [Chapuis et al Luxembourg, 2009]
Occasionally, the history and the values of the past were compared to evolving systems of the
nature [Satterfield 2002]. As if by preserving heritage we preserve the logic of the succession,
an evolution of the society. In other words, Cultural heritage and monuments are essential for
cultural evolution.
3.2
The Declaration of Amsterdam - 1975
Apart from its priceless cultural value, Europe's architectural heritage gives to her
peoples the consciousness of their common history and common future. Its
preservation is, therefore, a matter of vital importance. [p. 1]
The greatest impact of the Declaration of Amsterdam is not only to widen the spectra of
conservation, but to introduce the concept of integrated conservation. An integrated
conservation field was formed in these years after witnessing both reconstructions after the
War and destructions of historical cores in the name of modernism.
It became even more important to preserve historical continuity in the environment “if we are
to maintain or create surroundings which enable individuals to find their identity and feel
secure despite abrupt social changes”. When conservation in traditional sense wasn’t possible,
the aim was to give historic buildings new functions which correspond to the needs of
contemporary life.
The Declaration of Amsterdam stipulated that architectural conservation must become an
integral part of urban and regional planning. It calls for integrated conservation involving both
local authorities and citizens and taking into consideration social factors.
3.3
A gradual change of perception
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, new conservation challenges emerged as the seminal works
of the Modern Movement reached fifty years of age and became eligible for heritage
protection. Despite increased recognition of modern architecture’s cultural significance, there
is sometimes a lack of practical conservation knowledge but also a prejudice towards the
heritage of the late twentieth century architecture. This was one of the reasons the Getty
institute, for example, focused on the complex questions of the modern heritage.
It is already comprehended that modern buildings were not always intended to be temporal in
nature. If we read both the Venice and Athens charters, the modern is nowadays a mature,
international heritage spanning over fifty years.
Current practice expands heritage significance beyond aesthetic and material qualities. This
approach is valuable for all periods of heritage, particularly modern heritage. It is sometimes
emphasized that there is a need of an international agreement to unifying sets of principles as
doctrine, but practitioners are also quite familiar with working on a case-by-case basis to
modern heritage. However, conservation, in most situations is very much about managing
107
change in spite of the comprehension that conservation is about preservation or no change at
all.
More recent practice, which covers a much wider amount of heritage places, including
industrial sites, has recognized that change is inevitable and must be managed if these places
are to survive. Methods have become both widened and more pragmatic:
“Heritage conservation is best understood as a sociocultural activity, not simply a technical
practice; it encompasses many activities preceding and following any act of material
intervention; [Randall Mason 2002]
“Qualitative methodologies in cultural anthropology are characterized by their humanism and
holism (a philosophical position that argues that humans and human behavior cannot be
understood or studied outside the context of a person’s daily life, life world, and activities).
[Setha M. Low 2002]
3.4
Preservation discourse in Sweden
In the field of conservation of buildings and built areas numerous values have been
conceptualized. In Sweden three main groups of values in buildings have been defined:
cultural, exchange and emotional. Cultural values are data values: documentary, historical,
archaeological, aesthetic, townscape and landscape. Exchange values are functional,
economic, social and political. Emotional values are: wonder, identity and continuity. And, all
these would be combined to measure a cultural historic significance of an object or a milieu.
The national board of antiquities is nowadays discussing four alternative ways of evaluation
instead of the earlier much more complicated scheme. The use of a conceptual apparatus with
four defined values even used in archeology: knowledge, experience, operating and existence
value.
•
Knowledge value –a historic document, includes both scientific aspects and what is
sometimes called documentary or preparatory value that provides material knowledge
of the (pre) history.
•
Experience value –an event resource, identification. It is related to emotions, human
affection related to a location and history of the area. Even tourist market values are
included in the evaluation of an experience.
•
Use value – as future means use values can be both direct and indirect. They include
socially relevant aspects and issues of cultural and social environment, economic and
environmental resource. Part of the value in use can be considered as an option value,
i.e. an assessment of how value can be developed for future generations.
•
Existence value is based on the value that society places in the existence of ancient
monuments and cultural sites without claim to define concrete benefits in the present.
The existence value can be an argument for conservation when people accept that
there may be a value to others in the present or in the future.
These are some defined grounds for evaluation, but in practice there will be a need of
adapting to situation of preservation. The national board is therefore pointing out the need of
transparence and a holistic approach. [SOU 2012:37]
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4
4.1
SWEDEN IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Expansion and development in Gothenburg in the 20th century
The architectural progress of the time of the rationalization of building in Sweden is by some
characterized as a social movement of change more than a style. [Caldenby 1998] To
understand this we must grasp the politics from the 1930thies and forward in Sweden. The
welfare society started to develop before the Second World War and the housing policy had
the ambition to improve the standard of living, in particular for the working classes. This new
housing policy involved new state subsidies and norms to counteract the problems of a
housing shortage, cramped living conditions and low accommodation standards. At the same
time the Gothenburg community was providing a good atmosphere for new thinking and
experimental design in housing.
Mid-century modern architecture flourished in an era when the middle class was growing.
The architectural imperative of the 1950s and ’60s was to create buildings for ordinary
people—including the schools, public libraries, and medical facilities that served them. An
egalitarian society brought modernism to the masses. From this period emerge the housing
estate of Julianska Street with its small building called Lyktan.
In the mid-19th century, with technical developments such as steamships, the first new
harbors were built on the south side of the river Göta. But there was insufficient land, and
soon the expansion plan for new harbors was developed on the island Hisingen. The
Sannegården harbor, which shipped coal, was the first, followed by the Frihamnen,
Lindholmen and Lundby harbors. Hisingen’s southern shore became the centre of harbor
activities and shipbuilding.
At the same time the industrial era blossomed, and the traditional role of Gothenburg as a
harbor and a shipping port to the west was still strong in the fifties and sixties. This is the
period when the gantry crane of Eriksberg was built. The industrialization of Gothenburg was
closely connected with trade, thus both harbor and shipbuilding prospered throughout
Gothenburg’s history. Since the 19th century there had been three major mixed engineering
works in Göteborg that could also build ships: Keillers (later Götaverken), Lindholmen, the
largest company and the smaller Eriksberg. The First World War meant large profits for the
shipping companies and after the Second World War came Goteborg’s industrial boom which
lasted until the early 1970s. For many years Göteborg was the fourth largest shipbuilding
town in the world. During the period even traffic was expanding and the demand for relatively
cheap cars of high quality led to strong growth at Volvo. The post-war period saw the
expansion of the port of Göteborg with Skandiahamnen as a modern container port.
In the early 20th century, Göteborg was Scandinavia’s most important export harbor.
Industrialization had begun and the city grew rapidly. Textiles were the main industry until
the First World War, but from that point on shop industries and the shipyards dominated.
Until the latter half of the 20th century, Göteborg was well known for its shipping and port
activities. The worldwide oil crisis in 1974 spelled the beginning of the end for shipbuilding
in Göteborg. But when the shipyards closed and the harbours moved, a transformation began
at the north bank of the river.
Other mechanical industries like SKF and Volvo were keen on their international profile from
the beginning, but also ESAB with welding, Original Odhner calculators and Hasselblad
cameras. With the engineering industry as a base, the period up to the Second World War was
characterized by a strong growth. From 1900 to 1950, the city grew from 130 000 to over 350
thousand people, i.e. it was more than doubling. At mid-century, when the affluent years in
109
the Swedish economy began, there was a strong case also for all inhabitants to feel a strong
optimism for the city's future development.
The energy crisis in 1973, caused reorganization of the world market with oil and competition
with Asian shipbuilding. This resulted in some bad local investments. The shipbuilding
started going bankrupt. The last ship, by the municipal shipyard, was made in 1989 in Arendal
and Cityvarvet, which was left for reparation of ships, was sold in 2015. Next to come are
some monuments of here described period.
The Swedish affluent society of the 20th century has such a development that caused the
expansion of industry and work in Swedish cities in an unprecedented way. As a
consequence, the former large and influential marine industry in Gothenburg has megastructures which are not used anymore. The large structure of the social development was
forming the identity of a social class, forming also a way of living and of course the living
conditions were improved and much was built in the way of housing.
Fig 1. Sjöstedt Lyktan 1957
5
5.1
MONUMENTS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Shipyard Eriksberg - Gantry crane
The Eriksberg gantry crane was built in 1969 and stands as a remnant of the area's
shipbuilding past. It is eighty meters high and can carry a weight of 200 tons. Gantry cranes,
bridge cranes, and overhead cranes, are all types of cranes which lift objects by a hoist which
is fitted in a hoist trolley and can move horizontally on a rail or pair of rails fitted under a
beam.
Eriksberg is an area on Hisingen in Gothenburg where Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstads AB
for over a century was dominated by shipbuilding. But a crisis in the 1970s threatened the
industry and the crisis emerged in 1979. Since the collapse of the shipyards, the area has been
rebuilt into Gothenburg's most promoted modern neighborhood. The former machinery
buildings have been renovated into a hotel with conference facilities, now privately owned.
Eriksberg crane is in its original context very young. As the crane is considered to belong to
the last generation of the really big buck taps erected at the Swedish shipyards. The crane had
a short time of actual function due to the sudden shift in the international economy and the
shipyard crisis. In the years that have passed since Eriksberg shipyard was shut down the
110
crane has undergone extensive renovations mainly on the installation technology. Two of the
three winch machinery is removed together with the associated wire, trolleys and hooks. It
was used as a bungee-jump platform and for sightseeing. Unfortunately, copper thieves have
cleaned the switchyard of everything that can be sold and also vandalized the electrical
installations.
The crane is an exceptional landmark in the city where it earned an iconic position of a
monument. The valuation of the object was made by the county authority and, although
stripped of its vital functions, the building is now listed as a cultural monument due to its age,
rarity, originality and other considered values. [Ahlberg, 2011]
5.2
Torslanda - Volvo
In the 20th century the town of Gothenburg started looking at the land Hisingen for a possible
expansion. The shore was damp and needed draining. The city incorporated old municipalities
one by one. Some modernization in town planning occurred in the 1929, following the
development of shipyards and the harbours. The town continued buying land and
incorporating municipalities until 1967. The great town plan of Hisingen was made in 1971.
The industry in the modern after-war society applied concept of large scale even to other parts
of the city. Volvo was establishing the production at the same time to reach a peak in 1964
with the new super modern factory. Volvo Torslanda was the newest, biggest, most wondrous
factory in 1963 and together with the modern office opened in 1967. Optimism with technical
development constructed mega monuments in this affluent time of the society.
These mega-projects are seen as the industrialisations foremost monuments. The large scale
is to be understood not only as a means for economic profitability, but the scale was a
essential to the planing aim, resting as well on ideological as on aestetic and economical
grounds. [Houltz 2013] Volvo factory and office are listed as modern monuments.
5.3
Kortedala - Lyktan /the Lantern
Over a mountain gorge spans a "concrete bridge" that carries the small building – Lyktan (the
Lantern). The building is located in the southeastern part of the residential area, built on two
hill rocks with a pedestrian tunnel that runs under the house. It is dressed in yellow-painted
fiber-cement tiles. The milieu consists of tower houses combined with lower housing
surrounding an open plateau where some common facilities are situated.
Kortedala is a housing area from the “folkhemmet”, a period of building in Sweden that is
characterized as a social movement of change more than a style. Through its investment, the
Lantern has served as both a candy and fruit store with a small operation serving as an
entrance to the residential area in the Gregorian and Julian streets in Kortedala. Originally the
Lantern was almost entirely glazed and as a gateway to the area meant to light up the road
from the tram station and show the way to home. A glowing neon sign typical of its time, with
building's name, is since long gone.
This building may, in a sense, be representing the fifties in Sweden. It is unique and belongs
to the category of buildings that initially fulfilled important functions in the neighborhood.
Along the way, the building stands abandoned, in decay and at risk of demolition.
Lyktan was intended to be listed as a monument of built history in Gothenburg, and indeed in
Sweden. But the question of demolition has been threatening the building in the last decade
and the discrepancy between preservation and demolition stands until present day.
111
The Gothenburg City museum arranged a project with an aim to demonstrate the public
responsibility for cultural heritage. Networking, film documentation, public meetings and
workshops were all used in the project for grappling with preservation issues. The project
illustrated that while museums and other public institutions cannot take responsibility for
abandoned buildings of cultural and historic significance, they can inject vital initiative into
the preservation processes. A film was made that recorded the public history and personal
narratives of the building, the Kortedala housing area and the preservation process. Through
the project it was essential to use film when the goal is to evoke public sentiment for the
preservation of cultural heritage.
5.4
Ramberget - Housing for romani people
During the 1960ties swedish society had ambitions to make possible permanent livning
conditions for all romani people living in the cities. [SOU 2010:55 s.150-153].
In the beginning of the 1960ies most Romani people in Gothenburg had permanent living
conditions. But for those who didn’t, the society arranged housings. Accordingly, in the year
1959 some permanent housing was built in Gothenburg to provide houses for those who still
lived in caravans. The employment Board made a similar solution as for the unemployed and
built new temporary social housings but with the aim to allow faster way to permanent houses
for those in need. The building was a standard prefab construction of a type that was built for
at that time a rapidly immigrating working class. There were two apartments in each house.
There is no place or event, as yet, representing Romani history in the city in the official
heritage protection plan. One of the prefabricated houses from the sixties could still be seen at
the foot of the hill of Ramberget in the 2014. It has since been demolished, probably due to
the fact that the protection for a cultural monument was not fixed/issued/stated at the time.
Inlandsgatan at the foot of Ramberget was one of the few remaining temporary housings of
this kind.
5.5
Frihamnen – a pioneering project
Frihamnen is a place with a strong historic reference to Gothenbrugs maritime industry. In the
beginning of the twentieth century there was a need for a lager harbor that could contain
Ocean traffic. The construcion started during the years of World War I crises 1913 and
Frihamnen was inaugurated in 1922, in time for the Gothenburg’s 300 year jubilee. The
tranatlantic communication was important for the Swedish industrial development on the
foreign market. Frihamnen was a free harbor where no customs needed to be paid.
Today the area is mainly a wide empty landscape and a meticulous eye is needed to read the
language of the harbor remains, railway tracks, magasines, etc. But the shape of the docks and
the imediate contact with water still keep the maritime narative. Here we have both LARGE
structure and small details that complete a narrative of the place. These signs of the past will
hopefully be maintained and preserved in the future; thanks to planing through dialogue.
6
6.1
IF A CITY LOOSES THE CONNECTION WITH ITS PAST, WHAT WILL THE
FUTURE IDENTITY BE?
Past identity and balance in a cultural narrative
The crane at the old Shipyard Eriksberg is listed as a cultural monument, with the purpose of
defining the city’s industrial past. It is now a protected monument and as such it is venerated
for its enduring historic significance in association with city’s shipbuilding and maritime
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history. Large and visible in the urban landscape the shipyard Eriksberg’s gantry crane
belongs to the collective memory of the city. The monument creates an important spatial
imprint in the mental picture of the city. It is commemorating a part of the city’s civic past,
has monumental proportions and represents a highly potent epoch of industrial activity in
Gothenburg’s history. Through this monument the mega aesthetics and the ideal of the
modern - in contrast to the traditional - still exists; in spite of the fact that the industrial ideal
has lost its sublime aura. [Houltz 2007]
The examples of Lyktan, and Eriksberg show different aspects of industrial heritage. Lyktan,
is carrying narratives of a little shop where for example children were buying candy. Lyktan
has existence, experience and knowledge values but is not listed. The crane in Eriksberg also
has knowledge, existence and experience values, because it represents a specific maritime
industrial epoch in Swedish history. And although stripped of its contents it still makes a very
visual accent in the city skyline. Both objects’ iconic value is large but Lyktan is not listed, in
spite of the greatest efforts done to list and preserve it. Housing for Romani people and Volvo
represent two other opposites in scale and apparition. Unfortunately, the symbolic value of the
Romani house was not spotted in time to be listed or preserved. Volvo still seems to be an
obvious and symbolic target for preservation. They are the two sides of the same coin.
The city narrative can be and often is defined by the iconological status or an easy recognition
in a city landscape. Consequently, it is more likely that a listed monument represents the
system of the society, production rather than reproduction. This in turn can give a single sided
picture or imprint on the collective memory. Therefore planing and evaluation methods which
can save and share a cultural-historic message - even in the context of modern heritage –
ought to be monitoring a balance between the system and the life world.
6.2
Frihamnen - a way to include
Cultural heritage and monuments are essential for a cultural evolution. This means that there
is a narrative that is told through many layers of - remaining - material history. Whether it is
small or large, whether it is readable in small details or on a large scale, the meaning of the
past is intimately linked with the identity of the place.
Gothenburg is at the beginning of an exiting journey with pioneering projects around the city.
That includes open dialogue with the residents and professionals. Just recently there was a
three day open meeting with seminars, workshops with focus on development, new housing
and meeting places in the city. This is a start for a development that Göteborg is aiming at
continuing at least until the year 2021 – a 400 city-jubilee.
The legacy of the affluent industrial society is massive waste and environmental pollution but
also mega-scale ideals and consumption. The metamorphosis of the twentieth century
planning ideal is probably in a synthesis of city planning trough participation and different
didactical devices. City planning trough participation, with help of play, poems and creative
communication can be called communicative planning which is happening in
Frihamnen.[Healey 1992]
The terms communicative planning, life world - close to life relations - and system upholding relations in a structure of a society - are inspired by the German sociologist Jürgen
Habermas.
113
REFERENCES
[1] Numbness and Sensitivity in the Elicitation of Environmental Values, By Theresa Satterfield in Assessing
the Values of Cultural Heritage. Research Report. The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles 2002
[2] The Declaration of Amsterdam - 1975, CONGRESS ON THE EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURAL
HERITAGE 21 - 25 October 1975
[3] Preserving our heritage, improving our environment Volume I 20 years of EU research into cultural
heritage edited by Michel Chapuis. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2009
[4] Assessing Values in Conservation Planning: Methodological Issues and Choices, By Randall Mason in
Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage. Research Report. The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles
2002
[5] Anthropological-Ethnographic Methods for the Assessment of Cultural Values in Heritage Conservation.
By Setha M. Low in Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage. Research Report. The Getty Conservation
Institute, Los Angeles 2002
[6] Kulturmiljöarbete i en ny tid. Betänkande av Kulturmiljöutredningen, Stockholm, (SOU 2012:37).
[7] Kulturhistorisk värdering och urval. Plattform för arbete med att definiera, prioritera och utveckla
kulturarvet. Riksantikvarieämbetet, Stockholm 2014.
[8] Caldenby, Claes (1998) Att bygga ett land. 1900-talets svenska arkitektur. Byggforskningsrådet, Stockholm
[9] National Atlas of Sweden, SNA, Västra Götaland, Örebro 2004
[10] Ahlberg, Sven Olof, Eriksbergskranen Utredning inför eventuell byggnadsminnesförklaring
Kulturbyggnadsbyrån, 2011 06 01
[11] The Lantern – Modern Swedish Heritage – a film by Anders Lundvang, 2005
[12] Norra Älvstranden. The Process, Göteborg 2001
[13] Upptäck Nordost (2006), red. Hansson et al. Göteborg
[14] Romers kulturarv i Göteborg – en landskapsdimension. Persson, Erika GU 2012:11
[15] Upptäck Hisingen (2008) Hansson et al, Göteborg
[16] Industrial Flow and National Pride: SKF and Volvo, Icons of the High Industrial Period. Houltz, Anders.
KTH, 2007 in: Industry and modernism: Companies, Architecture, and Identity in the Nordic and Baltic
Countries during the High-Industrial Period
[17] Healey, Patsy (1992) "Planning through debate: The communicative turn in planning theory", Town
Planning Review, Liverpool, UK: University Press, 1992:2, Volume 63.
[18] Habermas, Jurgen (1991) Communication and The Evolution of Society, Cambridge, (first published in
1976).
[19] http://www.lansstyrelsen.se/vastragotaland/En/samhallsplanering-och-kulturmiljo/skyddadbebyggelse/Pages/default.aspx
[20] http://www.raa.se/om-riksantikvarieambetet/in-english/
114
STAGING THE WORLD: PERFORMANCE SPACE AS AN UNIFIED
FIELD OF DRAMA AND SOCIETY
Jorge Palinhos1
1
Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo, ESAP (PORTUGAL)
jorgepalinhos@gmail.com
Abstract
«All the world is a stage», wrote Petronius, and the same was repeated by William
Shakespeare plagiarizing the Roman writer. They were both wrong, because in both their
lives, the world – or at least the theatrical world – was not all of it a stage. In fact, according
to Jean Duvignaud, theatre was defined by two polarizing spaces: the stage and the audience.
The first where the drama took place, the second where the drama was supported and
socialized by its watchers.
However, contemporary stage somehow breathed life to the dream – or nightmare - of
Petronius and Shakespeare. That was what Walter Benjamin already felt in epic theatre,
noting that in his time the “dead people” on stage and the living people in the audience were
mingling more and more, and the frontier that divided them was becoming more and more
blurry, so that the Magic Circle of Johan Huizinga or the Magical Conclave of Jean
Duvignaud became more and more all-encompassing, turning all the world into a stage, but
also the stage into a world.
Drawing from the classical and contemporary theories and ideas of Aristotle, Georg Simmel,
Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois, Walter Benjamin, Erving Goffman, Jean Duvignaud,
Raymond Williams, Richard Schechner, Miwon Kwon, Cathy Turner, Markus Montola and
Ian Bogost about drama, performance, game, and adventure, and also on concepts of social
theory and the theories of action, I will try to understand the meaning, impact and limitations
of fictional interventions in real space, focusing on a anecdote told by the renowned theatre
director and thinker, Anne Bogart, to try to understand the particular relationship between
performance and space and the impact that it can have on their creators, participants,
spectators and on the surrounding environment.
Keywords: Site-specific Theatre, Space, Anne Bogart
1
INTRODUCTION
Site-specific art is a common artform since the 1960s that attempts to create works around
specific places, trying to raise awareness about the place or change the aforementioned place.
Originally, site-specific art, according to Mion Kwon [1], attempted to draw attention to the
specific conditions of production and presentation of works of art, but later it was used to
draw attention to broader cultural and social issues connected with each place. That is, space
was turned into a metaphor for something considered more important, like a political or social
issue.
However, even before Site-specific art, space was recognized as an important feature of the
performative act, in more than one way defining the nature of the performative act, and even
its fictional nature. A brief glance through some of the thinkers of the XXth century makes it
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obvious that many of them regarded space as a defining trait of fictional performance,
whether they saw it as the mark of the “adventure”, like Georg Simmel [2], or they considered
the space of playing a “magical circle, like Johan Huizinga [3], or a Magical Conclave, like
Jean Duvignaud [4], or first of all a meeting of people, like Hans-Thies Lehmann [5]. Looking
to how these different concepts of the theatrical space evolved, one can clearly notice a
change of perspective, from the theatrical space being a place clearly framed outside daily
life, to becoming an event more and more contiguous to daily life. The best perception of this
change possibly comes from Walter Benjamin [6], that talks about how the separation
between the world of the dead, on stage, and the world of the living, in the audience, is
becoming more and more blurred in the theatre of mid XXth century, namely Brechtian
theatre. This, I would argue, is paving the way for the future site-specific performances – or
even the concept of performance as a real event, and can be seen as starting in the
Renaissance. If until this time theatre was an event that happened not only at certain times –
holy days, celebrations – to mark specific social, religious and political events, from the
XVIth century onwards we increasingly find a theatre that becomes part of the daily routine,
i.e., part of the time of reality, where merchants and traders could leave their shops to attend
performances by Shakespeare’s or Molière’s companies. Erika Fichte-Liche [7] even
comments how public executions could compete with theatre for the attention of the audience,
and such competition is significant, as it marks the entrance of theatre into the daily routine,
to become an entertainment like any other. Likewise, when theatre leaves the stage to address
the complex nature of real spaces – in their political, social and architectonic nuances and
idiosyncrasies – it starts competing with other forms and ways of addressing real spaces and
real issues.
Obviously, this brings other problems, and nuances to the work of setting up a performance in
a real space, competing for the attention of the audience in comparison with real events. And
it is these problems that I would like to address here, based on a short but, in my view, rather
meaningful anecdote.
This anecdote is told by Anne Bogart in her book And Then You Act, and I believe it raises
all kinds of important and revealing questions about the understanding of space in
performance and site-specific theatre.
I am perfectly aware that solid, scientific conclusions require more than a simple anecdote,
but I believe this anecdote can helps us think space in a different and meaningful ways, which
can open new ways of thinking.
2
THE CHOICE OF LOOKING TO THE WORLD
The quote that I would like to discuss in this paper is this one:
«During the 1980s I saw a play in an abandoned factory building in Berlin. The production
began out-of-doors with a scene staged on a rooftop. The audiences stood in the courtyard
below, watching the actors perform elaborate abstract moves above them. (…) I stood in the
courtyard, attempting to watch the actors on the rooftop, but my focus kept shifting to a man
in the courtyard simply fixing his bicycle. Because the play had been running for weeks, the
denizens of the area were accustomed to audiences and went about their normal lives. This
man turned his bicycle upside down and intently went about fixing the gears. I could not take
my eyes off him. He was far more fascinating than any of the actors in their colorful costumes
moving along the rooftop.» [8]
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This quote has intrigued me for many years, but the episode must surely have intrigued
Bogart for even more time, as it took place in the 1980s, and was just written down by Bogart
in a book published in 2007.
I believe the story has a lot to discuss, but the one issue I would like to debate is the question
of why a man fixing a bike in the courtyard is more interesting than a professional company
performing on a rooftop?
This may seem like a whimsical and naïve question to debate. Surely, the performance was so
bad that anything else – even a bicycle-repair man – was more interesting, and that is all.
After all, how many dull shows has one seen that made us wish we were doing something
else? And how can we know what is happening inside one spectator’s head?
However, I argue that these are actually naïve and pointless answers. When you are planning,
producing and directing a performance and when you are creating a dramaturgy, you are
obviously trying to direct the gaze of the spectator, predicting his or her emotions and using
all the tricks and techniques to keep him or her entertained and interested, and even going to
the length of setting the performance in such a spectacularly dramatic space as a rooftop.
This is also what Bogart tries do answer in her book: what is needed to keep the audience
interested. Her answer is the idea of attitude. According to the American director, what this
man repairing the bicycle had that the performers did not have was a precise attitude or
exactitude: «This was a lesson in attitude. The man’s attitude was precise and riveted and
therefore riveting. The performers’ attitudes were, in comparison, general.» [9]
Bogart is quite vague in her definition of “Exactitude”, and from the text we can only deduce
it to be some combination between a behavior denoting self-confidence and purpose and a
mastery of technique.
I believe this answer, while thought-provoking is incomplete and inexact. On one hand it
seems to imply that anyone doing something with an exact attitude will be more interesting
than any other person in any other situation. Yet, it is hard to ignore the fact that any situation
which is more dramatic, mysterious or visually more impressive can caught the eye of an
onlooker more easily than the exact action, so that Exactitude cannot explain everything. On
the other hand, it is obvious that Bogart blames the problem on a performing technique, based
on the conviction of the performer. But this idea of conviction cannot explain everything and
is quite doubtful in the current scenario. Shall we assume Bogart means to say that the man in
the backyard seriously wants his bicycle to work, while the performers don’t really want the
play to succeed in front of the audience, and to receive recognition for it?
A strong attitude can evidently be captivating and even charismatic, but it can hardly be the
sole and definite answer to the power of theatre and performance.
Bogart also suggests another possibility: the concept of “pressure” which she discusses in the
same book, although not directly related to this anecdote: «The composer John Cage
suggested that if you want to see theater, sit on a park bench and put a frame around what you
see. Your intention makes it art. Art is intentional pressure. The intention of making art
creates a pressure. Pressure creates intentional art.» [10]
This statement places art in the realm of intention and deliberation, and outside of form,
technique or aesthetic judgement. To make art becomes a choice, but a choice with
consequences, that ends up defining art itself. It also defines art as framing, that is, as
establishing a boundary between the area of reality modified by the intention to create art, and
the area of reality free from such intention. Therefore art exists inside a limit of intention.
117
We can accept this definition for the situation described by Bogart for the performance on the
rooftop. We can even accept that it can encompass most site-specific performances, which are
based on the intention of transforming a certain space through action and gesture. We can
conjecture that the idea of pressure is connected to the idea of exactitude, as the pressure of
the intention of creating art can only be answered by a precision of gesture and delivery by
the performer. Without the pressure of the framing of art, there is no purpose for the
performer to be exact. Yet, this ends up working against the scene of the bicycle-repairing
man: he has no intention of creating art, is not conscious of creating art, or even of being
watched. Where does the power of his performance comes from?
The framing of art concept also leads us to the distinction between theatre and non-theatre.
The framing of the performance on the rooftop as theatre, in opposition to the framing of the
man repairing a bicycle as non-theatre could possibly render the “realness” of the scene with
the bicycle more interesting than the performance. After all, “real” and “authenticity” and
“experience” are concepts that became quite popular from the mid-20th century onwards,
mainly through the ideas of Antonin Artaud, Giles Deleuze and Jean-François Lyotard. And
one doesn’t need to go far to find the popular acclaim and success of documentary theatre and
reality television, to learn that contemporary audiences are deeply interested in being
witnesses to the real or to an illusion of realness.
However, the attraction of a certain representation of “realness” also depends on the framing
of event as an artistic event. The framing itself, that is, the intention, the audience and even
the dramaturgy of the event is what renders it interesting. What I am saying is that it is not
possible to believe that any real episode would automatically trump any fictional
performance, and that any man repairing a bicycle in the comfort of his home would be
automatically more interesting than any performers acting on a roof, risking their lives and
bodies to convey some sort of aesthetic statement and draw an emotional response from the
audience. It is obvious that the performers are striving for a specific aesthetic statement.
However, Bogarts finds a more meaningful emotional response in the unintentional
performance of the man. We cannot help but wonder: is it possible that if there was an artistic
intention in the performance of this man, Bogart wouldn’t find it as interesting? Clearly a
“yes” answer would mean that any artistic performance is much less interesting than a nonartistic performance. Taken at face value, this could certainly be true: an artistic performance
with no real, meaningful, material consequences for the real world should always be less
interesting than a real performance that can affect our lives. However, we can also believe that
the deep impact that artistic expression has had in the last millennia means that it has some
hard-to-define impact in our lives, or at least that artists have found some ways of making it
more meaningful.
Some of these techniques can be found in Bogart’s book. At least when she tells us that: «The
stage designer John Conklin helped me relate attitude to spatial placement or distance.
According to Conklin, our perceptions are sabotaged by a standard, prescribed middle
distance. (...) One evening in class, while looking at the scenic designers’ work, Conklin
began to chastise the students for standing at a standard distance from the models. “Get up
close or move further away. This is the only way you will be able to see anything,” he
intimated. “You can see nothing from the middle distance!”» [11]
This concept of distance and its impact on the artistic vision can draw us closer to the search
of the meaning of space in this anecdote – something that had been missing from the
interpretations of Bogart, which only takes in consideration reasons connected to performers
and technique. It is well known that the sense of intimacy or strangeness, of being drawn
close to the center of the action, or being put at a distance, peeking through the keylock hole,
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they all have been staples of the scenic work, as theatre creators try to evoke different
emotional reactions from the audience, and help reminding us that theatre is not just a matter
of text, performance or acting, but it is also a question of geometry, of spatial definition,
delimitation and involvement in an action taking place in space.
But this spatial involvement needs to be developed. Something isn’t interesting just because it
is close or distant enough. There is the need of an initial emotional response that causes a
change in the initial distance. We need to be interested, moved, alarmed or scared of
something to be able to move forward of backwards from it. Therefore, the quote by Conklin
that is brought up by Bogart needs to be read metaphorically – even if not just metaphorically.
The gaze of the audience has to be directed, focusing it emotionally. But how to build this
emotional focus? I would suggest an idea from Benjamin: «An extremely confusing
neighbourhood, a mess of streets that for years I have avoided, suddenly became understood
when, at a certain point, a dear person moved there. It was like if there was a projector at her
window that would untangle the place with beams of light.» [12].
This quote, I would argue, allows us to think that the orientation, and the focus in space is
also an emotional focus. The distance between the audience and the performers is covered by
the gaze of the spectator, and this gaze has to be directed, usually by guiding the emotions of
the audience through certain techniques and devices that I will not try to describe in such
short space. Space, like action, need a guiding light, a focus, that help the audience know
where to look and how to look.
But suffice is to note that the gaze of Bogart in this anecdote has been allowed to wander
away from the performance taking place, and the question is why in this particular situation,
has her gaze wandered? After all, Bogart was watching a performance taking place on a
rooftop, a specific event that was carefully created and rehearsed to raise awareness about
certain places and specific gestures. There was an artistic process of selection, disposition,
transformation, and repetition, a carefully planned creation of a rhythm of the event and subtle
manipulation of the senses and emotions. And yet this somehow failed to be more interesting
than some common man spontaneously repairing a bicycle.
As much as I think the previous quote of Benjamin is worth of further study, I don’t think it
works in this specific situation, as clearly the emotional focus of Bogart, as a director and
theatre-maker, should have been on the performance, not only as an aesthetic experience but
also has a learning opportunity – in the same book, for instance, Bogart [13] admits that she
also directed some performances on rooftops, so she had a deep interest in the setting of that
performance.
There is, of course, the theory of affects, drawing from Jean-François Lyotard [14], Nicholas
Ridout [15] and others, who focus on the way that bodies can interact and influence each
other in subtle ways, mainly through performance and gesture. This is a recent and promising
field, however, which even displays a similar approach to the ideas of Anne Bogart, being
mostly focused on the performance and the performers, and leaving the space of performance
mostly outside of its scope. And I am convinced that space is one of the key elements here to
explain Bogart’s anecdote.
After all, rooftops, because of their relative height and inaccessibility in daily life, are
intensely interesting places, half obscured to our everyday vision, mostly empty of human
activity and inherently dramatic for the danger they could represent for those who are there,
and for their high visibility they give to human bodies present.
But, in a way, could it be that they are too interesting for certain performances? What I am
suggesting is: could it be possible that if the performances switched places - if the man was
119
repairing a bicycle on the rooftop and the performers where in the courtyard – Bogart’s
reaction would be different?
This is a thought experiment that it is almost impossible to solve, but I believe thinking about
it can give us some interesting insights.
My argument is not possible to prove or disprove just based on this one anecdote, but I would
like to express it here and give it some thought for the possibilities it raises for the use of
space in site-specific performances.
What I propose is that space has certain qualities that can enhance but also derail a
performance. And I believe that this is what happened in the anecdote of Anne Bogart. The
intense dramatism of the rooftop space, with the complex performance taking place there,
give an information and stimuli intensity to the spectator – or at least to one spectator – which
made Bogart look around for something less information-intensive.
I raise this idea based on the detail that if Bogart was on a populated area – and her reference
to the “denizens of the area” makes it seem so – there should be a lot more people around the
performance, probably going on their everyday lives, probably some of them at the windows
of their houses, peeking or busy with their daily chores. Yet, Bogart, unconsciously, chose to
look at just one man doing an ordinary activity at human eye level. It seems to me that she
was looking for some distraction from the intensive data-delivery performance. Looking for a
place to rest her eyes and mind. That can make us deduce that perhaps the complexity of the
performance and the interest of the spot was too taxing, and some mental rest was needed.
This can fit with the typical personal story of theatre-goers that, at some moments of a
performance, need to watch the lights or some other dull spot, just to remove their minds from
the performance taking place at the moment.
This could be a natural human reaction, of needing to create some distance – to resist the
aesthetic manipulation of the performance – by looking at some dull space or movement.
We should even consider that this could be a rejection of the use of space. Throughout
history, theatre used the stage – an inherently dull and simple space – mostly as a way of
focusing emotionally the audience’s attention to the performance taking place. And moving to
an information-rich and interesting place can be a way of creating too much noise and too
much disturbance in the attention of the audience, who may feel the need to look away, to
remove themselves, temporarily, from such an overloaded event.
3
CONCLUSIONS
What I present here is a general and preliminary discussion and comments on the importance
of space for a site-specific performance. For that I use a quote from Anne Bogart to debate the
audience’s perception of a site-specific performance, possible ways of reading the success and
failure of such performance to captivate the audience. And I propose two concepts, dull space
and information overload, to explain the importance of a certain scarcity of spatial
information for specific performances and the audience’s need to gain some distance and
alienation from certain performances or moments in a performance to refocus its attention.
I am aware that my ideas in this paper are highly hypothetical, but I am convinced that they
open possibilities for the thinking about the importance of space in performance and of
evaluating the role and function of space in certain performances.
These ideas could be further developed in the studies of affects and of site-specific
performance, namely in the intricate connection between real elements and artistic or
theatrical performance. It can also be a way of directing the analysis of site-specific
120
performances more to the use of spaces and the connection of the audience with spaces
through the performance itself.
Either way, it seems clear to me that the issue of space, audience attention and performance
are way more intricate than what common sense usually tells us.
REFERENCES
[1] Kwon, Mion. 2002. One place after another. Boston: MIT Press. Pp. 2-5
[2] Simmel, Georg. 2004. Fidelidade e Gratidão e outros textos. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água. Pp. 179-198
[3] Huizinga, Johann. 2003. Homo Ludens. Lisboa: Edições 70
[4] Duvignaud, Jean. 1999. Sociologie du théâtre. Paris: PUF.
[5] Lehmann, Hans-Thies. 2009. Escritura Política no Texto Teatral. Ensaios sobre Sófocles, Shakespeare,
Kleist, Büchner, Jahnn, Bataille, Brecht, Benjamin, Müller, Schleef. São Paulo: Perspectiva
[6] Benjamin, Walter. 1969. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. New York: Schocken Books
[7] Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2002. History of European Drama and Theatre. London: Routledge. P. 100
[8] Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then You Act – Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York: Routledge.
Pp. 103-104
[9] Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then You Act – Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York: Routledge. P.
104.
[10] Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then You Act – Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York: Routledge. P.
38
[11] Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then You Act – Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York: Routledge. P.
100
[12] Benjamin, Walter. 1992. Rua de Sentido Único e Infância em Berlim por volta de 1900. Lisboa: Relógio
D’Água. P. 66 (My translation)
[13] Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then You Act – Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New York: Routledge. P.
138
[14] Lyotard, Jean-François. 1973. Les Dispositifs Pulsionnels. Paris: Union Général d’Editions
[15] Ridout, Nicholas. 2006. Stage Fright, Animals and other Theatrical Problems. Cambridge: CUP
121
122
CITY INTERSPACES - THE SCENIC SPACES OF PASSAGES
IN NOVI SAD
Dijana Brklja 1, dr Milena Krklješ2, Aleksandra Milinkovi 3, Stefan Škori
4
1
Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
3
Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
4
Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
dijana_apostolovic@yahoo.com | milenakrkljes@gmail.com |
aleksandrabandic@gmail.com | skoricstefan@yahoo.com
2
Abstract
The central core of the city is structured with numerous micro-locations that are various in
theirs content, design and ambience, all together generating its character and identity within
the community. They have very specific characteristics such as spatial boundaries, the
architectural framework, urban details, as well as programs, facilities and events which those
"in-between spaces" transforms in to a scene of everyday life, often frequent and rather used
by visitors, compared to the other public spaces to which they are leading. Centre of Novi Sad
permeate numerous public communication that lead through the passages and courtyards. The
aim of the research is to consider potentials and possible transformations of these spaces and
benefits that the city centre might get by articulated continuous scenic paths that are linking
different public areas. This paper will discuss the character of passages and courtyards of the
city's central core, which have the potential to be developed into high quality micro
ambiences and to be designed in accordance with the needs for variety of this unique urban
structure. Various parameters that characterize the spatial relationships in spaces and its
attractiveness of the area regarding the perception of the viewer will be defined. Through
mapping of those spaces with the scenic potential, research will result with conclusions about
the possibility for creating a network of clear and strong messages that might be incorporated
in physical structure. The research of urban passages will be divided in three phases. The first
one is the determination of spatial characteristics and elements such as program, architecture,
landscaping and details. In next phase research will be concentrated on the scenic character of
spaces, which might be clearly recognized through the perception of space users and in a final
phase the importance of linking different public spaces and passage planning for the
construction of the city's identity will be pointed out.
Keywords: passages, ambiences, scenic spaces, Novi Sad
1
INTRODUCTION
"The city has always been, in spite of everything, the place from which emanates culture,
civilization, the place of 'knowledge production', the place of historical initiative, freedom,
diversity, multi-ethnic and multicultural coexistence" [1], which is why its public spaces must
be designed in a way to support the realization of higher goals of spatial frames listed as
potentials. The set of all public spaces in the city is riddled with connections and pedestrian
routes in the physical structure, that can by its shape increase the space scenic and connect
spaces for different purposes and characters in one unit made up of a variety of environmental
stories in the tissue of the city. One of these connections are passages and inner courtyards,
dynamic places of passages, running images of the city and the sequencing of views with the
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emphasis on the purpose to which the observer moves. They carry very specific
characteristics such as clear spatial boundaries, architectural and visual frame, urban details,
as well as the contents and events through which "space between" becomes a scene of
everyday life, often more frequently and more happily used rather than the public spaces to
which it leads.
"In the black-and-white world the roads serve the purpose of movement, and the houses are
used for social and professional media" [2], however, people have adapted the space of the
city to their needs and created the conditions for the public space to become a meeting place
for social interaction and everyday life of the city." We analysed the passages and courtyards
in the city centre which have the potential to develop into micro environment and offices in
accordance with the needs for diversity of urban structure. The parameters that characterize
the attractiveness of the area and the perception of the viewer and the spatial relationships that
form a built space in the best way are explored. Through the mapping of places with
outstanding potential we analyse the possibility of creating a network of clear and strong
messages created through the physical structure of the city. The study of urban passages
comes down to three parts of which the first is the determination of spatial characteristics and
elements such as architecture, landscaping, vegetation, content and details. Furthermore, the
characteristics of the area which is most clearly read in the nature and purpose of space and
perception of space users and thirdly, pointing out the importance of linking public spaces and
passage planning at the global level in order to build the city's identity. The aim of the
research is to define the guidelines for the consideration of the potential and the possible
transformation of these spaces and the benefits that the city centre gets through decoration of
continuous routes of movement and detention in the public area.
Quality assessment and classification can be determined on the
space possesses, such as functionality, the gravitational power,
and others, which are tested in operation and whose influence
contexts are interdependent and coupled and separately they
maximum quality and utilization of the space resources.
2
basis of characteristics that
spatial elements, ambience
is evaluated. The analysed
cannot function or ensure
SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PASSAGES
The qualities of the passages in relation to the characteristics of the area are conceivable at
different spatial levels of the urban environment. Its qualities dictate many aspects of the wide
and narrow context in which it is located. As a result of the complexity of the overlapping
impacts emerged the complex reading of the micro environments which are as hubs or routes
of movement spread in the city. Through different spatial levels, influencing factors include:
• The urban context,
• The context of communication,
• The functional context,
• The architectural context and
• The details context.
THE URBAN CONTEXT: According to the position in relation to the functional centre of the
city, there is a significant difference between the same urban elements. The urban disposition
dictated by the conditions such as the number and purpose of the public spaces, types of
objects and content of the ground floor, which cause the fluctuation of the user. The
gravitational power of the city in which specific spatial element exists, affects the frequency
of their use. Unlike those in the immediate and distant suburbs in relation to the city centre in
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which the character and the interrelation of the built structures are different, hence their
character and significance, therefore provides access / gateway to the inner blocks, and all
other aspects fall to the second level.
The paper explored the passages as gaps in the centre of the city in which they have a very
important urban position, often connecting major roads and public spaces available, being the
shortcuts and allowing greater utilization of inter block spaces. The passages and courtyards,
as a sort of intermediate spaces of the city, in the centre of Novi Sad were used on one hand
due to the shortening of the distance that leads to a recognized public spaces, and on the other
because of the position of these spaces passing through the passage has a specific target
movement.
THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNICATION: Two basic types of the passages, in relation to the
movement that takes place in them, are volatile and non-volatile passageways. Both types
have some important characteristics and the potential for development into attractive micro
environments, because "the mode of transport affects the way of life in the city as well as on
the social bonds" [3]. With the volatile passages, of great importance for a number of users
and potential recognition on the city map are the places and streets that these routes connect.
If frequent pedestrian routes with rich content are in question, passages between them will
certainly be the traffic shortcuts. If such areas further enrich the content, it is inevitable that
they will become places of detention, and potentially focal points of the city. Non-volatile
type of passages has architectural features that indicate the passage, where in fact they are the
inner courtyards. As well as the volatile type, it contains the potential for the formation of an
attractive place. It is its very closeness and intimacy of the space that can contribute to the
new character of the area which are in the functional city centres rarely met.
In the centre of Novi Sad, the passages are usually volatile type with different geometries, but
according to the architectural characteristics have been identified mainly as longer linear
directions. Within them prevails pedestrian traffic, but this does not have to be the rule. Some
of the passages and inner courtyards have a variety of programs that bring to life these micro
environments and make them relevant to the map of public spaces and streets in the city
centre.
THE FUNCTIONAL CONTEXT: Facilities within the micro units have a great influence on
the character, attendance and importance of the space in the mental map of potential users. It
is not irrelevant whether the passage is the extension of housing, extended - the outer space of
a public building or a completely public communication area. Depending on this type there
are the public, semi-public or semi-private spaces formed that will affect the psychological
perception of the city. Semi-privacy, usually in the inner courtyards, affects the ambience and
the socio-psychological aspect whether the entering endangers someone's personal space,
what are the conventions of behaviour, whether to dwell on that point, etc. Semi-public spaces
will send a message that it is necessary to fulfil certain prerequisites for the entry, purchase
tickets, or knowledge of the conventions and similar. Public type involves a series of different
contents, such as service, catering, entertainment, educational, commercial, or many others,
that depending on the method of grouping can define the appearance and frequency and the
scenic places and create its identity, attract customers and make age, interest or any other
categorization of users. (Figure 1)
Novi Sad passages have partly public character and violent types, with predominantly
commercial facilities. Therefore they possess a high degree of potential to be additionally
planned, enriched by the contents and formed into very high-quality public spaces of the city.
Rethinking of the connections between content and its framework must be carefully designed,
because "the conflict of the old physical frame and the new social contents requires a careful
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and very prudent action through reconstruction, revitalization, renovation, adaptation,
constant changes of urban forms and keeping the in-built values, green areas, physical forms
of a quality living environment." [4]
There are also private courtyards and passageways which are excluded from this study since
their arrangement applies to the owners, and use is limited to unknown visitors.
Figure 1: The impact of the absence of content in the ground floors of buildings in the passage on its qualit
THE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT: According to shapely characteristics, the relationship
of objects that together form a passage, systematic and designed building, harmonized floors,
canonical type, affect the image and visual perception of the onlookers. The architectural
style, the maintenance of the built environments and details, through all its characteristics
affects the socio-ecological and environmental characteristics and contexts.
Passages in the analysed frame are generally framed by inadequately maintained architectural
border, which very often do not conform stylishly. Decorating the façades facing towards
these areas, the reconstruction and improvement of visual quality would contribute to
maintaining the potential within them. Also, highlighting elements of historicity of this area,
which is reflected in border of the facilities, represents a potential in shaping the
attractiveness of experience and ambience.
THE DETAILS CONTEXT: (Figure 2) In addition to built elements and façades that make up
the vertical border area, the placement and alignment of details such as vegetation,
landscaping and street furniture make for this public space as well. The vegetation affects the
micro climate conditions, protects against solar radiation and creates a pleasant micro climate.
Landscaping can make the space visually authentic or divide it into segments, as well as may
be directed, and underline the main directions of movement and thereby facilitate the
readability and understanding of the space. Street furniture contributes to the comfort of travel
and encourages retention in these micro units. Interesting and unique details within these
spatial entities will influence the positive recognition and impressiveness of the space in the
mental map of the user and thereby increase the potential return.
Some of Novi Sad passages have urban details such as furniture, paving, lighting, vegetation,
or some combination of the above that have already been singled out from other passages and
provide them with a unique environmental seal. We all need reflecting and specific
interventions for increasing quality in order to use all the capacity of the scenic space.
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THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT: This aspect involves the orientation of the buildings
and their ground floor towards the passage because that creates the dynamic character of the
area. Its orchestration, ways of combining and forming the architecture, all the elements give
the space an authentic ambience. It is extremely important to achieve uniqueness and
distinctiveness of the space that can be achieved through orchestration of the architectural
language with the creation of vegetation, water, architecture, content, historical performance
or modern expression. Because of this, the ambience will be causally related to many other
aspects, especially with functionality. Everything mentioned above needs to be connected and
interweave in order to exploit the maximum potential of every public space, thus the passages
in the central zone of Novi Sad should have to, within itself, ensure the flow of the life of the
community.
Figure 2: Greenery and paving as elements of identity of micro passages in the city centre
3
INFLUENCE OF AMBIENT EFFECTS ON THE PASSAGE USERS
Previously analysed characteristics of the passages act together to form the coherence of the
impacts on the environment. Spatial entities, regardless of their size, content, visual detail,
make a certain influence on the observers. We can clearly distinguish four levels of impacts
on the users:
• Psychological,
• Sociological,
• Cultural and
• Marketing.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTEXT: By combining all the characteristics what is obtained
in a place that offers safety, security, and the objects in them are the backdrop for the scene.
The condition for the realization of the character of the assembly space implies the inclusion
of the senses in reasoning and defining whether the retention in such a place conforms the
client or not. This is affected by many previous factors, which stimulate the sense of smell,
sound, people laughing, silence, noise, colour, light, and many others. Clarity and
subconscious understanding of the function of the space, behaviours, contacts between
people, affect the perceptive character.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL CONTEXT: If we take into consideration all these aspects, the space
will be recognized as an attractive location and focal point of the assembly, which is also a
great potential of the passages. Also, achieving the ambience and uniqueness will create a
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sense of welcome and belonging, encourage the retention, and even dedicated arrival in a
certain environment. The sociological character of the public space is one of the primary ones
which must allow the synchronization of all elements. The quality of the achieved
orchestration determines the formation of the gathering places in the urban tissue, the
frequency of its use and the quality of interpersonal contacts. The initiative of the city should
encourage arranging of such places, through the planned creation of points in the city that will
create a network of unique spaces as meeting places, the focal point of socialization and social
life, which is one of the indicators of a deliberate design and planned urban structure of the
living place. Through the conscious forming of the recognizable and legible places people are
encourage to use them and change them through their presence.
THE CULTURAL CONTEXT: This aspect requires time and adequate actions of the cultural
policy of the city in order to develop a culture of existence of such an urban area among its
inhabitants. Expressed awareness of the need for these micro units in the tissue of the city will
influence the users to treat these spaces with care, not to pollute them, because in that case
they would represent more than just a pedestrian route that connects some other significant
parts of the city.
THE MARKETING CONTEXT: Another role of the city is reflected in the encouragement of
relevance and attractiveness of the area. Mere promotions will raise the importance of the
passages space in the collective conscience of the community, improve their general, overall
functionality and allow them to develop in the city. Marketing context also has a feedback,
because the spaces with a strong identity, such as cultural, consumer, entertainment and
others, can successfully promote the city.
4
RESOURCES OF FORMING NETWORKS OF PUBLIC SPACES THROUGH
PASSAGES
Individual public spaces, as long as they are designed with careful selection and orchestration
elements, cannot reach its full potential as separate entities in the city. Each micro
environment coexist, through people, with other points of the urban area. Residents occupy
space through the motion and retention in certain segments, which are recognized as
significant and unique. Places rich in elements, spatial and functional, tend to become the
focal point, the hub of life of the community.
The public areas of the centre of Novi Sad, available to all the residents and visitors to the
city, are significant benchmarks in the mental map of the users which should be linked
through a linear pedestrian routes to a heterogeneous whole that provides many opportunities
for social interaction. Passages and inner courtyards are a specific group of micro
environments that can fully express its potential through the role of connecting already
identified environments. At the same time, some of them may be interstices for retention,
while others may possess dynamic character suitable for movement and perception of
carefully designed views and elements in them.
Street directions intermittent by the passages enable the connection of various facilities,
availability of urban micro units and efficient movement through the urban grid. Squares and
public buildings may also be accents in perception when moving through the passage, which,
with its morphology allow the development of "dynamic character of perception" [5], which
is important for creation of interesting views and perceptual wholes.
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5
CONCLUSION
Based on theoretical considerations and analysis of the existing capacity to improve the
network of passages in Novi Sad, as scenic space in the city, we can define the following
conclusions:
• Passages are spaces in the city that hide a great potential and can develop into a very
serious gathering points, places with character and identity, which can through its
importance, not just the physical direction, connect significant public spaces of the
city;
• The historical core of Novi Sad, in its specific physical structure and urban matrix in
relation to its other parts, has many spaces that have the potential for creating an
attractive environment for both the citizens and visitors of the city;
• "Every city has its own culture, its morality, its own personality, and although the city
is today viewed more from their urban-economic, geographic and spatial,
demographic, criminological, psychological and other points of view, it seems that the
cultural approach, which is not exclusively marked by its tradition and history, is also
significant." [6] Cultural policy and urban initiative should recognize the potential of
the spaces, turn them into places of identity and incorporate them into the map of the
city. Well designed, these specific gaps contribute to the scenic image of the city;
• Based on the determined aspects further research can be oriented towards individual
examples of the passages in the centre of Novi Sad, in order to determine in more
detail the potential in individual areas and determine which transformation should
each area suffer.
In addition to the continuous worries about the most important public spaces in the city, it is
necessary to recognize and shape the micro environments as well, in order to create unique
and attractive public city, which, according to Aristotle, "must be such the people who live
there, are not only safe, but also happy." [7]
Acknowledgement
The paper was done within the project "Optimization of architectural and urban planning and design in
function of sustainable development in Serbia" (TR36042), funded by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia.
REFERENCES
[1] Vujovi , Sreten. (1996). Grad spektakl identitet – traganje za modernim, kulturnim identitetom grada in
Grad spektakl identitet, 38-41, Beograd: Yustat
[2] Kalen, Gordon (ed.). 2007. Gradski pejzaž. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga
[3] Radovi , Ranko. 2005. Forma grada, Osnove, teorija i praksa. Beograd: Orion Art
[4] Radovi , Ranko. 2005. Forma grada, Osnove, teorija i praksa. Beograd: Orion Art
[5] Kalen, Gordon (ed.). 2007. Gradski pejzaž. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga
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[6] Dragi rvi -Šeši , Milena. (1996). Grad kao prostor spektakla in Grad spektakl identitet. 13-20, Beograd:
Yustat
[7] Zite, Kamilo. (2006) Umetni ko oblikovanje gradova. Beograd: Gra eninska knjiga
130
SETTLING THE IMAGINARY: FROM THE CITYSCAPE TO THE
CINESCAPE AND BACK
Ivana Maraš1
1
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
ivamarash@gmail.com
Abstract
Emergence and growth of modern city had an indisputable influence on birth and
development of film phenomenon. As the most important cultural product of the 20th century,
film from its inception had a perpetual strive towards representing, expressing and capturing
variety of complex spatial and social constructs - from the beginning the city represented a
central figure in a countless number of films. Given this reciprocal influence it was inevitable
for the moving image to irreversibly shape image of the city and to transform the way its
physical space is experienced.
Both city space and cinematic space are observed trough series of sequences and framings as
a result of non-linear process based on principles of spatial montage that conjoin notions of
time and movement. By opening the unconscious and by creating proximity without presence,
film caused shift in perception while creating opportunity for experiencing wide range of
diverse physical spaces as well as social and cultural differences and changes in the city on
the individual level. The experience and foreknowledge associated with cinematic space
became inseparable in processes that involve interactions of individuals and real urban
environment. Film gained a role of an emancipator by bringing moment of unusual and its
overview and thus change of focus, demonstrating what reality actually is.
This paper will explore affinity of film to penetrate reality and provide virtual presence of
various urban forms thereby enabling the viewer to investigate, explore and grasp stratified
urban space. Similar to numerous visionary works in the field of architecture and urban
planning, cinematic tendency towards reproduction of real city spaces and simulated realty
can help in understanding how cities are imagined. Of course, unlike actual city space,
cinematic space is unavoidably mediated but it provides opportunity for imagining amended
and alternate urban environment by offering possibility of going beyond the physical
limitations of real city constructs while managing to capture and isolate altered urban images
and spaces. Still, cinematic space is not bind to be functional, practical, realistic or liable and
as opposed to the real and complex urban systems, the central premise of a film is always a
certain amount of dramatization, interpretation, predetermined and controlled relations.
However, moving image in a large degree enable viewers to face and comprehend real aspects
of life and therefore its part in contemporary world is truly constitutive.
This paper will suggest that in these terms it seems that film and film theory could be great
contributors in encouraging discussion and critical thinking within architectural and planning
field if the ultimate goal is to bring back the main focus on understanding city spaces and
predicting possible future models. This may be of particular importance considering the fact
that there are numerous ways and possibilities to explore urban history but not so many of
them that can help in predicting future of the cities in such palpable way.
Keywords: Film theory, urban theory, cinematic space, city space, cinematic representation
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1
INTRODUCTION
Development of modern city played a pivotal role in the cinematic revolution and the birth
and development of film. On the other hand, since the inception of cinema there was a
dominate tendency and fascination oriented towards the representation of the city in film. The
screen became a new spatial dimension of the city - "since the beginning of the twentieth
century... the screen...became the city square" [1]. Some assertions go even further claiming
that "contemporary society knows itself un-reflexively, only trough the reflections that flow
from the camera's eye" [2]. The fact is that cinema has deepened perception and expanded
cognitive horizons "by increasing the number of object we are dealing with" [3] which
resulted in stratified experience of real city spaces.
This powerful symbiotic relationship between film and the city reconfigure reality and
perception so "the image of the city ends up closely interacting with filmic representation"
[4]. Recurring portraits of urban space in films reshape the image of the city and irreversibly
transform the way its physical space is experienced. These changes manifest as a "sudden,
strange feeling whilst we walking in the city that we are walking trough set of film" [5] as if
the city "stepped right out of the movies" [2].
Representation of city sites in films perpetually reorganize daily routines and effect the way
environment is observed. This strong influence has developed and established probably
because film as an art form has the greatest possibility for capturing fleeting characteristic of
urban life. While documenting different spaces and conditions in city, moving images
inevitably "influence the way we construct images of the world, and in many instances they
influence how we operate within it" [6]. Filmic representations created opportunity of
experiencing great macro-geographical social and cultural changes and transformations "on
the individual scale" [7]. Consequently, moving images have a profound cultural impact, and
therefore "built environment and civic identity are both significantly constituted by film
industry and films" [8].
Considering the fact that city is one of the main protagonist in great number of films, its
cinematic forms can serve as a suitable subject for exploring complexity of urban life. The
real city space and cinematic city space are mutually and reciprocally defining each other and
often a fictional world of film is more familiar than the real one which unavoidably influence
and shape life. Moving images are repeatedly investing "the streets and entire town with a
mystical atmosphere" [2], thereby fostering the wide spread process which involves "a
conceptualization of cityscape as screenscape" [5].
Cinema is a very powerful medium which came closest to the reality of urban. Film surely
exceed the sole role of entertainer for the masses and gained its "proper status as an analytical
tool of urban discourse" [6]. Essential understanding of complex and diverse urban experience
in of 20th and 21st century which includes variety of spatial and social relations cannot
exclude exploration and investigation of imaginative city spaces represented in the film.
Investigation of the past and future urban development requires and inevitably involves
investigation of cinematic city space thus demanding shift in perception - not to "begin with
the city and move inward toward screen" but to "begin with the screen and move outward
toward the city" [2]. It is certain that history of cinematography also provides picturesque
manifestations of different urban issues throughout the ages. In these terms, films provide
opportunity for exploring urban history and an understanding how cities are imagined while
can also contribute in predicting future models.
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2
CITY BETWEEN REALMS
Film presents "a spectacle projected within an enclosed space'' [9] and spectator same as an
urban consumer observe cinematic space and city space, retrospectively, through a series of
sequences and framings. Same as a stroll along urban site which provides "constantly
changing views, unexpected, at times surprising" [10], film is enabling spectator to create his
own urban wonderland by offering virtual movement trough the city with the possibility for
"absorbing and connecting visual spaces" [4]. Similar to cinematographic montage, an
architectural montage "is a montage from the point of view of a moving spectator" [11] - both
city space and cinematic space are observed trough series of sequences and framings as a
result of non-linear process based on principles of spatial montage that conjoin notions of
time and movement.
Cinematic images represent predominantly an urban view point so it can be argued that "the
language of cinema was born...out of urban motions" [4]. Viewer, more precisely consumer of
urban city space, becomes more and more similar to the film spectator while at the same time
"when the city is presented on film the spectator becomes a citizen" [12]. As soon as the city
resident starts inhabiting moving images the art of cinema becomes very close to the art of
architecture, as director Rene Clair argues, and the boundary between two fields starts
dissolving.
Similarly to different city spaces, cinema provides "transient impressions" [13] and enables "a
variety of experiences" [4] so it became an important part of urban practice. Countless
depictions of urban space reside in the cinema, presenting "a new way of encountering reality
and a part of reality thereby perceived for the first time" [14]. Moving images repeatedly
display fictions of the city so they "necessarily possess the potential to leak out, continuously,
all over the city" [5]. As a medium, cinema itself is the epitome of modern and thus has been
able to pierce deep into all segments of modern life. Dealing with such great number of
various impressions, cinema expressed different aspects of increasingly fragmented world and
at the same time facilitated the creation of relatively integrated system of images for spectator.
Growing and changing jointly throughout history, the city and film are intertwined on so
many levels that it was only natural for the cityscape to become "as much a filmic
"construction" as it is an architectural one" [4]. Film inevitably influence "the facades and
topography of cities" [15] in a retroactive response to strong "perceptible cinematic qualities"
[5] of urban space. Modern city caught between these two realms was equally built by
cinematic image and well-known urban and architectural elements. In this sense, the notion of
the city became more complex –a mixture of its appearance on screen and also of a "mental
city made by the medium of cinema, and subsequently re-experienced in the real private and
public spaces of the city" [6]. In order to perceive and understand essence of contemporary
urban world it is necessary that these phenomena be equally taken into account during
research.
Emergence of film changed perception of space which created the opportunity for
development of alternative ways of portraying and depicting city spaces. The space and the
way it is experienced have an essential, rather irreplaceable role in processes that involve
interaction of individuals and urban environment. By creating multiple inner constructs and
thus anxieties, space in contemporary terms is "fundamentally linked" [16] to these advents
and "film corresponds to this profound change in the perceptive apparatus" [7]. As an art
form, film has developed specific spatial culture that corresponded with what has been called
"the spatial turn" in social and cultural theory. This helped in understanding different social
and spatial aspect that occur in the city because same as cities "films engage in processes of
production and reproduction of social relations in spatial configurations" [9].
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The argument that "the relations between spatiality, society, and history" are "fundamentally
urban problematic" [17] is of particular importance in terms of establishing and developing
urban theories and issues. Urban theory and film theory are closely related to each other
because film as "primarily a spatial system" [8] has a great possibility to present and
illuminate all kinds of city spaces. As already mentioned, wide attention has been paid and a
greater importance has been given to space in the various studies of society and culture and
that is why film, "as a peculiarly spatial form of culture" is the perfect form trough which to
examine spatial forms of the city.
3
CINEMATIC SPACE AND THEORIES OF THE CITY
As the most important art form and cultural product of the 20th century, film from the
beginning have a perpetual strive towards representing "distinctive spaces, lifestyles and
human conditions of the city" [8] as well as peculiar social relations and reflections between
different urban spaces and the people who inhabit them. By involving diverse socio-spatial
relations "film reproduces a practice of urban space" [4] with which city inhabitants can relate
by finding "similarities between the cinematic space on the screen and their actual social
experiences" [6]. On the other hand, it is possible that foreknowledge that residents have
about real city space also influence and limit the way cinematic city is perceived. Either way,
films became an "integral constituent of the urban environment" [6] and their displays have
become historic records of the city. In the light of this it was expected that during the course
of time, filmic representations will point out significant facts which can be used as a vital
elements in establishing theories that are dealing with the urban environment.
Historical course of the city development can be distinctly followed in its cinematic displays
because cinema is undoubtedly product of the metropolis. This simultaneous development of
the city in both urban and cinematic history cannot be explored and then presented by taking
one-way approach. Certain comprehensive discussion must be generated without "imposing, a
priory, any single interpretation" [5]. Only a variety and a multitude of theoretical insights can
offer an understanding which refers to stratified and complex city spaces. Whether these
spaces are perceived directly or indirectly is no longer relevant. History of cinematic city
reflect evolution of the real city by depicting traditional way city is experienced, utopian as
well as dystopian visions that came with modernity, postmodern fragmentations et cetera. All
of this phenomena are naturally followed by simultaneous displays of altered and novel social
forms and conditions which emerge in urban surroundings.
Cities that were developing under the influence of modernism and later postmodernism,
brought different kinds of concerns and questions as well as new and unfamiliar experiences
which all found their ultimate expression in the image, especially in moving image. Rise of
the moving image "emerged out of the dynamics of two fields: popular entertainment and
technological invention" [15] and film gathered up very symbols of modernity such are
urbanity, speed and city. Many theorists argue that the modernity created conditions for
inception and development of cinema. Furthermore they assert that modernity is precisely
"what links urbanism and cinema" [15]. In this manner, modernity opened a dialogue between
urban studies and film theory which led to joint conclusion that "no medium has ever captured
the city and experience of urban modernity better than film" [6].
At the turn of the century perception of space and time radically changed and that is often
attributed to the emergence of train. Moving train and the way it "collapse space" and
introduce the idea of "universal time" [15] paved the way for cinematic manipulation of this
notions and their conversion into the abstract categories. Among other things, this is why
trains and train stations are recurrent and repetitive motif in films from the early age of
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cinema. Portrayal of the rushing train on screen is connected to the so-called train effect
which is a well-known metaphor linked to the modern experience in twentieth century city.
This experience embodies "the negative experience of fear" but also "the form of trill" and
combine "sensations of acceleration and falling with a security guaranteed by modern
industrial technology" [18]. This is strongly related to the deepened differences between
social categories and appearance of new social dimensions and categories presented by
moving image. Film divided cinema-goers who are representing "a modern audience coded as
urban and sophisticated" with ability to "negotiate cities and cinema successfully" [15] from
the rest of the population who are unable to do so. In addition to this cinema also presented a
new type of man - flaneur (term which was reintroduced in twentieth century by Walter
Benjamin) who represents an embodiment of urban experience in the city, distinctive by his
blasé attitude in regard of what surrounds him.
From the beginning, cinema favored certain urban spaces and constructs, especially city
streets and alleys as well as skylines and panoramic views. In these early films, so-called
actualities, cinematographers were basically filming the everyday life in the city. This films
were widely popular and they were leaving the impression that cities are the most favorable
human settlements. Without a question the majority of people still "prefer life in the city to
any available alternative" [19]. However, non-negligible number of times, city inhabitants
founded "a non-coincidence between the actually existing city and their ideal, and
consequently a sense of non-belonging" [19]. In addition to this, shortly after the turn of the
century doubts were raised regarding the "urban order of reason, transparency and
technology" because it became clear that under the surface it contained "the seeds of
discontinuity, instability, disorder and chaos" [20]. This insight had a great impact on
representations of the urban settlements that became notably occupied with dystopian images
which on the other hand, always embedded certain utopian dreams and hopes.
The city is still predominantly seen as an insecure and impermanent place so its numerous
spatial imaginaries continue to be very characteristic displays of modern and postmodern
urban crisis. This often symbolize present-day world and issues associated with the dream of
progress in contemporary terms. Throughout the twentieth century, film often served "as a
medium both for portraying and for precipitating urban revolution, and contrarily, for the
imposition of oppressive power structures in the city" [21] and this cinematic practice
continued to the present day. In the respect of this argument, it is safe to say that an
unbreakable bond between cinema and the city which appears throughout entire film history
can serve as a very valuable tool for urban critique.
4
CONCLUSION
Like numerous visionary works in the field of architecture and urban planning, tendency of
cinema towards reproduction of real city spaces and simulated realty can help in
comprehending how cities are imagined. It is possible to investigate past and future cities by
using film as one frame of reference because from its inception "film started to influence and
shape life" [6] in the cities. That makes film an appropriate form that can help in
"understanding urban development" but also in "interpreting the socio-spatial changes" [6]
especially because "the city has always been particularly important in understanding how
social change manifest itself" [15]. Still, unlike actual city space, cinematic space is
unavoidably mediated but on the other hand it provides opportunity for imagining amended
and alternate urban environment. Films "reflect and comment on urban issues but also create
cinematic visions of cities beyond of what we experience in our daily lives" [15] by offering
possibility of going outside of the physical limitations of real city constructs while managing
to capture and isolate altered urban images and spaces.
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"In its interaction with the city, film carries a multiplicity of means through which to reveal
elements of corporeal, cultural, architectural, historical and social forms" [21] and in these
terms it seems that film and film theory could be great contributors in encouraging discussion
and critical thinking within architectural and planning field. Of course, it should be taken into
account that cinematic space is not bind to be functional, practical, realistic or liable and as
opposed to the real and complex urban systems, the central premise of a film is always a
certain amount of dramatization, interpretation, predetermined and controlled relations. "Film
is always selective and partial" with the possibility of producing "a variety of meanings for
the same image" [6]. However, film also in a large degree enable viewers to face and
comprehend real aspects of life and therefore its part in contemporary world is truly
constitutive.
Reality necessary influence on cinematic ideas and concepts same as film undoubtedly
reconfigure reality and during this simultaneous process "cinema became engaged with the
city... synchronizing its narrative and representational techniques with the emergence of
radically new modern urban conditions" [6]. This implies that as a consequence of an
imperative to connect space, story and the character, cinematic city can be interpreted as a
great influence in understanding existing city spaces and various urban, cultural and social
forms that develop within it and also in creating and planning future cities. It can be asserted
that film has eventually developed as a peculiar form of urban art because of the frequent
expressions of potency and fragileness of the city itself. Walter Benjamin argued that "all
purposeful manifestations of life... in the final analysis have their end not in life but in the
expression of its nature, in the representation of its significance" [22] and in this we can find
the ultimate importance of reality reproduced by film which gained a role of an emancipator
by bringing moment of unusual and its overview and thus change of focus, demonstrating
what reality actually is.
REFERENCES
[1] Virilio, P. 2011. Critical Space. Belgrade: Gradac K
[2] Baudrillard, J. 1988. America. London: Verso
[3] Benjamin, W. 1971. L'homme, le langage et la culture. Paris: Denoël
[4] Bruno, G. 2002. Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film. New York: Verso
[5] Clark, D. 1997. The Cinematic City. New York: Routledge
[6] AlSayyad, N. 2006. Cinematic Urbanism. New York: Routledge
[7] Benjamin, W. 1969. The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. New York: Schocken.
[8] Shiel, M. and Fitzmaurice T., 2001. Cinema and the City Film and Urban Societies in Global Context.
Oxford: The Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
[9] Harvey, D. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford:
Blackwell publishing.
[10] Le Corbusier and Jeanneret, P. 1964. Oeuvre complète. Zurich: Editions Grisberger
[11] Eisenstein, S. 1989. Montage and Architecture. The MIT Press Number 10: 110-131
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[12] Senses of Cinema. April 2012. September 2015. http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/soundsfrom-the-city-in-film-noir/
[13] Kraucer, S. 1960. Theory of Film. New York: Oxford University Press
[14] Shaviro, S. 1993. The Cinematic Body. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
[15] Mennel, B. 2008. Cities and Cinema. New York: Routledge.
[16] Foucault, M. 1986. Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University
Press.
[17] Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell publishing.
[18] Gunning, T. 2006. The Birth of Film out of The Spirit of Modernity In Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema,
13-40. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
[19] Lapsley, R. 1997. Mainly in Cities and at Night: Some Notes on Cities and Film In The Cinematic City.
New York: Routledge
[20] Prakash, G. 2010. Noir Urbanisms Dystopic Images of the Modern City. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press.
[21] Barber, S. 2002. Projected Cities, Cinema and Urban Space. Wiltshire: Cromwell Press.
[22] Benjamin, W. 2013. The Task of Translator In Modern Criticism and Theory. New York: Routledge
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138
URBAN, NATURAL AND WILD: NEW VISIONS FOR PARADISE
Georgia Jules Vlassi1
1
University of Thessaly (Greece)
vlassigeo@gmail.com
Abstract
First, there was Paradise. That mythical place where eternal human longing for a perfect mode
of existence projects onto. A place where there is no sickness, no pain, no doubt while full of
pleasures and joys. The dominant idea of heaven in the West has always been Eden, or better,
Garden of Eden. Outside the Garden, lies a terrible and savage Nature where wildness and
naturalness are still untouched. The idea of “wilderness” is a cultural apparatus that allows us
to explore ideas of Paradise and Nature alike. Gardens are born, like all utopias, in contrast to
the ugly side of the world while trying to copy Paradise. They are products of our desires and
an anti-universe of the real world, criticizing political views and social circumstances, moral
limitations and human flaws. That was exactly how the English Garden came to be. It was a
garden model that worshiped naturalness, wildness, the shadows and relics of past Arcadia.
The philosophy behind it, sees Nature through a scientific state of mind while at the same
time readdresses wilderness on terms that go a long way from Paradise and Arcadian ideals.
But, what about the city? Many have noted the dynamic of “terrains vague” to act as a new
natural universe inside the urban organism, giving birth to new ecological imaginaries and
acting as places of wilderness and therefore, as places of resilience. The compound of these
terrains vague, and especially of interstitial urban landscapes, have become the new natural in
the metropolis of the 21st c. and are much alike to English gardens: exuberant vegetation,
ruins, bizarre objects of delight, emblems, sublime topography. Considering contemporary
philosophical contexts, Paradise must be constructed anew on top of the debris and leftovers
of our shattered world and can be nothing but wild and post-human.
Keywords: Paradise, naturalness, wilderness, English gardens, Picturesque, ruin,
Antropocene, urban landscapes, interstitial landscapes, terrain vague, post-paradisiacal visions
1
INTRODUCTION
Contemporary large cities are facing emptiness, de-identification and ruination, sometimes in
such scale that resemble ghost-cities. Following in some cases greater economic, social and
geopolitical processes, such as the “Shrinking Cities” phenomenon, or in other cases resulting
from economic collapses and sometimes as an outcome of the city’s internal metabolism,
these “threats” are usually confronted as an urban disease that needs to be done with rather
than having any internal potential. Although urban places/spaces of emptiness and lack of
identity have been addressed thoroughly in the past by a plethora of theorists, which have
attributed several names to them, those particular places that are left to fall in ruins while
nature takes over and conquers are relevantly new entries to the discourse. They are members
of a family of landscapes that could be called “interstitial” [1], meaning they are neither
“power landscapes” [2][3] nor “vernacular landscapes” [4]. Furthermore, due to their natural
condition, several sciences including Environmental Sciences and Landscape Ecology, are
attributing them with features of wilderness, therefore making them “wilderness landscapes”
[5][6][7][8]. The concept of “landscape” is crucial when relating the city to the concept of
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wilderness [9], since it creates a visual language that allows us to recognize different
environments and thus, also allows us to group or separate them. While the concept of
“environment”, which is taking on a broader understanding in regards to the relation to the
individual, has been highlighted in the past decades through major world conventions along
with national and international agreements for its protection, the concept of “landscape”
examines surroundings through the act of gazing. A gaze is a certain way to look at things, it
involves a chosen framing which makes it possible to examine every landscape as a unique
composition of human traces and natural activities, objects, symbols, natural elements. Since
landscape models hold a prominent position in contemporary perceptions of urbanity, a city
can indeed be conceptualized as a multitude of landscapes-visual fragments of what it means
to be in a city-and therefore, “wilderness landscapes” could be considered as an aspect of the
cityscape. As the all-time-classic modernist distinction between city and nature seems more
and more irrelevant to contemporary cities, these ruinous city landscapes that are going into a
wild natural state are seriously testing our perceptions of artificiality and naturalness, our
aesthetic valuations and our relationship with wildness and wilderness when these are found
in our immediate environment.
Although strange at first, the notion of Paradise is used in this paper in order to better
understand if and how these wilderness landscapes could have, according to our current
evaluations, any assigned value to them. It is actually a search for paradisiacal qualities in
variant terms, such as political and environmental. In order to do that, we will investigate
visions of Paradise looking especially at the natural imaginary that endues it. By looking at
how Paradise has been imagined through depictions of it in art and other media, we should
begin to understand what are those elements that constitute a paradisiacal natural imaginary
and what distinguishes it from its counterpart, wilderness. What differentiates one from
another is necessary in order to tell whether certain landscapes would be considered as
paradise or wilderness. We find that it is more an aesthetic evaluation of wilderness that
defines and draws the line on how people perceive these places rather than anything else. The
idea of Paradise, the notion of naturalness and the concept of wilderness will use as vehicles
in order to understand the meaning of these landscapes and if they could roughly complement
as substitutes for some sort of paradise in the city. Taken that wilderness, just as visions of
Paradise, is culturally dependent, we examine what constitutes wilderness, taking into
consideration different perceptions, including contemporary ones. This could help to compare
how close these places are to wilderness: in what ways are these places similar to wilderness
and in the end, what is wilderness today?
In the effort to investigate the question of what is perceived as wilderness today, one could
not but pinpoint the case of English Gardens. It was in these gardens that wilderness was not
only praised, but also intended and designed. In no other time before the rise of the Industry
was wild nature-and nature in all forms-studied in such scientific and intense way than during
the eighteenth century. Aesthetics was a big game-changer during these times and allowed for
the shift towards contemporary perceptions over picturesqueness, beauty, natural and finally
allowed for a longing for wilderness to be desirable. The case of the English Gardens is a very
interesting one, because not only did they embrace wilderness, but also reinterpreted it into
algorithms in order to design it. The most straightforward example for this is a distinctive part
of the garden which was called “wilderness”. The fact that the name “wilderness” has been
assigned to a designed part of a garden helps us understand how they comprehended
wilderness and also how they transcribed their study of nature into designing it. Studying the
English Garden is valuable regarding understanding wilderness during a very influential
period in European cultural past; that of Romanticism. Inscribed into Romantic Movement,
the English gardening was theorized through an artistic and aesthetic ideal movement, the
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Picturesque. Looking into the eighteenth century provides us with a basic understanding of
the ideals and aesthetics that are imposed on our perception of both nature and wilderness,
most of which still apply today. It also allows us to see how they conceived and realized
paradisiacal visions in relation to wilderness.
By contrasting those well-established eighteenth century’s ideals with fragments of today’s
state-of-the-art in visualizing wilderness such as gaming environments and cinematography,
we get a glimpse of how aesthetics considering the concept of natural and ideas of wilderness
have changed, if they have at all. Human occupation and therefore human presence in all
forms, seems crucial in the consideration of wilderness today, along with a strong presence of
nature. Destruction is also present in how we imagine ourselves in relation to Paradise. In
fact, it is present also in the way we see the present and the future. A draft portrait of the way
the world thinks of itself today is necessary to interpret its current ideas over Paradise, Nature
and wilderness. Shortly presenting important developments on the fields of theory and
philosophy sets a basic framework within which an aesthetic analysis has a meaning.
Rearranging the main areas of interest of this essay into four major moments in the course of
human existence helps in clarifying how destruction is intertwined with our existence and
shows how vital a concept it is for contemporary visions of Paradise. Beginning with the
expulsion of Man from the Garden of Eden and ending with post-apocalyptic visions in
cinematography, this analysis aims to comprehend in a “picturesque” manner perceptions of
paradise and wilderness. This is how destruction comes to surface as a vital concept in
relation to current visions of Paradise and perceptions of wilderness in the realm of cities. We
set off to investigate Paradise Lost and whether we can get it back.
2
OVER THE NATURAL IMAGINARY OF PARADISE
First, there was Paradise. A mythical place where eternal human longing for a perfect mode of
existence projects onto, where there is no sickness, no pain, no doubt while full of pleasures
and joys. Paradise still holds an important place to our personal pursues, our common social
wishful thinking scenarios and a formation of our ideas of happiness. Although nowadays it is
more of an allegory for happy and relaxing places and circumstances than an actual religious
belief, Paradise is a projection of longing and our only remaining utopia after most of them
have died [10]. After Nietzsche proclaimed that “God is dead” and Emerson suggested that
“all men are Gods in ruins”, after we have stepped on the moon and de-codified our DNA,
after we witnessed the horror of the World Wars and seen the cruelty of economic collapses
we are now all left in a constant grief over the purpose and fortune of our world. Investigating
what it means be in a paradisiacal place is really understanding what our utopia is made of
(and possibly enables us to translate some aspects of that into the city). Even though it has
been given many names across nations and religions, for the religion that forged western
civilization, it has always been synonymous to the Garden of Eden. The archetype of this
garden lays in the origins of the word “paradise”. In ancient Persian “pairi-dae-za” had the
very basic but mystical meaning of something “enclosed”. The concept of the enclosed garden
has also dominated Europe during Middle Ages as a “hortus conclusus”, a garden that was at
the same time charged with ideas over holiness and chastity as an allegory to Mother Mary’s
virtuous “partheneia sacra”. In his emblem book1 “Partheneia Sacra” (1633), English Jesuit
writer Henry Hawkins describes a walled garden full of fruit trees and flowers along with a
plethora of objects, animals, trees, flowers, natural elements and phenomenon that symbolized
Virgin Mary. Similarly, seventeenth century scholar and mathematician Athanasius Kircher,
An emblem book is a book collecting allegorical illustrations or emblems along with explanatory text, usually morals or poems and in some
cases essays. Emblem books were very popular in Europe during the16th and 17th centuries and gained great popularity throughout
continental Europe, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France and in a lesser degree, in Britain.
141
depicts in his work “Arca Noe” (1675) a similar rectangular walled garden arrangement. The
Tree of Knowledge stands among a plenitude of vegetation and trees while Adam and Eve sit
under it. Outside the garden lays a brutal world, a savage Nature where wildness and
naturalness are still untouched; outside paradise is wilderness.
From the sixteenth and during the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, paradisiacal visions
turned more into a rêve exotique for the Europeans who were then knowing new uncharted
territories though their empires. Dominating the utopian thought was now the primitivist myth
of the noble savage “with its syncretism of paradisiacal longings and the exaltation of the
virtues of uncivilized man” [11] (p. 27). After the two religious Reformations and the reexamination of the Old Testimony, it was clear that whatever and wherever Paradise on earth
was, it was now gone. From then and on, the quest for Paradise Lost has been present in the
culture of the modern world and the concept has been a topos in art and literature. Artworks
of the seventeenth and eighteenth century are filled with representations inspired by what has
been named the Paradise’s Nostalgia or the search for the Lost Paradise [12]. Depictions of
Paradise and of Garden of Eden from these centuries, are formatted also within the landscape
movement paintings. A journey through artworks from sixteenth to eighteenth century will
help us understand how Paradise has been imagined. In the work of Flemish Baroque painter
Jan Brueghel the Younger and his painting named Paradise (Fig.1) we find a characteristic
example. In the foreground some Macaws are sitting on the branches of what seem to are
gigantic apple trees. At the same time some common brown ducks are splashing on the shores
of some water formation and a deer is standing at the base of the trees while behind it, in the
middle ground, a couple of lions lie among the shades with a respectable number of small size
animals that normally are their prey. It is only on the background that a vista is seen and in it,
distant human figures. In the artist’s vision, Paradise is dominated by wild life and dense
woods with extraordinary vegetation, while Man wanders protected and peaceful in the heart
of this “natural” reserve. Although making an effort to depict nature, the depicted natural
environment turns out very unnatural combining exotic animals and birds with European
landscape references, wishing to merge together a tropical jungle environment with a central
European forest of deciduous trees in a state of ver perpetuum, a state of perpetual clarity and
an eternal spring [12][13][14][15].
Similar to Jan Brueghel the Younger (the Older has also given us numerous paintings on this
theme), many other painters have depicted their personal visions of paradise, always in the
context of the Garden of Eden with not striking differences over their structural elements.
Apart from their artistic freedoms, these paintings do something very accurately, which is
showing how wilderness went from being excluded from paradise to being part of it. Through
such artistic depictions, it seems that paradise is placed in a natural setting, a place that is only
imagined in relation to nature. When longing for paradise (religiously and culturally) we long
for Nature, for a special version of Nature. It is about a Paradise Lost, a nostalgic version of
Nature and also an uncanny one, because Paradise couldn’t be just Nature. It is Nature divine
or a splendid Nature. It is Nature augmented by divinity or innocence. The site of the garden
is so vast in extend that is rather like a landscape where humans and beasts of the wild reside
in well-watered lands. Exoticism, fiction, vistas, leafy trees, waters and this bizarre and
fictitious state of unnatural and peaceful co•existence seems to be some of those Paradises’
attributes. Greenery and exuberance make up this augmented Nature that is imagined as
Paradise. This is exactly what it was supposed to be: a wild utopian natural oasis.
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Figure 1_ Paradise, Jan Brueghel the Younger (c. 1620). Oil on oak. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
3
WILDERNESS AS THE COUNTERPART OF A PARADISE LOST
The origins of the concept of “wilderness” are found, according to Nash [16](p. xiii), some
12.000-15.000 years ago, when what he calls “central turning point in the human relation to
the natural world” happened within the progress of agriculture. At that point, humans
separated themselves from the rest of nature and so, invented the concept of “wildness” to
signify all parts of the natural world they didn’t control. The distinction between “wild” and
“civilized” grew bolder with the growth of urban civilization to the point to denote that
everything outside the borders of the habitat area was considered “wild”. Hence, denoting
cognitive boundaries in human habitat environments marked the end of the safe zone and the
beginning of a perilous wilderness [17](p. 195). The idea of “wilderness” is a cultural
apparatus that allows us to explore ideas of Paradise and Nature alike. Understanding what is
wilderness is, also, understanding what Paradise is not.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (1989) defines “wilderness” as “a wild or uncultivated
region or tract of land, uninhabited, or inhabited only by wild animals; ‘a tract of solitude or
savageness’”. In Anglo-Saxon culture, wilderness is perceived as a condition or an area that
cumbers agriculture and residence and where one could come across dangers and threats from
wild fauna and flora. It further distinguishes itself from the sense of a desert-like environment
where complete lack of vegetation is implied, and could therefore mean a more complex and
extended natural condition than a monotonous desert. Nonetheless, this loose rendition of the
term “wilderness”, makes it possible to correspond it to variant landscapes ranging from
primordial forests to wastelands. The idea of what constitutes wilderness differs dramatically
depending on historical, national, social and political context depending on cultural
interpretation patterns [7][9][16][18][19][20].
As a social construction, wilderness has a historical evolution whose foundation lies firstly
and predominantly, in Kantian perceptions of reality and secondly, in the industrial economy.
The crystallization of basic conceptions around it took place mostly on the first half of the
twentieth century, along with battles for defending natural environments in the U.S.A. It was
then that fundamental ideas over wilderness were born and solidified, greatly influenced by
the Ecological Movement of 1960. As an immediate result from this first round of the
discourse around wilderness was the statute of the ecological aspect of the term by defining it
in the “Wilderness Act” of 1964:
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“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the
landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Through Wilderness Act, wilderness is perceived as an area with a particular “wild” character
which contradicts the familiarity of human-dominated environments. It tries to describe
landscapes that don’t look like towns or settlements, where human presence is minimized or
absent and that is reflected on buildings and constructions that are left derelict. Man is simply
a visitor and not a master of the landscape. All visible elements of the landscapes are either
the earth with all that it shelters, fauna, flora or wild animals. It’s an ecosystem that survives
without human intervention and regulatory actions. In some cases, perception of wilderness is
solely based on the idea of wildness. Wilderness gains importance because in it there is a
“multitude of undisturbed natural processes exhibited by many and varied living beings, each
of which is individually striving for existence” [6] (p. 455). It is place where this multilayered
and chaotic strive for survival can take place based on autonomy and instincts.
4
GARDENS AND THE PICTURESQUE: A CONTRIBUTION TO WILDERNESS
Gardens are born, like all utopias, in contrast to the ugly side of the world while trying to
copy Paradise. They are products of our desires and an anti-universe of the real world,
criticizing political views and social circumstances, moral limitations and human flaws.
Hyams [21](p. 7-9) will support that all gardens in the Western Christian world derive from
two models: the primal garden model after the Garden of Eden and the ancient Greek garden,
as it was described by Homer in Odyssey. According to Hyams, the Garden of Eden was the
model for the naturalist English gardens. These gardens, that sprung from the Picturesque
aesthetic movement, studied intensively nature, trying to reproduce, by design, naturalness
and wildness. It was a garden that worshiped naturalness, wildness, the shadows and relics of
past Arcadia. The philosophy behind it, sees Nature through a scientific state of mind while at
the same time readdresses wilderness on terms that go a long way from ‘Paradise’ and
‘Arcadia’.
What they typically had available, was a plain and flat landscape but still longed for more:
they longed for Arcadia; a place that could combine the advantages of modern civilization
with the pleasures of a friendly and pristine Nature. For the first time, nature was
scientifically studied and copied. But more than that, nature was augmented for sheer pleasure
and aesthetics following the values of the times: Sublime, Beautiful, Terrible along with the
development of psychology, the same aesthetic values that were depicted in landscape
paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Theories of the Beautiful and the
Sublime, greatly shaped the aesthetics and practices of the Picturesque movement, which was
closely related to pictorial values of landscape paintings. It was then that for the first time that
architecture was admired for her narrative possibilities more than for her physical attributes.
She was used in order to create artificial and imaginary environments based on studies of
Roman and ancient Greek ruins, valuing existing ruins and constructing artificial ones.
English gardens, more than the rest, are full of objects that use as memento mori for the
fragility and transience of human existence. Several of particular objects and constructions
that are found in them such as sundials, ruins, mazes, grottos, hermitages, roothouses,
mausoleums, pyramids, obelisks and triumphal columns are closely connected to valued ideas
such as transience, self-reflection, eremitism and memory. It must have partly been because of
these ideals that visions for nature changed then from former unruffled into more dark and
mystical. After all, English gardens were fertile grounds for freedom, imagination, nostalgia
and gathering empirical knowledge for the world through experimentation.
144
Wild nature, or even better, wilderness, was being reproduced through algorithms of wooded
wildernesses in order for English gardens to become a new setting for a world of hermits, an
ideal of the true meaning of nature. «Wildernesses» were a particular, distinct and articulated
part of the English garden and very much essential in the early stages of the style’s evolution.
Even though not invented by the Picturesque movement, for the English «wilderness» was
describing an ideal universe, an ideal cosmos: a place for meditation and internal dialogue, a
sort of Thorean transdentalism but on a carefully faked scenographic wilderness. The
algorithm was clearly defined: 1_the area was divided in the manner of a cross and/or
diagonally forming the walkways 2_a circular area was formed at the intersection point of the
pathways. This area was clearly spotted by a stand-alone tree 3_the sides of the paths were
planted with trees 4_paths inside the wilderness should be as curved as possible to multiply
the pleasure of walking and 5_ in those circle-like areas that resulted along such a curved
path, there should be bizarre constructions or «objects of delight» such as pyramids, obelisks,
statues, monuments, sundials or some ruin [22].
What did this sort of arrangement mean to the English? «Wilderness» was probably a
simulation of actual natural landscapes, mainly of woodlands and prairies, emphasizing on the
activities of strolling that would take place inside those simulated landscapes. The purpose
was, more or less, to provoke what is known in Germanic languages as Waldeinsamkeit, that
feeling of solitude that someone gets when wandering alone in the forest, allowing him to
self-reflect and meditate. Unlikely the idea of transience, as described by Coffin [22], a
simulated wilderness seems more related to the timeless sense of conifer perennial
woodlands. It gives the impression that what is named as wilderness has no reason to change
through the passage of time, just as hundred-year-old forests or post-apocalyptic landscapes
lay still in time. The amount of awe that these landscapes evoke make it hard for the observer
to conceive a force of a magnitude able to reverse or destroy them. Maybe that last
observation better describes how wilderness is related to Kantian ideas of Beautiful and
Sublime: the awe and ecstasy that follow the realization of our transient nature and our
meaningless existence when faced with gigantic perennial natural formations, that were, are
and will be for time unknown.
5
NEW AESTHETICS FOR NATURE AND WILDERNESS: POSTPARADISAICAL VISIONS
The world nowadays understands things in very different terms than it did in the 18th century.
It is said that we now live in the Anthropocene Era, a whole different geological and
chronological era for the planet that is dominated by human activity on a global scale. The
way humanity perceives time and history in our global society is better described as
‘presentism’ than ‘optimism’ and that also readdresses how the future is expected. Utopias are
more like dystopias, there is a persistent melancholy in science fiction movies, the same
feeling that dominated romantic times. Presentism is describing a state where the world has
seen it all: the achievements and technological peaks, the rise of living standards and wars,
the life circles of capitalism and has been left with no utopias for the future, no dreams nor
expectations. We are now living in an era where there is almost no primordial wilderness left
in the planet. Since all nature is artificial nature in this rapidly changing era, comes the
following question: what should be considered as the new wilderness?
Regarding wilderness as a “arrangement of symbolic objects in a matter that makes sense”
[6](p. 444) and not as an ecosystem makes it easier for understanding the concept as a
metaphor for the city. Wilderness can be thought of as a complex system of urban symbolic
objects that allow for the characterization of “the wild side of the city”. At the same time,
wilderness has come to a more positively received conception of an area of ecological
145
naturalness [6], where natural is also considered to be a wild condition where natural
processes of a place are staying unaffected by human activity [23][24]. Landscapes that count
as “interstitial” try to describe leftover areas of the city, including post-industrial landscapes,
that are now in a state of “re-assertion of nature” [6]. These are previous places of human
activity that are now turning into landscapes of modern ruins drown in spontaneous
vegetation due to a natural succession that shows that rather natural and not human factors
rule the place [5] (Fig.2).
Figure 2_A characteristic specimen of interstitial wilderness landscapes from the city of Thessaloniki (Greece),
as these landscapes were interpreted by the author.
Many have noted the dynamic of “terrains vagues”, just like the aforementioned interstitial
landscapes, to act as a new natural universe inside the urban organism, giving birth to new
ecological imaginaries and acting as places of wilderness and therefore, as places of
resilience. The compound of these terrains vagues, and especially of interstitial urban
landscapes, have become the new wilderness in the metropolis of the twenteenth first century
and are much alike English gardens: exuberant vegetation, ruins, bizarre objects of delight,
emblems, sublime topography. The academia is already thinking of such landscapes as «Third
Wilderness», «Second Nature» and «Third Landscape». This shift from a traditional
perception of Nature as pristine towards a New Nature that is basically artificial and
hybridised but still natural, was made possible because of a conceptual shift from defining
wilderness rather as an area where natural processes happen un-intervened by humans than a
prescribed geographic area or a certain condition that needs to be preserved. In New Nature it
is natural processes that are vital. Apart from all our stereotypes, these places could in fact be
the most natural places a city has. In a way, these landscapes are even more natural than the
naturalistic English gardens that copied Nature in the most precise and scientific manner
possible. Third landscapes were not designed natural but became wild through the succession
of natural processes after human abandonment and re-establishment of Nature. Considering
the context, if we still long for it, Paradise must be constructed anew on top of the debris and
leftovers of our shattered world and can be nothing but wild and post-human.
Destruction rises as a very prominent concept in our days: environmental destruction,
destruction of our stereotypes, destruction of our bad habits and feelings, destruction through
war and violence, violent dislocation by immigration, tons of debris from our consumerism
habits. This also affects our visions of the world and imaginaries of Paradise. Just like
studying paintings to investigate visions of Paradise for sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
century, we believe that today’s post-paradisiacal visions should be looked through the most
realistic form of art: cinematography. In world cinematography, the post-apocalyptic film
genre is seeing rise in the prospect of our value of destruction and presentism. Films such as
“I Am Legend”, “Oblivion”, “2012”, “Terminator: Genisys” and “The Road”, speak of a
world where humans are long gone and loneliness dominates the natural setting for the few
146
remaining survivors. This feeling replaces what has been called a sense of transience in the
English garden philosophy as noted by prominent scholars on the subject [22]. In these postapocalyptic visions there is a similar setting, a lonely human figure in the wild, a
remembrance of a destruction and loss. The setting is indeed Nature or Wilderness, a special
version of Nature and a respective cosmology or entity where ruins of previous worlds are
laying around as evidences and reminders of the apocalypse. The figure is that of the hermit,
the Druid, the castaway. The atmosphere is nostalgia, sometimes seen as melancholy and
grief.
6
EPILOGUE
It seems that Paradise as we knew it to be, has faded away, premortal nature is lost and
humanity looks with disappointment at previous utopias. Scenarios over the future of the
world to where they are currently pointing to, speak of a totally urbanized planet, where
everything is, or derives from the city while the post-human species strives for a technological
increment of his life. “In the future it will be impossible to have an exclusively utilitarian,
arcadian or empathic view of the countryside. There is simply not enough space to meet these
conflicting claims. (…) Therefore, the only vision of the countryside which will stand the test
of time will be a vision in which the three approaches are more or less combined and the
sharp dividing lines have disappeared” claims Kooij [25](p. 220). In this context, the
importance of interstitial wilderness landscapes in cities is now augmented: these places are
some of the very few natural places we have as city dwellers. Similarities to English
landscape gardens are both categorical and notional: exuberant vegetation, ruins, strange
emblems-objects of consumerism, variant and natural topography. They are also quite similar
to the emotions and thoughts they bring out to the visitor: solitude, transience, self-reflection
on the fragility of our existence and the leftovers of the world, arcadian ideals, moral freedom,
awe, strangeness and excitement by the thrills of the unknown, uncanny sense. We could even
support that they even are a kind of dark, improvised paradisiacal garden for the city with of
extremely temporal nature, which will remain in this state until they deteriorate, being
monumentalized or disappear under speculative activities. They are places that feed the
mythical side of the city and the imaginary of the urbanites. Having in mind that wilderness
has a triple substance as a state of naturalness, as a place of solitude and hermit practices and
as an imaginary field for the city, we understand that these places offer physical and
existential resilience. They are places that promote human-animal interaction and coexistence,
embodying utopian ecological visions of zoopolis. It may just be that these places are little
temporary paradises just like in seventeenth century paintings.
REFERENCES
[1] Hetherington, K. (1997) The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering. London: Routledge.
[2] Tuan, Y. (1980) Landscapes of Fear (Oxford: Blackwell)
[3] Gold, J. R. & Revill, G. (2003) Exploring landscapes of fear: marginality, spectacle and surveillance,
Capital and Class, 80, 27 – 50.
[4] Jackson, J. B. (1984). Discovering the vernacular landscape. London: Yale University Press.
[5] Jorgensen, A.; Tylecote, M. (2007) Ambivalent Landscapes—Wilderness in the Urban Interstices,
Landscape Research, 32:4, 443-462
147
[6] Kirchhoff, T.; Vicenzotti, V. (2014). Historical and Systematic Survey of European Perceptions of
Wilderness, Environmental Values, 23:4, 443-464, White Horse Press.
[7] Kirchhoff, T.; Trepl, L. (2009). Landschaft, Wildnis, Ökosystem: Zur kulturbedingten Vieldeutigkeit
ästhetischer, moralischer und theoretischer Naturauffassungen. Einleitender Überblick. In Kirchhoff, T.;
Trepl, L. (ed.) Vieldeutige Natur. 13–66. Bielefeld: transcript.
[8] Diemer, M.; Held, M.; Hofmeister, S. (2003). Urban Wilderness in Central Europe. Rewilding at the Urban
Fringe. International Journal of Wilderness. 9:3
[9] Vicenzotti, V.; Trepl, L. (2009). City as Wilderness: The Wilderness Metaphor from Wilhelm Heinrich
Riehl to Contemporary Urban Designers, Landscape Research, 34:4, 379-396
[10] Francois Hartog, F. (2015). Regimes of Historicity: Presentism and Experiences of Time. Columbia
University Press.
[11] Manuel, F. E., & Manuel, F. P. (1979). Utopian thought in the western world. Harvard University Press.
[12] Chevalier, J. (1999). Diccionario de los Símbolos. Barcelona: Herder Editorial.
[13] Eliade, M. (2008). Mefitófeles y el andrógino. Barcelona: Editorial Kairós.
[14] Griaule, M. (1956). Note sur un couteau de circoncision bozo. Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 26, 7–
8.
[15] Grousset, R. (1951). La Chine et son art. París: Editions d’Art et d’Histoire.
[16] Nash, R. (1967/1982) Wilderness and the American Mind. Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press.
[17] Light, A. (1996) Urban wilderness. In D. Rothenberg (ed.) Wild Ideas. Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press.
[18] Oelschlaeger, M. (1991) The Idea of Wilderness. From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
[19] Cronon, W. (1995). The trouble with wilderness; or, Getting back to the wrong nature. In Cronon, W. (ed.)
Uncommon Ground. 69–90. New York: Norton.
[20] Schama, S. (1995). Landscape and Memory. London: Fontana Press.
[21] Hyams, E. (1966). The English garden. New York: H. N. Abrams
[22] Coffin, D. R. (1994). The English garden: Meditation and memorial. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University
Press.
[23] Landres, P.B.; Brunson, M.W.; Merigliano, L. (2001). Naturalness and wildness: the dilemma and irony of
ecological restoration in wilderness. Wild Earth 10: 77–82.
[24] Aplet, G.H. and D.N. Cole. (2010). The trouble with naturalness: rethinking park and wilderness goals. In
Cole, D. N.; Yung, L. (ed.) Beyond Naturalness. 12–29. Washington: Island Press.
[25] Kooij, P. (2010). The evolution of the countryside over time. Historia Agriculturae, 42, 209-220
148
ON DESTRUCTION: THE CITY AND THE THEATRE
Bora Yasin Özku
1
1
Istanbul Technical University (TURKEY)
borayasinozkus@gmail.com
Abstract
As expressed by architectural theorist Sanford Kwinter [1], our grasp of reality is completely
changed and transformed today. He talks about the state of our ultra-defensive or going
through a manic defense. While Kwinter clearly expressed the need to confront the fact that
architecture is part of the information industry, he emphasized, that the architecture is more
than a simple act of building, a partner of the intellectual production [1]. In this context, all
systems of thought, social and cultural environments and processes, becomes a co-production
field, including the architecture itself. This transformation often finds itself, in changing of the
architectural approach to the city and in updating urban discourse. In particular, Rem
Koolhaas and his pioneering book "Delirious New York" [2] which is a proactive reading
have upset all the metaphorical propositions about the city, and have led us to question the
power of the architect from the beginning: The important thing, instead of seeing the city as a
passive object, is to realize that we are subjected to it. In this awareness, this study intends to
trace the changings of urban policies and perceptions focusing in the closure and destruction
of, the main stage of the State Theatres, “Atatürk Cultural Centre” (AKM) in Istanbul with the
current political discourse. With the closure of the main stage, physically at first sight, all
relations and processes between performance and background of it have been interrupted: The
interconnected state of performance with its all manufacturing - like a productive machine was removed. Rather than discuss the internal balance within the State Theatre, this study
aims to debate how this change of the program of the building with destruction of it parallels
the urban socio-economic transformation.
Keywords: Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), Destruction, State Theatre, Urban Memory.
1
INTRODUCTION
Foucault [3] says that in order to explain the ideas of an era or a society, instead of looking for
what is owned, accepted and valued, on the contrary, it would be meaningful to seek what is
rejected, excluded and ignored, and by this way, kept under pressure in a society, or in a
system of thought.
In this context, I study about the destructions of cultural buildings in Istanbul, especially in
the last years. Many places of minor narratives quickly disappeared with these destructions
and reckless interventions, such as Atatürk Cultural Centre (Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, known
as the AKM), which is the main subject of this paper.
For the authorities, the destruction of such places is a necessity to erase the ideas they
represent from the public memory. However destructions of these places which address to a
minority or a specific group means the disappearance of the diversity in the city, as well. It
can easily be seen how these destructions, which create a kind of homogeneity, is manipulated
not only by local authorities and government, but also by other powers.
149
However, considering the intensity of destructions and transformations, with all
manipulations, like social, cultural, economic or political; the urban rent – urban profit
becomes only one reality in which desire is found.
Nevertheless, when we think the city as a mechanism in which the diversity constantly
produced and at the same time kept under pressure, when we think it as a body without organ,
it is not hard to see that the urban action areas and urban powers change hands all the time.
1.1
Objectives
In the same line, place and authority builds each other. As building is formed by the authority
with its form, function etc., the building reforms again the authority. For understanding the
place, it is so important to understand the authorities, which dominate over it. So, the
destruction of Atatürk Cultural Centre should be also evaluated within its own situation
manipulated by the different social and political forces.
The urbanologists divide the Turkish urbanization after 1980s into 2 periods: globalization
and Islamic neo-liberalisation [4]. In the eighties and nineties, Turkey, beginning with the
Ozal Government and with the rising market economy, introduced the neoliberal system,
welcomed foreign capital and the rush of integration of world economy by privatisation of all
state assets. Many of state institutions were sold, sometimes with the justification of
bankruptcy and sometimes without. In such an unprotected open system, the question of
"Would the state have a theatre or an opera?" was often asked.
Dragan Klaic [5] emphasized the decisiveness of politicians and city planners on theatre
architecture, in spite of its strong tradition. In his book titled ‘Resetting the Stage: Public
Theatre Between the Market and Democracy’, he explains that “The public value of the
theatre is not only determined by how its building looks and what it has to offer, but also how
it fits into the urban context. A theatre building inscribes itself with its programme, facilities,
shape, structure and audience within the urban texture of a city and the neighbourhood in
which it is situated. Historically, the first London theatres were built after 1576 just beyond
the city limits, signalling the liminality of theatre activities, their implicit sinfulness or at least
moral ambiguity as judged by the prevailing puritan views of urban middle class… From the
early eighteenth century, theatres were commonly erected in the city centre, next to other
edifices that radiated power and prestige, so that theatre implicitly also claimed social
influence, cultural clout and a perspective role in matters of taste and judgement of the arts.
Such claims would not be sustainable today and the central position of the venue usually
means that it is situated in an intensive commercial context of retail infrastructure and places
for going out” [5].
Theatre places are not only architectural structures but also symbolic and ideological spaces
in which we can find the reflection of the social structure and the traces of the dominance and
its struggle. Daphne Spain, by quoting from Harvey, says that “once spatial forms are created,
they tend to become institutionalized and in some ways influence future social processes” [6].
In this context, focusing on the process leading to closure and desolation of Atatürk Cultural
Centre (AKM), which was used as Istanbul main stage of State Theatre and State Opera and
Ballet, this study intends to trace the changings of urban policies and perceptions with the
current political discourse.
2
THE THEATRE
Atatürk Cultural Centre, overlooking Taksim Square, is one of the landmarks in the centre of
Istanbul. So that is a familiar building to visitors to Istanbul. Starting with the idea to build a
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large opera house located in the centre of the city in late Ottoman times, as well as in other
European cities; the adventure of the Atatürk Cultural Centre, has continued for many years
with many discussions.
First project was designed in early modernist style in the beginning of 30s but the
construction of the building could be started in 1946. However, with the changes made on the
first project by Architect Tabanlıo lu, the building finally opened in 1969 with the name of
the ‘Palace’ of Culture. At this point, Bülent Tanju’s statement is so meaningful on culture
and the palace: “It is not surprising that the privilege of being a palace has been given to the
opera/concert hall in Taksim in 1960’s for the expectations were still high: The palace would
raise the enlightened culture of the republican project of modernity for the belief was that it
was impossible for the culture to grow up in the darkness of the street. However, the opposite
can be claimed easily; it is known deep down that it is impossible to live on the street for
anything, which is turned into culture by isolating it from the others; culture doesn’t have any
other option besides to hide in the palace. Moreover, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the logic of
the representation of the language, which is one of the main media of both the potential and
the limits of differentiation of this society, translates White House as Beyaz Saray (White
Palace). Consequently, it is not possible to name the space producing the privileged culture,
for instance, simply as a house of culture or a concert hall; it is named the Istanbul Palace of
Culture.”[7]
Unfortunately, a year after opening, it was destroyed by a really big fire. Despite all
discussions, the building was opened again in the late 70s, called the new name “Atatürk
Cultural Centre” (AKM).
From political perspective, the Atatürk Cultural Centre's history goes, together with the
history of the republic, and in line with its ideology of modernization. As expressed by Sibel
Bozdo an and Esra Akcan, AKM was “a temple to the republican, westernized ideal of
modern Turkish culture” [8] with its transparent aluminium façade. And maybe we can say
that this is the starting point of the discussions in a way. Bozdo an and Akcan portray its
famous public face for critics and admirers alike: “…enhancing the feeling of lightness and
transparency were the spacious foyer with polished floors, the enchanting effects of the
overhead lighting in the form of geometric chandeliers, ‘halos’ or ‘stalactites’, and, like a
modern sculpture suspended in space, an elegant spiral stair of very light steel construction
floating in the main entrance hall. The artwork and interior furnishing of the entrance hall an
the main foyer were carefully selected and incorporated into the design, including an abstract
sculpture by Cevdet Bilgin, paintings by two prominent Turkish artists, Oya Kato lu and
Mustafa Plevneli, and a 10m square Hereke carpet covering the floor” [8]. On the other hand,
The concept of the building of opera, this cultural structure had been already imported from
the west, for the development of the Turkish people and to reach the level of contemporary
civilization, but at the same time, ironically, its façade was to appeal to only certain upper or
upper-middle class people. This sterility of International Style modernist architecture had
been tried to moderate with the works of local artists. However, in spite of everything, it is
possible to say that this tension between the modernization and the anxieties of loosing
national identity has been kept up to date until now.
Thirty years later, in 2007, in content of the projects of the European Capital of Culture, it
was decided the destruction of AKM by the government. After this decision, intellectuals and
artists revolt one more time. Hundreds of people strike to prevent destruction decision. The
activists think that Atatürk Cultural Centre is not only an iconic building for the city; the
destruction of AKM means destruction of urban memory as well.
151
After this strike, the decision of its destruction was transformed into an uncertainty. The
building was emptied to repair, but nothing does until now after the dismantling all interiors,
all coverings and much technical equipment.
The current situation of Atatürk Cultural Centre, its destruction and abandonment are caused
by the authority's idea that AKM does not belong to whole public; it is just for a western
minority. Ironically, during the Gezi Park Strikes, in 2013, the same authority says AKM
must be rebuilt in baroque architectural style [9].
Fig. 1 The front side of Atatürk Cultural Centre during Gezi strikes, 2013. Photo by Mehmet Kerem Özel. [10]
After the decision of its destruction by government (2007), Atatürk Cultural Centre was abandoned and emptied.
Some protesters, who went up to the roof of the doomed building during Gezi strikes, transformed its façade to
the scene of struggle like a theatre scene.
3
THE CITY LOSES
The aim is not to talk about the history of the formation and transformation of this
destruction. The aim is, as Koolhaas [11] says, discussion of the cities and centrums, which
became generic and indistinctive by clearance off all differences, how this has become a part
of production of diversity, yet again. According to Koolhaas, the city has become a place in
which politics are not discussed. However, Negri comments this position via architects and
planners: "The greater the critique of the city and its fading horizon, the more the metropolis
becomes an endless horizon…"[12]
As a cultural and ideological construction, Place, brings the vectors of domination and
resistance. “Theatrical places, like other places, are appropriate to be read as a text that
records the struggle between dominant and resistant” [13]. Following the social struggle
through the relationship between the theatrical space and its audience, we can see that it is
152
directly or indirectly related between cultural memory and the aesthetic embodiment caused
by the struggle strategies against the enclosure [13].
The AKM was so important to ‘offer an option’, and to cause a differentiation. Composer and
musicologist Alper Maral, who performed on the main stage of AKM, notices that “The
option was the loser in the ‘let’s-let’s not demolish it’ match… the AKM, located in the
centre of the city, opened space, provided a platform for the repertoire of a certain worldwide.
That repertoire is no more valuable than any other repertoire, yet it is important that it exists,
and that it can be presented, within its own niche, to its follower-audience” [14]. Even though,
occasionally in the past, it had been looked like a tool for modernization with all enclosure;
now processes of the desolation debarred Atatürk Cultural Centre from its all potential of
differential production, and “also annihilated duration, which is the most necessary condition
of differentiation” [7]. For urban memory, at least, the duration of its loss –its disappearance
from place- should be documented not to forget.
Fig. 2 The main stage of Atatürk Cultural Centre during Gezi strikes, 2013. Photo by Mehmet Kerem Özel. [9]
Also some protesters entered the emptied building and occupied Atatürk Cultural Centre.
“UNUTMAYACA IZ!” (WE WILL NEVER FORGET!) , the one of their slogans, on the naked stage wall for
protesting the government’s violence.
4
DISCUSSION
We can say that easily “Today” the theatre has a small part in the audio-visual performances
in Turkey, maybe, as it does in the entire world. This has many sociological, economical and
political reasons, which includes but not limited to new comfort customs and technological
innovations. In addition, Turkey does not have the cultural sustainability politics western
153
nations have, and so the situation in this geography is much more complex. Despite all, seek
answers to the following questions is still significant:
What is the social motivation behind the demolitions, transformations and rearrangements in
both “single building” and “city” level?
Are there parallels between the closing, demolishing and relocating of these building
complexes in the city centres, which were the symbols of modernity and the city life at one
time?
Is it possible to follow the traces of the changes of social pattern and with it the urban pattern
in the demolition and transformation of theatre halls in a minor scale?
REFERENCES
[1] Kwinter, Sanford. 2010. Will Architecture Disappear?. Abitare 506: 9-10.
[2] Koolhaas, Rem. 1997. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York: The
Monacelli Press.
[3] Foucault, Michel. 2007. Delilik ve Toplum In ktidarın Gözü (I. Ergüden, Trans.), pp. 210-233. stanbul:
Ayrıntı Yayınları. (The original text in French “La folie et la société” can be reached on the website:
http://1libertaire.free.fr/MFoucault184.html)
[4] Çavu o lu, Erbatur. 2014. Türkiye Kentle mesinin Toplumsal Arkeolojisi. stanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
[5] Klai , Dragan. 2012. Resetting the Stage: Public Theatre Between the Market and Democracy. Bristol:
Intellect.
[6] Spain, Daphne. 1992. Gendered Spaces. Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
[7] Tanju, Bülent. 2007. Asıl Yakan Temsiliyet (Representation Starts the Fire). mkansız De il, Üstelik
Gerekli: Küresel Sava Ça ında yimserlik ( . B. Ayvaz, Eds.) pp.: 90-105. stanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları /
KSV.
[8] Bozdo an, Sibel & Akcan, Esra. 2012. Turkey : modern architectures in history. London: Reaktion Books.
[9] Harding, Luke. 2013, June 8. Turkey's protesters proclaim themselves the true heirs of their nation's
founding father. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/turkeyprotesters-proclaim-heirs-ataturk.
[10] Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, Taksim- stanbul, 5 Haziran 2013 Çar amba. June 6, 2013. Accessed July 27, 2015.
http://danzon2008.blogspot.com.tr/2013/06/ataturk-kultur-merkezi-taksim-istanbul.html.
[11] Koolhaas, Rem. 1995. Generic City In S, M, L, XL (O.M.A., R. Koolhaas and B. Mau, Eds.), pp.:1239-1264.
New York: The Monacelli Press.
[12] Negri, Antonio. 2009. On Rem Koolhaas, trans. Arriana Bove. Radical Philosophy 154: 48-50.
[13] Altun, Hakan. 2012. Mekan Üzerinde Mücadele: Egemenlerin Tiyatro Yapılarına Kar ı Bo Uzamda
Direnme ve Ezilenlerin Belle i Olarak Teatral “Alan Dı ı”nın n ası (Spatial Struggle: Resisting in Empty
Space Against The Places of Dominance and The Construction of “Off-Space” as a Collective/Cultural
Memory). Tiyatro Ara tırmaları Dergisi 33: 7-31.
[14] Maral, Alper. 2014. From Culture Hall to Shopping Mall In Places of Memory (P. Dervi , Eds.), pp.:82-92.
stanbul: KSV.
154
DATASCAPES – IN BETWEEN SCIENCE, FICTION AND
ARCHITECTURE
Carevi Marina1, Kostreš Milica PhD2
1
Teaching Assistant, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of Technical Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, (SERBIA)
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Faculty of Technical Sciences,
University of Novi Sad, (SERBIA)
marinac@uns.ac.rs, kostresm@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
In this paper datascapes will be understood as specific result of juxtaposition of statistics and
art in architectural domain - microcosmos determined by numbers, created in the form of
mathematical functions and diagrams. These abstract spaces emerge as a visualization of
quantitative data that determine real spaces. In this way, by using scientific methodology,
architectural design procedures are improved.
Because of the great complexity of modern society, architecture has to cooperate outside of its
main scope. In this sense, statistics is imposed as a part of the design process, and perhaps the
only tool that can deal with multitude of global processes that affect cities and numerical data
become the medium for perceiving complex urban activities and relationships. However,
artistic aspect must also be present at all phases of this process: from data collection, through
the selection and interpretation, to the presentation and at the end in the implementation-phase
of these data in the design solution. In datascapes, science and art are complementary and
supporting disciplines, not disputed. This method reveals possible tendencies and directs the
design process through creative interpretation of the norms and limitations.
For a long time, urban indicators have served as a mean for analyzing, control and explaining
cities, but their intensive and inventive usage is promoted by so-called "Dutch School" of
architecture. As an illustration of the method, the paper discusses some of the important
projects of Rem Koolhaas and especially the MVRDV's "Datatown", shown at the exhibition
and in the book "Metacity/Datatown". This project is the striking example of the "extremizing
what-if scenario" research approach used by MVRDV. They suggest this method believing
that it leads to edges, and therefore over them – to inventions. Emphasizing the critical points
of the issues enforces problem solving, not by finding the ideal solution but by seeking for an
optimal.
The aim of the paper is to explain the importance of the application of this methodology not
only to the process of research of existing space, but also for the planning of new ones.
Statistical architecture shows that the numerical indicators are not always a limitation, but can
also be a stimulus, a catalyst for creative design process.
Keywords: datascapes, statistical spaces, research and design methodology.
155
1
INTRODUCTION
Datascapes (statistical spaces, statistical landscapes) are selected for the study as a specific
phenomenon of contemporary architecture and urbanism - microcosms determined by
numbers, which emerges in the form of mathematical functions and diagrams. They do not
actually exist in space, but their interpretation gives us the image of real places. Thus,
creativity in interpretation is the most important aspect for their understanding and transaction
from fictive into real.
Because of the great socio-cultural complexity of modern society, the architecture is in a
situation that requires cooperation outside the framework of the profession. This collaboration
demands a language that is direct, de-mystified and understandable between other domains,
the language that stretches beyond classical categories of form, shape and light, that positions
these items in a wider perspective [1]. Therefore, statistics is imposed as a part of the design
process, and perhaps the only tool that can deal with a multitude of global processes that
affect cities. Regarding this, data, measurements, functions and hypotheses are included in the
architectural terminology. Manipulation of variables leads to conclusions that should help in
solving the difficult tasks of design, and numerical data become the medium through which
the complex urban activities and relationships are perceived, primarily between society and
architecture.
The numerical urban indicators quantitatively and precisely define different spatial
phenomena. They have been used for a long time as a means for analyzing, controlling and
explaining the city, but their intense and inventive application is promoted by the members of
so-called Dutch school of architecture, known under the name Superdutch. The method of
statistical diagramming was first used by Le Corbusier during twenties of the last century and
in the sixties groups such as Superstudio and Archizoom have turned it into a global planning
method. However, a new chapter in architecture is opened with Rem Koolhaas. A whole
generation of Dutch architects (led by MVRDV, West 8, etc.) have followed and developed
his vision of design, based on a pragmatic program that sums up the essential functions and
their organizational capabilities [2]. The cause of this is found in the Dutch mentality that has
evolved under the influence of Calvinism and pragmatic attitudes. In favour of this is a saying
"numbers tell the tale" ("meten is weten"[3]), but also in the fact that a large part of their land
was seized from the sea, so control of the nature, planning and construction reached a high
level [2]. The development of technology, especially computers, accelerate the improvement
of systems for simulation and design of urban statistical spaces, which enables better
monitoring and understanding of existing cities, and planning of future ones, as well.
Beside the general characteristics of the datascapes and their relationship with art, this paper
also includes a review of a specific example of the so-called "Datatown" shown at the
exhibition and in the book "Metacity/Datatown" by MVRDV studio. The aim is to explain the
importance of the application of this methodology not only to the process of research, but also
for the planning.
2
SPACE AND NUMBERS – "DATASCAPES"
Bart Lootsma, theoretician and critic, defines datascapes as "visual representations of all the
quantifiable forces that can influence or even define and control the architect's work" [4].
Similarly, landscape architect James Corner advocates datascapes as "revisions of
conventional analytical and quantitative maps and charts that both reveal and construct the
shape - forms of forces and processes operating across a given site" [5]. These forces and
processes, i.e. data collected, interpreted and represented are numerous. They include a
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variety of planning and building regulations and norms, natural conditions etc. and for the
purpose of datascape conception, only a small number or even just one aspect is chosen for
detailed consideration. Understanding of these various phenomena requires more or less
extensive researches that are in this way introduced into the designing process. Since the
drawing is the basic means of architectural communication, quantitative data obtained through
research should be represented graphically. This results in datascape.
Nevertheless, datascapes are not just visualization of data, but a way of explaining their
meaning, enabling the viewer to imagine their quantitative properties. They are located
halfway between problems and solutions, between concept and realisation. They reveal
tendencies and direct the design process without predetermination. Considering that statistics
is used as a tool for the study of mass phenomena, usually it is applied in the study of urban
environments as diverse, complex, mass and ever changing systems. However, architecture
and urbanism are the one, a part of a unique space, but on different scales. Therefore, the
statistical spaces are also the comprehensive system of ideas.
Whether the level of a building or the entire city is considered, statistical spaces, when used as
a method of planning and design, are at the beginning mainly presented as a series of
statistically defined uses, set without hierarchy. By selecting and merging of appropriate data,
in accordance with the hypothesis, the numbers become diagrams – spaces of thinking.
Koolhaas's diagrams for the Seattle library are example to follow the process of development
of the idea, from the original program, through classification and "consolidation" of uses, all
to the reshuffle of complementary programs. These diagrams are different from the functional
scheme, because it does not reflect the size of rooms, but the connections between them, in
other words functional scheme is based on the way of usage, rather than on quantitative data.
Koolhaas's diagrams give information on the size of the area by representing the size of
coloured rectangles, their colour depends on the use and the position in the diagram, in the
specific case of Seattle library, directly corresponds to the position in space. However, form
in these diagrams is not pre-determined in general, but is the result of programming - form
follows the numbers, because architecture reduced only to the diagram is banal and relentless
[6]. The topic of morphology and design occupies an important place in the discussion about
statistical spaces, so the next chapter deals specifically with it.
It is important to emphasize that the manipulation of quantitative factors does not lead to
unique, universal and/or ideal solution, but indicates the possible directions of development there is always several options for the same set of rules. Numbers and data are seen as an
argument in the search for truth, and their classification in the statistical maps as a mechanism
for the arrangement of the world. Statistical architecture, although characterized by a kind of
scientific strictness, actually is very liberal vision of mathematical determinants, characterized
by endless transformability and combinations of variables.
Changing the variables to extreme values is of particular importance for understanding of the
potential activities, so it will be discussed through the presentation of an example. The
studies, so-called "what if" scenarios that emerge as a result of this process, although start
from clear premises and the laws of logic, in the end very often resemble to the imaginary
cities from video games and comic books.
3
SPACE, NUMBERS AND ART
Since defined as a research procedure and one of the phases in the process of architectural
design, the question is how from statistical models we come to the final form. MVRDV
advocates that architects in their obsession with the unique, exaggerate the individualistic, and
enclose themselves within their given boundaries [7]. Koolhaas adds that the sensual and
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aesthetic architecture of today has lost its credibility because it does not take into account the
"great problems of our age", such as large dimensions, shopping and explosive growing of
cities [2]. These researchers also believe that the understanding of the spatial implications of
global processes could help improving and even redefining the architectural profession. As
one of the phenomenon of current globalization, scale enlargements, complexity and
consumerism Koolhaas sees the "Bigness". Without clear determinants of this term
("urbanism vs. architecture, the one architecture that can survive, Bigness is independent of
the context, last bastion of architecture") he also notes that the Bigness requires a thorough
dedication to technology: engineers, contractors, manufacturers, politicians, others ... and also
that the "art" of architecture is useless in Bigness [8]. In spite of Koolhaas's undeniable
contribution to statistical architecture, with this view one cannot agree. Although the
statistical analysis could be considered as inevitable part of contemporary design, creative
interpretation of the results is equally important, and perhaps more important for the outcome.
This brings us to the key relationship between science and art, which in datascapes overlap
and complement each other. The dialectical relationship between the two disciplines
emphasizes the traditional ambiguity of the architectural profession, but this time in the new
circumstances. Thanks to the development of technology and computers, a technical aspect of
the profession comes to the fore, but art cannot be neglected.
Although Koolhaas allows that statistical analysis and functions determine the composition,
Charles Jencks points out (on the example of Congrexpo Grand Palais in Lille, and similar
could be said for many other buildings of Koolhaas and other architects of the Dutch school)
that the size and "statistical architecture are transformed into a strong urban poetics, the one
that does not hide any theme or message behind the juxtaposition of elements" [2]. Achieving
these effects would be impossible without having a unique artistic sensibility. The quantity
produced quality, but art and design, no matter how minimal they are, contribute to it. The
numbers are used as an argument, but the designer's mind decided how they would be used.
Datascapes appear as a manifestation of the requests, calculations and the laws of logic that
goes beyond artistic intuition, replacing it by the scientific research and hypothesis. Regarding
this MVRDV called them "sublimated pragmatism" [9]. The combination of uses, intensity of
activities, economic investment, optimal brightness and warmth are calculated to the last
detail. The shape and composition of quantitative spaces are abstract, but relations between
the elements must not be underestimated. Statistical space is not a form per se, but an
introduction to the form - the phase that precedes it. Notwithstanding the persistent denial of
artistic influence on the design of statistical landscape, it presence is constant. Balancing
between strict standards and design logic, datascape emerges as a hybrid between these two
poles, preference is given to forces and norms affecting the location – creatively using them.
In contrast to this view could be architect who firstly designs form and then adjust it to
existing norms and restrictions.
4
SPACE AND EXTREME NUMBERS
As a way of understanding the space in the context of numbers, MVRDV team proposes the
use of so-called "extremizing scenarios" - they lead to frontiers, and therefore over them, to
inventions [7]. By dramatizing the data, extreme scenarios indicate problems and their impact
on the environment. They do not take into account the feasibility and acceptability of the
proposal, but discover new relationships and lows. Use of extreme scenarios in the
Netherlands is present not only in research, but in practice as well (of course not in the same
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manner), and is applied where it is necessary to simulate the impact of new interventions on
spatial and socio-economic structures.1
Many research projects of studio MVRDV are based exactly on the principle of extreme
scenarios, and one of the most impressive is Datatown. It was shown at the exhibition and in
the book Metacity/Datatown in 1999. The project treats some of the most current issues of
today: globalization, the rapid increase in the number of urban population, expansion of cities
that are threatening to occupy all the available space on the planet... The transition of the
world from the state of "global village" into the more advanced stale of the "metacity" [7].
Because of the incredible complexity of these issues, MVRDV suggest statistical techniques
and extremizing scenarios as the most appropriate method to study this phenomenon. This
results in Datatown – between (extremely) small areas suitable for settlement and construction
and (extremely) large population density.
In addition to these extreme values, Datatown is based on some classical principles and real
circumstances. Size of the city matches one hour of travel (but thanks to today's (extremely)
high-speed trains it is a distance of up to 400km), and a way of life in Datatown follows the
Dutch standards. Playing with the data and serious calculations ended up with mathematically
precise plan of the city divided into sectors depending on the function they perform.
Each sector can be organized in many varieties in what if manner. The town itself is based on
numerous assumptions, and thanks to the use of software the data can be easily manipulated,
which creates a dynamic and changeable system. MVRDV describe it as a city without
topography, without ideology and context - self-sustaining system based only on the data. It is
interesting to notice that there is no conclusion in the book. What the authors wanted to say?
That the sectors could be varied endlessly? That all issues are still open?
Datatown does not aspire to be a utopia (nor anti-utopia, nor dystopia). Does not attempt to
formulate the ideal solution, but seeks the ways to optimal. Pointing to the possible directions
of development at the global level, at the same time also refers to potential answers to local
problems. Although dramatic data from Datatown seem far away, actually our larger cities
face the same problems: almost doubled population in a very short period, occupation of
agricultural land with illegal and non-urban construction, loss of identity, and so on.
Considered in absolute terms, the relationship between these numbers is really incomparable,
but the tendencies revealed in one system statistically can be successfully converted to the
other and it reflects the importance of Datatown. Abstracting and dramatizing of certain
issues, point out the actual topics of contemporary society.
5
CONCLUSION – THE IMPORTANCE OF DATASCAPES
Datascapes demonstrates that the numerical indicators are not always a limitation, but can
also be a stimulus, a catalyst for creative design process. Results obtained by statistical
method are not the aim per se but serve as a basis for further research and establishing of
causal links. Datascapes are not the final result, but just a step in the process, that enables the
deeper exploration of the issues. They are open systems where is always possible to add new
parameters. Their contribution is reflected in the fact that they enrich and direct the designer
logic with new knowledge about the basic elements and processes relevant to planning, but
without highlighting aspect of the form.
This kind of architecture expresses the spirit of our times. Numbers have become a universal
language, allowing us to connect the most disparate of phenomena and distil patterns from
1
See for example Geurs, K.T: Job accessibility impacts of intensive and multiple land-use scenarios for the Netherlands’ Randstad Area,
Journal of Housing and the Built Environment (2006) 21: 51–67, Springer
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them [10]. Terms such as average user are no longer current, so the design for this fictive
category is brought into question. The inclusion of numerous lifestyles in the design decisions
is considered the significant fact of democracy [2], and statistical analyzes and simulations
provide it since they give answers to questions concerning mass phenomenon. The question is
whether the systematic detection of complexity is the desire for an explanation or for
managing and control.
Statistics may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful architecture. Only
statistics, without artistic intuition, is useless to practice. An emphasizing of numerical rules
highlights the dualistic nature of architecture, but not by the diminishing of artistic
component’s value, but by improving it. The numbers should serve as an argument to explain
the aesthetics, not to deny it. Abstraction of certain elements in statistical spaces points out to
some specific aspects of the design procedures, so their use as didactic resources in the
education of architects is particularly valid.
The application of statistical spaces introduces the scientific research as a method of
architectural design - by researching and statistical processing of current needs, the new ones
are being predicted. The culmination is reached in extreme scenarios - they are provocations
that should indicate some critical points in the process. By creating tensions, they highlight
the problems and encourage their solving.
In recent years, sophisticated software are being developed, based on statistical techniques,
high technology and cooperation of architecture and other disciplines, which enable a
comprehensive and more accurate design simulations. This fact speaks in favour of actuality
of this topic, but also of the need for further improvement of relations between the statistics
and architecture.
Acknowledgement
The paper was done within the project “Optimisation of architectural and urban planning and
design in function of sustainable development in Serbia”, (TR36042) funded by the Ministry
of Education and Science, Republic of Serbia.
REFERENCES
[1] Maas, W. 2005. Architecture as a device. In MVRDV, KM3: Excursions on Capacities (pp. 36-45).
Barcelona: Actar.
[2] Dženks, . 2007. Nova paradigma u arhitekturi. Beograd: Orion art.
[3] Hoek, J. v. 2009. The Mixed Use Index (MXI) as Planning Tool for (New) Towns in the 21st Century. New
Towns for the 21st Century; the Planned vs. the Unplanned City, (pp. 198-207). Almere, The Netherlands.
[4] Lootsma, B. 1998/1999. Reality Bytes.Daidalos 69/70 , 8-21.
[5] Weller, R. 2001. Between hermeneutics and datascapes: A critical appreciation of emergent landscape
design theory and praxis through the writings of James Corner 1990-2000 (Part Two). Landscape Review
7(1) , 25-43.
[6] Koolhaas, R. 2001. Junk space. Domus (833), 32-39.
[7] Maas, W. (1999).Metacity/Datatown. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
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[8] Koolhaas, R., & Mau, B. (1995).S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press.
[9] Maas, W. (2006).Datascape. In W. Maas, J. van Rijs, & R. Koek, FARMAX (pp. 99-103). Rotterdam: 010
publishers.
[10] Lootsma, B. (2006). Re-embedding: Counting Guangzhou. In W. Maas, J. van Rijs, & R. Koek, FAR MAX
(pp. 473-475). Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
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162
RHYTHM OF OPEN URBAN SPACES
Darko Reba, PhD1, Milica Kostres, PhD2, Ranka Medenica, MSc3
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
3
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
rebad@uns.ac.rs, kostresm@uns.ac.rs, ranka.medenica@gmail.com
2
Abstract
The paper investigates and analyzes rhythms created by various elements which form open
urban spaces - those that build their outline, elements located on the unbuilt city-spaces, as
well as the factors whose natural cyclical rhythms change our experience of the city. Since the
city is experienced through the movement at different speeds, we believe that the rhythm of
urban form highly affects the quality of urban environments. The rhythm of the city occurs at
different levels and in different dimensions, but regardless of the size of each element the
rhythm they form actively influence the overall “feel of the city”. The aim of this paper is to
detect different rhythmic orders of elements in urban areas where people reside, at rest and in
motion, in order to adequately define strategies and concepts for the reconstruction and design
of new urban structures, which should have specific and interesting rhythms.
Keywords: rhythm, urban form, movement, relationships, concept
1
INTRODUCTION
Thematic focus of the paper has a purpose to represent character of the rhythms of various
urban and architectural elements which build up open urban spaces of contemporary cities.
Aim of the research is to analyse relations, characteristics, logic and rules of establishing
rhythms of urban elements, which should be designed and harmonized with the purpose of
promoting and encouraging people’s presence.
Presence of people in urban space generally emerges in two forms: REST (static) and
MOTION (dynamic). This paper will consider people’s motion only as the movement
accomplished by the use of human body strength, even though people move throughout urban
space by various transportation means powered on diverse drives. Therefore, additional
purpose of the study is to contribute to promotion of pedestrian, cycling and every other form
of movement which supports sustainable development of the city.
Initial standpoint adopted in the paper is that much of contemporary theoretical research
criticise the concept of modern urbanism based on the urban form dominantly designed for
efficient and fast vehicular traffic. This approach has been dramatically changed in many
societies. Unfortunately, planning practice in our country still is firmly based on domination
of vehicular traffic as the basic concept for creating urban form. This situation is evident in
new and transformed parts of our cities where traffic lines and parking spaces occupy the
largest part of unbuilt surfaces. Most often, there are no areas with the purpose of static
presence of pedestrians - neither spatially nor conceptually, while areas aimed at walking and
motion are reduced to narrow sidewalk and paths within housing blocks, and often are mostly
or entirely left out.
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Purpose of the study is therefore to point out the need for promoting aforementioned
standpoint in the practice of design and arrangement of urban areas. This is to be
accomplished through analysis of the rhythm, proportions and characteristics of the open
urban spaces favourable for people’s motion, but even more importantly for people’s stay in
the REST.
Basic questions are why, how and when people use “good“ open spaces of the city. In other
words, what are favourable qualities of open urban spaces?
According to our consideration there is one distinguished criteria for analysis and valorisation
of open urban spaces – it is PRESENCE OF PEOPLE. But what attracts urban dwellers to use
and reside within open spaces? What do these spaces offer? What and who can be seen at
open urban spaces, who can be met, what can be felt, experienced, learned, remembered?
What attracts people’s attention in open spaces? This paper will try to investigate how open
urban space and its rhythms may contribute to affirmative use of these areas.
2
RHYTHM
Rhythm emerges in almost all manifestations of human life, as most of human activities take
place rhythmically – in certain cycles. In discussion on temporality and space Lefebvre notes
that “everywhere where there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of
energy, there is rhythm” [1]. Important factors are entrenched regular natural rhythms, such
as seasons and daily cyclic changes (primarily alteration of day and night). Fascinated by
natural rhythms and everyday cycles of Sunrise/Sunset, Peter Zumthor, one of the most
prominent contemporary architect notes: “When the sun comes up in the morning – which I
always find so marvellous, absolutely fantastic the way it comes back every morning – and
cast its light on things, it doesn’t feel as if it quite belongs in this world. I don’t understand
light. It gives me the feeling there’s something beyond me, something beyond all
understanding.” [2]
Even though in accordance with those aforementioned, many natural rhythms yet are not
constant but very variable, depending on various impacts of other forces. Atmospheric
conditions and the rhythm of their change largely and often dramatically influence the “feel of
the city” which is experienced differently with strong wind, cloudy or brightly weather,
during strong sun, rain or snow (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Fountain of St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City - in the morning sun (source: photography is made by
Milica Kostres, co-author of the paper)
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It is clear that numerous natural cycles have very strong influence on human life rhythms. The
constancy and continuity are exactly what is impressive in their changeable nature. Despite
the dramatic changes in the way of life and the fast-paced activities in the information age,
ancient natural cycles are still to the large extent part of the contemporary life activities in the
city, as written by Neuhaus [3].
Notion of the rhythm generally relates to many disciplines. Its definitions and manifestations
are most often connected to the music, movement, production and numerous spheres of
human activity. All physiological rhythms of human organism emerge in unchangeable or
changeable sequences, i.e. intervals – from the heart beat as the sign of life to various other
functions that human body performs. Even though physiological rhythms are not directly
related to the use of open urban spaces, they have strong impact on the presence of dwellers in
high-quality environment, where physiological needs, as well as psychological, social,
cultural and many other individual needs of each dweller and community as a whole could be
satisfied in an adequate manner.
Cyclic and rhythmical changes compose the very roots of civilisation and development of
entire human society. Nietzsche considered that development of Western culture has moved
in a long and cyclic manner between Apollonian propensity for reason and moderation on the
one hand, and Dionysian fascination by the irrational and extreme on the other [4]. As in the
course of history, the cyclic changes are present in contemporary social life as well – namely
the economic cycles, political (shift of the ruling political parties) and financial cycles (daily
stock market changes), etc [5]. Some of the daily cyclic events are listed by Kon-Chung Ho:
daily rest periods, non-working weekend days, monthly phone bills, seasonal sales, Christmas
holidays and Olympic Games [6]. It is almost impossible to find any activity in urban space
which is not related to rhythmical action in its occurrence – from everyday activities (going
for work, shopping, friends gathering) to those which occur yearly, seasonally, monthly or
weekly (going to the market, for the grocery shopping, to the theatre/cinema, having the night
out, going to sport event).
As soon as some of these activities occur in inappropriate rhythm, the quality of life may be
deteriorated, which is to the great extent determined by the very urban space and processes,
actively or passively involving dwellers. Without understanding cyclic daily or occasional
events and their influence on the life rhythms it is neither possible to regularly plan the built
environment. Thematic focus of the paper is therefore the way rhythm of spatial elements
influence the activities and events in the city. Purpose of the study is aimed at emphasising
the need for the research of URBAN FORM RHYTHM as one of the important and yet
insufficiently analysed factors which greatly influence the presence of people in open urban
spaces.
3
FORMS OF THE RHYTHM IN URBAN SPACE
Shaped during the long period of time, central areas, as the oldest parts of settlements,
represent the nucleus of development of urban spaces. Therefore, they achieve rhythms on
different levels of high-quality areas where inhabitants’ daily life cycles take place. The
question is whether urban form, as shaped and built in 21st century, may accomplish,
conceptualize, design and implement open spaces of urban wholes and fragments which are,
or would be, pleasant for people to reside. What conditions are to be accomplished so that
such spaces emerge in the new parts of the cities? The answer may be given by analysing
characteristics of built and unbuilt urban structures – their SHAPE, proportion, FORM,
density, content, programmes, materials, maintenance, as well as other factors which could be
165
identified and recorded. All these elements contain distinctive rhythmical relations, easily
recognized in the city.
Characteristics which could not be exactly evaluated, quantified or measured – such as the
“feel of the city”, “sense of place”, emotions, urbanity, etc, might be considered even more
important. These characteristics determine the quality of open urban spaces, the quality of
architecture which defines and constitutes those spaces, as well as the quality of life activities
and processes which take place there. Many non-architectural elements influence the specific
atmosphere in space. Peter Cook thus writes about experience on a rainy day in London – he
notes that when it is raining, it is not the architecture in the Oxford Street which is more
important than the rain, it is actually the weather which probably more influence the pulse of
the Living City [7]. These abstract elements have important rhythmical sequences and
characteristics. Relying almost entirely on subjective feeling often is the only way they could
be described. Peter Zumthor thus perceives specific atmosphere as the “natural presence”
necessary for creation of what he calls the final goal, that is the “beautiful form” which makes
the impression and over and over again runs the inner world of beholder [8].
Compared to the urban space as a physical reality, the concept of place represents social
construct. The phrase “sense of place” indicated the character of space as an environment
which provides the feeling of belonging, familiarity, recognition and identification,
representing physical space where people reside and feel comfortable, and which has its
tradition, its story and history. Urban spaces – urban wholes and fragments, acquires character
of place based on the interaction between community and collective use of the space, which
means that concept of place implies the presence and usage by people. Differentiating space
and place concepts it could be argued that what begins as undifferentiated space becomes a
place as we better know it and assign it a value [9]. Therefore, it is argued that urban rhythms
influence one’s feeling in space and about space: “The way a place feels – social and
intimate, or distant and cold – relates to the presence of certain groups of rhythms, and to the
way they do or do not relate to each other.”[10]
In the analysis of urban form rhythms we will deal with elements of settlements which occur
in certain cyclic rhythms and analyse their properties which could be minimized or
emphasised by other elements of varying character (light, atmospheric conditions, sound, etc).
We will also consider conscious utilisation of rhythmical order in the design of urban spaces.
Considering contemporary urban tendencies aimed at efficient usage of renewable energy
resources and new environmental awareness, urban form emerges as important element which
should provide cost savings and improvements in overall living conditions. Such approach
should provide high-qualities for all community members and promote urban areas with the
freedom of choice, filled up with variety of people who reside in open areas as long as
possible. According to Soya and many other authors, the intensity of activities dwellers are
involved in makes the very essence of urbanity and, as such, should not be neglected in
contemporary approaches to the practice of urban design [11].
Almost all urban elements of open spaces emerge rhythmically. Cyclic rhythms of urban
elements emerge in various shapes and levels of urban form, also combined and overlapped
with each other. When we think of central streets and squares of European cities we may
notice the wealth and unity of narrow lots with various, but typologically identical objects. In
an eye view, they form supportive urban landscape and give a vivid, lively and interesting
rhythm. Such concept leads to higher density and concentration of people, encouraging
motion and favouring aesthetics of urban fragments. In this way are achieved some of the
main objectives of planning and design practice which could be recognized by active use of
urban spaces.
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On the other hand, presence of vehicular traffic significantly decreases variety of usage of
open spaces. Despite the long list of negative consequences the usage of motor vehicles has
on the environment, this is unfortunately the primary mode of traffic represented in planning
practice. City ambiances are thus often only the remains of defined traffic areas which are
supposed to constitute a framework for faster motion throughout urban environment. Despite
such practice, this paper emphasizes the need for reducing vehicular traffic to adequate
measure - defined in a way to fulfil its function as complementary to other, environmentally
more acceptable transportation means, with full respect for ambient qualities of space. As one
of preferred strategies, mitigation of vehicular traffic is inextricably linked to lowering the
motion rhythm of motor vehicles, therefore creating favourable conditions for different
rhythms of pedestrian motion. The walking and residing in stimulating urban areas ought to
have primacy in that sense. Lorimar gave a thought to the importance of walking throughout
the city, arguing greater relevance of the “cultural, social and political resonances” of
pedestrian motions. The same author believes that future research on pedestrian motion will
be equally based on the atmosphere and experience of urban space, as it is based on material
components [12], verifying, therefore, standpoints previously elaborated in this paper.
4
RHYTHM ON THE CITY LEVEL
Natural or built, constitutive elements of the city have various manifestations of the rhythm.
Primarily, there is the rhythm of urban wholes and fragments with distinctive characteristics,
either natural or artificial – created by human intervention.
Rhythm of urban wholes formed in the same or near period of time represents a characteristic
easily recognized by motion throughout the city complex. Transitions between particular
areas are commonly contrastive, in most cases leading to discontinuity in urban tissue and
therefore to the visual, as well as psychological boundaries between them.
Rhythm of the elements which form the identity of settlements or particular urban wholes,
together with their spatial distribution, represent important characteristic necessary for
recognition, remembrance and orientation in urban space. One of the most distinctive
elements certainly is the rhythm of urban verticals, which almost always imply the presence
of major public spaces in front of the high-altitude dominants. There are many studies dealing
with the analysis of the motion throughout urban complex, indicating elements which
contribute to the visual as well as social qualities. Spatial spots or surfaces distinct from their
surrounding contribute to recognition and identification of particular urban segments, at the
same time often being the meeting points and spaces for socialization.
4.1
Rhythm of the street system
Next on the city level scale is the rhythm of street system - a network of streets which as a
bloodstream allows the motion throughout urban complex. Rhythm of the street network
could be diverse in character and basically is divided into two types: spontaneous and planned
system. Spontaneous systems are characterized by irregular directions of streets, mostly
determined by configuration of the terrain and adjustments to certain natural forms. Such
systems are commonly found in the central areas of cities, with a great typological diversity of
streets and other forms of open spaces creating diverse and interesting ambient rhythms [13].
Planned street systems could be found from the earliest period of urban development until the
present days - starting with the Hippodamian plan of Miletus, followed by Cerda’s Barcelona,
to the often less prosperous modern urban plans. Successful achievements, as certainly is
orthogonal network of Barcelona, show that, although at first glance rigid, orthogonal matrix
might be the main source of diversity and flexibility, enabling adjustments of urban structure
167
according to transformations over the course of time. In the case of this Mediterranean city it
is traditional compactness of the rhythmical order achieved inside the urban network which
served as the basis for reinterpretation and new development within "modern, social,
economic and cultural parameters" [14]. Planned street systems in our society emerged mostly
in the second half of the 20th century, when started the construction of residential areas
influenced by zonal urbanism. This type of street matrix is mainly characterized by consistent
rhythm of identical street types which build the outlines for the blocks of the same
proportions, consisted mostly of typologically same objects. These areas are known for their
monotony and lack of identity, causing weak visual characteristics and limited modes of
usage. Due to modest typological diversity of built structures, such systems are deprived of
clearly emphasized intersections making the orientation in space very difficult.
Each intersection in the street network represents the point where motion rhythms are
changing, where decisions are made and where the tempo/rhythm of motion is slowed down
or speeded up. Intersections build the block outlines, in which way the street system greatly
determines the rhythm of blocks, i.e. the rhythmical relations of alteration of built and unbuilt
spaces in the urban form.
Important characteristic inside the street systems is also the rhythm of unbuilt areas where the
vegetation emerges in different forms - from linear tree lines to large parks and urban forests.
All these objects of the landscape architecture make interruptions of the rhythm of built
spaces, contributing to the visual and psychological changes in experiencing urban structure.
At the same time, they constitute connective elements within the urban area as a whole,
establishing a new specific rhythm of green systems. These characteristics contribute
significantly to the quality of environment in densely built central areas of the cities,
providing environmental, social and aesthetic well being.
4.2
Rhythm of the block level
Rhythm of the urban blocks formed by the street systems represents an important visual and
psychological characteristic of built environment. Accordingly, block size and proportion to
the large extent determine the pace and the rhythm of the motion and affect the experience
and orientation in urban structure (Fig 2). Blocks occupy the largest area in the urban fabric
and their form, scale, character, function and other characteristics thus largely affect the
quality of open spaces they are oriented towards, but also the closed intra-block spaces they
constitute and enclose.
In analysis of the block as a rhythmical element of the city, an important conceptual setting is
the character of its contour - whether the block is formed of a series of objects (broken or
unbroken) or consists of free-standing objects surrounded by open areas designed for
vegetation and stationary traffic. Typology and block rhythms are very important issues of
urban form design. The existing built spaces therefore provide different testimonies to how it
is possible to achieve interesting sequences on the one hand, or monotonous and unpleasant
rhythmical repetitions of urban form at the block level, on the other. Numerous object
typologies and their interrelations allow development of the high-quality rhythms of built and
unbuilt space on the level of the blocks, providing not only pleasant visual characteristics, but
also different modes of usage.
Rhythm of the land lots as the basic building element of the block has especially important
role in discussion. The importance of lots as smaller structural and spatial units has not been
recognized in the practice of planning and reconstruction of urban structures in our society.
The land lot should be the primary and basic element of the design and transformation of
urban forms. In legal terms lots are also the units of definition of property rights, and possibly
168
to the largest extent influence the character of the rhythm of built structures, as well as the
modes of usage that encourages activities in urban space.
There is a clear analogy between the size of the land lot and the value of the land. As the land
is more expensive and important, the lots are smaller and the space rhythms are therefore
more dynamic and vivid, due to greater concentration. Those characteristics are mainly
present in central areas of the cities. Areas and fragments of settlements where the land is
cheaper are composed of larger lots, and the rhythms of open spaces and built structures are
different and calmer. This is typical for peripheral areas of urban structures which are more
distant from the centres.
It is necessary that the rhythm of lots become one of the most important elements consciously
used to achieve desired effects in urban environment. In the situation where lots for
constriction are becoming larger, i.e. being merged into larger units thereby increasing the
size of the objects and of the urban form, proportions in relation to the human also increases,
possibly resulting in urban form losing its synthetical feature. On the other hand, this situation
may enable intra-block space to achieve the unity and provide various modes of usage within
a larger area. Therefore, in the practice of planning and design of block structures the
appropriate measure should also be found, primarily determined by the position of the block
within the city as a whole, and by its dominant functions and planning goals. Numerous
positive examples of central areas of European and world metropolises testify how urban
structure consisted of smaller spatial units represents a factor that provides higher
concentrations of different object typologies, thereby forming more interesting, livelier and
denser rhythms. These elements contribute to the greater usage of open spaces, to visually
more attractive relations among built urban structures, as well as to sustainable compact urban
development, more generally.
4.3
Rhythm of the built structures
Particularly important element in the study of rhythmical order inside urban form is the
rhythm of objects, which vary in height, proportion, materials, characters and functions. It is
certain that objects which build the outline for open spaces represent the most important
elements, thus defining the character and quality of the environment. Of course, they are
directly related to other spatial levels, such as lots, blocks and street networks. Objects
therefore influence the rhythm of the city in very diverse ways - by the rhythm of spatial
distribution which could be vertical, horizontal or diagonal; by the rhythm of final ranges
forming silhouette - one of the most striking lines in the urban area, which separates the built
structure from the firmament and which serves as a basis for orientation, remembrance,
recognition and identification with certain parts of the settlement; by the rhythm of contents
which encourage more or less intensive activities and processes in urban environment [15],
etc. In terms of the impact on urban activities, the most important building level certainly is
the ground floor, due to the fact that, as the part of a building in contact with the ground, it
largely affects people’s presence and staying in urban space, defining the rhythm of life in the
city.
Impact of the typology of architectural objects on the rhythms of the city is also very direct.
Uniform typologies present in residential areas, designed in the second half of the 20th
century according to principles of modern urbanism, create a monotonous rhythms and the
identical spaces without clear identity and character. On the other hand, typological diversity
with a proper level of ambient quality may affect the creation of changeable rhythms and
more stimulating ways of experiencing space.
169
Architectural objects influence the experience of urban environment also by their elements of
smaller proportions, such is the rhythm of openings. Contrast between transparent and solid
surfaces, relations between the light and the dark, illuminated and non-illuminated, positive
and negative, creates high-qualities that could contribute to the attractiveness and vividness of
the city rhythm. Buildings are consisted of many other elements which emerge in certain
rhythm – materials with their relations, texture and colours, different details, etc. They
influence the vividness and attractiveness of open urban spaces constituting their quality, but
perhaps to the greatest extent forming ambient values and distinctive atmosphere of the place.
4.4
Rhythm of the open urban spaces
Considering the rhythms of urban form it is equally important to examine the role of elements
located in the open/public areas of the city. Open spaces represent areas where urban rhythms
are manifested and felt the most. All so far analyzed elements jointly participate in formation
of the rhythms in open areas. For this reason, all so far elaborated factors will be included at
this level of analysis. Dominant rhythms are certainly those of built structures which define
and create the outline of open spaces, including their already mentioned characteristics - size,
proportions, volumes, openings, materials, elements and details. However, very important
characteristic of space is certainly made by the rhythms in parterre, along with the numerous
elements which form rhythms separately, as well as through mutual overlapping and linkage
in dynamic and specific relations. These horizontal rhythms are very important in functional
and visual terms. While there are many elements of this category, which are largely dependent
on social conditions, tradition, history, technology, etc., we will try to name the most
important factors which form the rhythms, i.e. the changes in visual and functional terms in
the parterre surface of the city:
Parterre/surface - its materialisation, texture, colour, warmth and contrast, which all
represent important features forming the rhythms in urban areas;
applied materials and their visual and tactile characteristics and mutual combinations,
wherein the most noticeable are the colours;
Position and relations of the elements of movables and urban equipment such as: street
light, benches and places for sitting, the visual communications means (posters, billboards,
poles, panels), flower pots and other containers for plants, shelters, fountains, drinking
fountains, monuments, restaurant and cafe gardens, elevators for vertical communication with
the underground levels (garages, pedestrian passages, etc);
Vegetation: high vegetation with dominant positions and relations between individual
trees and tree lines, and the space in which they are positioned, giving it a balanced but not
monotonous rhythm. Different plant species whose habitats and seasonal variability forms a
specific rhythmical order and creates a distinctive spatial experience;
Vegetation: medium and low vegetation which might represent the elements of the
rhythm and specific ambient values contributing to favourable microclimate conditions and a
special beauty of the space;
Water surfaces of different types, which can form the rhythm through the contrast with
solid surfaces, but also by their own different characteristics - creating dynamic (fountains) or
slower rhythm if the water is stagnant and calm;
Building ground floors - although not falling into the category of parterre, ground
floors are directly related to parterre surface and certainly to the greatest extent influence its
content-fullness and energy of open spaces, which is why these elements are again
highlighted in the analysis. Rhythms of ground floors can reflect the harmony and visual
170
coherence, but on the other hand their variety may contribute the attractiveness and dynamics
of the urban space.
5
CONCLUSION
Complexity of the topic related to the rhythm of urban spaces is largely beyond the scope of
this paper. Main objective was, however, to indicate a large number of relevant sub-topics and
to emphasize importance of the analysis of this phenomenon for the purpose of transformation
of existing, but also for design of new urban environments. We tried to show all spatial levels
of rhythms that contribute to the use and visual perception of urban spaces - from more
general considerations and higher regional levels to the details which characterize open spaces
and architectural objects. Special attention was devoted to the emphasis of the impact that
rhythmical order makes not only on the formation of physical space, but also on the creation
of specific ambience that influences the experience of the city. It is this complex experience
resulting from combination of different factors that creates specific role of the urban form
rhythm, similar to the quality that Steven Hall named "urban porosity" - "more than a
preoccupation with strong and independent objects and forms, it is experiential phenomenon
of spatial sequences with which, about which and between which the emotions emerge" [16].
One of the most important standpoints is that the rhythm has to be thought from the beginning
of design process, i.e. from the earliest stages of planning space and relations among many
factors it is consisted of. Only with such approach it is possible to establish an environment
with specific characteristics and proper functions and to influence on people to use arranged
spaces not only as routes of communication, but also as the environment where they will
spend time in stimulating manner. It is for this reason we consider that more attention should
be devoted to the issue of rhythm in urban spaces, with a more detailed consideration of all
spatial levels.
REFERENCES
[1] Lefebvre, A. 2004. Rhythmanalysis: An Introduction In Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday life,
vii-xv. London, New York: Continuum
[2] Zumthor, P. 2006. Atmospheres, Architectural Environments – Surrounding Objects. Basel, Boston, Berlin:
Birkhauser
[3] Neuhaus, F. 2011. urbanMachine In Studies in Temporal Urbanism: The urbanTick Experiment, 7-20 .
Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer
[4] Ni e, F. 2001. Ro enje tragedije. Beograd: Dereta
[5] Kon-Chung Ho, J. 2011. Cycle Study as the Basis of Adaptive Urbanism In Studies in Temporal Urbanism,
3-6. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer
[6] Ibid.
[7] Cook, P. 1963. Introduction to Living Arts 2 In Living Arts 2, 68-79. London: Institute for Contemporary
Arts and Tillotsons
[8] Zumthor, P. 2006. Atmospheres, Architectural Environments – Surrounding Objects. Basel, Boston, Berlin:
Birkhauser
171
[9] Tuan, J.F. 1977. Introduction In Space and place: The Perspective and Experience, 3-7. Minneapolis,
London: University of Minnesota Press
[10] Wunderlich, F.M. 2008. Symphonies of Urban Places: Urban Rhythms as Traces of Time in Space. A Study
of ‘Urban Rhythms’. PLACE and LOCATION Studies in Environmental Aesthetics and Semiotics VI, VI:
91-111
[11] According to Soya, the essence of urbanity relies on compact construction, but also on a kind of density and
intensity of social relations and activities. Soja, E. W. 2000. Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and
Regions. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
[12] Lorimer, H. 2011. Walking: New Forms and Spaces for Studies of Pedestrianism In Geographies of
Mobilities: Practices, Spaces, Subjects, 19-35. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing
[13] Reba, D. 2005. PhD Disertation: Urbana morfologija i uli ni sistemi centralnih podru ja vojvo anskih
gradova. Novi Sad: Fakultet tehni kih nauka
[14] Carne, J., Ivan i , A: The Barcelona Model: 1979-2004 and beyond In World Cities and Urban Form, 129145. London, New York: Routledge
[15] Reba, D. 2010. Ulica – element strukture i identiteta. Beograd: Orion art
[16] Holl, S. 2009. Urbanisms – Working with Doubt. New York: Princeton Architectural Press
172
INDUSTRY VS. URBANISM – CASE STUDY OF SPLIT
METROPOLITAN REGION
Dujmo Žiži 1, Hrvoje Bartulovi
1
2
2
University of Split - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy, (CROATIA)
University of Split - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy, (CROATIA)
dujmo.zizic@gradst.hr, hrvoje.bartulovic@gradst.hr
Abstract
The paper establishes a thesis on the fundamental character of modern development of the
metropolitan region of Split on the analysis of the ambivalent relationship between industrial
and urban areas. Industry, mainly cement, had a leading role in generating the development of
areas, which were then peripheral points, and now are an integral part of the urban fabric of
the city or belong to a larger urban agglomeration.
The cement industry in Dalmatia has no equivalent by the criteria of spatial distribution,
affected area, dimensions of its buildings and infrastructure it initiated. Over a period of a
century and a half ten cement factories were positioned and developed according to
technological and transport logic, rather than urbanistic regulations. Cement industry in
Dalmatia started in Split in 1865 and spread rapidly at the turn of the century. Factories were
built on the peripheral undeveloped areas, affecting the image of the cities and endangering
numerous archaeological sites. In contrast to these negative impacts stands their role in
general modernization of the region, primarily by the construction of infrastructure:
electrification, construction of ports, roads, railways and water supply. By 1914, when first
known regulation of wider metropolitan area was created (by a group of municipal engineers
led by Petar Senjanovi ), all significant cement factories were already built. Industrial zone
was planned on the north side of the Split peninsula and eastern part of the Kaštela Bay
accepting the status quo defined by cement industry already placed on Solin, Vranjic and
Kaštela coast. Undeveloped space that existed between the isolated factory assemblies was
gradually filled during the second half of the 20th century with other industrial facilities, but
still rigidly divided from the residential areas. Today, this landscape is made of shopping
centres, office and residential complexes and hybrid programmes blurring the clear
boundaries of specific character of industrial and residential areas.
Researched scenario, in which industrial areas were almost completely unaffected by spatial
planning, has led to a constant test of character between this two opposing boundary entities industrial and urban. Factories that were shut-down and demolished were often replaced by
hotels, utilizing large free sites on the Adriatic coast. This is the final paradox in which
abandoned areas became representative urban areas and tourist destinations. Therefore, this
paper aims to point out the specific perspective of development of the city in which the
radical aspects of industrialization, with its technological and transport logic of placing and
organizing a particular area, rather than regulating by development plans, create a new
identity and relationships, as well as questioning the changes and future development trends
for territories occupied by industry.
Keywords: Industrial architecture, Infrastructure, Urbanism, Split metropolitan region,
central Dalmatia, Croatia.
173
1
INTRODUCTION
The paper establishes a hypothesis of the fundamental character of modern development of
the metropolitan region of Split by analysing the ambivalent relationship between industrial
and urban areas. Industry, mainly cement, had a leading role in generating the development of
areas, which were then peripheral points, and now are an integral part of the urban fabric of
the city or belong to a larger urban agglomeration.
2
METHODOLOGY
The methodology of case study was employed in this research to detect and describe
ambivalent relationship between industrial progress and urban development process in Split
metropolitan area. In these multi-perspective analyses of regulation planning and industrial
development processes from mid-19th thought the 20th century, methods of compilation,
reduction, comparison and deductive analyses were used as tools to filter the collected data in
order to evaluate the characteristic of researched process.
As a starting point of this case study, a historical survey of industrial development was made.
The focus of research was put on cement industry, after establishing its leading role in
generating the development of areas. In total, six different industrial plants were subjected to
more detailed analysis, examining its development process and influence on surrounding
environment. As a result of this part of research different layers of impact were detected as
well as a diversity of contributing elements.
In second step of this case study, a survey of urban development plans for Split metropolitan
area was made. After deductive analysis the focus was placed on researching three key
regulatory plans. Key aspect of each plan was put on evaluation within historical and political
context, as well as their implementation. Special interest was set on analyses of industrial
aspects of each of the plans. As a conclusion the present state of industrial zone was
described.
This first two steps lead to discussion with cross-reference of influences between industrial
and urban areas, which lead to conclusion of the case-study hypothesis.
3
RESULTS
3.3 Cement factories in Dalmatia
The impact of the cement industry to surrounding area began directly and elementary - marl
material was permanently removed from the landscape. The next layer of impact was
generated by processes of production of cement from this raw material and its shipment to the
market. This layer represents technical heritage in its purest form - factory kilns and mills,
power plants, cable cars, railways and ports. The analysed cement factories moved the
boundaries of achievable in the industrial architecture of central Dalmatia. To meet the needs
of the professionals and workers involved, housing, cultural and health facilities were built in
proximity of the factories, adding a new layer of impact. Ultimately, the long-term existence
of a large number of employees has led the cement industry to have an active role in creating
social relations. Therefore the results of analysis of Dalmatian factories are presented as a
system together with urban context and infrastructure. [1]
174
Fig.1 The positions of analysed factories on a map from 1948 and on panoramic photo from 1939
3.3.1
Cement factory in Split (1865) [2]
First cement factory in Split was located on then unoccupied west shores of city harbour. Raw
material was excavated on near-by slopes of Marjan hill and transported by carts. Over the
years landfill modified the coast line and dock was built to accommodate larger and larger
175
ships bringing in coal and taking out cement. Factory expanded and soon other protoindustrial
enterprises emerged in its vicinity, defining an industrial zone on the periphery of city of Split
at the end of 19th century. Factory stopped producing cement at the back-drop of world
economic depression in 1933 and abandoned cement kilns were demolished in 1941.
Next to the factory, in 1890 owners started the production of cement-based prefabricated
elements. Ornaments, tiles, sanitary ware, pipes, statues, fountains and balustrades were a
novelty in then conservative building environment and its production superseded the
production of cement. Cement factory was replaced by a hotel (1963), but production plant of
prefabricated elements was still in function. Part of the production moved to Vranjic in 1958
and last operations were abolished in 1978, after decade and a half of coexistence with
tourism. Part of the marl excavation area on Marjan hill was reclaimed by nature and some
was occupied with terraced housing complex in 1980.
3.3.2
Cement factory in Sv. Kajo (1904)
Cement factory located near the isolated church of St. Kajo initiated the development of what
is today a settlement of Sv. Kajo near Solin. Large deposits of marl stone were found on
slopes of Mount Kozjak. Factory was built in 1904 on the site between the sea and railroad
connection Split – Siveri (1877). This marked the start of industrialisation on Kaštela bay,
process that will last until today. Production complex was placed only 600 m away from
ancient city of Salona and this aggressive vicinity redefined acceptable behaviour towards
archaeological sites and built heritage. Coast line was considerably modified repeatedly
throughout the years. At first settlement for management was built next to the factory and
after the World War II it was expanded to accommodate factory workers. Factory is still
producing cement today, and marl excavation field is dominating the degraded image of
metropolitan area of city of Split.
3.3.3
Cement factory in Majdan (1908)
Cement factory built in 1908 in Majdan was exceptional in several ways. Situated near the
spring of river Jadro, it was 4 km away from the nearest coast. This transportational handicap
was strategically overcome. Small electrical power plant was integrated in enterprise and soon
another power plant was built. Electricity from these generators was used to power the
railroad which connected the factory with port facilities situated in Vranjic. This complex
infrastructural grid influenced the whole region, including the city of Split that was also
electrified by cement factories power plant.
Settlement for the management was built and it grew extensively after the World War II. In
accordance with socialist doctrine it included ambulance building and community hall with
cinema and library. Cement factory in Majdan is still in function.
3.3.4
Cement factory in Kaštel Su urac (1912)
Exploitation of marl deposits on Mount Kozjak was extended by factory built in 1912 in
Kaštel Su urac. Spatial organisation mimicked its predecessors. Site was situated between the
sea and railroad connection Split – Siveri (1877). Coast line was considerably modified.
Next to the factory, settlement for management was built and after the World War II it was
expanded to accommodate factory workers. Factory and marl quarry are still operating today,
dominating the Kaštela skyline.
3.3.5
Asbestos cement factory in Vranjic (1908 / 1921)
Port facilities of Majdan factory situated in Vranjic were the initial phase of large industrial
complex that is now mostly abandoned. Composition of picturesque urban peninsula was
176
radically transformed in 1908 with construction of neighbouring hangars, packaging lines,
port cranes and industrial railroad. Most significant change happened to the coast line and
infrastructural modernisation. Factory initialized the growth of water supply lines and
electricity grid that were soon also utilized by the settlement of Vranjic. Production of
asbestos cement was started in 1921 and lasted until 2006, raising many ecological and
health-care issues. Today, factory is not producing and represents a significant potential for
future urban reconversion.
3.3.6
Cement factory in Meterize in Solin (1950)
Site, located on Solins border towards Split, was used for marl excavation before cement
factory was built. Small production complex was part of an effort to relive export-oriented
larger factories in Dalmatia. Cement produced here was intended for domestic use only, so
access to coast was not necessary. Duration of a factory was not long, and beneficiary
interactions with surrounding settlements did not occur. Factory was demolished in 1975 to be
later replaced by workers settlement and today large site is occupied by a shopping centre.
Fig.2 Photo of cement factory and facilities in Majdan demonstrates the impact of industry on its surroundings.
3.4 Urban development plans of Split metropolitan region
Three key urban development plans of Split metropolitan were selected for analysis. All of
them originate from the period of 20th century, in which urban planning was established as a
discipline on the researched area. Brief insights of historical and political context are included
to address main influences for development of this region.
3.4.1
City map of Split from 1914 [3]
In a positive work environment of Split architectural milieu, which took actions tending to
contribute the development of the city by modern European principles, a group of engineers
led by Peter Senjanovi issued in 1914 a city map together with the proposition of regulation
177
of unbuilt parts of the city. This plan, although published as roadmap, contains dashed routes
of new planed streets and areas for future development as well as marked anticipated
locations of new important public buildings, and is therefore considered an urban
development plan. In addition to described planning of the northern and eastern regions of
city tissue along the main access roads, this plan particularly ambitiously dealt with
development of infrastructure and port facilities. New railway access through Marjan hill
tunnel was planned, as a response to already started development of the industry on west coast
of the city harbour which should be followed by extension of both sides of port with large
piers. Also new large industrial harbour was planned on north side of peninsula with
landfilling the coast up to 300 meters into the sea and the construction of the huge piers for
which railway tracks should have been provided. This kind of resolving of the problems of the
complex phenomenon of urban development by means of strong infrastructural interventions
can be found in most of the development plans for European cities from similar period, which
soon encountered strong criticism. In the end, begging of World War I put on hold most of
the developments so aforementioned projects were not executed.
Fig.3 City map of Split from 1914
3.4.2
Regulatory plan from 1925 [4, 5]
Urban planning of Split metropolitan region after 1918 was extremely difficult. After taking
over the functions from Zadar as governing-administrative centre of county of Dalmatia, the
city recorded a large influx of population which intensified the need for construction of new
dwellings, and furthermore the transport trade of industrial ports grew rapidly. For the
municipal authorities the regulation of the entire urban area and a clear definition of zones in
order to facilitate already built, as well as quality control over the development of the newly
planned part of the city became imperative tasks. This resulted in a decision to organise an
international competition in 1923 for the design of regulatory plan. Although turnout of the
competition entries was satisfactory (19 projects were received, 11 of which were foreign),
the first prize was not awarded. Instead two second prizes were given, and eventually design
of a plan was entrusted to Werner Schürmann, German architect from The Hague. The plan
was drafted in 1925 and accepted by authorities in 1926, departing in some elements from the
178
competition entry, but with the same basic concept. Described by one sentence, the concept of
this plan was to establish a contemporary, but Mediterranean like, town with winding streets
and block matrix expanding radially around the historic centre of Split. As the main spatial
accent was supposed to become so called ‘boulevard’ – promenade which should extend from
the old town to a large park in the north. The main infrastructure issues relating transport were
drawn only as schematic and exact solution was left to be solved by the associated authorities.
The northern part of the peninsula, therefore, was reserved for the cargo port; the main train
passenger terminal was relocated to the inland of the peninsula with the tunnel connection to
merchandise station which was left on the east coast of city harbour. The routes of new
primary streets were juxtaposed with the existing ones, and the secondary network of traffic
was subjected to the preservation of existing buildings.
The implementation of the plan encountered great difficulties, because it was often built
regardless of the plan, and the audit of the plan was frequently done do to amendments of the
state constitution, the changes in legislative processes, etc. So when the plan was reviewed in
1939, it was noted that the elapsed time confuted guidelines in all essential settings of the plan
from 1925: cargo port was built in the Vranjic, not Poljud bay, new passenger railway station
on Glavi ine became redundant, construction of the main promenade has not been even
started, public buildings were not built in places predicted by the plan, and so on. So in
conclusion, one can say that the whole interwar period elapsed in the preparation and
reviewing of the plan whose implementation did not succeed.
Fig.4 Regulatory plan from 1925
3.4.3
“Directive” plan from 1951[6]
The post-war period was marked by a general renewal of the ruined urban fabric, raising
moribund economic sectors and the establishment of a new governmental system. With the
constant increase in the city’s population, fast and efficient housing solutions were set as a
primary task for all relevant experts and authorities. The extent of these tasks demanded a
thorough reorganization of the established work-process, the engagement of professional
staff, and the establishment of new institutions. It also demanded the establishment of new
and large building companies that were able to apply new building technologies and quickly
179
build inexpensive mass housing. All of this was followed by a preparation and drafting of a
new regulatory plan supervised by municipality. The design of the plan was entrusted to the
newly established Urban Planning centre of Dalmatia (1947), and project managers were
architects Budimir Pervan and Milorad Družei . From the beginning a large number of
experts was involved who made a systematic analysis of the current situation and future
development. The plan was completed in 1950 and accepted by authorities in 1951 under the
name “Directive” urban plan. The area considered for future development was spreading from
Trogir on the west, via Split, to the Omiš on east, observing it as a single entity to be
simultaneously planned. At that time, the city had only 70 000 inhabitants, and in the area of
gravitational zone between Split and Omiš, 115 000. The basic concept of the plan treats the
space of Split peninsula as an area for the development of the master city of the whole
agglomeration with satellite cities located throughout the rest of the metropolitan area, but
divided by green areas. At the scale of the city of Split, plan envisages filling and sanitation of
existing blocks around historical core, and surrounding ring of new residential areas made in
CIAM matrix principles. The residential zone was also planned along the southern coast of
the peninsula, while the north shores were provided for industrial plants. These two zones
were divided with the green recreational area that connects Marjan park forest with Turkish
Tower hill stretching further to the east. According to plan propositions, it was determined
that a series of detailed urban plans should be developed for each residential area. This
practice soon came to life, with a very high degree of realization; therefore we can say that the
implementation of this “Directive” plan flowed much more successful than regulatory plan
from 1925. But the realizations of these residential areas was in most cases preceded by
construction of industrial plants in the north and south side of the Kaštela bay, thus directly
affecting their conception.
Fig.5 “Directive” plan from 1951
3.4.4
Present state of Split metropolitan region
What was once planed as a singular interconnected urban area is today divided between eight
different local authorities: Trogir, Kaštela, Solin, Klis, Split, Podstrana, Dugi Rat and Omiš.
Each of them has its own urban development plan, and coordination on higher level seems to
180
bring insufficient benefits. Most of the existing industrial zones are in status quo and remain
operational, although some of these plants have been marked for transformation and
redevelopment.
4
DISCUSSION
At the time that Petar Senjanovi and his team made a plan of Split with guidelines for further
development (1914), eight out of ten cement factories were already built. Factory complexes
were positioned, harbour docks and railroads were in function, excavation fields and mines
were degrading the landscape and roads, electricity and water-supply lines were connecting
these isolated spaces into an infrastructural grid. All above mentioned elements were results
of private enterprises, rather than careful town-planning and were often positioned
aggressively towards natural landscape and rich archaeological context. Approach that
Senjanovi took in regards to industry was practical and evolutionary. Plan recognized
conditions on the industrial coasts and envisioned further utilisation of space for this
processes.
Next urban plan – the one made by Werner Schürmann (1926) – took more proactive policy
towards industry. Plan recognized the city harbour as part of the city centre and with this
came the necessity of removing cement and other industries. However, cement factory on the
west coast stopped producing in 1933 as the result of economic, rather than urbanistic
reasons. It was demolished at the beginning of Italian occupation of Split in World War II
(1941). Other segment of production of "Marin Feri Portland Cement Factory" –
prefabricated elements – was even more resilient and indifferent to urbanistic objectives. Its
enduring production proved that intention of Schürmann's plan – removal of industry from the
city harbour – took more than 50 years to come to life, proving industry to be resilient and
urbanism to be powerless.
Post-war period was in many ways defined by change of social paradigm. Ownership over
industry and land was assumed by the state, so spatial planning became free of property
related issues. Urban centres were supposed to accommodate large influx of working-class
population for the growing industry and these two inputs set the stage for “Directive”
urbanistic plan made in 1951. Zoning principles defined the space of Split metropolitan area,
and echoes of these mono-functional areas are recognizable even today. Industry, originally
dominated by cement production, was emphasized and enlarged with steel, chemical, wood,
food production and transport facilities. Although "Directive" plan is often blamed for the
devastation of picturesque image of Kaštela, Solin and Vranjic, the fact is that the plan was
made as a continuation of processes started at the beginning of 20th century.
5
CONCLUSIONS
Ambivalent character of cement industry left a significant mark on the space of central
Dalmatia, and mostly on Split metropolitan region. Large areas of the factory grounds and
marl quarries together with long coastlines, roads and infrastructure connections defined the
principles by which the covered area was developed during next decades. Space that existed
between the isolated factory assemblies was then gradually filled during the second half of the
20th century. Today, this landscape is made of shopping centres, office and residential
complexes and hybrid programmes blurring the clear boundaries of specific character of
industrial and residential areas.
Researched scenario, in which industrial areas were almost completely unaffected by spatial
planning, has led to a constant test of character between this two opposing boundary entities 181
industrial and urban. Factories that were shut-down and demolished were often replaced by
hotels, utilizing large free sites on the Adriatic coast. This is the final paradox in which
abandoned areas after the transformation became representative urban areas and tourist
destinations. Therefore, this paper aims to point out the specific perspective of development
of the city in which the radical aspects of industrialization, with its technological and
transport logic of placing and organizing a particular area, rather than regulation by the
development plans, create a new identity and relationships, as well as question the changes
and future development trends for territories occupied by industry.
REFERENCES [Times New Roman, 12-point, bold, left alignment]
[1] Žiži , Dujmo. 2014. Industrija cementa u splitskoj regiji - Arhitektura, infrastruktura i utjecaj na kulturni
krajolik, doctoral disertation. Zagreb: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Architecture
[2] Mulja i , Slavko. 1958. Kronološki pregled izgradnje Splita u XIX. i XX. Stolje u In Zbornik Društva
inženjera i tehni ara 61-96. Split: Društvo inženjera i tehni ara Split
[3] Tušek, Darovan; Grgi , Ana. 2007. Doprinos Petra Senjanovi a urbanisti kom planiranju Splita In Petar
Senjanovi – splitski planer i graditelj 143-159. Split: Sveu ilišna knjižnica u Splitu, Društvo arhitekata
Splita, Grad Split
[4] Radica, Branislav. 1931. Novi Split: monografija grada Splita od 1918 do 1930 godine. Split: Gradska
knjižnica Marka Maruli a – electronic edition
[5] Tušek, Darovan. 1994. Arhitektonski natje aji u Splitu 1918-1914. Split: Društvo arhitekata Splita
[6] Pervan, Budimir. 1966. Direktivni urbanisti ki plan iz 1951. URBS no. 6: 35-44
182
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE – NOTES ON THEORY, DESIGN AND
ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIENCE
Jelena Dmitrovic Manojlovic1
1
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences,
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning (SERBIA)
jeeleenaa@gmail.com
Abstract
Referring to Bruno Zevi’s idea that space is the essence of architecture, this paper deals with
an architectural space and experience of it. The notion of space in architecture is considered
important in theory, design practice and architectural experience. Architectural space, in
theoretical perspective, is treated both, as a physical entity, with its geometry and volumes,
and psychological, i.e. mental construct. In the design process it is considered as the design
subject, together with the form, function or meaning. Along with the importance of
architectural space in architectural theory and design practice, the role of architectural space
in experiencing architecture is analyzed. Recognizing the dominance of indirect vs. direct
experience of architecture, which is a result of increasing influence of visual media and
technology, this paper deals with the value of senses in experience of architectural space. We
argue that "Atmosphere" as Peter Zumthor calls it, or "haptic and sensuous quality of
architecture", as Juhani Pallasmaa defines it, can be sensed only in direct experience and
cannot be simulated or be interpreted truthfully enough in words, drawings, models or
pictures. This paper is a contribution to considering architectural object in all its totality and
complexity, together with the space it forms or encloses.
Keywords: Space, architecture, senses, representation, experience.
1
INTRODUCTION
At the beginning we would like to note that the space we are discussing in this paper is an
architectural space. It shares some characteristics with other space concepts, but it needs to be
differentiated from philosophical, mathematical, social, virtual or other space concepts.
Architectural space in this paper is treated as both, physical and abstract. When we say
physical we don’t refer to space concept in physics, where space is an absolute category. With
the notion of “physical space” we refer to space with physical, i.e. material borders. By
“abstract” space we mean the opposite of physical space, space with no material borders,
imagined through representations or one’s own memory or imagination. While physical
space, as an integral part of our surrounding, is directly perceived through senses, abstract
space is a mental construct.
2
NOTES ON THEORY
As we all know, space as a philosophical concept exists since ancient philosophy. When it
comes to architecture - concept of space is not new, but it was generally accepted as a
category in architectural discourse, by the 1950s and 1960s, which is something we can say
by looking at the number of published books on space in architecture. Before we start writing
about the notion of architectural space, it is important to mention Forty’s reading of Lefebvre,
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who said that: “Lefebvre leads us to suppose, though he does not actually say this, that there
existed a discourse about space in architecture before the term itself entered the
vocabulary”.[1] Forty noted that the term “space” architects had (enthusiastically) adopted
from aesthetic philosophy, where it was first developed.[1] According to Zevi, the first more
extensive writings on architectural space came from German speaking art historians: Alois
Riegl, Heinrich Wölfflin and August Schmarsow in the last decade of XIX century. [3] Some
of the main promoters of architectural space concept in theory of architecture are: Laslo
Moholy-Nagy, who directly linked space to architecture in his Bauhaus school program;
Sigfried Giedion; Bruno Zevi; Christian Norberg-Schultz; Henry Lefebvre; Fransis D.K.
Ching and Jurgen Joedicke. According to Norberg-Schultz the largest credit for actualization
of the space concept goes to Gideon who placed the problem of space at the center of the
development of modern architecture.[4] Although Gideon wasn’t the first to write or think
about space in architecture his book “Space, time and architecture: The Growth of a New
Tradition”, first published in 1941, was highly influential because it was written in English
and was translated worldwide. While modern architects and theorists emphasized the value of
space, theorists of postmodern architecture tried to minimize its importance. Robert Venturi,
Denise Scot Brown and Stiven Izenour in their 1972 published book “Learning from Las
Vegas” wrote of space as the most tyrannical element, which has been “contrived by
architects and deified by critics”.[5] Three of them argued for “architecture as sign rather than
space”.[6] Apart from postmodern criticism today we can still discuss about space as the
relevant architectural concept.
2.1
Definitions of space
In a broad literature about architecture we can find different definitions of space. As we
mentioned previously, Bruno Zevi defined space as the essence of architecture [7]; Fransis
D.K. Ching, was more specific, defining space as “the three-dimensional field in which
objects and events occur and have relative position and direction“[8]; Joedicke equalized
architectural space and perceptual space, defining it as “the sum of perceptible relationships
between architectural points or locations”[9]. All of the definitions mentioned are true and
applicable, but the one that we consider the most comprehensive is the one given by NorbergSchultz who defined “Architectural space as the concretization of existential space”.[10] We
are going to look more closely to the work of Norberg-Shultz in order to try to understand
better the nature of architectural space.
2.2
Concept(s) of space
In his well-known book “Existence, Space and Architecture”, Norberg-Schultz distinguishes
five space concepts: the pragmatic space of physical action, the perceptual space of immediate
orientation, the existential space which forms man’s stable image of his environment, the
cognitive space of the physical world and the abstract space of pure logical relations.[11] The
series shows a growing abstraction from pragmatic space at the lowest level to logical space
at the top. The level of abstraction shown on Fig.1 (left), illustrates dual nature of an
architectural space, which is positioned in the middle, together with the existential space. It is
important to note that its position is not that of medium abstraction than at the same time both,
real and abstract. This duality is something that corresponds to the thirdspace concept
introduced by human geographer Edward W. Soja, who defined thirdspaces as spaces which
are at the same time real and imagined.[12] If we think of the relationship between
architectural space and other space concepts named by Norberg-Schultz, we can illustrate it in
forms of circles (see Fig.1 - right). We can see that architectural space, which is a
concretization of existential space, shares certain similarities with each concept. It is a part of
184
pragmatic space, it can be perceived, it shapes man’s existential space, it can be thought of as
cognitive space and it also exists as an abstract theoretical or mental concept.
Fugure 1. The level of abstraction of Christian Norberg-Schultz’s space concepts (left); Illustration of NorbergSchultz’s concept of architectural space in relation to other space concepts (right)
3
NOTES ON DESIGN
“As space begins to be captured, enclosed, molded, and organized by the elements of mass,
architecture comes into being.” Fransis D.K. Ching [13]
When we discuss about theory, we discuss space as both, real and imagined, but when it
comes to design what we have in mind are, primarily, geometric properties of architecture
which are the subject of design. Design of architectural space deals with its physicality, i.e.
physical borders, visible in the real world, which can be imagined during the process of
design. Since form of an object is a contact between mass and volume [14], geometry of
material form or object is transmitted to space.
3.1
Geometrical properties of space
According to Joedicke architectural space is limited (perceived through its borderlines),
anisotropic (since certain parts of it are always more significant than others) and it has direct
reciprocal relationship with the form of an object.[15] Zevi writes about this relationship to
form as about the negative of form. Theorist Rudolf Arnheim gives us important characteristic
of the space that we perceive around us. Similar to Joedicke, he defined it as anisotropic,
stating that all other directions are subordinated and perceived through their relationship to
the vertical dimension.[16] What draws out vertical dimension out of others is the force of
gravity, present in the real, perceptive world. It is important to note that geometry of
architectural space is mainly Euclidean, no matter if perceived or imagined. Applying space
theories on architecture, Arnheim pointed out that space that we perceive is not absolute and a
category per se than rather created by certain constellation of natural and artificial objects, to
which architecture gives its part.[17]
3.2
Space as an element of design
In architectural design space can be treated as a design subject, an object of design or even as
a design material. Francis D.K. Ching writes about space as of a material substance like wood
or stone.[18] This idea of architectural design as a design of not just material form, but design
of space, is not new. This new awareness of space in a design process is evident at the
beginning of the 20th century. The new concept of space was defined in modern architecture.
It is the one which Joedicke named “a spatial field” and described as the continuous space
where individual spatial elements interpenetrate with each other.[19] The best example of this
185
new space concept, as many critics agreed, is well-known Barcelona pavilion by Mies Van de
Roe. This new type of space Hitchcock and Johnson proclaimed as a unique invention of
international style.[20] In their book about International style, originally published in 1935,
they wrote that “the prime architectural symbol is no longer the dense brick, but the open
box”.[21]
3.3
Representations of space
The problem that arises in design of architectural space is the problem of representation.
Although Bruno Zevi argues that architectural space cannot be represented than only
experienced, he writes about plans, facades, cross-sections, models, photographs and films as
of means of representing space. He wrote: “All the techniques of representation and all the
paths to architecture which do not include direct experience are pedagogically useful, of
practical necessity and intellectually fruitful; but their function is no more than allusive and
preparatory to that moment in which we with everything in us that is physical and spiritual
and, above all, human, enter and experience the spaces we have been studying. That is the
moment of architecture”.[22] It was written almost 30 years ago. Today means of
architectural representation evolved, but still we can agree with Zevi by saying that
representations are not enough since they, even if interactive in some cases, involve mainly
vision and power of one’s imagination.
4
NOTES ON EXPERIENCE
“It is not enough to see architecture; you must experience it…You must dwell in the rooms,
feel how they close about you, observe how you are naturally led from one to the other.”
Steen Eiler Rasmussen [23]
Experience of space is an integral part of architectural experience and it involves all senses.
We will mention Aristotle’s traditional subdivision of senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and
touch. More recent theories of senses, such as Gibson’s, have their own classification. He
recognizes the visual system (sight), the auditive system (hearing), the system of taste and
smell, the system of basic orientation, and the haptic system (pressure, heat, pain and
sensations of movement).[24] Although visual perception (sight) is probably the most
developed sense, we will try to emphasize the value of other senses in overall experience of
architecture.
4.1
Multisensory experience of architecture
Our present society, according to Baudrillard, is a media society, a world saturated by images
and communication. The image has supplanted reality, inducing what Baudrillard has termed
a condition of hyperreality, a world of self-referential signs.[25] When direct experience was
replaced by information in media society it brought the anxiety of reducing architecture to an
image, anxiety of reducing it to only visual qualities. It was felt directly by architects such as
Palasmaa or Zumthor, who published their works in order to reconsider architecture together
with its spatiality. As Juhani Pallasmaa noticed the problem of our century is not just favoring
of the sense of sight over other senses than isolation of the sight out of its natural interaction
with other senses. He argues that this reduction and separation are reinforcing sense of
detachment and alienation, which is why he proclaims “sensory architecture in opposition to
the prevailing visual understanding of the art of building”.[26] For Peter Zumthor,
“atmosphere” is that quality of architecture grasped in contact with architectural space and it
is an aesthetic category which “moves us” when experienced.[27] Opposite to linear thought,
this direct contact between a man and his surrounding triggers emotional response, which (in
186
Zumthor’s words) could be immediate appreciation or rejection. We agree with Zumthor that
the man-environment relationship provokes feelings, even if one is not always aware of them.
Our senses are receiving and processing information from our environment not always on the
level of conscious, but on the level of subconscious as well, which doesn’t make this
information and sensations less relevant. Zevi pointed out that “whenever a complete
experience of space is to be realized, we must be included”.[28] We can only agree and add
that we must be included with all senses since architectural experience is multisensory
experience.
5
CONCLUSION
Although it is not rare to hear or read about direct and indirect experience of architecture, we
argue that the only relevant architectural experience is direct experience, the one that involves
not just vision, but all senses. It includes experience of not just architectural object with its
visual properties than spatial experience as well. If we want to speak about experience the
viewer-state 1 (in Diane Smith term [29]) is not enough. Difference between viewing and
experiencing architecture Zevi compared to dance or sport, noting that it is the same
difference that exists between dancing and watching people dance, or taking part in sport and
being a spectator.[30] In this paper we tried to emphasize the value of spatial properties of
architecture. Experience of space, as an integral part of architectural experience, is the one
which engages all the senses and the one that is needed for the total comprehension of an
architectural object in all its totality and complexity, together with the space it forms or
encloses.
REFERENCES
[1] Forty, A. 2000. Words and Buildings: A vocabulary of Modern Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson
[2] Ibid.
[3] Zevi, B. 2007. Koncept za kontraistoriju arhitekture. Beograd: Centar VAM
[4] Norberg-Schultz, C. 1999. Egzistencija, prostor i aerhitektura. Beograd: Gradjevinska knjiga
[5] Venturi, R., Braun, D. S., & Ajzenur, S. 1990. Pouke Las vegasa: Zaboravljeni simbolizam arhitektonske
forme. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga, p.156.
[6] Ibid., p.9.
[7] Zevi, B. 1966. Kako gledati arhitekturu. Beograd: Savremena stampa
[8] Ching, F. D. 2007. Architecture: Form, space and order. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[9] Joedicke, J. 2009. Oblik i prostor u arhitekturi: Jedan obazriv pristup proslosti. Beograd: Orion art
[10] Norberg-Schultz, op.cit.
[11] Norberg-Schultz, op.cit.
1
Diane Smith described people - environment relationship as multidimensional and fluid, identifying three modes of interaction or personstates termed as the viewer-state, the participant-state, and the immersed-state. Firstly, people relate to the environment as an objectified
setting; secondly, the environment is a domain in which they interact and become part of the environment; and thirdly, people are
interdependently immersed or engaged with the place. Diane Smith in [29]
187
[12] Soja, E. W. 1996. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Cambridge:
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
[13] Ching, op.cit.
[14] Ching, op.cit.
[15] Joedicke, op.cit.
[16] Arnheim, R. 1990. Dinamika arhitektonske forme. Beograd: Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu, p.35-36.
[17] Ibid., p.19.
[18] Ching, op.cit.
[19] Joedicke, op.cit.
[20] Hi kok, H.-R., & Džonson, F. 2008. Internacionalni stil. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga
[21] Ibid., p.17.
[22] Zevi, B. 1966. Kako gledati arhitekturu, op.cit. p.59.
[23] Rasmussen, S. E. 1964. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press
[24] See Joedicke, op.cit., p.9. and Pallasmaa, J. 2005. The ayes of the skin: Architecture and the senses.
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. p.41.
[25] N. Leach (ed.), Rethinking architecture. London: Routledge; p.199.
[26] Pallasmaa, J. 2005. The ayes of the skin: Architecture and the senses. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
[27] Zumthor, P. 2006. Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects. Basel: Birkhäuser
[28] Zevi, Kako gledati arhitekturu, op.cit. p.59.
[29] Smith, D. 2008. Color-person-environment relationships. Color research and application, 33(4): 312-319.
[30] Zevi, Kako gledati arhitekturu, op.cit.
188
CONTRIVANCES ON ARARATIAN STREET: AN IDEOLOGY OR AN
URBAN PUBLIC SPACE
Sarhat Petrosyan1, Nora Topalian2
1
2
urbanlab Yerevan, Director (ARMENIA)
urbanlab Yerevan, Research Assistant (ARMENIA/CANADA)
sarhat@urbanlab.am, nora@urbanlab.am
Abstract
Northern Avenue, the main pedestrian connection and axis in Yerevan, capital of Armenia,
already has over 80 years’ worth of narratives imbued upon it. Bearing the name of Araratian
Street when it was first proposed on the master plan of architect Alexander Tamanyan in
1924, it fits into the Soviet ideology of a socialist plan presented in the shape of a Garden
City. It was proposed to link the main administrative Republic Square (Lenin square at that
time) to the cultural Freedom Square where the National Opera was under construction. The
street was named after Mount Ararat, an important biblical symbol for the Armenian people,
towards which the city and the axis were oriented.
Although Araratian Street never was an official name, in the Late Soviet era, the name
“Northern Avenue” started to be used more often in order to designate it. There was
speculation that the vocabulary was changed first to reduce “nationalistic” risks, and then in
order to please northern decision making city Moscow.
The idea of the construction of the Araratian Street resurfaced in the 1960’s, when several
competitions and proposals were put into discussion, but again none of those was put into the
plan. After gaining independence, when the first economical activities started in 2000’s, the
Yerevan Municipality, with the support of the President of the Republic, initiated an extensive
real estate development at the heart of the city. The “clean-up” of the area from remaining
buildings and houses, most of them with historic value and under protection, was already in
progress only a year after the proposal was initiated in 2000. Northern Avenue was
inaugurated in 2007, as only half of the new buildings were ready for operation and
habitation.
Seven years after first being put to use, an extensive renovation was carried out to fix
construction mistakes and make the area more welcoming. A year later, it has now become
obvious that this process is part of another broader development which aims to re-use the top
underground parking floor as an underground mall. The mall is to be named Tashir Street and
is going to be parallel to the Northern Avenue above it.
The development of the narrative of the “Avenue” oriented by national pride, Moscow and
global commerce is a unique timeline of the last century of urban transformations. Although it
was imposed by the political elite at both municipal and national levels, the implementation of
the project has been quite different and has found resistance, in all periods of time, from the
local population.
The study of the space shows some spatial design errors and uncertainties; but it remains one
of the main arteries for evening walks, even though the buildings surrounding it are often void
of people and the shops present products priced way above the buying capacity of the local
population.
Keywords: Northern Avenue, Urban Planning, Yerevan
189
1
PLANNING OF YEREVAN
Yerevan, Armenia’s present day capital, is located on the western side of the country,
relatively close to the border with Turkey. Once part of the Persian and Russian empires,
Armenia declared itself a democratic republic in 1918 and made Yerevan its capital.
However, the short-lived Republic was soon integrated into the Soviet Union and only
regained its independence in 1991. Thus, Yerevan, the former regional centre of a Persian and
later Russian empires, is now for the second time in the last century the capital of an
independent country.
During the first years of independence, in 1919, Saint-Petersburg-based Armenian architect
Alexander Tamanyan was invited to Armenia to support the development of the capital of
Republic of Armenia. Although he didn’t manage to present his plan to the government of the
independent republic, his first Master Plan of Yerevan for 150.000 inhabitants was presented
and approved in 1924 by Soviet Armenia’s ruling authorities.
According to Tamanyan, Yerevan was, in the early 1920’s, a disorganized city and hardly had
any streets that would be considered thus in the “European” sense (See Figure 1.1). On the
other hand, he found the location of the city, at the meeting point of mountains and fields, an
ideal location. He stated that Yerevan should follow the example of many European cities that
made way in the old city for new buildings and infrastructure [1].
Although in this first plan most historic streets kept their function and orientation, some
secondary streets were erased in his second Master Plan presented in 1936. This plan
designed for 300,000 inhabitants was approved in a period when Stalinist repressions had
already begun and a year before the architect Tamanyan passed away [2].
2
IDEA: AN UNCERTAIN IDEA OF ARARATIAN STREET
In both plans mentioned above, the north-south Araratian Street, which these days is named
Northern Avenue, was seen as one of the main axises for the urban structure. It started from
the lower southern train station square, crossing the south-eastern corner of the main
administrative Republic Square, then called Lenin Square (See Figure 1.2). It continued to
the cultural square with the People’s House building surrounded with gardens (now Freedom
square where the Opera Theatre and Concert Hall both designed by Tamanyan are located).
Still heading north, it ended at the foot of a still-present hill, where the second master plan
extended the development of the urban area by lengthening the axis to the North.
“Up till now, the presence of Ararat in the city’s southern panorama is majestic and
dramatically. But this gift of the nature in Tamanyan’s plan found an inseparable unity and
picturesque royalty of two, eternally snow-covered peaks, remaining near, it harmonious and
solemn fit into the architecture of Yerevan. The core of leading composition of the city – the
central ceremonial area and theatre area, with vertical dominants of two major buildings –
Government House and the theatre, joint by the axis of North Avenue – was oriented on twoheaded Ararat” [2].
According to some orally transmitted stories, the street was originally called “Araratian” by
Tamanyan himself, although written proof of that has yet to be found. It was called Araratian
to refer to Mount Ararat, a biblical symbol for the Armenian people and a powerful reminder
of the country lost as a result of the Armenian Genocide and of the historical events that took
place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Araratian Street first appears on the 1924 plan
and later on the 1936 plan, and by looking closely we see that the street is narrower in the
190
second plan (See Figure 1.2 and 1.3). This is one of the main facts that show that even though
Tamanyan conceived this axis, he was not sure that it was worth being achieved. Besides
being the author of the master plan of the city, he was at that time the first President of the
Monuments Preservation Committee of Soviet Armenia and one of the initiators of it. As
such, his duty of preservation of historical buildings was in contradiction with his own master
plan, because it had to cut the existing urban fabric of the city formed in 18th-19th centuries
[3].
Fig 1: Evolution of Araratian Street
1. Fragment from Situation Plan of Yerevan, by Boris Mehrabyan, 1906-1911
2. Fragment from Master Plan of Yerevan 1924, by Alexander Tamanyan, Approved in 1924
3. Fragment from Master Plan of Yerevan 1936, by Alexander Tamanyan, Approved in 1936
4. Fragment from Plan of Detailed Planning for Yerevan’s Centre, by Mikael Mazmanyan and others, 1967
5. Schematic Plan of Land Use for Northern Avenue, 2000’s, Unknown Source
6. Aerial view of Northern Avenue, Google Earth, 2015
Another fact shows that Tamanyan did not prioritize the realization of Araratian Street. He
often designed and built certain key buildings around Yerevan himself in order to ensure that
the street which he envisioned next to these buildings would be built, also having intention to
form the urban scale (height, set-back, etc.). These buildings can be considered corner stones
of the fulfilment of Tamanyan’s plan. This is true for the current Anatomic Department of
Medical University (1927), the Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry Institute (1928)
and some other buildings in the student district of Yerevan (Buildings No. 1 and No. 5 of
State Engineering University, National Library, etc.). During the same period, his fellow
architects built several buildings serving the same purpose towards the evolution of the urban
structures. During 1930’s, when Tamanyan was coordinating the achievement of his plan,
several intersections were shaped, in particular Nalbandyan-Tumanyan Streets (1925-1928)
and Mashtots (previously Stalin, then Lenin) Avenue-Tumanyan Street (1932), both by
Nikoghayos Buniatyan, or the New Government House on Mashtots Avenue designed by
Buniatyan (1931) and Mark Grigoryan (1936-1939). These all show a coordinated effort to
shape the urban landscape of Yerevan by buildings highlighting streets, but this strategy was
never applied to Araratian Street. Tamanyan could have asked anyone to propose a building
on Araratian Street, but no evidence shows that he did such proposal.
Another example of the afore mentioned is a constructivist (modernist) style department store
on the corner of Abovyan and Aram streets finished in 1936 (Architects: Arsen Aharonyan,
Gevork Kochar, Mikael Mazmanyan, Hovhannes Margaryan). This building occupies a whole
191
block on the current Northern Avenue, though that side of the building is void of any element
linking the building to the street.
The narrowing of the planned street and the lack of buildings from the period of Tamanyan to
outline the space lead us to believe that Tamanyan did not consider Araratian Street to be an
important aspect of his plan.
3
IDEOLOGY: SOVIET NARRATIVES
In one of his renderings of Lenin Square, Mark Grigoryan, Chief-Architect of Yerevan from
1937-1951 and Tamanyan’s student, did not include Northern Avenue (See Figure 2.1). This
is a good example of the shifting paradigm in Yerevan: instead of building a public open
spaces the main urban focal point, the preference went to Stalin Avenue (later Lenin, now
Mashtots Avenue). Even when Alexander Tamanyan was alive in 1931, there was a
competition for the previously mentioned Government building on Stalin Avenue which as it
was mentioned above was designed by Buniatyan and later transformed to Hospital by
Grigoryan. This highlights the controversy of the political situation that by having approved
Master Plan with a clear dominancy of main administrative square with the main Government
building under construction a new Government building is being built.
Some oral histories support the likely hypothesis that Araratian Street was considered a
nationalistic project, emphasizing Mount Ararat’s presence in the city, the symbol of longing
of the Armenian people for the biblical mountain now located in Turkey’s territory. Then
under Stalinist repression, Stalin Avenue (now Mashtots) which was in the centre of urban
developments was decorated with one of the biggest statues of Stalin, up until the 1960’s,
highlighting its ideological relevance.
Fig 2: Different Sketches of Araratian Street area
1. Bird-eye view of Lenin (Republic) Square, by Mark Grigoryan, 1950’s [4].
2. Sketch of Northern Avenue, by Rafael Israelyan, 1960’s [5]
For quite a long time however, the idea of Northern Avenue itself was not considered
important by Soviet architects and planners during Soviet rule. When Nikita Khrushchev
came into power in 1953, he undertook a radical re-examination of Stalinist urban planning
principles. He brought on a campaign against everything he considered superfluous.
Functional approaches took over and creative experiments of architects advocating
constructivism were supported, but in combination with a policy aimed at minimising costs
and intensifying the pace of construction].
192
At this time, and even a little before the Second World War, development of housing was a
bigger concern than the realization of Tamanyan’s Master Plan. Efforts for Araratian Street
were set aside and bedroom neighbourhoods were created on the outskirts of Yerevan in order
to accommodate rapid population growth. Urban development under Khrushchev’s authority
at Communist party was different, it “possessed a clear social emphasis, including the
introduction of new standards and principles governing the way in which the urban and rural
environment was organised in everything from housing to the functional zoning of residential
complexes, and systematic drawing up of master plans to take into account the new
requirements” [6].
In the 1960’s, works on a new Master Plan of Yerevan were launched, under direct influence
of Mikael Mazmanyan, a constructivist architect, who was involved in most of the
neighbourhood designs of late 50’s and early 60’s. The Master Plan proposal also included
Detailed Planning Project (PDP in Russian, Plan Detalnovo Planoravaniya) for Yerevan’s
centre. In the framework of this project the idea of Araratian Street was revived. Remaining
photos of the model shows that the approach was modernistic, an advanced and large scale
open space, cutting existing urban fabric mostly for public buildings (See Figure 1.4).
Although there were several competitions in 1970’s and 80’s the idea was not realized till the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Architect and planner Gurgen Mousheghyan who was Chief
Architect of Yerevan from 1982 to 1989 during an interview said the reason was insufficient
funds for non-residential constructions. Even though in late 70’s and 80’s several large scale
public buildings were built in and around central part of Yerevan.
4
REALISATION: “PUBLIC SPACE”
With the Armenian economy reaching certain stability, the idea of Northern Avenue
reappeared in the late 1990’s with the personal support of then President Robert Kocharyan.
Many maintain that this was the way by which the nationalistic government would take
control of Yerevan’s landscape and show how an independent Armenian government could
achieve something that had been previously impossible. The President considered the city
centre as “an uncivilized space” that needed to be imbued with the narratives of global
commerce [7].
The opening of the avenue in 2007 came at a price, especially for those who were previously
living in this densely built centre and who saw their homes demolish (See Figure 1.5).
This development was one of the first large scale developments in post-Soviet area, where the
ownership rights were “inherited” by privatization of commonly-owned assets. Although
there were similar projects in other ex-Soviet countries, none of them had to deal with this
amount of property owners. The change in the economic structure as a new wealthy social
group was emerging and this intense speculation made it impossible for locals to stay in the
city centre and brought in international investors, mainly Armenian diaspora from Russia, US
and Middle East.
The shape given to the centre of Yerevan, amply used in the new branding of the city,
radically changed with the coming of this new space. Russian empire style one- to two-story
buildings made way for 8- to 10-story buildings, though Tamanyan’s Yerevan had stayed
away from buildings taller than 5 stories. Over half a kilometre block, local inhabitants were
pushed out to make way for shiny storefronts representing modern and international Armenia
(See Figure 1.6).
According to Narek Sargsyan, Chief Architect of Yerevan from 1999-2004 and 2011-2013, in
the year 2000 during initial planning phase, the avenue’s width was to be 21 meters. Then it
193
was decided, upon consultation with other architects, that it was to be 24 meters wide and that
the buildings surrounding it were to be 24 meters high, meaning 6 floors aligned with the
street and two floors of setbacks. He then said that certain circumstances, remaining vague
about what these were, made it so that all floors were aligned with the street [8].
From the organization of public space and the spatial planning to the implemented solutions
reminds of a sketch from renowned architect Rafael Israelyan’s proposal found in personal
archives during that period (See Figure 2.2). Israelyan, author of Stalin’s statue (which after
the death of Stalin was transformed to Mother Armenia statue) was an influential
representative of post-Tamanyan era who was considered the forerunner of Tamanyan after
Second World War.
Having been planned for development (“under the plan” as society called properties with
potential destruction) since the beginning of the 20th century, the mythical avenue entered
into a cycle of disinvestment for 70 years. Since the authorities knew that there was to be a
new street in that part of Yerevan, no investments were made throughout the century to
accommodate the population that lived there. The zone was pending demolition and this lack
of investment reinforced the argument for the need of a tabula rasa.
It went through double resilience process. First, there were the architects and the intellectuals
who were for the safekeeping of buildings dating back to the Russian Empire. Second, there
was a human rights issue: the local population did not want to leave their homes, often of
excellent quality, judging that they weren’t compensated fairly. According to an official
statement, 31 listed monuments were destroyed during the period of 1999-2006, five of which
were in the area of the current Northern Avenue [9].
In 2014, seven years after its official opening, an extensive renovation was initiated by the
Municipality of Yerevan. According to Yerevan Municipality press releases the “renovation”
was carried out through external funding and would not bring added pressure on the city’s
budget. In fact, it was funded by Tashir, a group of companies that own the first western style
shopping mall of Yerevan. The group owned by a wealthy Russian-Armenian was already in
the process of opening the second mall in the residential districts of Yerevan. The renovation
included drainage, changing pavements of the whole streets, setting up a new rain water
management system, fixing or rather doubling the amount of steps connecting the street level
with ground levels of the buildings. There was also an attempt to solve problematic
intersections where two streets open to car traffic meet the pedestrian avenue (See
Illustrations 3.1-3.3).
As the renovation of the street was finalized, a new banner was noticed on the street
announcing the opening of Tashir Street shopping mall. Again based on media coverage, it
became obvious that the first floor of the underground parking (-1 floor) was to be assigned to
Tashir Group to open a new shopping mall under the Northern Avenue.
The third “transformation” of the street from Araratian to Northern (Avenue) and then to
Tashir is a unique example of transformation of narrative of capital-formation of the nation. If
the Araratian is the symbol of the First Republic, Northern represents well the Soviet
Armenia, though it was not realized at the time, and Tashir Street is the latest layer of
meaning, representing the socio-political situation of independent Armenia based on
neoliberal economy. In this regard art critic Nazareth Karoyan writes: “Northern Avenue is
the axis of these developments: the purpose of this modernist project that would reveal the
vector of territorialization of political rights and restoration of the nation state in the past is
being reconsidered. The first of these reconsiderations is to serve the economic interests of
the dominant groups in society and the strengthening of their political power. The second is
the re-construction of the economy and the replacement of production with services.” [10].
194
Fig 3: Araratian Street (Northern Avenue) today
1. A view looking to Opera building
2. A view to Republic Square, in front National Gallery of Armenia
3. Summer night view
5
URBAN SPACE
The pedestrian link between Republic Square and Freedom Square created by the avenue is
the first and only area of Yerevan dedicated exclusively to pedestrian traffic. Though this new
formal pedestrian link throughout the centre is excellent for pedestrian traffic, we must
remember that small local shops supplying every day needs have been demolished along with
the old urban tissue, meaning that the newly installed locals must find other means of
transportation in order to run errands [11].
Based on one of the survey’s carried out by urbanlab Yerevan in 2014, in the framework of a
project called Other Yerevan (which is not published yet), 45% of answerers (architects,
planners, artists, activists, etc.; around 70 professionals) stated that Northern Avenue defeats
the purpose Yerevan’s urban environment. The same survey shows that the inheritance from
the Tsarist (Russian Empire) period is the most endangered heritage. A majority of
respondents said that the most unique urban environment of Yerevan is Abovyan Street,
which consists mostly of Russian Empire era buildings and, before the opening of the
Northern Avenue, was the link between Opera and Republic squares. There is thus an
importance given to the heritage of the old urban setting and a certain rejection of the
planning objectives prioritized by the city’s administrators.
Going from Tumanyan Street to Abovyan Street, Northern Avenue is crossed by Lalayants
(currently Hin Yerevantsi), Teryan and Pushkin streets. All three are small scale streets,
designed for only local traffic (See Figure 4.1-4.3). Those who wish to go from one side of
Yerevan to the other take the boulevards that were designed for transit that are avoiding
intersection with Northern Avenue. Where these small streets intersect with Northern Avenue,
car traffic has to slow down to the speed of the dense pedestrian traffic as there are not any
traffic lights and proper signs. This has positive effect on cohabitation; the drivers always
cross eyes with the pedestrians and are very vigilant.
The changes brought to the avenue in 2014’s, were mostly in order to clarify the intersections
between the pedestrian avenue and the streets open to car traffic that cross it, such as Teryan
and Pushkin Streets. There were other changes brought to the street in the end of August 2015
(See Figure 4.1 and 4.2), bringing the pedestrian and bike crossings closer in together, all
concentrated in the centre of Northern Avenue. This means that there’s a will to limit the
amount of interactions between the avenue and its cross streets. The reason for this is hard to
grasp, considering that the avenue is divided in two distinct walkways and that it isn’t natural
195
for a pedestrian to diverge his or her path to the centre in order to cross, as we can see in the
second image, making the markings on the floor seem anecdotic.
Fig 4: Intersection of Northern Avenue with Teryan and Old Yerevantsi streets
1. July 2015; 2. August 2015; 3. September 2015 (Credit: Seda Grigoryan)
The surface of the avenue and the buildings seem to be two very different entities. The
entrance to the shops are located either above or below the street level (in some parts till 1.5
meter), behind an arcade which is around 2 meters wide. The steps and the distance put up a
certain barrier between the pedestrian and the shops, contributing to the isolation of both.
Though the avenue can be considered relatively empty until 14:00 during summer, the
evening brings to it many musicians, magicians, small object vendors, Armenian dancers and
street artists, all spaced out throughout the half kilometre it occupies. In the summer, it’s so
popular with both tourists and locals that it’s hard to navigate through. All of this happens
independently from the majority of the stores, though the restaurants with their enclosed
terraces contribute to the environment (See Figure 3.3).
The attempts at linking the street to an ideology have been partially successful in that they did
give Yerevan a new image, though one that differs from the intended neo-liberal meaning.
Another narrative has been developed by the users of the space. This fourth layer of
signification, added to the ones previously mentioned, is one that wasn’t imposed, but that
appeared by itself. People began using this space as a linear gathering space, walking from
Republic Square to Freedom Square and back, all the while entertaining themselves not with
shopping, but with the aforementioned entertainers and impromptu meetings with friends by
considering it one of the major public open spaces in capital of Armenia.
6
CONCLUSIONS
Abovementioned points emphasize the need for re-evaluating the importance of Ararartian
Street for Yerevan and obstacles for current use of the Northern Avenue. More specifically,
the article shows that:
The transformation of Araratian Street to Northern Avenue and then to Tashir Street
symbolizes the ideological transformation of post-Tamanyan urban Yerevan, from the
Nation building phenomenon to Soviet public space re-evaluation of 60’s and to neoliberal projects under nationalistic dictate
.
Tamanyan’s two master plans of 1924 and 1936, together with his personal priorities
of shaping “corner stones” of urban fabric come to prove that the idea of such a street
which would cut the pre-Soviet urban fabric was an uncertain and doubtable concept
to him.
196
After realization and several improvements, the street continues to have issues from
urban spatial design perspective, in particular for its mobility schemes, urban qualities
and public space uses.
This situation can be improved through deeper collaborative assessment of issues by
trying to approach them from wider urban perspective (i.e. vehicle traffic or pedestrian
walkable network of the city centre) and also carrying an enhanced study of public
space uses, more specifically by addressing needs based on current and future use.
REFERENCES
[1] “Report on Planning of Yerevan” by Alexander Tamanyan, Published on Khorhrdyain Hayastan (Soviet
Armenia) Newspaper 04.11.1924 issues, Text edited by Vardan Azatyan for “In between of Public Sector
and Society”, utopiana.am and Hovhannissian Institute, Yerevan, 2015, pp. 111-119, Source:
http://arteria.am/hy/1429464913.
[2] Yuri Safaryan, Marietta Gasparyan, Artyom Aloyan, “The Master Plan of Yerevan”, Proceedings of 3rd
International Conference on Contemporary Problems in Architecture and Construction “Architecture and
Urban Construction on the Low-carbon Strategies”. Beijing, China, November 20—24, 2011, pp. 1-30 - 135.
[3] Taline Ter-Minassian, “Architecture et patrimoine à Erevan, De l'identité nationale à “l'héritage”
soviétique?”, Société francaise d’histoire urbaine, “Histoire urbaine”, 2009/2 No. 25, p. 15-48.
[4] Mark Grigorian journal (Online), http://markgrigorian.livejournal.com, (Accessed 04 October 2015).
[5] Rafael Israelyan biographical Website. (Online), http://www.rafaelisraelyan.com, (Accessed 04 October
2015).
[6] Ruben Arevshatyan, “An Architecture of Paradoxical Shifts”, Soviet Modernism 1955-1991, An Unknown
History, Architekturzentrum Wien, 2012, pp. 117-133.
[7] Diana K. Ter-Ghazaryan, “Civilizing the city center”: symbolic spaces and narratives of the nation in
Yerevan's post-Soviet landscape”, Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 2012,
41:4, 570-589.
[8] “My vision for Yerevan is Accomplished”, Meet Architecture with Narek Sargsyan, Talk organized by
urbanlab Yerevan, Cafesjian Center for Art, Yerevan, 15.03.2012, Recorded by utopiana.am, Source:
https://youtu.be/EN078DF1q_Y.
[9] “Report on Protection of Historical Monuments in Yerevan”, Victims of State Needs NGO, Yerevan, 2012,
11 pages.
[10] Nazareth Karoyan, “Public Sphere as a Place for Gifts: Social-Symbolic Characteristics of the City-building
of Post-Soviet Yerevan” in Public Spheres after Socialism de Harutyunyan, Hörschelmann & Miles,
Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 2009, pp. 29-36.
[11] Sarhat Petrosyan, Anna Aktaryan, “Possibilities of overlaying necessity of Northern Avenue with
preservation of historical urban structure of Yerevan”, Provisions for an International Conference,
Preservation Problems and Development Perspectives of the Intellectual Heritage of Architecture and Urban
Construction, November 2011, pages 9-14 Armenian.
197
198
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AND ITS ROLE BETWEEN
PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL SPACES
Marko Todorov1, Ivana Miškeljin2
1
Author Affiliation (COUNTRY) [11-point, italic, centred]
Author Affiliation (COUNTRY) [11-point, italic, centred]
todorov@uns.ac.rs, mivana@uns.ac.rs
2
Abstract
The consumption represents one of the key phenomena of the modern society and shapes
almost every part of the contemporary life. It is very difficult to observe and analyze the
modern architecture apart from the systems of consumption and the consumer society, as well
as the media system as one of the key tools of the modern consumption. This is not a
phenomena that occurs only in some specific, commercial and consumption oriented formats
of architecture, which are directly connected to the fields of market, such as retail
architecture. It is also present in all other forms of architecture, including the ones that are in
function of culture, such as museums and galleries. In this paper we discuss the
transformation of architecture and its role in contemporary society from an utilitarian tool into
a form of media spectacle. It is even possible to consider architecture and design as a media
form or, at least, as an important part of the contemporary media context in which the
boundaries between information and product are blurred. Following not just cultural and
economical, but also the technological and media changes in last two decades, especially the
development of the internet, architecture changes its primary role and the main question we
consider in this paper is disappearance of the formal boundaries between traditionally
separated fields of architecture and information, utilitarian and communication function and,
finally, the boundaries between physical and virtual space.
Keywords: architecture, consumption, physical space, virtual space, material reality, virtual
reality, space, reality, physical, virtual, consumption, media
1
RELATION BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL SPACE IN PROCESS OF
ARCHITETURAL DESIGN
Relation between physical and virtual spaces are very wide field. First, in the introduction, it
is necessary to ask how the relationship between this two worlds (physical and virtual) has a
role in the process of architectural design (including also interior design)? What are the
mutual influences between the material and the virtual world, and how these mutual
influences are reflected in the process of defining architectural concept? According Jacques
Herzog and Pierre de Meuron:”The virtual world is a world of pure imagination. But its
starting point is always the material, physical world that forms the basis of our existence”1. In
this context, newer ending story between material and immaterial world, question arises:
“how information can be extracted from the shared material world and transformed into a
shared immaterial world of bits, and how it can be rendered back in a way such that, when it
manifests in the material world again, it may “operate” within an individual’s immateriality as
1
Herzog & de Meuron: The Virtual House, In: Cynthia C. Davidson (Ed.): Any. The Virtual House. Vol. No. 19/20, New York, Anyone
Corporation, 1997., str. 24-27. http://virtualhouse.ch. “The material world determines the immaterial world, or, to put it another way, the
immaterial world is a category or an invention of the material world. This invention is a means of guaranteeing, through the use of thoughts
and images, the survival and continuing existence of the material world.”
199
a “desiring machine”.2 The following text describes example of Newer ending story between
material and immaterial world.
Monte Amiata Housing is based on strong programmatic idea (Fig. 1). This residential
complex is based on idea to encourage a various social activities, social values through the
specific use of communications. This communications is wide open outer space, which
emphasizes social interaction and that creates the main identity of building. The strong
identity of whole building is also reflecting different references. Aymonino was influenced by
le Corbusier`s housing in Marseilles and also by Pierre Chareau`s Maison de Verre in Paris3.
Aldo Rossi was inspired by Giorgio de Chirico`s paintings.4 This building complex represents
abstract story between physical and virtual space, between material and immaterial world.
Figure 1. Monte Amiata Housing, Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi, Milano, late 1960s.
2
RELATION BETWEEN MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL WORLD IN
CONTEXT OF EMPAZIES CONSUMER SOCIETY
An important issue that arises is: How it is changing our imagination in a time of very strong
consumption, because it is obvious that the imagination, after processed influence of reality,
at least to some extent produces architectural discourse? In time when struggle between the
“Beauty of provocation” and the “Beauty of consumption”5 are very dynamic and complex,
how our thoughts and images are changing in process of design?
2
Miskeljin, Bojana: Eigen Windows – As a Reflection of Singaporeans Cultural Diversity, in Eigen Architecture, Computability as Literacy,
Applied Virtuality Book Series, Editors: LudgerHovestadt and Vera Buhlmann, Ambra, Vienna, 2013 pp. 58
Castex, Jean: Architecture of Italy, GreenWodd Press, London, 2008. pp. 85.
4
Ibid. pp. 85.
5
Umberto, Eco: History of Beauty,
3
200
According to Peter Sloterdijk, the XX century is „century of complexity“6 and „century of
extreme“7. Social and cultural reality today is dynamic filed, in which are taking place the
following processes: the process of merging material and virtual, „the Implosion of meaning
in the Media“8, accumulation of information and fragments of information and precepts,
accumulation of moving images, spectacle, which establish certain flows of thinking.
According to Deleuze, social reality can be understand as very abstract story, in four episodes,
in which: „Images are constantly acting and reacting on each other, producing and
consuming. There's no difference at all between images, things, and motion“9, and in which:
„So we're caught in a chain of images, each of us in our own particular place, each ourself an
image, and also in a network of ideas acting as precepts“10 According to him: „It's the whole,
which isn't any set of things but the ceaseless passage from one set to another, the
transformation of one set of things into another“11. In this way, it can be concluded that we
are always in the middle of these different flows, movements, events, information, i.e. flows
of our thoughts are exposed to a variety of other flows, switching to other flows (streams).
The question of aesthetics of space is an integral part of these processes.
The consumer reality has a significant impact on our imagination. Precisely this fact that our
imagination (in time of very strong consummation) is object of exploitation in order to sell
products, contributes to the development of new relationships between the virtual and the
material space. The social and cultural context encourages market differentiation and
emphasizes the development of symbolic identities, brands, including symbolic architectural
identities. In these complex processes of market differentiation, our imagination is the object
of exploitation. However, our relationship with mass media and the cultural industries is very
complex. According to David Hesmondhalgh informational text but also and entertainment
which: „provide us with recurring representations of the world and so on act as a kind of
reporting. Just crucially, they draw on and help to constitute our inner, private lives our public
selves: our fantasies, emotions and identities.“12 The architecture reflects this complexity. It is
a product of various imagination, but at the same time it is an integral part of new flows, of
the emergence of new imagination. In that sense, it brings to newer ending story between
virtual and material world. The different architectural symbolic identities represent different
approaches. Architecture as a dynamic conceptual field is based on different theories, ideas,
and processes.
As a consequence of the described social and cultural reality, we can observe the following
process in architecture (and in interior design): While sales of goods tends to be relocated in
virtual space, physical space is used for materializing the story, it shows the imagination
behind and it is presenting a specific identity. This process is described in the next chapter.
3
CONTEMPORARY INTERIOR DESIGN AND DISTINCTION BETWEEN
PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL SPACE
Emergence and development of the mass media as well as the global consumer society, led to
some radical changes in perception, as well as in the basic function of an architectural space.
6
Sloterdijk, Peter: What happened in the twentieth century? En route to a critique of extremist reason. Inaugural Lecture, Emmanuel Levinas
Chair, Strasbourg, March 4, 2005. str. 327-355.
7
Ibid., str. 327-355.
8
9
Bodrijar, Žan: Simulakrum i simulacija; Prevod sa francuskog Frida Filipovi ; Svetovi, Novi Sad, 1991., str. 83-90.
Deleuze. Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990, Columbia University Press New York, 1995., pp. 42.
10
Deleuze. Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990, Columbia University Press New York, 1995., pp. 43.
11
Deleuze. Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990, Columbia University Press New York, 1995., pp. 55.
12
Hesmondhalgh, David: The Cultural Industries, Sage Publications, 2007., pp. 4
201
That phenomenon is visible on all spatial levels of architecture, but on the level of the interior
it is especially noticeable. The key difference between the level of the interior and other
spatial levels lays in its programmatic and structural flexibility. Demand for flexibility has
been one of the important tasks of modern architecture during its development, but more
complex systems such as building or the city, has been usually more rigid and inert, compared
to the level of interior design. Interior design is a fluid field that lays between architecture and
product design, the field deeply rooted in the sphere of industry and its channels of
information represented in the mass media. Its physical flexibility and the relative
independence of the architectural structures that contain it, has transformed modern interior in
a format suitable for different kinds of manipulations, inherent to the logic of fashion and
advertising, more than architecture. Following this, modern interior design, more than all
other spatial levels, fits Baudrillard’s idea about absorption of all the cultural forms in the
advertising.
The emergence of the consciousness of the interior as an independent entity in the 19th
century, [9] led to the physical stratification of the architectural levels, and the detachment of
the interior from the architectural structure and its recognition as a physically independent
shell. Emergence of new building technologies and materials, particular different dry
construction systems, contributed in transformation of the interior into an independent and
ephemeral narrative shell. During this process, the internal logic of interior design became
more and more decorative, instead of being tectonic. According this, it is possible to consider
that the forces that changed the basic logic (and the function) of the interior aren’t just
external (such as social, economical and cultural), but also internal, emerging inherently
inside the system, and transforming its design logic. As a result, interior design became
adaptable to the quick changes of the fashion cycles and consumer trends, more then
architecture on the higher spatial levels. During modernization and the processes of
transformation of internal design logic of the design, interior design approached fields of
fashion and advertising, simultaneously, depart from the mother field of architecture. In other
words, the effects of the mass consumption in the modern interior are more reflected than in
the modern architecture.
The change of the design logic of the modern interior, means also the change of its language.
The classic language, including also the formal language of the International style, is now
replaced by the multitude of different stylistic forms and narratives, which are not anymore
bonded to the aesthetics of fine arts, but the aesthetics of lifestyle, commonly consumed
through media, advertising and popular culture. In other words, modern consumer identities
are shaped through models borrowed from mass culture. The issues of the personal identities
are not anymore based on traditional foundations and subjective perception of family, class or
national identity, but the questions of personal taste and its shaping. As Bourdieau noted,
there is a homology between production of goods and production of taste. [10] According
that, it is possible to look at the interior design, and its styles, as a commodity which
contributes in the processes of shaping personal and group identities. Tight connection
between narratives of physical (interior design), and virtual space (the image of interior
design and its styles in mass-culture) and the fluid circulation between those two spheres, has
made interior design important tool in the process of the production of taste and consumer
identities. Arjun Appadurai noted an important phenomena of imagined nostalgia, [11] a form
of nostalgia which is not based on subjective experience, but images and events adopted from
media and popular culture. In other words, the production of taste and identities in the modern
consumer society is actually based on production of nostalgia. In this context, interior has
transformed into a form of consumer spectacle, a play in which the narratives created in
advertising and culture industry are materialized. The modern interior, according this, has a
202
role in stimulating the „work of imagination“, and set a physical frame in which the
experience of mass-media consumer is expanded onto other senses which were intact by the
forms of electronic media. For example, the contemporary paradigm of luxury good is not
based on the real, material value (limited resources or the artistic and craft skills), but on the
narratives of luxury that include not only visual references (how the object is look like), but
also the tactile (how the object is feel like) and scented (how the object is smell like)
references. Activating the other senses, the modern interior gives a strength of reality to the
advertising. As Foster noted, „not only commodity and a sign seems identical, but also
commodity and a space. In the real and virtual shopping malls, they merged into design.“
Figure 2. Oki-ni showroom in Savile Row in London, 2001.
Following the development of online shopping, emerged an interesting turn in the role of
physical and virtual spaces. Traditionally, the virtual space, by virtue of its high narrative
capacity, was a space of advertising, and the real space was utilitarian, a space for trading. In
the last decades, interior design expanded its language, accepted the narrative logic and the
logic of the advertising, and added a upgrade this logic with the full sense experience. At
same time, a virtual space of internet, without territorial limits, and with less complicated
logistic demands, became an ideal form of space for trading. That implies a switch in the main
function of the space - physical, interior space, became more and more the space of
advertising, which main function is the consumer seduction, while the real trading is taking
place in the virtual space of internet. Oki-ni in London’s Savile Row has been one of the first
showrooms that doesn’t sell the merchandise, but represents a kind of “physical extension of
an e-shop” [12]
203
4
CONCLUSION:
The physical space is used for materializing the story in postmodern society. In the
architectural and interior design process the aim is to encourage a certain “circuits“13 which
encourage viewer's interest for that specific brand. This “circuits“is imposing or encouraging
the development of a personal symbolic identity in relation to the specific brand. Aesthetics of
space is related to identities. The result is a simple and concrete (space selling the story), but
the mechanisms behind it can be very complex and abstract. The exploitation of this
relationship between the physical and virtual space, i.e. the material and the virtual world,
through images and thoughts, is very complex at a time when there is merging of the
commercial and provocative (avant-garde).
REFERENCES:
[1] Herzog Jacques, De Meuron, Pierre (Herzog & de Meuron): The Virtual House, In: Cynthia C. Davidson
(Ed.): Any. The Virtual House. Vol. No. 19/20, New York, Anyone Corporation, 1997., str. 24-27.
http://virtualhouse.ch
[2] Miskeljin, Bojana: Eigen Windows – As a Reflection of Singaporeans Cultural Diversity, in Eigen
Architecture, Computability as Literacy, Applied Virtuality Book Series, Editors: LudgerHovestadt and
Vera Buhlmann, Ambra, Vienna, 2013.
[3] Castex, Jean: Architecture of Italy, GreenWodd Press, London, 2008
[4] Eko, Umberto: Istorija Lepote, Plato, Beograd, 2005.,
[5] Sloterdijk, Peter: What happened in the twentieth century? En route to a critique of extremist reason.
Inaugural Lecture, Emmanuel Levinas Chair, Strasbourg, March 4, 2005.
[6] Bodrijar, Žan: Simulakrum i simulacija Prevod sa francuskog Frida Filipovi Svetovi, Novi Sad, 1991.
[7] Deleuze. Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990, Columbia University Press New York, 1995.
[8] Hesmondhalgh, David: The Cultural Industries, Sage Publications, 2007.
[9] Rice, Charles: The Emergence of the Interior: Architecture, Modernity, Domesticity, London, Routledge,
2007.
[10] Bourdieu, Pierre: Distinction, A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London, Routledge, 1984.
[11] Apaduraj, Ardžun: Kultura i globalizacija, Beograd, XX vek, 2011.
[12] Vernet, David; de Wit Leontine: Boutiques and Other Retail Spaces: The Architecture of Seduction,
London, Routledge, 2007.
13
“circuits“ is term of Deleuze's: Deleuze. Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990, Columbia University Press New York, 1995. pp. 60.
204
A MODEL OF ACTIVE SPACE
Dennis Lagemann1
1
ETH Zurich, (SWITYERLAND)
lagemann@arch.ethz.ch
Abstract
Since Zeus made Atlas to separate Uranus and Gaia, we know that two spheres have to be
kept apart to enable development. In Architecture it was Alberti who separated mystical
content from geometrical proportionality. Today we tend to declare the ‘field’ as being the
ultimate expression of entanglement between form and content and by this, computational
models become increasingly complicated. We try to derive meaningful form from nature to
emerge intriguing geometries. But geometries are also a matter of systems of control. On the
other hand history proves that systems fail when paradigms shift and digitization and
computation have to be considered as such a shift. So maybe the next step might be an
inversion from fields of geometry to informed spaces, superposing, penetrating and
alternating each other. For this, we need a notion of active space, which is able to promote
several milieus simultaneously. “Active Space” is a model based on the idea of points of
reference that can take properties. Instead of computing objects in space, active space can
show how activities can be related in a spatial environment to avoid conflicts.
Keywords: History, Theory, Spatial Conceptions, Computational Models
1
INTRODUCTION
Conceptions of space in European Architecture can be linked to a dialectical interplay
between space itself and whatever is borne by space. Although discreteness of objects and
continuity of space will turn out to be complementary, an emphasis is put either on the one or
the other point of view. But there also appears to be a triad because whenever an era is
drawing to an end, a shift in abstraction, seeking the ideas beyond the visible heralds in a new
paradigm. Another way to name this triad could be taken from mathematics. Fernando
Zalamea calls them “archeal”, the “quiddital” and the “eidal”, or the description of principles,
the explanation of what there is, and the transgression of ideas [1].
The Greek conception of space became a legacy within a perennial cosmos until the end of
European Middle-Ages. The Borgia-Velletri-Map of 1430 was full of tell-tale stories and
ideas behind physical reality.
2
MODERNITY
For further development, the spheres of myth and space had to be separated to establish a new
level of abstraction. Alberti expulsed mythical content from space, by relating objects in
space directly towards each other without the help of the gods out there or a sacred perennial
cosmos [2]. Renaissance became the outset of a new era and reset to a new 1st period. Alberti
created the first parametric map encoded as a list and scalable to any desired comprehensive
size around 1450. He was literally clearing the field. In a sense, Renaissance created a first
model of space, opposed to the concept of space in antiquity.
205
Fig. 1: 1430’s Borgia-Velletri Map (left) opposed to Alberti’s Map of Rome from around 1450 (right)
2.1
The Dynamic System
If Renaissance gave new principles, then Rene Descartes gave a new approach to formulate
what there is, by inventing the equation sign [3]. The static reference between Uranus and
Gaia, unsettled by Alberti, operationalized by Descartes, became a stage. With Newton the
epos of the Universe could unfold on the stage of space and along the axis of time, bearing the
drama of life and the tragedy of being. The architectural counterpart to this model of space as
a container has been the Baroque Void. The ideas of spatial operations successively found
their way into Architecture and can thus be found in the transformation sequences of ClaudeNicolas Ledoux [4]. In fact: Transformation involves time and time introduces the system,
which alters information from a given input into a processed output. Furthermore in 1741
Leonhard Euler published his famous mathematical proof that there is no positive solution to
the „Seven Bridges Problem“ and started what we today term topology [5]. As an early
adaptation and with undisputed genius, Ledoux was folding and twisting the topological
sequences, which can be found in the much vaster layout of Versailles onto a given urban plot
to create Hôtel Thelusson [4].
2.2
Departure from Passive Space
In the Century succeeding, everything seemed to be understood, there was no question left
concerning ‘What there is‘, just: ‚Why and How?‘ But at the same time Nineteenth Century’s
upheaval opened up a new 3rd period. Natural laws should provide stability for physical
existence. Gottfried Semper, maybe the most comprehensive European Architect of this time,
included the ideas of Entropy1, Osteology and Evolution Theory2, as well as the beginnings of
Group Theory3 into his conception of Architecture. At the same time he called the purpose of
architectural space: “The Masking of Reality“ [6], while he was seeking for the ideas behind
the visible:
206
“The Theory of Style summarizes the beautiful in a uniform way, as a product or result, not as
a sum or series. It examines the components of the form, which are not Form themselves, but
idea, power, material and resource; as well as the constituents and basic conditions of the
form.” [7]
Fig. 2: Topology beyond geometry. Semper’s Coefficients for the Theory of Style [6].
3
MODERNISM: OUTSET OF A NEW ERA
But by learning about Style, Architects unlearned to deal with space. This is why Le
Corbusier stated: The “Styles” are a Lie. [8] In getting feet back on the ground Albert Einstein
and Mileva Maric helped a lot to point out a new understanding of space, rather spacetime, by
singing the song of Relativity. In this mindset and by expulsion of the complicated concept of
Style, an Architecture was developed where space has to be experienced by moving and by
the changings of light in time. And to indicate that this was the beginning of a new 1st period,
quite a few similarities to Renaissance can be found: Relative space of Renaissance becomes
Relativistic Spacetime in Modernism. “Vers une Architecture” [8], like Alberti’s “Ten Books
on Architecture’ is pinpointing principles [9]. The Modulor put the Human Being back into
the center of concern, a.s.o.
3.1
Straying in the Field
If the hypothesis is now that the next step will be some inversion from object to relationality,
what would be some indicators? The ‘Physiocrats’ of Ledoux’s time tried to refer back to a
natural order. And also today it becomes quite popular to seek for a continuity and natural
order in rule-based geometries. But the idea of field as described by Habraken appears to be
an attempt to capture geometry, for which he implicitly states that the field does not need
Architects. This does not seem to be very helpful, since the field gives an answer to a question
never formulated. On the other hand Habraken states: Programs do not make [spatial] order,
they inhabit it. [10] So from Architectural perspective the question arises, how to grasp the
idea of a space, providing the potential for indeterminate programs, since people will rather
claim territories to their own favor than they would commit themselves without being
subjected. Field or not, unspecified structures still may work, even if they become recoded.
207
3.2
A Quantum Leap
Like Descartes once delivered a key to calculate Euclidean space, today there should be a
corresponding idea for an inversion from the spatial objects of Parametric Design to spaces,
which themselves bear multiple layers of information. Here Quantum Mechanics shows that
matter and energy are not enough: Information becomes a third entity to constitute space.
Applying this on a mathematical level, Riemannian spaces can bear their own bits of
information. Instead of embedding a shape in a space of n+1 dimensions information about
curvature and gluing of patches allow for defining spaces beyond the question of
dimensionality. This is neither a new idea nor an unprecedented phenomenon: already Mid20th Century Situationist movement described individual fragmented spaces popping up here
and there in continuous spacetime. (Fig. 3l)
But since for Unitarian thinking this felt scary, if individualized places pop up in spaces of
identity, for Computation this is a tool to develop corresponding working models by using
bits of information. This informed space becomes an active element, incorporating different
kinds of code and exchanging pure numerical data. (Fig. 3r)
Fig. 3, left: “Guide Psychogeographique” (1957): Individual Territories fragmenting continuous spacetime.
right: “Spaxels”: Distorsions in an informed quantized space, by proliferating “milieus”.
3.3
Points of Philosophy
One way to conceptually grasp this idea of an unspecified informed space might be the
concept of Deleuzes’ and Guattari’s milieus and territories. [11] Milieus are fuzzy areal
appearances without definite boundaries, constituted by activities of groups in smooth spaces.
Territories are spatial manifestations of milieus, striating and coding spaces. Several
Territories can overlap in one and the same place, unless they do not conflict with each other.
Another concept of what an indeterminate informed space might be is the Heterotopia as
described by Foucault: [The Heterotopia] is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place
several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible. [12]
208
3.4
Synthesis
A synthesis between these two descriptive concepts has to take into account that urban society
is deritualized, opposed to tribal communities. So any activity is of potentially deviant nature,
since it is distinct from any other activity. Within a quantum approach, any act of fulfillment
of an activity creates a trace, while at a certain point a critical mass of traces adds up to cause
a milieu. This is what distinguishes ‘The place where sometimes a guy comes up and does
some skating’ from ‘the place where the skaters meet’. If these activities constitute milieus,
which may enter into the formation of territories, then it can also be said that these territories
are Heterotopiae of a minor order because they do not claim the exclusiveness of, e.g., a
psychiatric hospital. These are rather codifications, indicating that any other person entering
this place at the time when a certain group is active there is not part of their territorialization.
In this sense any place in urban society inside or outside of edifices is temporarily being
coded as a patch of a topos, by conducted activities. If this is a “normal” occurrence and if
this is a social issue, the adequate term here might rather be a “Syntopia” since a group of
people synthesizes spatiality for a certain purpose over a certain period.
The Syntopiae may be of smooth order, if people of a certain group simply occupy an
otherwise indeterminate place or they may be institutionalized in case of the mall, the school,
the stadium etc. But in the scope of indeterminate but determinable spaces, there are several
increments between the extremes. Like the bars, the parks, or so-called multi-functional
rooms. There is a general distinction from just being any kind of space, but no specification
until a particular situation comes to terms.
4
CONCLUSION: OF MEDIATE MATTERS
Our models are neither physical nor spatial, but logical. This helps us to explore how systems
work as well as to work with the systems and not within them. Data can be coded from
information to formulate systems, which cannot be broken down to a common denominator
but operate on compatible protocols. Since code is something out of everything to create
anything. And frequently the question appears: „What will an Architecture based on such
ideas look like? “ But this is not a question of how things look. The way territories interlink
may be topological, but Topology does not inhabit Geometry in the way programs inhabit
space. If the page is turned it can be shown that one specified topology may produce very
distinct geometries. A topological setup is like the term that means nothing, unless it is
embedded in a system, while it may take different meanings in different systems. It is like the
Quantum that is of undecided state, unless it is measured. And even then it may produce
different results according to the system into which the measurement is embedded. So, several
systems may be at work simultaneously within the same space at a place like superposing
milieus, giving a temporary emphasis on this or that territory.
But if space is to be considered as something active because it bears the information of
milieus in the Riemannian sense, then space or spacetime is not the system, it becomes the
glue. Continuous space can be described as purport, which may enter into different meanings
depending on discrete webs of formation cast over it. Spatial voids would then be considered
as empty forms signified by indexes to territorialities depending on a quiddital view on „what
there is“. Such territories will be coded/decoded/recoded, permanently, by offering a
potentiality instead of imposing a system. (Fig. 4l) And beyond technical requirements, we
can conceive spaces as territorialities penetrating each other for whatever purpose. The way
that we render those back into a particular geometry depends on our personal, individual
mastership or failure. Some might also give in to say that space has become a matter of
mediality because new media allow us to, because it‘s easy to code a projection instead of
209
manufacturing material, because instead of the construction of systems of nodes – every pixel
is a node of its own on the surface of a void. (Fig. 4r)
Fig. 4, left: Lacaton + Vasall. School of Architecture Nantes, indeterminate space
right: Le Pop d’Epoque. Every Pixel is a node of its own.
Wherein the beauty of the Quantum Paradigm is that we can compute a manifold of spatial
territories in one and the same spatiotemporal setup, exploring attractions and retractions of
activities, or whatever we wish to encapsulate in the calculated values. Space becomes
potentiality, described by intrinsic properties, made up out of quantized bits of itself, which
actively exchange information and can be measured for several values, while embedded
agents, whatever they are, leave traces of their individual milieus.
REFERENCES
[1] Zalamea, F., Frazer, Z.L., Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics. 2012, New York: Sequence
Press, p.173
[2] Mario Carpo + Francesco Furlan (ed), Leon Battista Alberti’S Delineation Of The City Of Rome. 2007,
Tempe: ACMRS
[3] Descartes, R., D.E. Smith + M.L. Latham trans., Geometry of Renes Descartes. 1925, Chicago, London:
Open Court Publishers
[4] Ledoux, C.-N., L' architecture considerée sous le rapport de l' art, des moeurs et de la législation. 1981,
1984, Nördlingen: Uhl
[5] Euler, L., Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis, in: Commentarii academiae scientiarum
Petropolitanae 8. 1741, pp. 128-140, St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Academy
[6] Semper, G., Kleine Schriften. 1884, Berlin: Verlag von B. Spemann
[7] Semper, G., Der Stil Bd.1. 2nd ed. 1878, München: Friedrich Bruckmann’s Verlag
[8] Le Corbusier, Goodman, J.( trans.) Toward An Architecture. 2nd ed. 2008, London: Lincoln Publishers, p.3
[9] Alberti, L.B., 1755. Ten Books On Architecture. London: Edward Owen
[10] Habraken, N.J., Tools of the Trade. 1996, accessed Oct. 2015,
http://www.habraken.org/html/downloads/tools_of_the_trade_final.pdf, p.8
210
[11] Delueze, G. + Guattari, F., 1988, A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
[12] Foucault, M., Miskowiec J. (trans.), Of Other Spaces, in: Diacritics, Vol. 16. 1986, pp. 22-27, Ithaca, John
Hopkins University Press
Picture Credits
All Figures by Author, except:
Fig. 1 left: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Mapa_de_Borgia_XV.jpg.
Fig. 3 left: http://www.macba.cat/uploads/20131213/3779.jpg
Fig. 4 left: http://www.lacatonvassal.com/?idp=55
Fig. 4 right: http://sat.qc.ca/en/events/le-pop-depoque-digital-baroque-opera
___________________________
1
Clausius was a colleague of Semper at ETH
Semper was an admirer of Cuvier
3
Dedekind was also at ETH, when Semper was there
2
211
212
THE STADIUM – AS A SPACE OF PROCESSING THE PAST
Jovana Karauli
1
1
PhD Candidate, University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia)
jovanakaraulic@gmail.com
Abstract
Placing a state spectacle into the ideological framework of a stadium event in the first part of
the 20th century is linked with the understanding of an “imagined community” where, within
the Sokol rallies, the message of the collective national identity was sent in a disciplined
manner and to mass audiences. A nearly identical staged framework, also placed at the stadium,
takes over the ideological state apparatus in socialism, merely superficially creating new
symbols meant to accentuate the breaking off between the new system of government and the
past. The spatial aspect of processing the past from the traditional rally form of the Sokol
movement into an identical manifestation form in socialism, as the subject of the paper, gives
rise to the question whether the space where the state spectacle (i.e., the stadium) took place
had the role of the common denominator in this process? The holiday aesthetics of
“brotherhood and unity” is spatially in its entirety transcribed straight out of the Sokol tradition
and placed into new ideological frameworks of the stadium event. The newly set state holidays
calendar – the celebration of Tito’s birthday above all – affected the decision on what
memories are going to stay with the community, so the rally form as a paradigm relates to the
verifying of ideological values in socialism as an authentic expression.
Keywords: stadium, collective memory, rally, state spectacle
1
INTRODUCTION
If the ideology is comprised of ideas that are existentially material rather than spiritual
(Althusser, 2009), its material existence is consequently demonstrated within the framework of
ideological practice. These practices were governed by the rituals within the material existence
of the ideological state apparatus that recognised the possibility of transposing reality into the
appropriate symbolic equivalent also in the performative form of the national staged spectacle,
placed in the setting of stadium events. When it comes to the state spectacle, this “reality”
pertains to the context that is imposed by the ideological state apparatus in its attitude to the
community. The constituting of new governments and distributing of new positions of power
provided the public arena in Western and Eastern European countries with new forms in which
national messages were conveyed (Luki - Krstanovi , 2012:104). The ideologies of
yugoslavianism changed their contours in different time periods and political contexts, and
space played the role of the main determinant in the affirmation or annihilation of ideas in
every single one as part of the cultural and architectural culture (Ignjatovi , 2007:7).
In the first half of the twentieth century, the first designed representation of national mass
events was associated with the stadium event format – the Sokol rallies, which served to
validate the idea of “integral yugoslavianism,” while the state spectacle found its full
expression through the form of the rally as the central celebration of the Youth Day in the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
213
One of the things that had great significance for the development of the state spectacle in our
region was the territorial framework of the political community where, according to Smith’s
theory, the members of a community identify with a precisely delimited and marked territory.
Further examination postulates the importance of the territorial framework of the SFRY state
union, which included six republics with different interpretations of individual national identity
and which in its sum defined the socialist idea of yugoslavianism. All these factors, fused
together in the symbols determined by the ideological apparatus through the national staged
spectacle format by the use of space, communicate the ideological message in the entire
territory. This leads us to view space as a concept on which other concepts are based or to ask
questions rightfully posed by Henri Lefebvre: is space an expression and, if so, what is it an
expression of?
2
SYMBOLIC SPACE OR SPACE OF POWER?
By examining the state spectacle in the context of the stadium setting we bring to light the
potential construing of space as a proxy or – even more precisely – an instrument of those who
hold authority over the community they govern. This is an instance of the “ideological space”,
in which Lefebvre’s interpretation of the potential construing of the notion can be
supplemented also by Joseph Gabel’s viewing of space through the framework of “false
consciousness”, while space itself becomes a “place beyond time, beyond life, and beyond
everyday social practice (Lefebvre, 1980: 574). Furthermore, it is important to recognise that
this space is political one, which is political, strategic, and ideological in nature. Viewed as
such, this space is “literally an ideologically laden representation” or, as Strassoldo claims in
his classification, a “symbolic space or space of power” (Puši , 2015:62). Another reading of
space that should be mentioned here is that of Lefebvre as a point of reproduction, where
otherwise separate positions of power are conjoined over a particular period of time that has its
own properties (Lefebvre, 1980:577). If it is impossible to ignore the “predestined intertwining
of time and space” (Foucault, 1984:29), then the issue of dynamics between these relations is
also inevitable (Puši , 2015:57) during social changes.
Special importance in the interpretation of the phenomenon of mass scale intended to
ideologically demonstrate the “collective cause” shared between the state and its people
( ore evi , 1998) in a particular territory was placed on the stadium event – the 1930 Pansokol
Rally in Belgrade. A nearly identical performative framework, using the stadium space, was
adopted by the ideological state apparatus in the socialist period, merely superficially creating
new symbols that signified distinctiveness and need for innovation meant to accentuate the
breaking off between the new system of government and the past. If the state as the creator and
controller of the past is the main mechanism that affects the relationship between the social
oblivion and socially organised remembering (Kulji , 2006), then the identical ruling groups
decide on the duration of remembering, introducing of new ceremonies in the calendar, and
abolishing of the old ones.
The spatial aspect of processing the past from the traditional rally form of the Sokol movement
into an identical manifestation form in the socialist era, as the subject of the paper, gives rise to
the question whether the space of the state spectacle (i.e., the stadium) had the role of the
common denominator in this process? The holiday aesthetics of “brotherhood and unity” is
spatially in its entirety transcribed straight out of the Sokol tradition and placed into new
ideological frameworks of the stadium event. The newly set state holidays calendar – the
celebration of Tito’s birthday above all – affected the decision on what memories are going to
stay with the community, so the rally form as a paradigm relates to the verifying of ideological
values in the socialist period as an authentic expression. By acknowledging the ideological
importance of the Sokol stadium rally tradition, the ruling class in the socialist period adopts
214
the elements of it and builds the “ground zero” in institutionalising the community’s collective
memory. The term of “ground zero” marks the invented or reinvented authentic beginning of
development (Kulji , 2006), and therefore, in socialism, it meant an immediate breakoff from
the memories of the Sokol rally tradition.
The issue of the role of the ideological spatial design illustrated by the example of the Pansokol
Rally in Belgrade in 1930 is impossible to view by neglecting the relationship between the
awareness of the historical situation and the actual historical situation, so the research process
implemented a historical method with three interconnected aims: finding written and graphic
archive materials with the aim to reconstruct the events involved in the 1930 Pansokol Rally in
Belgrade, interpreting the materials in a critical manner, and – finally – analysing the role of the
space where the state spectacle takes place in the processing of the past at the time when a
society’s ideological values are changing course.
3
STADIUM – AS A PLACE OF PROCESSING THE PAST
The Sokol rally tradition was transplanted in its entirety to the rallies in the socialist period, so
this manifestation form was placed within the remembrance that was associated with the
celebrating of Tito’s birthday. With the purpose to win over the proletarian youth groups, the
members of the communist leadership were set on opposing other dominant ideologies that also
included bourgeois liberalism, to which Sokol activities were also ascribed (Žuti , 1991). By
practically copying the spatial and abstract principles of the Sokol tradition in the creating of
social structure, the organisational and political secretariat of the federal board of SSRNJ
(Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia) adopted a document on 2 February,
1957, in which it draws conclusions about the nature of the 25 May celebration and its
ideological, organisational, as well as spatial issues.1 This form of organising the state
apparatus directed at the promotion of the now new ideological values influenced the
processing of the past and led to the perception of the rally in the socialist period as the source
form of ideological mass events, with the rally stadium as the only concrete common
denominator. This way the political space of the stadium as a symbolical instrument becomes
the point of clashing of two ideologies that mutually exclude each other selectively. In the
process of the selective processing of the past during the changing of ideological direction,
according to which the new ruling class imposes a preconceived vision of the desirable system,
the breaking off with the past (Kulji , 2011) leads to distorted consciousness that manifests its
performative expression within the stadium arena. This form of organising the state apparatus
directed at the promotion of the now new ideological values influenced the processing of the
past and led to the perception of the rally in the socialist period as the source form of
ideological mass events, with the rally stadium as the only concrete common denominator. This
way the political space of the stadium as a symbolical instrument becomes the point of clashing
of two ideologies that mutually exclude each other selectively. In the process of the selective
processing of the past during the changing of ideological direction, according to which the new
ruling class imposes a preconceived vision of the desirable system, the breaking off with the
past (Kulji , 2011) leads to distorted consciousness that manifests its performative form within
the stadium arena.
215
4
THE 1930 PANSOKOL RALLY IN BELGRADE
The tendencies of southern Slavic peoples affected the realistic foundations of the future Slavic
politics, where the Sokol movement played an important role in creating contacts in the masses
through the shared idea of yugoslavianism. An indication of the significance of the influence of
mass manifestations (the rallies) is the fact that – first in Ljubljana in 1913 and then in Zagreb
in 1914 – the Austro-Hungarian government banned the organisation of rallies at which “we
did not wish do appear as separate tribes but instead as Yugoslavians” (Paunkovi , 1929) and in
this way attempted to exert influence on the development of the movement’s ideological
impact.
Immediately after the introduction of the “6 January dictatorship” the movement became an
instrument of the ideological state apparatus, in which physical education appeared as a special
means of political organising and gathering of the community aimed at reinforcing the national
unity. By adopting its new role, the first session of the Sokol Association of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia at the end of January 1930 resulted in the decision to organise the rally ceremony
under the name of The Fiirst Pansokol Rally of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Sokols with the
already adopted programme by Dr Viktor Murnik, who developed the memorandum with the
programme of exercises under the patronage of King Alexander. The First Pansokol Rally of
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia took place in June 1930 in Belgrade. The rally days culminated in
the performance at a makeshift stadium that was specially built for this occasion. From the
welcoming ceremonies at the train station and street parades to the stadium athletic
competitions, the rally celebrations glorified the idea of integral yugoslavianism.
A year and a half before the Belgrade Pansokol Rally took place, the President of the Rally
board, Senior Officer noted two initial problems in the event preparations in the Vreme
newspaper: the position of the future rally location and the financial aspect of the event
(Vreme, 1929). The Memorandum of the2 dated 19 March, 1929, sent to the King by the
leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, expressed the request to approve the
planned position of the future rally location of the “Donji grad field for 5,000 performers and
100,000 spectators”.3, along with the request for a “broad support of the state administration in
the technical and financial preparations”. Taking into consideration that the members collected
RSD 800,000 for the rally and that the rally location itself was priced at over RSD
8,000,000,4(Vreme, 1930), the King’s desire for a successful execution of the ceremony is
clearly visible. By recognising the ideological potential of the event in the affirmation and
reinforcing of ideology, King Alexander endorsed the elements of its realisation and personally
participated in the selection of the construction site for the stadium. He rejected the idea of
constructing the rally location at Banji ko polje and expressed explicit disagreement with the
construction plan (proposed in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia’s Memorandum) at
Donji grad along the Danube with the fortress and Gornji grad due to the constructing of
embankments and the high costs of ground levelling being irrational.
This lead to the selection of the Palilula quarter, behind the building of the Technical Faculty,
“at a good location at the city centre, because the rally location is ten minutes away from
Terazije by strolling down the new broad street named after King Alexander” (Sokolski glasni,
1930). The makeshift stadium layout (the rally location) was developed by Momir
Korunovi ,5the then senior architect of the Ministry of Construction who thought that “every
2
Archives of Yugoslavia, Fund 74,
Ibid.
4
According to daily newspapers, the dismantling of the stadium already commenced on 1 July, 1930, and the entire wooden structure used for
construction was sold for slightly over RSD 3,000,000.
5
Momir Korunovi , an architect remembered as the creator of the Serbian-Byzantine style, designed one of the most impressive Sokol
buildings – the Matica building at Deligradska 29 (the present old Physical Education Faculty), in addition to more than 30 Sokol buildings.
The construction of the building started in September 1929 and finished on 15 December, 1935 (Archives of Belgrade, 11192193.8.12).
3
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nation has a special characteristic, and especially ours. Therefore, our country should have its
own specific characteristic in terms of building, especially the capital, and provide the spirit
and direction in these terms” (Korunovi , 1930).
In line with Korunovi ’s perspective, the stadium had monumental dimensions, spreading over
a surface of 12,560 m2; the construction used 51,00 m3 of wood, which at the time represented
the biggest wooden structure in Central Europe.
The spectators were able to enter at four main gates, decorated in the folk spirit, while the
programme participants had three separate entrances, which directly lead to their locker rooms
under the bleachers and to the field. A music pavilion was designed within the stand along with
a skybox for the superintendent, who orchestrated the practice sessions at the rally (Putnik,
2012). The orchestra and the superintendent had microphones on them and the sound system
consisted of four Philips speakers. After the technical inspection of the rally site, the bleachers
were load tested with 6,000 soldiers from three regiments that, while the army band was
playing in the music pavilion, partially tested the bleachers, after which Colonel Kneževi
addressed the soldiers talking about the importance of the rally and explaining the Sokol idea
(Vreme, 1930).
The streets around the rally site were covered in cobblestone and ruined, but the rally
preparations included their covering with asphalt and tiles; a second wooden structure was
erected next to the stadium that accommodated 10,000 people in cooperation with store and
coffee shop owners, as well as a temporary hospital with 100 beds. The interest in the stadium
construction was also reflected in the fact that the stadium tours were organised on Sundays
and holidays at the price of two dinars (that went to the rally fund), and the rally board walked
the tour groups through the construction site and answered questions.
From the organisational point of view, the rally board was the first thing to be formed and it
was grouped by sections: the construction section, the accommodation section, the healthcare
section, the food section, the media section, the entertainment section. during the preparations,
a series of subsections was formulated according ot the needs of the planned event. Senior
Officer ura Paunkovi was appointed as the President of the rally board, and he stressed the
importance of the event in an interview, “As an impressive demonstration of the power and
awareness of our people, the rally will have deep meaning also in the cultural, ethical, and
national aspects. The event is to show that the Sokol movement is not a religious nor tribal
organisation, but instead an organisation that is bringing together the entire nation without any
exceptions.” (Vreme, 1930)
The idea of the Pansokol Rally organisation was “in its numbers, the discipline of the Sokol
awareness, and the performances themselves an event that exceeds all expectations and draws
attention of the entire global cultural community.” (Sokolski glasnik, 1930) The League used
newspapers to publish announcements that specified what each and every Sokol could do to
contribute to the success of the event in terms of distributed responsibility: “to train, to save up
for the trip, to adhere to the principles of discipline, and the county representatives and officers
should pay visits to associations and fulfil assignments” or “We invite all of you standing under
the Sokol flags to come to the state capital and, before starting your trip, to thoroughly and
deeply look inside yourselves and assess how you prepared and what decisions you made, so
that as individuals you can take your part of the shared responsibility for the full success of our
shared cause”.
The participants accommodation section ensured that the guests were being welcomed in
Belgrade high school and commercial schools, army bases, and the warehouses and tents that
were specially erected for the occasion.
217
The entire month of June was filled with ceremonies marking the rally, so the first week of the
month was dedicated to high school students, the second week was reserved for the army, the
third week was dedicated to new generations, and the fourth week – the main rally days of 2729 June – was dedicated to Sokols. Many Sokols were arriving during those days by train or
boat from Lužica, France, Romania, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, and the USA.
On the first rally day of 27 June at 4 PM, the royal flag was raised at the royal skybox and the
orchestra played the anthem for the King’s and Queen’s entrance with Crown Prince Petar, who
was wearing the Sokol uniform as a senior officer of the League. After the excitement of the
attending Sokols subsided, the curtains at the participants entrances were parted to make space
for the procession of Sokols from four sides that began appearing on the field, ready to start the
performance watched by the full bleachers with ovations. On the Vidovdan holiday, the
following day at schools, the programme participants were lined up on the right side of the
Palace all the way to the Saborna crkva church, and the King passed the excited people by on a
horse, making his way to the “ceremonial tribute to the fallen Kosovo victims and liberation
victims”. On the same day at 3 PM, the bleachers were filled out to the last seat with around
5,000 spectators, and according to the Government’s protocol the activity plan was as follows:
“The King arrives at the rally site at 3:30 PM, both Sokol superintendents, Gangl and
Paunkovi , greet him, and at the moment of his appearing on the grandstand the national
anthem starts to play. After the anthem ends, the participants make the Sokol formation on the
field, ready to hand over the flag. The King delivers his speech, he hands over the flag to
Gangl, and the Panslavic Hej Sloveni anthem start to play. Then Gangl deliver his speech, and
the rally programme continues.” 6On the last rally day, a two-hour procession was organised
among 200,000 of Belgraders, starting from Slavija with 20,000 participants, and a procession
in front of the new Parliament building marched before the royal family, which stood in a
specially built pavilion. The event was reported by all local media, as well as foreign press
from Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Germany7.
“The Belgrade Pansokol Rally demonstrated that yugoslavianism is not an idea decreed by law,
but instead a living force that created the united will of our people, its sense of self, and
consequently its united power. From the national perspective, this is the greatest power of the
rally.” (Sokolski glasnik, 1930)
“There was not one performance in Belgrade that was so magnificent and turbulent, but also
exemplary and welcoming, in its ceremonial nature.” (Ilustrovano vreme, 1930)
5
CONCLUSION
From the aspect of using the past in society and politics, there is a kind of categorical
imperative of what should and what should not be remembered, and what must be forgotten
(Kulji , 2006). This fact greatly influenced the adoption of the phenomenon of the state
spectacle in the socialist period as self-made creation in the construction of national identity.
The holiday aesthetics of “brotherhood and unity” is spatially almost in its entirety transcribed
straight out of the Sokol tradition and placed into new ideological frameworks, mainly adopting
the symbolic role of space. The national holidays calendar – the celebration of Tito’s birthday
above all – affected the decision on what memories are going to stay with the community, so
the rally form as a paradigm relates to the verifying of ideological values in the socialist period.
After 1945, although it was never banned, the disdained Sokol movement did not have
sufficient power to mobilise its former members, so throughout the duration of the socialist rule
it remained a part of the individual memory, but not the collective memory of the Yugoslavian
6
7
Archives of Yugoslavia, Fund 74
Archives of Yugoslavia, Fund 38
218
community. The 1930 Pansokol Rally in Belgrade shows in what way the ideology of
integrated yugoslavianism was viewed, by using political space, and also to what extent the
socialist rallies were placed in the framework of an authentic expression of social structure by
having “ground zero” position. This way space adopts the notion of a concept on which other
concepts are based on whose form changes according to ideologies and social changes.
The public culture of remembrance modifies the vision of the past in accordance with the
values that determine the current political culture and in this way execute a radical institutional
processing of the community’s past. If the key question of the remembrance community is
“what cannot be forgotten”, at a time when living memory is jeopardised due to changing of
generations, the forms of cultural memory that take the place of collective memory are
disputed. The ideological nature of space in this processing of the past retains its role of the
ruling group’s instrument and becomes a point of clashing of different memories.
REFERENCES
[1] Althusser, Louis. 2009. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. Belgrade: Karpos
[2] Djordjevic, Jelena. 1997. Politi ke svetkovine i rituali. Belgrade: Dosije
[3] Foucault, Michel. 1984. Des espaces autres. Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité br 5: 46-49
[4] Ignjatovic, Aleksandar. 2007. Jugoslovenstvo u arhitekturi 1904-1941. Belgrade: Gra evinska knjiga
[5] Kuljic, Todor. 2006. Kultura se anja. Belgrade: igoja
[6] Lefebvre, Henri. 1980. Teorija prostora. Tre i program br. 45: 513-650
[7] Lukic, Krstanovic, Miroslava. 2010. Twentieth century spectacle music and power. Belgrade: Serbian Academy
of Sciences and Arts Institute of Ethnography
[8] Pusic, Ljubinko. 2015. Grad, društvo, prostor. Belgrade: Zavod za udžbenike
[9] Putnik, Vladana. 2013. The Sokol Halls and Stadiums in Belgrade. Beograd: Nasledje/Politika
[10] Smith, Anthony. 1998. Nacionalni identitet. Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek
[11] Zutic, Nikola. 1991. Sokoli: ideologija u fizi koj kulturi Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1929−1941. Beograd:
Angrotrade.
[12] Archives of Yugoslavia: Funds 114, 74, 38,
[13] Archives of Belgrade: Fund 11192193.8.12
[14] Newspapers. 1930. Vreme, Sokolski glasnik, Politika
219
220
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EXISTING
Sasa B. Cvoro 1, Malina Cvoro 2
1
PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of
Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, (BiH)
2
PhD, Senior Assistant, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja
Luka, Republic of Srpska, (BiH)
4plus.arhitekti@gmail.com ; mcvoro@agfbl.org
Abstract
Cities lose part of their past daily. Parts of the collective memory are disappearing due to
premature demolition of old buildings. The transformation of the existing, in essence, should
recognize and retain the quality of the built, along with a new layer of meaning - an
expression of contemporary. This paper is based on a project for a new building of the Faculty
of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Banja Luka which involves the
transformation and upgrading of the existing facility within the complex of the former JNA
barracks and today the area of University City.
In the existing building called ‘Teresa’ constructed during the Austro - Hungarian rule, we
tried to recognize the quality that should be protected, with the introduction of a new spatial
context transforming the building to contemporary needs. The identity and ‘heart’ of the new
school of builders are placed in the central hall, between the existing and the new. The two
buildings are separated and integrated in this interspace where their functions overlap.
Bridges, galleries and stairways in the transparent hall concentrate all streams and
communications, where movement becomes theatrical event. If we say that the spectacle is
whatever is offered to the sight, the spatial characteristics of our interventions had the goal in
this place between the planned as a place of heightened tension and energy, as the space of
events in the building of the Faculty as well as at the level of University City in general.
Keywords: faculty building, existing buildings, interspace, theatrical event.
1
INTRODUCTION
The Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Banja Luka has no building of
its own and since 1996 when the Faculty was founded the classes have taken place at several
different locations in the city. In 2008, the Faculty and the Univeristy of Banja Luka launched
the initiative to prepare the preliminary design and later on investment and technical
documentantion for construction of the new builidng of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil
Engineering and Geodesy in Banja Luka within the compund of the University City of Banja
Luka.
The location for construction of the Faculty building has been found in the complex of the
former JNA barracks, 'Vrbas', now a part of the compund of the University City of Banja
Luka. As an area of landscape architecture which has a public character besides its rich
horticultural flora planted in different periods of time in addition to rich vegetation and birds
fauna of the Vrbas river which runs on its eastern boundary, the initiative was launched to
declare the area protected. University City of Banja Luka has been placed under protection of
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the Republic of Srpska by the relevant decision of the Ministry for Spatial Planning, Civil
Engineering and Ecology in 2012. [1]
Natural area in the University City of Banja Luka has become the most important park in
Banja Luka and is officially on the list of protected areas due to its natural and historical
importance. There are 1,500 trees in the area, partcicularly sticking out lines of plane trees
some of which are several hundred years old, 48 species of birds, some of which are
protected by the law.
From the point of view of achitecture, this area represents a hetergenous group of facilities of
very different purpose, time of construction, architectural form and material realization. In
that sense the main task during the process of construction of the new Faculty building which
we, as authors, presented in the Preliminary Design, was establishing of new qualities and
way of behaviour in this specific space as well as establishing of order in the morphological
structure of the University City in accordance with the spatial context which is dominated by
the existing natural setting.
Fig 1. Central pedestrian alley in the University City of Banja Luka, Photo by author.
2
INTERVENTION TO THE EXISTING
Current dynamics of contemporary society which is characterized by strong changeability and
destabilization requires elements that would secure safe reliance. Adaptation and renewed use
of found, inherited facilities in the area of the University City enables that reliance, sense of
security and feeling of continuity as an important positive input for new future holders of
identity of this space. Archiectural solution which means intervention onto the existing,
previously built facility has to deal with a burden of preconditions which need to be
accounted for.
Transformation of existing facilities as one aspect of building transformation is not, of course,
a phenomena invented in this region but a very common and frequent way of creating new
useful space. Different needs and requests during various periods of the life span of the
bulding have led to such a type of construction where the renovation of existing facilities
includes overbuilding or extension for the purpose of getting larger usable space. This type of
interventions to the existing facilities often lead to alteration of the main idea and original
idea of the author whereas integration of the existing with the new part of the building into a
single architectural unit presents the biggest challenge for the author.
222
Cultural - historical monuments and inherited architectural structures have to be seen as a live
organism and vital space for its beneficiaries. Constant changes in functional use, social and
political context and economic development are manifested through spatial interventions.
They should have a contemporary language signature while historical authenticity and
integrity of the location should not be jeopardized. Once harmonized, the inherited structure
and contemporary interventions particularly contribute to the value of the urban space and
entire ambience as the old and the new add to their value. There are more and more examples
of dealing with spatial co-existence of the different with ever rising consciousness that
facilities are never finalized, that they continue to live, change and adapt to the time. [2]
Contemporary architecture balances between two polarly different approaches to
transformation of existing buildings. The first implies that overbuilding is hardly noticeable,
that the facility loses nothing of its primary concept and maintains the author’s concept of the
original construction. The other approach is totally opposite and stresses overbuilding with
various forms, materials and architectural concept which all highlight the intervention which
is not covered up but emphasized.
One of the most famous facilities where radically experimental approach in morphological
manifestation of the overbuilding has been applied is the Opera House in Lyon, France, made
in 1986 by Jean Nouvel, the architect in the old urban center which is on the UNESCO list of
cultural heritage and reconstruction and extension of the Tate Modern in London by the
Herzog & De Meuron Bureau. Completely modern in its design but in low profile is the Carre
d’art Museum at Nimes built in 1993 by Norman Foster and overbuilidng of the modern dome
on the Reichstag Building in Berlin, in 1999. Very innovative approach has been achieved in
extension and decoration of of the interior of the Moritzburg Museum in Halle, Germany by
Spanish architects, Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano in 2008.
Possibilities of architectural organization and material realization of overbuilt space and its
form are in causal relationship and the optimal solution is the result of its adaptation. During
transformation of existing facilities, the form of extended structures might to a smaller or
larger extent be conditioned by the environment, i.e. by urban planning conditions such as the
example of the Design for the new building of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering
and Geodesy in Banja Luka. The Design for the new Faculty building has foreseen the
intervention to the exisiting building "Tereza", which is located in the central part of the
University City. The building itself was built in 1889, during the Austro - Hungarian Rule and
served for militry purposes. The Facility which is out of use for many years, has been in a
very bad condition prior to the commencement of construction works. Still, it had been
occasionally used for holding classses, student workshops and as exhibition area. Its
aestehetics of simplicity, its proportions and regular repeating rhythm of spatial elements
carry the tone of another era and its spirit is reflected exactly through the emotions it might
produce.
We have tried to keep the quality and to convey the spirit of the existing but with clear
marking of the building with the new layer of meaning as the expression of the current time
through the transformation of the existing builidng. The intervention to the ’Tereza’ building
which included rehabilitation, reconstruction, extension and overbuilding of the existing
facility is clearly marked by the dialogue between the old and the new. The aim was to
preserve the essential character of the building and to introduce new meaning through
transformation in order to accomplish its new functional role and identity.
223
Fig 2. ’Tereza’ Building’, 2011, Photo by author.
Spatial requirements of the building are defined by the current and planned number of
students and academic courses which take place at three Faculty departments. Being led by
the principle which Herman Hertzberger refers to by saying that the task of the architect is not
setting of ready- made and perfect solutions but giving possibility to offer the conditions for
its upgrading to the beneficiaries and also taking into consideration modern tendencies in
academic teaching, we tended to improve the conditions for students and professors in the
new building as inspirational laboratory of knowledge. Being aware that there are no given
solutions in architecture, the new building connects seemingly unsolvable tensions in the
opposites, searches for the meaning of unclear circumstances in the creative process in our
consciousness without the intention to deal with all contradictions at any cost. [3]
3
RADICALLY BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW
The existing building with traditional elements of style is connected to the modernly shaped,
newly built part of the building. Combination of the old and the new has been offered here as
an answer to the aspiration toward acceptance and identification on the part of its new usersstudents. The volume of the newly bulit part of the facility is differentitiated from the
existing builidng while the defined heights of storeys are being followed very strictly and
transferred to the new part of the facility. Architecture of the new facility has been reduced to
the container box whereas only the airy hall, the glass cube, connects the new and the old
building and represents the higher quality which makes the building special. The entire
concept of the school space is focused to this area in-between the old and the new facility and
not to the facilities themsleves. The zone between the two entities, betweeen the interior and
the exterior is active and dynamic space of the hall which enables different relations: it
captures the outside space, offers vision into the indoor space and opens toward the nature.
The spatial quality that we strived to achieve here is inseparability of the building from its
context. A modern city implies public spaces which to a large extent remind of indoor space
and vice versa, indoor space loses its intimacy due to development of modern technologies.
Traditional division on the outside and inside has no longer meaning except that there is an
inversion in the view. [4]
The transparent hall provides view into the school area, its program and meaning. The border
zone between the old and the new building is set as a radical area of movements and its
architecture is the result of interacting between the old and the new space, students, teachers
and their ideas. The process of transformation of the old into the new and the inside into the
224
outside space is based on the freedom of users and their perception of the hall and the internal
street which belongs to the new schoold of builders but also to all beneficiaries of the
University City. The identity and ‘heart’ of the house is placed in this interspace where two
parts of the building are separated and merged through intertwining of their functions. All
flows of communication are concentrated on the bridges, galleries and stairways of the
transparent hall and the movement becomes a theatrical event. If we say that a spectacle is
what is offered to the eyesight, then it is right to say that spatial characteristics of our
intervention have been intended that this particular spot inbetween planned as the place of
greatest tension and energy becomes the spot of happening in the Faculty building and in the
University City in general. [5]
Fig 3. New Faculty Building, authors’ drawings.
The area where the outside crosses to the inside space is roofed over street and at the same
time a continuation of the pedestrian alley of the University City to which it is directly
connected. There is high density of spatial overlapping, a dynamic hall full of galleries,
bridges, perspectives and niches. This is where the encounter between the old and the new,
between the sky and the earth take place.
The inside street as the area of possibilities unveils itself to us in its entire height giving us the
view into everything that is happening within the xybrid old-new. During the day this area
absorbs the light and during the night it reflects it toward its surrounding. This kind of
concept enables that other users of the University City become participants of the theatrical
happening in the hall of the Faculty even though they are not physically present in the
building.
4
CONCLUSION
During the transformation of the existing, the main task facing the authors was the
relationship between the historically layered architecture and its extension whose architectural
elements and their realization co-relate to modern way of shaping space. Final result has been
planned to include qualities of all elements f architectural expression, the old and the new,
making a unique and complete work. Essential condition for us was to notice individuality,
uniqueness of space which in this case refers to the University Park which is on the list of
protected landscape facilities due to its vegetation importance. The attention is focused on
identifying the values of the context so it could be transposed into the well thought concept
which enables construction of the place, inspirational for work, future factory of knowledge.
225
The potential, the gravity point of the future Faculty building is located in the inter-space
between the existing ‘Tereza’ building and the new extended part. This space between the
internal and the external, the old and the new, the border zone is the playground of interacting
of the programs and its users. The transparent hall which is at the same time continuation of
the pedestrian street where two parts of the building are separated and united through
intertwining of their functions, on the bridges, galleries and stairways concentrate all
movements and communications within the building. Within the University City, the future
Faculty building is the holder of the new image of this urban complex, the symbol of their
recognition. Searching for identity, facilities have been given the most adequate physical
expression which needs to be recognizable but also acceptable to their future beneficiaries.
Fig 4. New Faculty Building, current condition, Photo by author.
REFERENCES
[1] University of Banja Luka, Genetic Resourses Institute, http://gri.unibl.org/index.php?idsek=158
[2] Saša B. voro, M. voro: ″Architectural structures restoration in order to define the identity space″;
International scientific expert conference Architecture and Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Geodesy Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow; University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and
Geodesy, Proceedings, Banjaluka p. 93 – 102, 2011.
[3] M.Stankovi , G.Kopeinig, S.B. voro, M. voro: ″ Thoughtful Concept of School builders - Contribution of
the Education system ″; International scientific expert conference " Energy efficiency / ENEF 2013";
University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Proceedings, 2013.
[4]
. Kordi : Me uprostor, Zadudžbina Andrejevi , Beograd, 2012.
[5] D.Serafimovski: “Mala stanica, Cultural centre, Skopje, Macedonia”, International conference: Spectacle City- Identity, Proceedings, Beograd, 2012.
226
ARCHITECTURAL SPACE COULD NOT BE READ IN TEXT FORM
Dr. Nadja Kurtovic Folic
University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
nfolic@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
The basic assumption is that human architecture is supported by universal and eternal laws,
common to all of us as human beings, as well as that there is no absolute truth, which defines
the beauty and comfort of living. There are different ways of describing structures of timeless
quality, structures that convey a spiritual experience. The state of mind leads to the conclusion
that this quality is achieved independently of external factors, and by means of clarity of
thinking about architecture. Architectural concepts that are essentially timeless neither are a
response to current trends in society, nor a threat to the spirit of the time. By definition,
timeless architecture reflects the spirit of all times. The ability to replace text in the
presentation of architectural work while presenting culture of one nation is minimal if not
excluded. Experience of the architectural work is different before a textual explanation and
interpretation of the viewer, than after the introduction of the same observer in the whole
space problematic. Problematize buildings in text form (which has become the practice) is a
kind of objectification, which Gadamer recommended to get around.
Keywords: human architecture, timeless quality, textual explanation, hermeneutics as method
of interpretation
1. INTRODUCTION
The basic assumption is that human architecture is supported by universal and eternal laws,
common to all of us as human beings, as well as that there is no absolute truth, which defines
the beauty and comfort of living. There are different ways of describing structures of timeless
quality, structures that convey a spiritual experience. The state of mind leads to the conclusion
that this quality is achieved independently of external factors, and by means of clarity of
thinking about architecture. Architectural concepts that are essentially timeless neither are a
response to current trends in society, nor a threat to the spirit of the time. By definition,
timeless architecture reflects the spirit of all times. The separation created in our time between
the man and his environment is a clear expression of changes that took place in the view that
man is part of nature, instead of being above it. Therefore, studies are necessary to research
the relationship between the totality and its parts. [1]
Comparative planning of the process resulting in the separation of man from his environment
with the process that makes him feel part of the physical world in which he lives emphasizes
the difference between the mechanistic-fragmentary and the holistic-organic worldview.
The holistic-organic approach, the leading role in other sciences for many years, was
implemented in architectural research especially in relation to the social and physical
environment as systems or dynamic totalities, the existence of which depends on the actual,
constantly changing relationships between the systems and their components.
Since the environment consists of forms that create a common (universal) experience, the
question is what is behind the specific form that creates the same sense of comfort that we all
227
share in this environment. The interactive relationship between philosophy, psychology and
architecture comes to the forefront since modern architects are highly aware of the great
opportunities that are created through the knowledge on philosophical views of the society,
through perception and memory of architectural forms and spaces in theoretical
considerations and personal act of creation. For better understanding these interlacing process
one can try to apply hermeneutics, as some particular method of interpretation.
Hermeneutics is now seen from a narrower context and put into practical form. The key
question is to consider architectural situation in relation to the participants in the ritual with
two envelopes that overlap. The work must contain "component variations, originality, or
innovations that impose a new understanding of the participants’ and in doing so you do not
lose track of transformation. Juxtaposition of paired elements and their interdependence
through the prism of the relationship between order and variation, conventional and
innovative, predictability and unpredictability, are part of the hermeneutical concept of
research.
"It is necessary to understand the architecture - even more than other arts - in the light of
ongoing before the object." This brings us back to the beginning and hermeneutics. The
ability to replace text in the presentation of architectural work while presenting culture of one
nation is minimal if not excluded. Experience of the architectural work is different before a
textual explanation and interpretation of the viewer, than after the introduction of the same
observer in the whole space problematic. Problematize buildings in text form (which has
become the practice) is a kind of objectification, which Gadamer recommended to get around.
[2, 3]
Significant is the fact that the building, as years passing by, according to some estimates,
gives a visible shift in a person's emotional, intellectual, and ethical aspirations. It seems that
architecture requires the degree of commitment and sustainable consensus uncharacteristic for
less art, which also means that in most cases large structures are highly resistant to passing
trends, and on the individual opinions.
2. DEFINITION OF SPACE – RECURRENT TOPIC THROUGH HISTORY
Since the study of Architecture emphasizes the designing and constructing of buildings and
other structures the development of space perception in children must be stressed. Most
theories of perception generally agree that the young child perceives simple wholes initially,
and as the child develops he/she perceives the details within the whole. [4]
The process is influenced by the child’s cultural environment, which is the total of economic
conditions, child rearing practices, social interaction, religious beliefs and peer influence
which affects each child differently as in Fig. 1. [5]
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Fig. 1 Different interpretations of architecture and environment by the children
(http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2012/04/27/dreams-of-their-syrian-homes/)
When the architecture is in question we have always to emphasize that it is the observation
space, that space is perceived only if it is limited. We could understand and feel the presence
of space only if it represents an entity which is limited from all sides. Architectural form by
which some space is limited can be very diverse.
In considerations about the SPACE, dimension of time is always included, because the overall
evaluation of SPACE could be obtained by summing up a number of partial observations of
the persons who are moving in space for a while.
3. NUMBER OF ARCHITECTURAL IDEAS
Number of architectural ideas very slowly and gradually increases over time - but, thanks to
the technical and technological possibilities are developing to unprecedented proportions.
Throughout the entire history of building, the design of route in the natural or urban structure
has significantly been affected by its visual experience. The goal has always been to leave a
striking impression on the participants that move through public spaces of the city by using
different eye-catching and memorable elements. Today universal values necessary for a
sustainable society and the feelings that should arouse in the spaces around railway routes
should counterbalance all the problems and challenges of modern life in a global city. They
are needed to lead the individual to the level of emotional catharsis or constructive and
optimistic thinking, as it was the case with ancient citizen during processions. The term cyclic
nature of life is the most directly tangible to man on the example of daily migrations to which
he is constantly exposed. In this context, instead of festivals, today we would rather treat the
traffic, which relies heavily on public spaces. Therefore, in the process of their design,
principles of semiological character could be possibly applied. The principle of necessity of
shaping the route of the rail system within urban units in the context of the features of the
terrain can be viewed through the comparative analysis of the character of ancient and modern
society, and the comparative analysis of ancient processions and the character of the route of a
railway system (Fig. 2).
For users of the urban space rail systems, the route, in its various constructive forms, is part of
the sights, street facades and the city skyline. Whether the inhabitant is an observer of these
totalities or an active participant, the route personifies the dynamics and inertia of everyday
life, where the individual identifies himself with the physical laws and the cosmos.
When shaping urban space, stations of rail systems, like procession stop, generally may be
observed through architectural topics such as portals and landmark structures, the application
229
of modern materials, design, structural forms and the design of ground floors. As landmarks,
portals also have the property to imitate natural forms and engineering structures. Therefore,
it may be concluded that they have biomimetic and semiologic potential. Routes can be
shaped using the principle of street procession due to design creative space, processes, a
sustainable society and way of life. There is equivalence between street procession, route of a
railway system and its elements, the principles of shaping, forms of the relief and the
engineering structures. The creation of mental cartography of residents is affected by the
elements in the contemporary urban form by which the traffic totalities are characterized. By
inverse conclusion, it can be stated that the equivalent components of the rail system can
visually affect the participants of urban space by which these systems are supported. The
route is a fundamentally natural form. It is a form in the relief resulting from natural
processes, but also a shape in the urban structure and in the mental map of the individual as a
result of social processes. All the connotations of the paths in a variety of natural shapes and
forms in the context of semiotics and biomimetics can be used as a principle of the spatial
design by which rail systems are supported in visual and functional terms. It can be argued
that forms of the elements of a rail system, through the absorption of kinetic energy and the
potential of natural forms which they imitate or upgrade, are directing that energy to the
stream of social processes and social media. Such a direction of energy may suggest
regenerative and creative processes in the society, which are required for its sustainable
functioning. At the same time, this energy is absorbed also by the user and the observer of the
space. [6]
Fig. 2 Comparative analysis of the ancient procession route, the route of the railway system, and the engineering
interventions in the relief. (after Dr M.Kopic)
Nature of
the route
Spatial
properties
Architecture and
urban issues
Elements
Purpose
Unique
principle
Interventions
in the relief
Antic
procession
Visual
continuity and
unification
were symbols
of order and
infallibility of
the system;
orientation,
uniformity and
wide street
profiles
Explicit
perspective and
gradation of the
centre line
Obelisks,
colonnades
, gates and
other street
scenery
Communicat
ions, ritual
ceremonies,
subordinatio
n to the
system
Emphasizes
the principle
of
immortality
giving the
power that
an individual
lacks in his
life
Grade
separation of
the terrain
Route of a
rail system
The three basic
structural
forms
are
above ground,
in ground-level
and
buried
(partially
or
completely).
Independent
on the other
types of traffic
or integrated.
Skylines, sights,
landmarks,
parterre
arrangement, use
of technology and
modern structures,
urban
design,
integration
of
programs
and
contents
and
arrangement
of
public spaces.
Elements
of
the
contact
network,
rails,
pavements,
urban
settings,
stations
Traffic
in
cities,
implementati
on
of
technology,
sustainable
society,
orientation
of
people
towards
public
spaces
To
emphasize
the principle
of
immortality
providing
power which
individual
lacks in his
life
Dikes,
viaducts,
bridges,
cuttings,
retaining
walls, tunnel
structures
230
Fig. 3. Procession stops on the main route in the medieval Constantinople (marked red) and the map of Central
London Underground with inserted stops which are marked throughout the streets.
Aldo van Eyck wrote “... It seems to me that the past, present and future have to be active in
the interior of our spirit as a continuum. If it does not, then the artefacts that we create will be
with no temporal depth and associations in the distance ...” [7] Some of ideas are developing
in such a way that it is difficult to recognize the starting point, but some could be recognized
almost as replicas.
To understand how one idea can evolve and be wrongly understand we could make parallel
analysis of the Theatre of Dionysus in ancient Athens and Wagner Theatre in Bayreuth built
in 19th century.
Theatre of Dionysus in Athens served Wagner as an example when he received permission to
build Opera house. For outside he used, without permission, somewhat adapted design from
an unrealised project by famous architect Gottfried Semper. Inside, he tried to express his
ideas of democracy that followed the Greek concept of democracy embodied in the Theatre of
Dionysus, as he believed. Theatre reflects the democratic Athenian polis: it provides a lively
response of the audience and its identification with the god Dionysus (embodied in Aulos
player in the middle of the orchestra), choir (the orchestra), with the actors (the scans), with
itself (in the stands) and the entire polis (which are the key parts indicated above the stands).
By contrast, Wagner's romantic theatre, although built under the strong influence of the
nineteenth-century representations of Dionysus Theatre, has tended to architectural designs
that:
-
will isolate the visitor,
remove him from seeing anything but events on the stage,
expose him to the "divine voice" orchestra hidden below the scene,
prevent him from having any other reaction except unconditional obedience and silent
admiration and
awaken the nostalgia of bygone times to the national "Golden Age" (whose myths
Wagner discusses in his musical dramas) Fig. 4
231
Fig. 4 Dionysus theatre in Athens and original interior of Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus in Bayreuth
(http://www.greece-athens.com/)
(http://library.calvin.edu/hda/node/1928)
4. NUMBER OF THEORETICAL FOCI
Today it could be numbered so many theoretical foci, but which one is the true one? There is
a list of different theories which might profitably be applied to the understanding of space:
• cognitive theory; • practice; • structuration; • narrative; • symbolic interaction;
• psycho-analysis; • post-human theory; • actor-network theory; • historical-comparative
• Hermeneutics; • semiology, .and many others equally relevant and useful.
The hermeneutical reading of space draws on the hermeneutical tradition of Gadamer and
others and is best represented in architectural theories at the beginning of XXI century by
Jones. Even Jones only discussed the hermeneutical interpretation of sacred architecture;
some conclusions can be generalized when the interpretation of the space is in question. [8]
Architecture, which defines certain space, can be defined like:
-
architecture as orientation
architecture as commemoration
architecture as ritual context
In short, the point of discussion is the hermeneutic connection between person and object,
mutual interaction, recognition and overall impression that the building expose.
Fig. 5. Casa Milà, Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi; JOH3 Apartment house, Berlin, Meyer H. Architects
(http://www.worldofdesigners.com/la-pedrera-casa-mila-barcelona/)
(http://afasiaarchzine.com/2012/04/j-mayer-h-architects-2/)
The kind of impression with which building acts, and what kind of relationship will achieve
with the engaged person, has the influence and interaction between the front half (order,
232
tradition, attractiveness, visibility, etc.) and rear half (novelty, originality, unpredictability,
fresh ideas, etc.) of architectural situation.
5. CONLUDING REMARKS
In the 21st century we can expect the advancement of attitudes opposite to fostering
competition with the actual architectural landmarks radicalisation of space meaning.
In this sense, one cannot neglect the award given to the Polish pavilion at the 2008 Biennale
of Architecture in Venice (Curated by Grzegorz Pi tek and Jarosław Trybu ). The purpose of
presented projects was to virtually predict the radical remodelling of structures over time and
with the changes in society and environment. Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Warsaw University Library, by Marek Budzy ski, Zbigniew Badowski, 1999 and vision of the future
radical interior space re-arrangement as it was seen at 2008 Venice Biennale, Golden Lion for best ational
participation. (http://we-make-money-not-art.com/venice_biennale_of_architectur_5/)
The authors of a series of radical proposals, one of which is shown in this figure, give
explanations based on the forecast of development of current social need for the use of new
technologies and techniques. So they wrote “What is going to happen with a monumental
university library such as the Warsaw University Library when all the books become digital?
Wouldn't it make more sense to restyle the space into a shopping mall?”[10]
Based on the architecture or social significance, these structures will represent the monuments
of culture of our time. They will not be removed; they also will not be recognizable, because
they will be provided with a new purpose, enabled by the new technology. The comparative
analyses used in hermeneutics method in architecture is more dedicated to setting new
questions than making definitive answers to old questions, more to wake up fresh line of
questioning than that which confirms our level of security.
Acknowledgement
This paper has been undertaken after part of the Project 36042 supported by Ministry of Education,
Science and Technological Development of Serbia
233
REFERENCES
[1] Alberti, L.B. De re aedificatoria. On the art of building in ten books (translated by J. Rykwert, R.Tavernor
and N.Leach), Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press, 1988.
[2] Gadamer, H.G. Truth and Method, Bloomsbery Academic, 2nd Revised edition, 2004
[3] Gadamer, H.G. Hegel’s Dialectic, Five Hermeneutical Studies, Yale University Press, 1982.
[4] Piaget, J. Inhelder, B. The Child’s Conception of Space. Norton Library, No 408, New York,
W.W.Norton&Company, 1967
[5] Flynn, P. Architecture: Experience in Space for Young People. Curriculum unit 83.01.02. Vol. I, Yale-New
Haven Teachers Institute, 1983.
[6] Kopic, M., Kurtovic-Folic, N, (2011). Principles of the Design of Urban Space that Support Rail Systems
from the Aspect of Urban Elements and Elements of Relief, Geodetski vestnik Vol.55-4, Journal of the
Association of Surveyors of Slovenia, Ljubljana, pp. 250-263.
[7] Eyck, A. Van. Writings, the Child, the City, and the Artist. Collected Articles and Other Writings, 19471998, Amsterdam, Sun Publishers, 2006.
[8] Jeremic-Molnar, D., Molnar, A. Mit, ideologija i misterija u tetralogiji Riharda VagnerA, Prsten Nibelunga i
Parsifal, Beograd, Zavod za udzbenike, 2004.
[9] Jones, L. The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture. Vol. One/ Experience, Interpretation, Comparison.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press for the Harvard University Center for the Study of
World Religions, 2000.
[10] Venice Biennale of Architecture: The Polish Pavilion. Date of last modification November 8 2008. Date of
access May 15 2013. http://we-make-money-not-art.com/venice_biennale_of_architectur_5/
234
ARCHITECTURE AS A STOPOVER: PLACE IDENTITY IN TIME OF
CONTEMPORARY NOMADISM AND PHYSICAL DETACHMENT
Maja Momirov1
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
maja.momirov@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
This paper deals with phenomenon of the place identity component in the situation when
person lifestyle goes into the direction of detachment from physical realm where any place
exist. Changes in cultural frameworks, induced by new concepts of working and living, are
happening considerably faster than changes in physical world, leading to a divergence in the
currents of development. In the situation when physical possessions begin to lose their oncecrucial roles, what influence is that current having on development of architectural space and
emotional and functional attachment to it. Dynamic and interactive perspective of place
includes social, cultural and psychological meanings of it. Without concept of belonging
which is a key aspect of the psychology of homes, what is individuals relation to architectural
space and new ratio of spatial and humanistic values that architectural space have for people.
The main objective of this paper is to, through analysis od upcoming concept of coworking,
coliving and others socially based tendances, indicate how architecture could respond to the
new social requirements and what spatial attributes of architecture will be able to facilitate
this transition and be the most adequate for modern world, characterized by speed and change,
where attempt to maintain static value of any kind is nearly impossible.
Keywords: place, identity, contemporary nomadism, physical detachment, social aspect of
architectural space
1
SOCIO ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY NOMADISM
``... There are travellers who no longer even know they`re travelling.`` Rageot citation from
around year 1920.[1]
It can be argued that contemporary nomadism, or willing detachment from permanent
dwellings started with a desire to escape the pressures of the world and search for personal
freedom which is most often accompanied with physical relocation. Since freedom, personal
as it can be, is achieved primarily in the first-person singular, but is held only in the thirdperson plural, it is inevitable that absence of physical component is replaced with social. In
last couple of decades, with the rise of IT based and other location-independent professions,
person's identity is becoming less rooted to a physical characteristics of a place and more to
an intellectual, ideological and social basis that facilitate group identity. Contemporary
nomadism is evolving as more people are overcoming the desire of having control over a
certain object trough the act of ownership which used to give personal sense of
accomplishment, pride and privacy.
With shifting the concept of a belonging from physical location to group of like-minded
individuals, even the todays economy is based on growing demand for experience, rather than
material possessions. For example, research from the end of the 20th century shows that the
235
top 5% of wealthiest people spend same amount of financial resources on experience as on
basic products and services.[2] Today, twenty years later, since increasing number of people
are leaving the idea of having the material possessions like real estate as main life goal,
experience as an essential life component is not only reserved for the most wealthiest.
Together with the economy of experience, we also can observe the growth of sharing or
collaborative economy. From basic trade without middleman, replaced with numerous
applications, through borrowing, sharing and swapping, collaborative economy has produced
some of the most successful companies of today, like Uber or Air b&b. People share all sorts
of material possessions, from apartments, cars, parking spots, clothes, storage etc. [3] Both of
these concepts, experience and sharing economy, have a very specific relation to the idea of
ownership and material possessions. Either the product is in it`s core non material like
experience, or the material possession of an individual are becoming, under certain
circumstances, common. Beside these economical concepts, and social and psychological
changes, one more phenomenon is proven to be necessary to facilitate the idea of willing
contemporary nomadism.
1.1
Future concept of work
It is evident that from the end of the 20th century, freelance economy has been on the rise.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of May 2015, 15.5 million people in the
U.S. were self-employed, which is increase of nearly one million since May 2014. With
personal technology devices, new online platforms for pairing freelancers with businesses,
coworking spaces in more and more urban centers worldwide, some studies predict that by the
year of 2020, more that 40% of the American workforce will be independent.[4] In the
Harvard Business Review article titled The Rise of the Supertemp, contains the research data
that suggest that 80% of independent workers are satisfied with their work and living
arrangement.[5]
This situation is not unique to U.S. alone, but rather represent the global phenomenon
reflecting the future of freelancing and work in general. Reasons behind this predicted growth
of independent workers, we should not just look for in the development of the supporting
mechanisms, but also in the persons need for more overall life flexibility than it is offered by
traditional employment.
1.2
New socio economic tendances
With abandonment of traditional way of working, new work trends occurred, in relation to
duration and organisation of work hours, and of course in the relation to the work
environment. First of them was working from home, that led to the idea of working while
traveling, naturally for those professions that don`t have to be performed in the single
location. Blurring the line between holiday and working time and idea of daily balancing
those life aspects facilitated the rise of the contemporary nomadism.
Influences of this tandances can be observed in architectural space of workplaces, primarily
with creation of idea of coworking, that is now widely known and present. Coworking space
is a form of social workplace. Therefore it`s social side is why people choose to work there.
Likewise, studies shows that social aspects makes workers more productive, engaged and
motivated since allows them increased levels of work autonomy, control and flexibility.
Social workplace allows the boundaries between work lives and personal lives to blend and be
permeable. Companies now are managing remote and virtual team in the digital world.
Number of remote jobs increased by 27% from 2014 to 2015.
236
Together with concept of coliving, concept of coworking will lead to major changes in
primarily commercial, but also residential architecture. This changes that are occurring in
spatial and programme aspects of architecture are evident. Knowing that architectural space is
more than organisation of physical elements and functions, we have to address the other
aspects of it, associated with identity of those new social places of sharing experiences and
material possessions.
2
PLACE IDENTITY IN THE TIME OF CONTEMPORARY NOMADISM
Idea of place, with all it`s complexity, indicates physical environment in relation to the social,
psychological and cultural meanings that are attached to it. As an effect of cultural and
economical globalisation, place identity, that gathers a set of of ideas in extensive range of
fields, became an important issue in the last couple of decades. This condition had arisen from
significant loss of individuality and distinctiveness between different places. Since place
identity is difficult to consider without also conceptualising it as a specific component of each
individual's self-identity, we also need to address the issue of how globalisation has
influenced the individual`s self identity, mainly in the relation to place identity that is relevant
for the research presented in this paper. As a identity of any kind is never a stable construct,
place identity is phenomenon interacting between place and individual in continuously
evolving and dynamic manner.
2.1
Place identity and personal identity
Canter describes place as product of physical attributes, human conceptions, and activities.[6]
Complex relationship between humans and their surrounding environment involves both the
influence of the environment on humans as well as the changes that human activities have
imposed on the surrounding environment. As Norberg-Schulz describes, this mutual effect is
conducted in a manner whereby you cannot distinguish the organization of perceived world
from the person`s activities.[7] Although place, in it`s core, is a specific location, tangible and
intangible characteristics of it are inseparable part of the idea of place, and uniqueness of
these characteristics and their combination is what construct place identity together with
associations and feelings a person has for a particular place. Therefore persons interaction
with the place, through acquired meaning, results in creation of both, place identity and
persons self identity.
Considering the complexity of the idea of place in relation to the identity, we can detect two
main groups of values of the place, humanistic and spatial. Further, factors that influence both
of these groups of values, can be divided by having conditioned, conscious and consequential
aspects. Conditioned aspects of spatial factors are primarily natural and environmental.
Conditioned aspects of humanistic factors are in relation to cultural, economic and
educational background of the community, which causally affects level of conscious decisions
and involvement in preserving both spatial and humanistic values of place identity. Conscious
aspects are based on the awareness and sense of responsibility for place. Consequential
aspects of factors that influence place identity are obviously the most complex and based
upon mutual relation of conscious and conditioned aspects.[8]
We can observe that number of aspects of these values are based on decision and
involvement, awareness and sence of responsibility for the place. In the time of the
contemporary nomadism few of these aspects have to be considered in the different light. For
example: community and it`s background mentioned in the previous distribution of factors, is
no longer community that is inhabiting the place for generations (although that is influence
that will constantly stay present, but not the focus of this paper) rather the community of more
237
or less strangers, gathered around the idea of physical detachment and nomadic lifestyle. And
this newly established community now becomes the mediator of sence of the responsibility
for the place and meaning of it. And the place, and architectural space whit in, becomes
stopover of the nomadic life.
3
STOPOVER ARCHITECTURE
Kazuyo Sejima, in the explanation of the 2010 Venice Biennale Architecture exhibition theme
``People meet in Architecture``, stated that: ``The twenty-first century has just started. Many
radical changes are taking place. … Nowadays, it feels as if we are living in a post
ideological society. We are more connected than ever, our culture, as well as our economy,
has become global. Because of this, people’s consciousness and lifestyles change,
theoretically and substantially.`` Architecture according to Kazuyo Sejima has power to open
up new perspectives from inputs coming from many sources and represent a new independent
freedom that is essentially inherent to contemporary culture.[9]
Whenever a shift in the economy and in the way society funcion occurs, influence of it has to
be recognizable in the built environment and in the meaning of the architecture. Therefore
architecture has to address new socio/economic tendances. Ideas of architecture that has
ability to adjust to different and, more important, changing requirements, have always been
present and developed. Temporary or ephemeral architecture possibly, in the most direct way,
reflect current demands. But in the case od architecture that will adequate facilitate demands
of contemporary nomadism question is not if there is a permanent need for architectural space
but what is the adequate permanent space for temporary users. Approaching to this problem,
we need to define which aspects of architecture are permanent and which are changing or
temporary, primarily referring to architectural space and users. In the case of ephemeral
architecture need for space nor users is permanent and both are shifting.
One of the approaches to the idea of nomadic architecture is of course mobile architecture, or
architectural structure that users can carry with them and set their architectural space when
and where they have a need for it. Toyo Ito, in his project named ``Dwelling for a Tokyo
Nomad Woman``, responds to metaphorical nomadic lifestyle by proposing an architecture
that is characterized by its ephemeral yet permanent nature. In this project nomadic lifestyle
was limited to the city of Tokyo, and what that city represented in the mid 80s, extremely
dense and technologically advanced, immersed in consumerism whit individuals that were
building their identities around the patterns of consumption. It was ephemeral in the sense of
placement, but permanent in the sense of user, since it was reflecting their identity and
relation to the material possession. In this case, architectural space is temporary, that of
course, if we consider that mobile architecture usually achieve the maximum potential of
architectural space at a specific time, when placed within an environment, not during
transport. On the other hand, users of mobile architecture are usually permanent, meaning that
same user/users are assigned to the same architectural space of a mobile architecture. Like
shown in the Ito`s project, user is permanent because of the concept where architectural space
needs to be personalised and reflection of personal identity of the user. This approach is
interesting for analysys, not just from the aspects of performance, temporarily or change, but
also from the aspect of possession that is extremely relevant in the context of place identity
and attachment to it in the contemporary setting.
In comparison to idea of nomadism addressed in Toyo Ito's work, concept of contemporary
nomadism considered in this paper has almost completely opposite standing. This difference
is for most evident in the relation between identity and material possession represented
through personal architectural space. Other important reason why mobile architecture is less
238
appropriate solution for the idea of contemporary nomadism is simply the quantity of users.
With the current predictions and the development of new forms of working and living,
number of users affected is increasing and will reach level where solution have to be more
global than personal, especially when taking into account dominant social aspects of working
and living. Before reflecting to the idea of new nomadic architecture, or a stopover
architecture, there is one more architectural idea that needs to be analysed, and that is the idea
of empty space.
Concept of emptiness in architectural theory and design is present for a long period of time
and gethers a broad range of ideas in relation to different aspects of architectural space.
Architectural design abandoned static and rigid patterns for flexibility long time ago. Since
architecture is time/space design discipline concept of emptiness is usually connected to the
idea of changeability and variability of space and social needs facilitated through architecture.
Many architects argue that emptiness is the goal that contemporary architectural design
should set for itself. As Margreet Duinker and Machiel Van der Torre wrote emptiness can be
practical and functional concept.[10] Luzia Hartsuyker-Curjel argues that if there is a place
for constantly changing functions than the space become modulated organism: emptiness
given shape.[11] Empty space can be considered as being a grid released from predefined
content, ready to accept different types of programming variables and transform along with
them. This would be emptiness of architectural space in relation to function, or appropriation
of architectural space with non predefined use. In the context of contemporary nomadism we
have to address emptiness in relation to user. Therefore we have to consider architecture with
non predefined users.
3.1
Values of stopover architectural space – relocation of the empty space to a
different level
Human character is, by nature, wanderer, divergent and adventurous and it requires an
environment that allows and nourishes the practice and development of such behaviour.[12]
Contemporary architecture can not be conclusive since modern society is not capable, nor
willing, to be confide to space which has a lower level of ability to change, than it is required
by that same society. Taking into account the 'nomadic' character of the today's citizen we
shouldn't see life as taking place in specific spaces, but rather taking place in in-between
(crossing) places. Human beings inhabit the world as travellers, not as occupiers of a specific
space.[13] In favor of this point speaks for example the idea of Nomadic Cruise, which also
appeared recently. This is the representation of the idea of not just placing in the focus social
aspect of contemporary identity in the places of permanent residence and work, but also in the
situation of travel and transportation, whis is in the core of the idea of contemporary
nomadism. Therefore the architecture which would be adequate for upcoming living and
working concepts has to be composed of lines and dots, or flows and nodes of intersections.
And only in this composition stopover architecture have a complete meaning.
4
CONSLUSION
Shifting the concept of non predefinition from function to users creates lining (grid) of the
space ready to accept different aspects of the programme variables and transforme along with
them, not on the level of one or group of buildings but on the infrastructural-like level of
architectural space. Some may ask the question how is this stopover architecture different
from, for example, hotels and other kind of facilities offering temporary residential space.
Solely in the domain of basic functions and programme it`s not. Essential difference is
certainly in the social aspect, that is in the very idea of contemporary nomadism: for
contemporary nomads temporary residential spaces are not excursions from a daily lives, but
239
daily life itself. Meaning that architecture have for one person or a group, and idea of it, goes
much deeper than comparison through basic functions it facilitates. Therefore relation to the
place and architectural space in it, significantly differs, which is a factor that must be taken
into account.
Defining stopover architecture as a system of flows and nods implies the highlighted relation
of space with `time` dimension. This particular dimension is not only importante for
architectural space, but primarely for understanding flows and nods in the context of
functioning of moder society ... taking into account not only a person's movements but also
the time they spend in a specific place. [13] By taking this into account, in future, layers of
infrastructure like stopover architecture, will create system of architectural spaces that are, at
every level, more efficient and compatible for modern society.
``… from now on all duration will be measured in intencity.`` Paul Virilio [14]
Acknowledgement
This paper has been undertaken after part of the Project 36051 supported by Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia
REFERENCES
[1] Virilio, Paul, 1991. Part IV in The Aesthetics of Disappearance, pp. 102. US: Semiotext(e)
[2] Rifkin J., 2000. The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalisam, Where All of Life is a Paid-For
Experience, Putnam Publishing Group
[3] The Most Popular Ideas in the Sharing Economy. 10.11.2015
https://www.justpark.com/creative/sharing-economy-index/
[4] Schrader, Brandon. 2015. “Here is Why the Freelancer Economy is on the Rise” Future of Work,
10.08.2015. Date of access: 10.11.2015.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3049532/the-future-of-work/heres-why-the-freelancer-economy-is-on-the-rise
[5] Greenstone Miller, Jody; Miller Matt. 2012. “The Rise of the Supertemp” Harvard Business Review, May
2012. Date of access:10.10.2015. https://hbr.org/2012/05/the-rise-of-the-supertemp
[6] Canter, D. 1997. The facets of place. Advances in Enviroment, Behavior and Design, New York:
Springer/Plenum Press
[7] Norberg Šulc, Kristijan. 2002. Egzistencija, prostor i arhitektura. (in Serbian) Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga
[8] Momirov, Maja. 2014. Preservation of Identity of Place Within Rapid Economic and Technological
Development of Tourist Destinations in the Example of Jijoca de Jericoacoara in Brazil. Places &
Technologies Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-86-7924-114-6: pp. 469-475
[9] Sejima, Kazuyo. 2010. “Introduction” La Biennale, Architecture, Date of access: 20.08.2015.
http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/archive/exhibition/sejima/
[10] Duinker, Margreet; Van der Torre, Machiel (ed. Maarten Kloos). 1991. Architecture Now, A compilation of
comments on the state of contemporary architecture. pp75. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura
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[11] Hartsuyker-Curjel, Luzia; (ed. Maarten Kloos). 1991. Architecture Now, A compilation of comments on the
state of contemporary architecture. pp78. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura
[12] Dattner, Richard. 1969. Design for a Play, Nueva York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
[13] Massey, D.B. 2005. For Space, London: Sage Publications
[14] Mouriño Frdz, Alexandre; Fonseca Jorge, Pedro. Architecture of emptiness: Human flows as generators of
shapes in future architecture
[15] Virilio, Paul, 1991. Part II in The Aesthetics of Disappearance, pp. 74. US: Semiotext(e)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[16] Hague, Ashild Lappegard. 2007. Identity and Place: A critical Comparison of Three Identity Theories.
Troodheim, Norway: Department of Architectural Design and Management, Faculty of Architecture and
Fine Arts, Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyLast name, First name or Initials (ed.). year.
Book title. City: Publisher
[17] Perkins, Harvey C; David C. Thorns. 2012. Place, Identity and Everyday Life in a Globalizing
World. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
[18] Krivê, Maros. 2010. The idea of empty space, Pro Kaapeli movement and the Cable Factory in Helsinki,
Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu, vol.48:3
[19] http://www.followtheelements.com/, Date of access: 15.07.2015.
[20] http://www.dnxglobal.com/, Date of access: 17.08.2015.
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242
RADICAL SPACES OF MUSEUM CLUSTERS: EDUCATION
BETWEEN MUSEUMS
Mila Nikoli
1
1
derived from the author’s PhD thesis realized and defended at the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (SPAIN); currently Assistant Professor at the Univerzitet Union Nikola
Tesla (SERBIA)
mila.nikolic@gmail.com
Abstract
The role of space in the 21st century and in the society we would like to regard as
“knowledge-based” is one of essential questions, to which different fields of knowledge are
trying to answer. Museum clusters are a spatial phenomenon very present in contemporary
cities, but not as much in the contemporary research. Yet, in these spaces within and in
between museums is the place “in between disciplines” where all the activities and ideas of
spatial design, and the changes in the approach to reading, understanding and designing of
space are manifested. This article points to the intertwining of different spatial disciplines in
radical projects related to museum and other cultural clusters, through which they become a
manifesto of spatial design, demonstrating the ultimate role of public space - education.
Keywords: cluster, cultural, curating, design, education, manifesto, museum, paradigm,
planning, public, space, spatial, urban, West Kowloon Cultural District, Lincoln Center.
1
1.1
INTRODUCTION: SPATIAL DESIGN OF MUSEUM CLUSTER
Urban turn
In response to the Urban and Information Age and the resulting theoretical turns1, the
disciplines related traditionally to understanding, shaping and use of space, such as
architecture, interior design, urbanism, and landscape design, are merging with performance,
art and visual technologies into spatial design. Spatial design thus could be considered as a
strategy, whose field of action is being defined and redefined in integration of diverse logics
and approaches. Its numerous elements, practices, techniques and scales, ranging from
exhibition, stage and experience design to regional planning,2 address the complexity of
human environment and its future.
Museum clusters, with their agglomeration of museum contents, activities, architectures and
spaces and their urban networks and routes, are a phenomenon of manifold dimensions and
functions in city and the society, which demands a multidisciplinary, multicultural and
multiscalar approach in research, planning and design. My research on museum design and
museum clusters benefited in great measure of broad and changing perspectives and methods
corresponding to spatial design. Putting emphasis on museum’s place and relationship with
city, i.e. its urbanistic aspect, permitted me to observe and analyse its urban
postmodernization and a variety of spatial disciplines included in it at micro level of museum,
1
spatial in social sciences and humanities, cultural and social in spatial sciences.
including interior design and interior architecture; workplace, furniture, commercial and service design; exhibition and event design and
curating; stage design and film and television production design; education experience and interactive environment design; visual and spatial
branding, architectural, urban and landscape design, urban curating and public art, all the way to urban and spatial/regional planning.
2
243
at mezzo level of museum cluster, at macro level of the “city of museums”, and beyond, in
global systems and geo-cultural politics. [1]
1.2
From urbanistic to spatial design manifesto
Museums are considered architectural manifestos. My research has shown that museum
clusters are also manifestos, albeit urbanistic ones. [2] For the importance this has for new
spatial strategies, now I questioned the hypothesis that museum cluster today is a manifesto of
spatial design.
The logical proof is short and clear. If spatial design is integration of curating, interior design,
architecture, urbanism, public art, education and events, if it spans the conditions of ‘urban’
and ‘interior’ [3], if it is driven by ideas and theoretical insights about the city and its
dynamics [4], the only logical conclusion is that museum cluster is also a manifesto of spatial
design.
As a practical proof, analysed cases of museum clusters showed mutual impact of the
museum and the city, where different spatial disciplines and their highest aspirations
intertwine, confirming this hypothesis and helping us to understand new roles of space and
the ways to maximize its use, spatial capital and capacity of continuous changes. The
significance of this hypothesis and of the scope of activities and projects that demonstrate and
promote it, despite the pressure of markets and privatization, is also in showing the new
models of thinking, acting and even subversion, possible both within the institutions and in
the public space.
Theoretically, in this radical space in and in between the museums some of the key themes
related to space converge. Already the choice of a common term is indicative. The most
ingrained “museum quarter” became insufficient with the spread of museums over entire
urban morphology [5]. Even though aware that the historical continuity of these physical
concentrations of museums surpasses changes and fashions in theories and terminologies, I
opted for the current term “museum cluster” for its accent on environment, relations and
processes.
This relational field, where urban flows and flows of information structure the common space
of multiple uses, activities and events, is reflected also in the term “campus”. Mostly tied to
one institution or function, campus is focus of many recent theoretical and practical
interventions, invoking ever important questions of education and production – of goods,
values, space, knowledge and spirit – in the city.
Museum cluster, however, does not pursue the genius loci. It defines its place and critical
mass through location, urban morphology, relations and public space. The fifth dimension of
this place is locus genii, place of the creative genius, of immaterial production, of learning,
leisure and play. Networking in the “city of museums”, it creates a changeable urban setting,
which disseminates knowledge and encourages transformation of the social and urban tissue.
[6]
1.3
Methodology
This work is based on the research realized during my doctoral studies at the Polytechnic
University of Catalonia. Methodologically, the historical, comparative and critical analysis of
in-depth case studies were supported with urbanistic and architectural schemes, graphics and
chronologies. The primary sources included radical architectural projects and urban
masterplans, both realized and unbuilt, as well as direct testimonies of the most avant-garde
authors participating in the creation of contemporary museum clusters.
244
The museum project changes at all levels. City becomes the key for the organization of flows
and spaces of the museum, for its new form, and even for its new museography. Vice versa,
museography and didactics extend to the project of the city, turning dynamic cultural planning
into a model of the twenty-first century urbanism, and proving in this change the ultimate role
of space – education.
Due to the limitations of the paper length, these changes are not shown, analysed and
interpreted one by one, through a broad overview of researched cases, which distil the
tendencies. Instead, two paradigmatic museum and cultural cluster projects are presented,
with focus on their role as public space, where the interplay of spatial disciplines and spatial
didactics come to the fore. The first one, the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) in
Hong Kong, analysed more in-detail, is still under construction. The second one, the
renovation of public spaces of Lincoln Center in New York, which expanded on the whole
complex and whole decade, finishing only in 2013 with publication of the book on the entire
process, consists of further steps for achieving the contemporary spatial complexity and
cultural density, and shows that the changes in question are far more reaching.
2
2.1
MUSEUM CLUSTER AS A NEW SPATIAL MANIFESTO
Paradigm of the new museum cluster
The winning proposals on competitions for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong
by Sir Norman Foster / Foster + Partners summarize a number of important trends in the
development of museum clusters in the first decade of the 21st century as a playfield for
spatial design. The first Foster’s proposal went even further – it was the radical space itself.
Radical in its strength and simplicity, it reduced museum architecture to topography and
emphasized the importance of place, of connections and of mobilization of culture and space,
creating, at least on paper, the paradigm of the new museum cluster.
Hong Kong is a major port, and, like so many other cities on water, it rediscovers and
recovers its industrial and transportation zones formerly connected to port activities into
extension of the city centre. The transformation of its waterfront in a cultural bank began in
the 1980’s with the construction of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on the site of the former
Kowloon railway station. It continued with the transformation of the Western Kowloon
Reclamation, a dying industrial area in the heart of Victoria Harbour, in one of the most
ambitious cultural projects of the 2000’s. Composed of four giant museums and an art
exhibition centre as a dominant function, as well as four large auditoriums and theatres, a
school of art and design and different stages, squares and amphitheatres for cultural and
entertainment events, this cluster was planned on 40 hectares of a tropical park to fill a gap in
touristic and cultural offer.
The West Kowloon Cultural District has been an instrument of reposition and rebranding,
expected to develop cultural tourism, open new jobs and facilitate participation of Hong Kong
in the future prosperity of China. To create this new cultural image of Hong Kong and its
famous harbour, a project of great international projection was needed. The proposal of Sir
Norman Foster won the competition in 2001 with a vision of a leisure garden that integrated
the cultural complex under a daring glass roof, almost 1.5 km long and of 25 ha in surface,
giving the city not an architectural, but an urbanistic icon.
To a radical programme, Foster gave a radical response (Fig. 1). He resolved the cluster with
a topographic gesture, almost anti-architectural, of the undulating roof that corresponds to the
force of the horizontal mass of the sea, in contrast to the verticality of the new urban
development of the neighbouring Union Square. The third dominant and unifying element
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was greenery, generously planned on 70% of the upper level of the scheme, [7] as an
extension of the natural topography of the peninsula and a continuation of the Kowloon Park,
much needed in this overcrowded city.
Figure 1: Foster's winning proposal on the first WKCD competition. Credit: Foster + Partners.
Developed around two axes - the longitudinal commercial axis as a link to the new residential
area and the cultural axes in the most prominent part of the peninsula as a symbolic entry into
Victoria Harbour, the park generated a system of public spaces and formed an urban terrace
overlooking Hong Kong. The residential towers of the Union Square, on the north side of the
site, continued the existing urban pattern creating a permeable border to this new cultural
bank and its extensive green belt.
The architecture of cultural institutions was embedded underground to increase open public
space, reduced to glass domes visible only from the park and subordinated to the union of the
urban gesture. This recognizable trend of tectonic movements and structures beneath them
proclaims the extreme importance of the place – the public place - for the museum, and
prolongs its didactic function to teaching about the nature, history and city.
Those place and role were highlighted furthermore by the marinas of the WKCD. They were
planned as a commercial activity and asset that would increase the value and functionality of
the residential neighbourhood of the Union Square, but also as an urbanistic element that
would revive the spirit of Victoria Harbour and the life on water, creating a dynamic, ever
changing urban landscape. As a reminder of the importance of accessibility and of the
“intermodal” character of the cluster, they emphasized the West Kowloon as an intermodal
transportation hub (Aedas, 2010), where the Western Harbour Tunnel connects the banks of
the strait, and the rapid railway to China, a heliport and the ferries pier provide access and
human flows from the mainland, from the air and by the water.
Multiple functions of the West Kowloon only began with transport and around the cultural
nucleus included in its program the education, housing, leisure and commerce. And business,
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of course: the development of the cluster was linked to an imposing and lucrative real estate
development. The aerodynamic structure of the large permeable canopy, as a new symbol of
the city, was supposed to unite this multiplicity of functions and create the sophisticated and
controlled microclimate that would allow the “open” air use of public spaces throughout the
year. Foster’s project changed the scale of already common roofs over museum patios and
squares, in whose introduction he took an important role3, leading to the extreme even the
new series of mega-roofs and umbraculums of Valencia and Abu Dhabi.
Although still under construction, the project of the West Kowloon Cultural District deserves
great attention. It indicates numerous dilemmas and problems in the financial and cultural
construction that the operations of this magnitude and significance face, underscoring the
decisive role of public interest and support. Ten years of delays, of public protests,
consultations and forums, introduced public opinion in creation of public institutions, space
and life, and definitely solved the biggest dilemma: they confirmed that Hong Kong needs
this giant cultural cluster, and that it needs it for its citizens in the first place.
The projects selected in the final round of the new invited competition in the post-crisis and
post-heroic 2009, which included housing also in the park and served as the basis for a public
consultation exercise, gave different answers and approaches of multidisciplinary teams to
support the thesis about the museum cluster as a delicate and precise spatial and theoretical
litmus.
The OMA proposal subtly highlighted the accessibility and the place through fragmentation
and porosity of a cluster of clusters that would revalorize the traditional lifestyle of Hong
Kong urban neighbourhoods. The connections that this project emphasized were
programmatic. In parallel with urbanistic proposal, it detailed a cultural masterplan that would
infuse the physical space with culture, and foster and make visible “all aspects of the creative
process - from education to rehearsal to production to performance”. It foresaw a
counteroffensive and resuscitation of Kowloon “with outposts of WKCD - galleries, studios,
workshops, theatre rehearsal spaces” - and their fusion into a dynamic and heterogeneous
community. [8]
Rocco Design Architects proposed the integration of three urban layers - housing, culture and
greenery - through green roofs and terraces, insisting on the three-dimensional public space,
public art and public participation. They planned a flexible public framework that would
allow a gradual growth, changes and unpredictability, simultaneity and vitality, and create an
“un-impeded cultural-urban field that ensures fluidity and connectivity. Connectivity between
art forms, between life and culture, space and movement, inside and outside, art and
community, Hong Kong, South China and overseas.” [9]
Foster’s new proposal, which was selected in 2011 and continues under construction, still
articulates the museum cluster as a multi-place, moving from the spectacle of architecture to
the spectacle of urbanism. The idea of the large roof is abandoned, but the walk, the park and
the landscape remain as a backdrop that emphasises the iconic silhouette and urbanistic
qualities of Hong Kong in its spatial didactics. Social and physical barriers dissolve, the
number of cultural institutions grows, and education receives a prominent role in a place
“where the boundaries between living, working and playing are blurred”. [10]
3
His connecting roofs range from the flexible, versatile form of an “elegant hangar” of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (Norwich, 197478), to the roofed patios of the British Museum (London, 1994-2000) and Smithsonian Institution (Washington, 2004-07), to the urban porch
in Marseille Vieux Port (2011-13) and Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (ongoing). Foster’s underground cultural
infrastructure also develops from his early projects, the Retreat (Feock, UK, 1963) and the unbuilt scheme for Samuel Beckett Theatre
(Oxford, UK, 1971, in collaboration with Buckminster Fuller), to grow to the American Air Museum (Cambridge, UK, 1987-97) and the
Crescent Wing for the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (1988-91).
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Through different approaches, through contrast and fusion, all these projects highlighted the
importance of accessibility and connections – programmatic, which extend and make visible
the cultural content, activities and their spatial frame, and physical, which link it under the
ground, under the roofs, in height or somewhere in between, in a new, artificial topography.
Demanding a new creativity and directions of spatial design, pushing forward cultural
planning and programming and urban curating, they stress the value of public space and
public life, providing for multiple uses, meanings, flows and audiences, through which the
museum cluster manifests the aspirations and needs of the contemporary city.
2.2
Beyond museum clusters: Breaking the walls
While the WKCD faces new changes and delays, revitalizations of already established
museum clusters show further steps. New trends, as evidenced by the examples, are not
limited to museum clusters. The Lincoln Center, a performance and music counterpart of
museum clusters, in the 1960’s became a manifesto of modern architecture and urbanism, and
initiated an explosion of cultural centres in the United States. Four decades later, reaching 10
million visitors a year and in dire need of repair and better integration with the surrounding
urban tissue and life, it started its own series of renovation plans and competitions. They also
included a rejected urban canopy, proposed by Frank Gehry (2001) to give a new sense of
unity to thirty interior and exterior performance venues of eleven institutions notoriously
having “nothing in common but the central heating” [11] and the uniform, aged travertine
cladding.
The redesign of public spaces and infoscape of Lincoln Center by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
and further interventions on its buildings and infrastructure summarize the ideas of
mobilization and opening of existing museum clusters, almost reverently including all
applicable contemporary tendencies, elements and concepts present in their revamping,
reinvigorating and reprogramming. Adding to the old Center’s controversies, DS+R caused a
heated discussion on preservation of Modernist, and especially Brutalist architectural,
urbanistic and landscape heritage by opting for a sort of sensitive remodelling and precise
surgery as a way to move forward [11, 12]. I focused on changes, both disputed and highly
praised and awarded, which, due to the missing unitary vision – and institutional accord and
financing – remain more of an assemblage than a unifying force.
The authors, chosen for this huge-impact renewal thanks to their multidisciplinary design
impregnated with different art and communication forms, engaged various spatial disciplines
in the transformation of the cluster’s character, which will give the needed complexity to the
WKCD only in the next phases of development. The clear aim was to open it up towards the
urban environment and a younger, broader audience, and to make it more welcoming and
more physically and mentally accessible (Fig. 2). Or, as Joseph W. Polisi, president of
Juilliard, defined the contemporary reorientation from an isolated cultural acropolis to a
dynamic cultural cluster, from the content to the audience and the city: “to break down the
walls of Lincoln Center.” [13]
Figure 2: Lincoln center after the revitalization. Credit: a) John Meloy, b) Kevin Yatarola / Lincoln Center.
248
In a radical externalization of Lincoln Center’s cultural institutions, this project integrates
new technologies to disseminate information across the campus, looking for its place in the
world flows. The new “electronic stairways” and “InfoBlades”, digital billboards along the
transforming 65th Street, enliven the surrounding streetscape (another spatial design mode)
and increase the amount of visual information and the “energy” level of the cluster. [14] In
addition to these info-activators, which irradiate the information and spectacle to the city, the
new water games in the central fountain, illumination, paving and graphic identity update and
energize the communication between the institutions and the visitors. They bring an
ephemeral and updateable contemporary touch to the existing public artwork (a modern-art
collection of 41 pieces), reflection pool and open stage in the public space of the Center,
which themselves are increasingly becoming an obligatory part of museum clusters in the
ongoing externalization of their program, content and didactics.
These programmatic connections support the architectural interventions, new entrance halls
and new physical connections above and under the ground, that reorganize the accesses and
bring in new social and economic activators accessible to all visitors. The new grandstand
seating in front of the renovated Alice Tully Hall, as well as the forest and the loan, elevated
as a green roof over the new Film Center and restaurant, feature the “urban carpet” raising and
folding. This multidirectional and topographic conquering and multiplying of space, present
in many forms in museum clusters, return here as a meeting and relaxing place, amphitheatre,
belvedere and a piece of nature.
The combination of the original architecture and the new transparency and fluidity
emphasizes the vitality of the Center and shows that cyclical changes give “the vigour,
strength and continuous cultural importance” [15] to the cultural clusters as well. Reorienting
the cluster outwards and expanding the spectacle from the auditoriums to the City, the new
Lincoln Center defines the new manifesto of spatial design as an open, porous and
extroverted, dynamic and digitized cultural public space, capable of continuous changes, recreation and reprogramming.
3
MUSEUM CLUSTER AS A PUBLIC SPACE
"If the twentieth century was dedicated to the buildings, the XXI will be on the spaces
between them."
Christopher Hume, architecture critic of Toronto Star
Analysed examples clearly show the changes and movements in the museum cluster as a
spatial manifesto of the city of knowledge, of dissemination and mobilization of culture.
These changes are physical manifestation of the search for identity and visibility of the
clusters and the intention to maximize the use and presence of museums – and cultural
infrastructure in general – in the city. Urban form and public space acquire new functions and
meanings, redefining the public sphere.
Lively activities and changes in the museum cluster converge in public space and stress it. In
the public space the externalization of museums takes place, the cluster connects and moves
in all directions and senses, multiplying public space; architectural form becomes public
space. Already Beaubourg creates this new urban place. With the decision to release a half of
the plot for a public square, it creates for itself a connection with the public life of the city,
creates the space for expansion, and allows the externalization of its contents and programs. It
249
creates an urban square also in the interior, to allow the city to enter and expand to its Forum.
It creates the public space also on the building, turning the façade into extension of street
flows and the roof in a Paris belvedere. To this horizontal, vertical and diagonal public space
it gives a central place in the cultural cluster it creates itself.
The importance of public space in museum cluster becomes so great, that even the
architecture of museums becomes only one active and reprogrammable element of its.
Externalizing in public space, burying under the ground, rising in height, gathering and
protecting themselves below roofs, building a new topography, museums revalue and
emphasize public space in the cluster as their centre of gravity, as their main space of
extension of meanings, messages, information, functions and audiences. Museum cluster
through public space forms its amplification and diffusion space. It reflects and refracts every
relationship museum establishes with city and all forms of museum’s opening; in it the
contemporary condition is captured and disseminated; through it the culture, knowledge and
quality propagate for the city.
The richness of public space mainly depends on the ways that people appropriate it and
identify themselves with it [16]. Architectural forms and urban gestures cannot produce them
mechanically. But museum clusters, their contents and activities have the ability to condense
the spirit of the city, of creativity and contemporaneity, and to convert cultural infrastructure
into a framework for innovation, for new situations and cultural and urban experiences, for
“an unpredictable and ever-changing life”. [17] The cluster is thus created as a public place, a
place of the spirit, place of the life, by the presence of museums and by human presence. It
changes in the interaction of man and space, in an essence of the culture of New Babylon
where critical thinking, creation and play unite, where man is at the same time homo sapiens,
homo faber and homo ludens.
The museum cluster, like the traditional museum, provides the system, organization and
order, but, like the delirious museum Calum Storrie [18], it has potential for the spontaneous,
surprising and vital in its urban space. Through new experiences and situations, museum
clusters offer people the ability to accept and change this space and to strengthen the
relationship with their cultural and natural heritage in the museum and in the city.
The public space in the museum cluster, inside and outside museums, is the contact zone of
the museums in the cluster and between the museums and the city. It becomes a place of
welcoming and identity, an event- and a brand place, and a place of attraction - of new
visitors, institutions and activities, the meeting place - with people, content, architecture and
spaces of cluster, building the foundation for urban curating, but also for the conversion of
museum in the centre of community. The integrative and mediating power of public space
clarifies the potential of museum clusters to renew the concept of community and shared
pleasure and become the cohesive force of the contemporary city.
The public space acts so as a link between museums and city, between different audiences and
environments. Through public space, however, museum cluster connects itself also with other
city functions, with other structures and clusters, zones and networks. In the network city, as
the superposition of different clusters and networks, public spaces and cultural infrastructure
serve as meeting nodes that organize the particles in a whole.
The need to differentiate in the analysis the “inner” and the “outer” cluster (Uffizi, Grand
Louvre, Paseo del Prado, Museum Mile, National Mall, etc.) and “interior” and “exterior”
functional mix underlines the role of museum cluster as a medium between the museum and
the city, between the micro- and macro-urbanism. It underlines its role as an “interchange
250
node”4 between different relationships and different urban dynamics, temporalities and spatial
logics, and between different modes of thinking and learning. This “intermodal” space has the
power to create places and flows, and the power to connect them.
Uniting different museums and collections, different ideas of public and urban, museum
clusters and routes create coherent urban and historical narratives that change our perception,
experience and understanding of the city, of museums and their contents. Through the cluster,
museums position themselves to their importance and vitality in the 21st century. But,
returning to their origins and mission of public education and (in)formation, they also redefine
our understanding of public space, of its roles and responsibilities in the new century. One of
the most important conclusion from all this voluminous research is that through museum
cluster its public space becomes a space of information, culture and education. It creates
conditions for interpersonal interaction, accepted already axiomatically, and with the city and
its values, with its symbolic, object and spatial didactics - with its historical structure and
models and with art, science, technics and history that come out in this space in the
externalization of the museum, giving its urban aspect the crucial importance.
The museum cluster redefines thus the concept of public sphere, confirming the Castells’
thesis on transfer from the institutions to the public space, “beyond Habermas and towards
Kevin Lynch” [19]. This transfer explains the aspiration of museums to become public space,
inside and out. Through the externalization of museum didactics and through the
internalization of urbanity, it supports social interaction and communication in a less and less
formal interior space and an exterior that blurs the boundaries between disciplines. It conveys
to spatial design a great responsibility to maximize this potential through creativity and crossfertilisation.
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4
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2015. http://oma.eu/ projects/west-kowloon-cultural-district.
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[9] Rocco Design Architects.* 2010. In DEZEEN: “West Kowloon Cultural District by Rocco Design
Architects”, 25 Aug 2010. Accessed: Oct 2015. http://www.dezeen.com/2010/08/25/west-kowloon-culturaldistrict-by-rocco-design-architects/.
*Public Art Consultant: Freeman Lau, Kurt Chan, Michel De Boer. Performing Arts Planning Consultant:
Positive Solutions. Theatre Planning Consultant: Theatreplan LLP. Visual Arts Facilities Planning
Consultant: Lord Cultural Resources. Public Artwork: Anthony Gormley, Hung Keung, Kwok Mang Ho,
Michael Lau, Tsang Kin Wah, Wong Tin Yan, Ho Siu Kee. Cultural Advisors: Desmond Hui, Jane J. Zheng,
Leung Man Tao, Philip Dodd, John Howkins and Edward Lam.
[10] Majidi, Mouzhan. 2010. Cited in Foster + Partners: “Proposals launched for Foster + Partners City Park at
West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong”, press release 20 Oct 2010.
[11] Muschamp, Herbert. 2004. “A New Face for Lincoln Center”. New York: The New York Times, 13 Apr 2004.
[12] Ourousoff, Nikolai. 2010. “The Greening of Lincoln Center”. New York: The New York Times, 21 May 2010.
[13] Polisi, Joseph. 2006. As quoted in Pogrebin, Robin: “On 65th Street, Glimpsing Lincoln Center’s Future”.
The New York Times, 17 Aug 2006, New York edition: p. E1.
[14] Diller Scofidio + Renfro. 2009. “Lincoln Center Public Spaces and Infoscape. Redesign of Public Spaces,
New York, NY 2009”. Accessed: Oct 2015. http://www.dsrny.com/projects/lincoln-center-public-spaces.
[15] The New York Times Editorial. 2009. “Lincoln Center, New and Improved”. The New York Times, 13 May
2009, New York edition: p. A32.
[16] Wasserman, Françoise. 2001. In: Genard, Jean-Louis: Synthèse du séminaire “Le Mont des Arts comme
Espace Public: Vers de nouvelles interactions entre les équipements scientifiques ou culturels, les usagers
du site et la ville”: p. 9. Série: Mont des Arts, Bruxelles: Fondation Roi Bauduin.
[17] Wigley, Mark. 1998. Constant’s New Babylon. The Hyper-Architecture of Desire: p. 29. Rotterdam: 010
Publishers. The idea of spatial structure as a frame originates from the Smithsons. Smithson, Alison and
Peter: Human Assosiation: p. 44, quoted here.
[18] Storrie, Calum. 2006. The Delirious Museum. A Journey from the Louvre to Las Vegas. London, New York:
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd.
[19] Castells, Manuel. 2004. “Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the
Information Age”. In The Cybercities Reader: p. 87. London/New York: Routledge, Urban Reader Series.
252
THE THEME OF MOTHERHOOD IN CLASSICAL GREEK
TRAGEDIES IN THE CONTEXT OF IDEAS OF SCENE DESIGN
Jelena Janev1
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
jelena.janev@googlemail.com
Abstract
In classical Greek dramas, the character of the mother and the representation of motherhood is
a man’s view of an experience typical only of women. In these representations, however, the
feminine experience is rarely perceived. Mothers did not have their own voice – they were
interpreted. These interpretations, coloured in stereotypes of cultural, religious and patriarchal
inheritance, depicted the idea of what mother should, or should not be in that particular
historical frame. By analysing the characters of mothers in tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles
and Euripides, four models of motherhood representation can be distinguished:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Motherhood is the power by itself.
The mother must be chaste (otherwise she is not a mother)
The mother must be gentle and pliable (otherwise she is not a mother)
As a force of creating, motherhood is tightly related to mortality and forces of
destruction.
In reading the stage directions made by the authors of the dramas (didascalie in French), the
stage and space solutions are analysed for each of the models. Through different examples of
contemporary stagings of these tragedies and scene designs that emphasize these models, the
artical will consider the aspects of the perception of motherhood in the classical times that are
still present at the very core of contemporary inscenations.
Keywords: motherhood, scene design, classical Greek drama, Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides
1
FOUR MODELS OF MOTHERHOOD REPRESENTATION IN CLASSICAL
GREEK TRAGEDIES
Motherhood is everlasting subject in art, literature and theater. Untill modern times, however,
mothers themselves have had no voice of their own - they have been interpreted.
In Classical Greek tragedies, this exclusively female experience is represented from a man’s
point of view and is heavily coloured in stereotypes of cultural, religious and patriarchal
inheritance. It depicted the idea of what mother should, or should not be in that particular
historical frame.
By analysing the characters of mothers in tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides,
four models of motherhood representation can be distinguished:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Motherhood is the power by itself.
The mother must be chaste (otherwise she is not a mother)
The mother must be gentle and pliable (otherwise she is not a mother)
As a force of creating, motherhood is tightly related to mortality and forces of
destruction.
253
The article further explores each of those models individually and in the context of ideas of
scene design.
2
MOTHERHOOD IS THE POWER BY ITSELF
In ancient Greece, the power of the mother could not be compared to that of the father. The
Athenians believed that only a father passes his traits to a child, while the mother is merely a
field in which the father`s seed is planted. When, in Sophocles “Antigone”, Ismene asks
Creon if he would really kill his son`s fiancée, he says his son would find “other fields to
plow”1.
Still, in ancient Greece, at least theoretically and by men, motherhood was perceived as an
improvement of a woman's social status.2 It was the transition from her father`s home to her
husband`s and from childhood to maturity. Motherhood was also a woman`s duty. Having
children would have strengthened her position in the house and would have given her at least
some kind of power in marriage. The children were bound to bury their parents decently,
especially the father, so not having them meant suffering not only during one`s lifetime, but
also in afterlife.3
In one of Euripides‘ rare plays with a happy ending, “Alcestis”4, the heroine decides to die
instead of her husband, in order to take his place in Hades. Her reason is not so much her
romantic love, as an insurance that she would keep control over her household and over the
lives of their children. First of all, she knows it would be difficult for her as a single mother to
raise their children, and she says so in the play.5 Second, she makes sacrifice and, in return,
asks her husband to promise he would never marry again. That way, her children would not
be threatened by a step-mother and half-siblings.6 The motherhood gives her the power to
keep control over their household and lives of their children even after her death. Her
husband`s agreeing to his everlasting loyalty is a precedent and a revolutionary novelty in
ancient Greek drama – there had been many examples of female loyalty since “The Odyssey”,
but this was the first of a kind of a man`s.7
Euripides designed the scene so that Alcestis’ children are sitting by her deathbed while she is
dying, together with her husband, and she uses them poignantly to make him take the oath.8 In
the happy ending, she was brought back from Hades by Heracles, her husband`s friend, who
happened to accidentally visit. She is brought back to life covered with a white veil and
temporarily mute (till the end of the drama, though). The scene is dominated by her mute
appearance in white. Guido Paduano notices “that her silence represents the noblest poetic
and theatrical communication”.9
In “Alcestis”, staged by Slovenian National Theater (Slovensko narodno gledališ e) from
Ljubljana, directed by Boris Lješevi 10, there is a visible juxtaposition between the character
of Alcestis, silent and dignified under the white veil, and Heracles, represented as a Serbian
1
Eshil and Sofoklo and Euripid, “Sabrane gr ke tragedije”, trans Koloman Rac and Nikola Majnari , in “Antigona”, Sofoklo, (Belgrade:
Vrhunci civilizacije, 1988), 121
Emily Wilson, “Three millennia of motherhood”, The Times Literary Supplement, Accessed March 10, 2015, http://www.thetls.co.uk/tls/public/article1163510.ece
3
Euripid and Žan Anuj and Velimir Luki , “Tri Medeje”, in Euripid, trans. Gordan Mari i , (Belgrade: Paideia, 2009), 24
4
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi , in “Alkestida”, (Belgrade: Biblioteka
“Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007)
5
Ibid, 49
6
Ibid, 50
7
Gvido Paduano, “Anti ko pozorište, vodi kroz dela” (Beograd: Clio, 2011), 77
8
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi , in “Alkestida”, (Belgrade: Biblioteka
“Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007), 52
9
Gvido Paduano, “Anti ko pozorište, vodi kroz dela” (Beograd: Clio, 2011), 76
10
Bitef teatar, guest appearance of Slovenian National Theater from Ljubljana, accessed April 1, 2015,
http://teatar.bitef.rs/2014/02/01/alkestida/
2
254
offhand soldier from the 90`s.( Fig. 1) Although he is disheveled, licentious, she is the one
dominating the space of the stage.
Fig 1. Bitef teatar, photo by Peter Uhan, accessed April 1, 2015, http://teatar.bitef.rs/2014/02/01/alkestida/
3
THE MOTHER MUST BE CHASTE (OTHERWISE SHE IS NOT A MOTHER)
All three great playwrights emphasized the value of reasonable love deprived of passion.
Aristotle found that catharsis in tragedies was some sort of homeopathic cure for passion.11 In
Aeschylus`s “Agamemnon” the chorus predicts that when there is a mad passion in people,
“shame sprouts, misery grows”.12
Passionate feelings were condemned in both men and women. With men, society would turn a
blind eye, while women were expected to suppress their urges. Andromache, in the
Euripides`s play of the same name, explains the secret of being a good wife to her rival
Hermione. She reprehends Hermione for her insatiable passion and jealousy and says that
women are able to suffer those feelings stronger than men, but are also able to hide them
better.13
Clytemnestra was rejected by her children Orestes and Electra for being unfaithful to their
father Agamemnon, as much as for killing him – disregarding the fact that Agamemnon had
brought a lover of his own from Troy. She fits two of the listed models. On the one hand, with
the loss of her favourite child (her husband sacrifices Iphigenia in order to avoid
embarrassment as a military leader), she loses gentleness and femininity and gains male
strength and passion for revenge (succeeding model). On the other hand, her lapse of chastity,
her infidelity (which, again, is the result of hatred fueled by Iphigenia`s sacrifice) abolishes
11
Gvido Paduano, “Anti ko pozorište, vodi kroz dela” (Beograd: Clio, 2011), 15
Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri , in “Prvi deo Orestije: Agamemnon”, Eshil (Belgrade: Dereta,
2010), 203
13
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi (Belgrade: Biblioteka “Beskrajni plavi
krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007), 603
12
255
her maternal qualities. Orestes and Electra, her surviving children, reject her and eventually
kill her.
Euripides’ tragedy “Hippolytus” deals with female sexuality and with sexuality of a mother in
a way that is still a taboo. Phaedra is Hippolytus` step-mother and the mother of his halfsiblings. She falls madly in love with him. He despises her and her urges, and she kills herself
in despair, but has her revenge by accusing him of raping her. His father orders his murder.
Phaedra is older, which is a taboo in the western culture – an older woman and a young boy.
At the same time, she is supposed to be a mother figure, and what is even more shocking – a
mother who feels maddening desire. Her reason for committing suicide is to prevent her
children’s embarrassment. The play depicts her physically weak, in and out of a stretcher,
riven by guilt and desire, pouring her soul to the statue of Aphrodite explaining her reasons to
end her life.14
A young man is definitely an object of desire here – which may be the third taboo
(considering he is desired by a mature woman, not by a man, for example) – contrary to the
usual scenario where a young woman is an object of desire.
Euripides’ tragedy “Hippolytus” is “humanity`s first sex tragedy”, as said in the description of
a dance performance based on the play15. In Zikzira Physical Theater, site-specific
performance 'Eu vos liberto' (I set you free), based on Euripides' ”Hippolytus”, the character
of Hippolytus is interpreted as a shy, male belly dancer. The dance between him and a the
character of Phaedra is carefully balanced to show his innocent seductiveness and her mature
passion. Although the dancers are peers, the age difference of the characters they play is
emphasized by the way they dance and by their clothes. He is dressed like an exotic belly
dancer in a long skirt, naked above the waist and caped with a transparent scarf. She is
tightened in a dark dress that reflects the style of an older woman. (Figure 2) Her dancing and
acting express the torture of desire, and his the innocence and youth.
The performance is directed by choreographer Fernanda Lippi and filmmaker Andre
Semenza, and was set in a disused warehouse in the red light district in Belo Horizonte,
Brazil. There are puddles of water on the floor in which the reflection of the dancers’
movements can be seen.
4
THE MOTHER MUST BE GENTLE AND SUBMISSIVE (OTHERWISE SHE IS
NOT A MOTHER)
Electra philosophizes that a sensible woman must indulge her husband16. Her mother breaks
those rules.
Clytemnestra a is a complicated, strong female character, especially in Euripides’ “Iphigenia
at Aulis”. Euripides skillfully grades the change she goes through, from a caring, gentle,
fragile noble woman, to a fearless, brutal avenger.17
He sets Clytemnestra`s first scene so that it shows the characteristics of the heroine. She
enters the stage for the first time stepping out of a carriage. She needs a servant’s assistance
for being of fragile and gentle disposition.18
14
Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri , in „Hipolit“, Euripid (Belgrade: Dereta, 2010), 558
Zikzira Physical Theater's site-specific performance 'Eu vos liberto', based on Euripides' 'Hippolytus', accessed April 1, 2015,
https://vimeo.com/35696026
16
Eshil and Sofoklo and Euripid, “Sabrane gr ke tragedije”, trans Koloman Rac and Nikola Majnari , in “Elektra”, Euripid, (Belgrade:
Vrhunci civilizacije, 1988), 526
17
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi , in “Ifigenija u Aulidi” (Belgrade:
Biblioteka “Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007), 250
18
Ibid, 246
15
256
As the plot of sacrificing her daughter Iphigenia by her husband Agamemnon unravels, she is
forced to fight for her daughter`s life. Euripides is maybe the first playwright who brings out
the characters on the stage who have a conversation, and the relationship between them is
changed after that conversation.19 In a potent dialogue between the spouses, he brings back
the history of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon`s marriage – he murdered her first husband, tore
her baby away from her breasts and killed him, and abducted Clytemnestra to become his
wife. She admits she had no love for him but was a good, pliable, fertile wife, once she had
made peace with her new destiny.20 However, unable to forgive this new, cruel betrayal, she
changes into a strong, fearless woman determined to save her child, and later, into a furious
avenger. As she loses her maternity, by losing her favorite daughter, she loses her feminine,
gentle side.
In Aeschylus’ “Oresteia”, an old man says that Clytemnestra is dreaming a man`s dream. The
strength is always related to masculinity. The scene in which she kills Agamemnon reminds
us of modern horror movies – Clytemnestra is standing with an ax, her forehead stained with
blood, behind her a slaughtered body of her husband in a bathtub.21
It is even more obvious in Euripides' “Medea” how strength and determination cancel
maternity and femininity in classical Greek tragedies.
The moment she stopped being obedient, inferior wife, the moment she reclaimed her strong,
intelligent, capable nature of a sorceress, Medea annuls her motherhood in the most radical
way – she kills her children. That was Euripides` creation, not part of the legend of Medea
that preexisted the play. And he made her kill them in the way a man would. Psychology says
that a woman`s act of killing her own children usually represents kind of a suicide, often
resulting in her killing herself afterwards.22 Medea flees away and lives.
The scene in which she escapes is important. The design set given by Euripides in stage
directions exceeds the conventions, giving the scene a new, controversial meaning. He uses
the mechanism employed solely to introduce a god into the scene, deus ex machine, which he
now uses for a woman, who broke every rule of female behaviour, to flee from the scene into
a better life.
Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa puts “Medea” on the stage in Tokyo as an invitation to a
Japanese woman to be less obedient and submissive and to emancipate.23
He uses elements of kabuki theater, which are immediately readable to Japanese audience, to
communicate every message the play (not so readable to a non western audience) may have.
Medea, played by a man (a usual thing in kabuki), is gradually stripped out of the complicated
and heavy costume that even has breasts.24 (Figure 3) At the end, the actor is in a simple
costume that reveals a man.25 (Figure 4) Having renounced her motherhood and killed her
children, she literary becomes a man. Finally, she flies away in a machine characteristic for
kabuki and used for heroes only.26
19
STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn discusses Ethan McSweeny's upcoming production of Euripides' "Ion," running at Sidney Harman
Hall from March 10 to April 12, 2009, accessed April 1, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhHmJPuDBWc
20
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi , in “Ifigenija u Aulidi” (Belgrade:
Biblioteka “Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007), 250
21
Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri , in “Prvi deo Orestije: Agamemnon”, Eshil (Belgrade: Dereta,
2010), 247
22
Euripid and Žan Anuj and Velimir Luki , “Tri Medeje”, in Euripid, trans. Gordan Mari i (Belgrade: Paideia, 2009), 7
23
Mae Smethurst, “Ninagawa`s Production of Euripides` Medea”, American Journal of Filology 123 (2002): 1 – 34, The John Hopkins
University Press
24
Ibid
25
Ibid
26
Ibid
257
Fig 2. A frozen video frame from “BBC Learning Zone Medea”, accessed April, 5, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-M6OBvAdE
Fig 3. A frozen video frame from “BBC Learning Zone Medea”, accessed April, 5, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-M6OBvAdE
5
AS A FORCE OF CREATING, MOTHERHOOD IS TIGHTLY RELATED TO
MORTALITY AND FORCES OF DESTRUCTION
Before the 20th century, having a baby was always a risk for a mother`s life, and therefore
motherhood was closely related to death. By performing an act of love, in order to create a
new life, fathers were simultaneously aware of risking the lives of their wives. Children, if
reaching an adult age, were aware of a danger they had put their mothers in merely by being
born. And, of course, the life their mother gave them had an inevitable end in death. In such
context, ”Oresteia“ can be understood as justification of fatherhood and mother’s death at
childbirth.27 Clytemnestra dreams to breast-feed a dragon which sucks her blood together with
27
Emily Wilson, “Three millennia of motherhood”, The Times Literary Supplement, accessed March 10, 2015, http://www.thetls.co.uk/tls/public/article1163510.ece
258
milk before her son kills her. The pain and the risk of giving birth are often mentioned in
tragedies.28
On the other hand, the pain of losing children in war is omnipresent. There is a feeling of
going through the childbirth pains in vain, and also of the conflict of patriotic and motherly
feelings, often written in a manner that reflects more of a man`s view and propaganda, than
something a mother would feel and think. The scenes of violence are vivid and so are the
expressions of mother`s sadness. Hecuba loses her ability to stand when her children die in
”The Trojan Women“.29 Mothers in grief often scratch their faces till they are bloody.30
In “The Passion of the Trojan Women” in the production of the Cantieri Teatrali Koreja,31
directed by Antonio Pizzicato and Salvatore Tramacere, the suffering of Trojan mothers is
related, visually and by the means of scene design, to the suffering of the Virgin Mary (who
is, again, a character that can be placed in some of these models). Hecuba`s grandson is laid
dead on a sloping narrowing towards the top ladder placed on the stage. The ladder resembles
ancient bonfire where the Greeks burnt their dead, but also a cross because of the way the
actor playing a dead boy lies on it with his feet crossed, having only a white rag over his hips.
(Figure 5) The Trojan women in black are crying while making hand movements like a paid
wailers in pagan tradition, but also similar to the movement of crossing themselves.
Fig 4. Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, “La Passione Delle Troiane”, accessed April 1, 2015,
http://www.teatrokoreja.it/koreja/produzioni.php?actionToDo=showProductionSheet&id=28
28
Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri , in “Drugi deo Orestije: Pokajnice”, Eshil (Belgrade: Dereta,
2010), 281
30
Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi , in “Hekaba” (Belgrade: Biblioteka
“Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007), 502
31
Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, “La Passione delle Troiane”, accessed April 1, 2015,
http://www.teatrokoreja.it/koreja/produzioni.php?actionToDo=showProductionSheet&id=28
259
In “Bacchae”, another tragedy by Euripides, the relationship between motherhood and death
is brought to the extreme. The mother, Agave, in her religious ecstasy, tears apart her own
son.32 This play directed by Stefan Valdemar Holm in the production of the National Theater
in Belgrade (Narodno pozorište u Beogradu), puts accent on religious or ideological
intoxication and its consequences.33 In the final scenes, Agave, sober at last and aware of her
tragic act, cries in desperation over a bag full of something that looks like chopped up corpse.
(Figure 6) This prop disturbs the previously minimalistic and immaculately neat scene design
as the whole religious system falls apart for the devastated mother.
Fig 5. Photo taken from “The Bacchae”, National Theater in Belgrade, accessed April 4, 2015,
http://www.narodnopozoriste.co.rs/en/the-bacchae
6
CONCLUSION
Even after all these centuries, despite overcome views and different functions of the theater,
the tragedy of Classical Greece has preserved the core that still inspires contemporary
inscenations. Motherhood is often addressed as something exotic. It is convincingly and
bodily experienced only in the latest model, as physical pain and suffering is well known to
male writers, unlike delights of motherhood. That last model seems to be most alive in the
contemporary inscenations.
32
Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri , in “Bahanatkinje”, Euripid (Belgrade: Dereta, 2010)
Ana Isakovi , “Revolucija i/ili sigurni konzervatizam”, “E novine”, February 22, 2010, accessed April 1, 2015, http://www.enovine.com/mobile/kultura/kultura-recenzije/35113-Revolucija-iili-sigurni-konzervatizam.html
33
260
REFERENCES
[1] Eshil and Sofoklo and Euripid, “Sabrane gr ke tragedije”, trans Koloman Rac and Nikola Majnari
(Belgrade: Vrhunci civilizacije, 1988)
[2] Emily Wilson, “Three millennia of motherhood”, The Times Literary Supplement, accessed March 10,
2015, http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1163510.ece
[3] Euripid and Žan Anuj and Velimir Luki , “Tri Medeje” (Belgrade: Paideia, 2009)
[4] Euripid, “Izabrane drame”, trans. Gordan Mari i and Aleksandar Gatalica and Lucija Carevi (Belgrade:
Biblioteka “Beskrajni plavi krug”, Veliki pisci – velika dela svih vremena, Knjiga 2, 2007)
[5] Gvido Paduano, “Anti ko pozorište, vodi kroz dela” (Beograd: Clio, 2011)
[6] Bitef teatar, guest appearance of Slovenian National Theater from Ljubljana, accessed April 1, 2015,
http://teatar.bitef.rs/2014/02/01/alkestida/
[7] Eshil and Sofokle and Euripid, „Gr ke tragedije“, trans. Miloš N. uri (Belgrade: Dereta, 2010)
[8] Zikzira Physical Theater's site-specific performance 'Eu vos liberto', based on Euripides' 'Hippolytus',
accessed April 1, 2015, https://vimeo.com/35696026
[9] STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn discusses Ethan McSweeny's upcoming production of Euripides' "Ion,"
running at Sidney Harman Hall from March 10 to April 12, 2009, accessed April 1, 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhHmJPuDBWc
[10] Mae Smethurst, “Ninagawa`s Production of Euripides` Medea”, American Journal of Filology 123 (2002): 1
– 34, The John Hopkins University Press
[11] Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, “La Passione delle Troiane”, accessed April 1, 2015,
http://www.teatrokoreja.it/koreja/produzioni.php?actionToDo=showProductionSheet&id=28
[12] Ana Isakovi , “Revolucija i/ili sigurni konzervatizam”, “E novine”, February 22, 2010, accessed April 1,
2015, http://www.e-novine.com/mobile/kultura/kultura-recenzije/35113-Revolucija-iili-sigurnikonzervatizam.html
261
262
THEATRICALITY OF RESIDENTIAL SPACE:
FROM INTIMATE TO PUBLIC SPACE – HOUSE AS A THEATRE,
DIVANHANA AS A STAGE
Jelena M. Stepanov1
1
University of Arts in Belgrade (SERBIA) – Phd student
John Naisbitt University (SERBIA) Graduate School of Art and Design, Interior Design Department,
Assistant lecturer
jelenasmi@gmail.com
Abstract
The presence of man in space is always contextualised. Work positions personal world into
architectural frames of a space, i.e. home. A house is, on the one hand, an area of psycho physical experience and symbols, which is reflected upon the aspects of human identity and
its relations towards surrounding. On the other hand, it is a personal space with certain type of
experience, content and character of an individual. The author presents daily residential zone
as a central and public part of intimate physical space of human micro-surrounding and
observes it through the concept of a stage, while the whole house is a theatre, where an
observer himself becomes the participant. As a materialistic and spiritual picture of household
members, living room has always been the most representative part of every house, the space
where every-day life takes place. Spatial arrangement of movables, windows and lights give
physical frames to the stage of a living room, while mental aspects point to control, intimacy
and view. The author presented concept of living room as a stage through the space of 19th
century divanhana of Princess Ljubica Residence, where male and female divanhana become
media per se. Ambience of living room reflects spatial characteristics of a theatre, defining
inner and outer world, intimate and public place with physical and emotional characteristic of
individuals, but giving away gender features. In the paper, the author emphasises theatricality
of divanhana, which is reflected in the overlapping scenes of family and public events, social
and political occasions in Serbia of that age.
Keywords: Space, home, stage, theatre, Princess Ljubica Residence, residential space,
intimate space, public space.
1
INTRODUCTION
In every-day life, man and space do not exist separately, they are always in the unique
correlation as convergent entities which touch each other and connect, where a man does not
exist as a thing among things, but as consciousness among meanings.1 The idea of space is
subordinate to contexts of our perception, psychological life, given situation, as well as to our
systems of value, feelings, and beliefs. Existential space, that we usually call home or house,
is a psychological concept which supposes relations man develops with his own surrounding.
A man’s stay in the space includes his presence in the given place and in certain way. The
space depicts psycho - physical contours of the individual, and represents his or her reflection.
Living room in every house is a mirror itself - material and spiritual picture which is
encountered when we cross the doorstep. This is a place where intimate space of one’s microConsciousness supposes relation – to be conscious of something or someone – which supposes spatial locality.
263
surrounding becomes public. Even the English word itself living room, with its synonyms
(front room, great room, family room, sitting room, living area, show, lounge, salon), implies
that it is a space within the house where life happens. If we take into consideration the fact
that livingroom is the central place of every house, then this space can be observed as the
stage of a home. This is a spot where a change of hosts and guests, participants (actors) and
observers (audience) takes place. Disposition of furniture and windows gives stage frames,
while mental aspect is reflected through control, intimacy and display to glances. Having in
mind all previously said, we can say that the environment of livingroom contains all the
spatial characteristics of a theatre: defines inner and outer world as a place with physical,
emotional and gender characteristics of a space itself i.e. of an individual. Materiality of a
space is transformed into a game of physical, semantical, symbolical and spiritual values.
1.1
Space, place and environment as experience medium
A man, in his intention to organise space (relational space) 2 and constitute meaning, finds or
creates localities which become his backing or orientation. The act of the organisation of that
order of spatial structure consists of integration and differentiation, activities of human
consciousness with which we identify localities here and there. Recognising certain features
and situations in a space, a man integrates them into characteristics of a whole and therefore
recognizes them as specific parts separating them from the rest of the space. This is how a
whole becomes a place determinated with its character, content, meaning and context.
When we recognise our own space and possibilty to locate ourselves in there, that place
becomes separated from other figurative identities and becomes essentially different
according to the magnetism of its environment. This is when places become “the aims or
focuses in which we experience designed events of our existence, but they are starting points
according to which we orientate ourselves and conquer our surrounding (Šulc, 1975: 22).
Even beside the fact that the meanings of a word place are often mutual for many people,
place brings different meanings to different people. In other words, space is always seen in
two different ways- external, as objective, and internal, as subjective, where space itself is not
completely one or another, but both simultanuously.
Relations that man establishes with his surrounding become realised in both architectural
space and in making existential space specific. “Creating the space means creating the field
which will help people to find out where they are and who they are” (Elin, 2004: 66). It is a
case of a man’s need to find and fulfil adequate transformation of a structure of its being into
specific characteristics of architectural space, to find a personal place and environment for an
existence which is spatial.
This way, environment is a background and base of experience because we do not notice
environment, we use environment in order to notice. In that sense, environment is a medium
of experience: environment unites a list of experiential facts in contextual whole. This is
where qualitative and qualificational natures of environment lie: it gives dominant character
of relations and makes them seen and felt as unique event in space.
2
Theory of social geography differentiates three dominant concepts of space: absolute, relative and relational. Absolute space of
mathematical and physical idealisation is defined in spots, lines, flat surfaces, configuration, like Euclidean space, homogeneous space of
quantitative relations, relations without characteristics, meaning and content. Geometric relations belong simultaneously to syntax of both
architectural and existential space. With them, we form principles which are used to form and combine spatial relations in the world of
experience. But, geometrical relations are not sufficient to describe heterogeneous and quantitative sides of those relations. Then, relative
space which we meet in the frames of geographical, social, economic, cultural, geo- political, urban and architectural theories, and is defined
by the concepts of territory, area, territory, place, centre, surrounding, outskirts, trajectory and layout. We talk about relational space in this
text.
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2
HOME AS A CENTER OF PERSONAL LIFE
In order to position the thesis of a scene of personal life more precisely, it is necessary to set
the frames and to define it. In this paper, we consider space to be a space man designs
according to his needs (or in community with the others that share the same space with him).
Space is a man’s micro- surrounding whose borders spread all along his possibility for
concretization of his personal world.3
The basic aspect of micro- surrounding is, for sure, one’s home (i.e. house or apartment, in
the sense of created form). A man tends to settle down, to locate himself in a relative safety
and stillness. Home is the most specific realisation of man’s need for a centre, a core of
personal life. Only after having a core of personal life as a shelter, a man gains the starting
point towards the directions where the other world, the outer world spreads around. “Core,
from the very beginning is something familiar for a man, contrary to unfamiliar and
somewhat frightening in the world around us”(Schulz, 1975: 21). According to the analysis of
Norberg-Schulz, Norwegian theorist of architecture, to be inside- it is obviously the initial
intention which is behind the concept of a place, which means that one wants to be
somewhere else, but not outside. Only after people defined the meaning of both inside and
outside, we can say that someone resides, which French philosopher Bachelard in the Poetics
of Space calls crouch. Through that relationship, we can locate man’s experiences and
memories, and interior of the place becomes the expression of interior of man’s personality
(Schulz, 1975: 28). Interior is constituted through simultaneous closure from the outside and
opening towards it.4 This double standard towards the outer and the other is only a
characteristic of a man who wants to be connected and opened for communication.5
2.1
Home as a stage – theater box
Environment of micro- surrounding , i.e. home is characterized by a world of objects which
surrounds a man. This world of objects, all the elements and the complete meaning of its
whole, presents concretization of our personal world, our individual mythology. Perhaps more
than all the spaces of man’s micro- surrounding, living space (living room) inside the home
can be presented as a place where symbols and backing of our identity which send messages
to the outer world are dominant. In some way, we equalise ambience of the space with
personality (real or imaginary).6 We emphasize the design of a place in this paper, as well as
its organisation, which give the character and individuality, differentiate environment from
environment, person from person, but also certain universal rules which are the same with all
living rooms.
In the text Interior (Weinthal, 2011: 475-499) architectural historian Colomina, using the
example of Villa Müller of an architect Loos7 as a case study, talks about an experience of
personal, private space. Analyses home, but she pays the biggest attention to the space of
3
Out of those borders, there is the space of the other (the space of other privacy) or the public space designed according to the requirements
of the social community
4
In the study of closed spaciousness (Space dynamics, space moving), a literature theoretician, Farago says that a house is like a battlefield
of residence- retreat, segregation, closure, solitude – always the place of eternal outcome, original home and everlasting comparative spot
for the traveller who started the trip towards the wilderness. This means that our experience of inner spaces draws the outlines of a thrilling
paradox, which could be formulated in the following way- closeness is closed spaciousness – (Farago, 2007: 93).
5
Communication with the outer world supposes the relations which are accomplished through elements of physical structure (door,
entrances, passages, windows) as well as through mental orientation towards the outer, the other.
6
This kind of relation of a man towards the space and the things Bachelard describes as their friendship, where man attributes human value
and dignity to things, and one’s stay among the things is called sentimental moving (Bachelard, 1990: 13 -135). This refers to the fact that our
usual intuitive feeling of the space supposes intimating and internalisation of space and its characteristics.
7
An architecht Adolf Loos is famous for his theory of spatial design of raumplan, which he applied on the Vile Miler project (Villa Müller,
Prag, 1930), i.e. he applied it for the first time on the project for Ruffer house, in Vienna in 1922.
265
living room which interprets recognising in it the character of a theatre,8 i.e. a stage. As for
Colomina, for Loos as well, a house is a stage of every family, where people are born and
where they die. A home is an environment where an observer is an actor at the same time
(Weinthal, 2011: 483).
A personal space of living room is equipped with comfortable and functional movables with
adequate lights organised according to daylight and disposition of furniture in the space. Sofas
take the position from which you can obviously control the whole space, which in the same
time are the most intimate positions in the living room in the terms of space. Similar to the
concept of theatre, an observer is comfortably positioned while the actors on the stage change.
We should take into consideration that a word theatre has the same etymology as a word
theory– from Greek word thea, meaning the place from which you observe or watch (Weber,
2004: 3). Eyesight is here more emphasized that any other sense, because you provide body
and spatial distance with it, you control situation, you succeed in self- identification of a
subject, as well as a safe position from which you observe the object.
We can say that home, as an architectural space, is a subject to spatial characteristics of a
theatre, both psychical and emotional characteristics of an individual, to a construction of his
identity with gender characteristics.
3
PRINCESS LJUBICA RESIDENCE
Residence9 of Princess Ljubica is the most representative example of preserved civil XIX
century architecture in Belgrade, which reflects the combination of building tradition and new
European influences.10 The residence was supposed to be representative palace of
Obrenovi ’s, Serbian ruling dynasty,11 however prince Miloš decided to build his own
residence on Top ider, which soon took over the role of the official prince’s Residence, out of
reach of the Turkish canons from Kali- mejdan (town field). In 1830, princess Ljubica moved
in with her children.
Princess Ljubica residence is conceptualized as a town palace situated in free space, enclosed
by the wall and surrounded by green surfaces, with the exterior yard which could be entered
through a coach gate. The residence, in Serbo- Balkan style, is made up of three levels:
basement, ground floor and the first floor. There was observation point at the roof. The
basement, as the base of the Residence, is built from stones and bricks. Both ground floor and
the first floor have traditional central space solution of that time. They are connected to the
wooden stairs, and to the central lobby surrounded by all the chambers- four big rooms at the
corners, two small at the sides and three divanhana- one on the ground floor, and the other
two on the first floor. The same spatial arrangement can be found on the first floor.
8
The expression theater box is used by Colomina in the text Interior in order to explain her view of a place of home as a stage (Weinthal,
475 - 499).
9
A word residence means place to stay, overnight, but also residential building and business quarters.This type of building was present in the
Balkan Peninsula under Ottoman rule. They were built by the representatives of ruling Ottoman elite, but also by the other well- known rich
members of society, members of all ethical and confessional communities.
10
Traditional elements are the most dominant in the organisation of the interior on the gound and the first floor, as well as in the roof
construction with protruding eaves, covered by hollow tiles (old- fashioned roof tile, semi- circular shape, made from baked soil). European
influences are visible in the specific decorative- architectural elements, especially emphasied when it comes to the fasade processing. From
1842, members of the royal family lived there, but it changed its purpose and users several times afterwards. Today in 2015, some of the
exhibits from Belgrade City Museum are situated there. From 1972 until 1979 some conservation and restauration work were performed
here. Facade restauraion and fence reconstruction were finished in 2003 and 2004.
11
In spring 1929 Prince Miloš, motivated to make Belgrade the capital of Principality of Serbia, together with the main contructor Hadži
Nikola Živkovi , started building a new residence (after Gospodarski residence), which was standing out from the other buildings all around
the area in Sava mala slope where Kosan i ev venac, but comparing to the other residences in Serbia, it was not a luxurious building.
266
3.1
The space of divanhana of Princess Ljubica residence
In the social sense, divanhana was suitable for the residents, guests’ reception, every day
gatherings, hanging out and conversations, coffee drinking and smoking chibouk (a long
Turkish tobacco pipe). In the terms of space and position, it was “the central part in town
house of a Ottoman- Balkan type, usually surrounded by windows and positioned towards the
garden” (Vanuši i dr., 2012: 104). It was following the semi- circular wall shape, where you
could find window panes whose role was to provide the light and air for the central lobby.
Divanhana was the most regal part of the house- it was like a living room today. Perhaps more
than all the other spaces, divanhana was a special kind of Ottoman architecture.
According to the division of the Residence to public and private, taking its function into
consideration, there were three divanhana in the palace. Divanhana on the ground floor was
aimed for prince’s every- day social activities (pictures 1 and 2). „Lifted two steps from the
floor level, and surrounded by the parapet wall, this divanhana is formally separated from the
rest of the space. This was according to its symbolical function for pointing out Prince’s
emphasized position, similar to every-day and ceremonial culture of Ottoman pashas”
(Vanuši i dr., 2012: 28). The elements that additionally emphasize its monumentality and
formality are wooden pillars which physically limit it, which were carrying ornate arcs of
arcades like a sort of capitol.
Fig 1 and 2. Divanhana on the gound floor in Princess Ljubica Residence (Source: Vanuši i dr., 2012: 28)
Exactly above the one on the ground floor, divanhana on the first floor was intimate, family
space which was very probably used by Princess Ljubica (picture 3). On the floor level, it was
surrounded by the walls aside, opened towards the middle of the lobby with two high and
elegant pillars. In the background of divanhana, all along the wall, there were window panes
which provided daily light and air for the space.
267
Fig 3. Big divanhana on the first floor of Princess Ljubica Residence (Source: Vanuši i dr., 2012: 29)
Across the Big divanhana, there was the most intimate space of the Residence, a small
divanhana, surrounded by the walls and doors all around, even with the small hall in front of
the door. This divanhana, isolated from the rest of the rooms, was probably aimed only for the
members of the ruling family who could talk privately and to observe, because it is positioned
towards the street, all the things happening in the street.12
3.1.1 Gender characteristics of divanhana
Since in the Ottoman culture divanhana on the first floor was only aimed for women, this
space gets gender characteristics as well. This female place, in the same time the most
intimate and the most mystical, could be called the space of delicate moments,13 where hidden
sexuality lies. At the crossroads of visible and invisible, a woman is positioned as the
protector of indescribable, (Weinthal, 2011: 482), because woman as a mother guarantees
privacy of a house. A male place in Princess Ljubica Residence is on the ground floor, where
guests are being received, and it is a public space of the Residence. The Residence
emphasizes gender differences in the space, but it makes the difference between private and
public environment.
Private is female principle, interior, sexuality, uterus of every home “inalienable, irreplaceable
and inexpressible realm” while public part, male, presents “realm of exchange, money and
mask” (Weinthal, 2011: 491).
3.2
Divanhana as a stage
As the paper interprets the place of divanhana as a stage, it is important to mention the main
characteristics which determine it as such. First of all, there is finiteness of the spacedivanhana is surrounded by parapet wall, separated from the rest of the space, which becomes
12
A space similar to divanhana appears in England and it is called a holy-day closet, in XVI centry. That was a place which king and queen
used as a place for rest from every- day obligations, as well as to invite the friends to spend some time together hidden from the public eye
(Weinthal, 2011: 433).
13
„... a container of delicate moments“ (Weinthal, 2011: 475).
268
the scene for family, social and political events. The space is hierarchically arranged
according to the use, usually, in the shape of niche, and therefore reminds of the theatre.
Then, intimate, inner environment opens towards the external because of the windows
positioned all along the external wall. Using the mental orientation towards the external and
the other, the interior is constituted through simultaneous closure from the external and
opening towards it. The window is only used to let light and air into the space. The window is
a frame of the environment. There is no outward view or a view towards the other in this case,
emphasise is on the interior and on the stage. At the same time, we should emphasize the
importance of the daylight which is let into space through the windows oriented towards the
west. Sun rays like the spotlights illuminate divanhana, and transform it into stage. This is
how, the one who enters the stage from the dark corridor is almost blinded by the light and
finds himself in the vulnerable position, not distinguishing the face of an observer; while
unlike him, the spectator, i.e. the one who is comfortably positioned on the divan, has a
complete mental and physical control over the place and situation.
We can distinguish movables arrangement, which emphasizes space within the space, as the
following characteristics of the stage. The furniture is like the short, long bench, which
spreads all along the wall, where you can find mattress i.e. minder14, covered with rugs and
numerous pillows to line on. Comfortable divans positioned below the windows in semicircular foundation/ basis form the first sitting row in front of the stage. The places reserved
for the Princess, in divanhana on the first floor, as well as for the Prince on the ground floor,
stand out only because they are situated on the higher divans. Their sitting place is a position
from which you control and receive visual input. This is therefore a position which
emphasizes the importance and the power of their identity and (main) roles comparing to the
all others present.
This specificity of human identification with the place is thematised through the idea of
territoriality. Territoriality is manifested as “a sharp, acute feeling of limits which mark the
distance that has to be kept between the individuals”15. Someone’s presence in our own space
can mean exceeding the line of separation, violating principled distance and understanding it
as endangering one’s own integrity. On the other hand, enter the environment of the other
means entering the life of the other- feel his place as close, mutual, your own. However, when
it comes to divanhana, there is no conflict of integrity, just because emphasized positions of
Princess Ljubica and Prince Miloš, who have sovereign rule, i.e. self above Derida’s at one’s
self (French, chez-soi) (Derida 2001: 178). Territoriality is emphasized and kept in that way,
but at the same time endangered and with each of the visitor, it was becoming potentially
jeopardised. Because letting the other enter our environment means intimize the relationshipsoffer the space in the presence of the other, the presence which lasts and leaves the trail.
The important element of every theatre is audience, which can be formed of, in the space of
divanhana, guests, servants, host- princess and prince. They are all in the same time audience
and participants, therefore they loose previously determined social roles.
3.3
Conclusion
Princess Ljubica Residence (with the church (1837–1841) and metropolitanate) became the
core of the development of political, economic and cultural centre of new Serbian country in
XIX century. Divanhana of the Residence was always the place of gathering, conversation,
agreements and negotiations, the stage where all the events of that time took place.
14
„Minder was a matress filled with salty water or wool, which is spread on the seetee (se ija) so that it is hot and more confortable to sit on.
All along the wall, there are hard pillows to lean on, filled with straw or sea weed “(V nuši , 2012: 106).
15
E. T. Hall, according to Norberg-Schulz, 1975: 22.
269
Psychological dimension of the space was mirrored in the idea of Prince Miloš to build
himself a completely new capital the best possible way and to present it to everyone: first of
all to his own suffering people as a consolation, then, to Ottoman pashas as strength of
political and economic power, so that they could see that he dares to build his magnificent
building and administrative centre of Serbian principality in front of their own streets, and
finally, to the whole world visiting Belgrade as the message that this is the capital of Serbian
principality.16
On the other hand, physical dimension of the space, with both Residence and divanhana, was
giving away the impression of progress and better future. Although built during transitional
architectural stage17 with traces of traditional Ottoman culture, the elements of european style
and new architectural tendencies are visible in decorative elements, which were depicting
Prince’s political orientation. Spatial arrangement,18 as well as the interior of divanhana, is
designed in the traditional Balkan- Oriental spirit– semi- circular base with window panes all
along the wall with divans, rugs, pillows, chimney church, while the whole environment is
autonomous space comparing to the whole space of Residence.
Fig 4. Frenk Geri, University of Technology, photographer: Endru Vorsam
Although it is presented on the example of divanhana from XIX century, the thesis of
theatricality of personal space is visible and applicable to the living rooms of XX and XXI
century, while the concept of divanhana in the interior is used with its space and social
elements in the contemporary manner.
Physically positioned towards the center on the elevated places of divanhana, i.e. from the
point of view of social and hierarchical distance, Princess Ljubica and Prince Miloš were
presenting themselves to the outer world, and were controlling not only personal and intimate
micro- surrounding, but also public circumstances in the country. They were both audience
16
Belgrade as a capital, with the network of straight and wide streets, with Prince’s palace and state palaces and private houses built solidly
from stone and brick, was an opposite in a completely European manner to an old and crumbling Ottoman town in moat. Very soon, Miloš’s
town gained the right to become the part of the family of European, organised capitals
17
In the development of city and small- town architecture of Belgrade in the time of Prince Miloš, there are three evolutionary stages that
can be distinguished :„In the first stage(1815–1825) traditional so called Balkan- Oriental architecture is dominant; in the second, transitional
(1825 –1833) earlier architectural tradition is being gradually left and new solutions are being patially applied, the objects that stand out with
their spatial concept from the traditional architecture, suggesting new tendencies; in the third, final stage (1833–1839) contemporary
European architectural tendencies are definitely dominant “ (Vujovi , 1986: 127).
18
Constructed as a building of two floors with a basement, with livingrooms and reception rooms positioned towars the yard, while kitchen
and study rooms were positioned towards the street and public. The first building with different position of the rooms, but still with the
structure developed from Ottoman inheritance was built by Naum I ko in 1823, today known as the tavern “Question mark”.
270
and participants in the same time. Divanhana was the space of a sort of a spectacle, not only
of a personal world of ruling dynasty Obrenovi , but also the public stage and the place of the
general transformation Belgrade.
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[3] Cveti , Mariela. 2011. Das Unheimliche. Beograd: Orion Art.
[4] Derida, Žak. 2001. Politike prijateljstva. Beograd: Beogradski krug (sa francuskog preveo Ivan
Milenkovi ).
[5] Elin, Nan. 2004. Postmoderni urbanizam. Beograd: Orion Art.
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[8] Hajdeger, Martin. 1999. Gra enje, stanovanje, mišljenje. Beograd: Plato.
[9] Matthews, Glenna. 1987. Just A Housewife: The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America. London: Oxford
Univ. Press.
[10] Norberg Šulc, Kristijan. 1975. Egzistencija, prostor, arhitektura. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga.
[11] Sharr, Adam. 2007. Heidegger fo Architects. New York: Routledge.
[12] V nuši , D., Stoj novi , A., Poš , P. 2012. Kon k Kneginje Ljubice. Enterijeri beogr dskih ku
Beogr d: Muzej Gr d Beogr d .
[13] Weber, S. 2004. Theatricality as Medium. New York: Fordham University Press.
[14] Weinthal, Lois. 2011. Toward a New Interior. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
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19. vek .
272
SPACE DYNAMICS IN ESTABLISHING A NEW URBAN TECTONICS
Katarina Stojanovi
1
1Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad (SERBIA)
kina.ep@gmail.com
Abstract
The research of cities so far has often dealt with the definition of what the places and objects
are. This paper devotes more attention to the operation, interactions and creation of events,
where the observed elements are performing a function, making up or representing something.
Physical form is replaced by a dynamic one. Reciprocity of the effects of space and
movement incorporates duplication of the consequences of the distribution of activities and
development density, which are themselves under the influence of the relation between space
and movement. This paper researches the everyday spatial dynamics of a single family. The
analysis was done in the city area of Novi Sad in which the family lives. The main goal of this
work is to examine possible spatial dispositions of the physical structure under the influence
of the dynamic component of space, or, respectively, the various spatial movements are
examined, some of which, owing to the cyclicity and quantity of temporal intervals, result in
accumulation of time spent at a specific location and formation of the static component of the
area. The obtained data represents the indication of the real needs of users, where the parallel
space represents the city life, invisible space of the city, which coexists with the physical
structure, without which the city would not be what it is. It is assumed that the space
dynamics can be seen as a means of generating new urban tectonics, as a force that influences
and forms a new morphology, along with the already existing physical one. Based on the
research results, it can be determined which places represent the city hubs where time is
accumulated by movement. The assumed correlations were tested empirically, numerically,
and by observing behavior and performing measurement. It is expected that the results of the
research will provide justification for this type of research in Novi Sad, with the goal of
improving the living conditions of its residents, and that there is a possibility that such a way
of planning can be implemented in other settlements in further research.
Keywords: space, dynamic principles, movement, accumulation of time, physical structure
1
INTRODUCTION
It is not only important to consider what places and things are, but what they do, how they act,
how a micro-event is created within the framework of macro-events. Quotidian elements
interact to become objectiles, doing something, acting, behaving, and becoming performative.
Deleuze speaks of the "theater of matter" [1].
The material world is seen today more as an idea and information, and therefore the urban
space becomes a true picture of spatial-temporal aggregation. Lines of movement and
communication are becoming an important component of urban centers following the new
dynamics and logia [2]. Physical form is replaced by the dynamic one. Human activities form
special three-dimensional matrices, and the movement represents an expression of a different
use of space. When observed in that way, movement may shed light on the objective, spatial
reality. Built environment forms are defined as the configuration entities that are not defined
by the laws of nature, but their social purposes [3]. How do we understand dynamic
273
processes, especially the complex connections between individuals, whose movements and
interactions leave traces in the city’s physical structure [4]?
The reciprocity of the effects of space and movement involves multiplication of the
consequences of the distribution of activity and urban density, which are themselves
influenced by the relation between space and movement. The research subject of this paper is
the study of the everyday spatial dynamics of a single family, and the analysis was conducted
on the example of the area of the city of Novi Sad, where the family lives. Based on the
results, a point could be made for consideration of different and new animation possibilities of
certain areas in the process of achieving their attractiveness by architecture. The
developmental role and importance of dynamic principles in the wider urban plan, as well as
the further research of the urbanity of certain areas of Novi Sad, were the main motives for
choosing the topic of this work.
The main goal of this work is to examine possible spatial dispositions of the physical structure
under the influence of the dynamic component of space. The various spatial movements are
examined, some of which, owing to the cyclicity and quantity of temporal intervals, result in
accumulation of time spent at a specific location and formation of the static component of the
area. Based on these results and their application during further urban planning, the living
conditions of the residents could be improved.
City of Novi Sad is composed of spaces with the potential for frequent and cyclical visits by
the residents, due to their evident function, characteristics and impact, among other things.
There is a need for some kind of thematic planning and design based on the results obtained
by observing the dynamic principles could be one of the relevant modes of intervention in
cities. The process of applying dynamic principles in planning the modern cities would
influence the shaping of the architecture by way of major economic potential, and the
architecture would then affect the animation of the immediate environment, and at the same
time raise the general significance of the city. The research starts from the question how do
the residents use the city and to what extent, how frequently are some of the places visited,
what are the instigators of activity and what kind of content is a magnet for attracting visitors.
Can the city of Novi Sad offer different contents that attract and motivate people to use its
entire area or are there only certain places which are visited cyclically? On the basis of this,
we have to examine interdependencies that give the town a new structure in the context of
social and economic terms. It is assumed, inter alia, that the space dynamics can be seen as a
means of generating new urban tectonics, as a force that influences and forms a new
morphology, along with the already existing physical one.
In addition to the study of literature, the preparation of this work also included the method of
surveying and identifying potential areas of the city of Novi Sad. By analyzing examples
from the literature, which concentrate on urban planning that takes into account the dynamic
principles, using the comparative analysis, and then the synthesis of the results, we have come
to the valorization of Novi Sad in terms of the dynamics of use of its specific spaces. In
addressing this topic, the socio-economic potentials surfaced as one of the most important
aspects. The assumed correlations were tested empirically, numerically, and by observing
behavior and performing measurement. It is expected that the results of the research will
provide justification for this type of research in Novi Sad, with the goal of improving the
living conditions of its residents, and that there is a possibility that such a way of planning can
be implemented in other settlements in further research.
The dynamics and functioning principles of modern cities is a field of research that has been
repeatedly the subject of scientific study. They were discussed by [2], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9],
[4], [10], [3] and others.
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2
THE COMPRESSION OF SPACE AND TIME
"Some intelligence, which would be provided for a single moment with the knowledge of all
of the natural forces and mutual positions of all of the masses, and which would be
sufficiently comprehensive to subject that data to analysis, would be able to comprehend the
movement of both biggest masses and smallest atoms through a single formula; nothing
would be uncertain to it, and the future and the past would open in front of its eyes", Laplace
[11]. The time continuum principles, simultaneous past and future, were intriguing to
scientists even centuries ago. The real, created world is finite, the possible world is infinite,
which anticipates infinity, the curvature of space and time, the past in the present.
"From there, there is a further indication that the special geometrical property of a surface is
that the characters, which lie in it, can move freely without changing all of their own lines and
angles measured along the surface, as well as that this will not be the case on any type of
surface. The condition under which a surface has this very important feature was pointed out
by Gauss in his important work on the surface curvature. The condition is, in fact, what he
called "a measure of curvature" (namely, the reciprocal value of the multiplication of the two
main curvature radiuses), equal in size on the entire surface" [12]. The reality is becoming
more unstable, against the backdrop of new technologies and communications space and time
no longer seem the same like in the time of Laplace and Euclid ... Gaussian space curvatures
are obvious and it becomes clear that these scientists, among others, were visionaries and, as
Laplace argues, the past, present and future could intersect in a single moment. The
intertwining of new ideas and abandonment of Euclidian worldview, with overlapping of
various existential choices, result in new physical and symbolic urban forms, whose
connections succeed in giving reality a metaphorical meaning [3].
"Space is not only a biological need for a man, it is also a psychological need. Controlling
their own "territory" is one of the most important factors in the lives of the people, which
should be provided, and the denial of the territory, generally, is one of the most dangerous
situations in human life" [13]. Events and space are formed by the movement of view and
thoughts of participants and it can be concluded that the more dynamic and short the
movement of view and thoughts is, the higher is the intensity of the resulting experience. We
would not notice the space without movement. Time and space are narrowing, and at this
point we can see what is happening in a very remote area of the planet, that we will never
physically visit. However, the intensity of the experience is still something that makes a
difference. City collects the many streams in itself, communicating to the different levels,
such as physical, informational and symbolic level, while the relationship between local and
global defines the essence of urbanity [3]. "Cosmos" is the most difficult aspect of
architecture, but it is its essence and ultimate destination [14].
3
CASE STUDY – DYNAMICS OF SPACE USE IN NOVI SAD
The urban sociologist Robert Park says the city is "man's most consistent and, in the whole,
his most successful attempt to reconstitute the world in which he lives according to his
wishes. But if the city is a world that man created, that is the world in which he has since been
condemned to live. In this way, indirectly and without any clear sense of the nature of his
task, the man has reconstructed himself through the construction of the city. "Starting from
this view point, we can conclude that the kind of city we create is the type of people we want
to be, these are our aspirations, relationship towards nature, society, aesthetics, ethics, and we
want to have such a lifestyle. "This is why the right to the city is far more than the rights of
individual and group access to resources that the city embodies: it is the right to modify and
redesign the city increasingly in line with our most sincere wishes. In addition, it is a
275
collective and not an individual right, because rethinking the city inevitably depends on the
expression of collective power over the processes of urbanization. Freedom to build and
renew ourselves and our cities, as I would like to point out here, is one of the most valuable
and yet most disregarded of our human rights. What is the best possible way to express this
right" [15]?
What kind of forms the dynamic of space takes on different local levels and in what kind of
forms and types does it appear? Some areas may hamper social relations and others may
encourage them. Some sites have a greater potential for contacts than others, leading to
increase in their density and development, and acquirement of new functions and objects. The
study of the physical structure as a function of movement and time spent in certain areas
enables the determination of the optimal model of physical and functional structure that
creates balance and harmony between socio-economic factors. Models created in this way
provide information about the multidimensional city dynamics, which are very important in
urban sustainability [3]. Theories about the form origin, in which individuals are viewed as
more or less faithful representatives for ideal forms, do not give accurate results. They are
only there as a reminder of a higher or lower degree of perfection [16].
Reflection of these phenomena in urban areas of Serbia can be analyzed by observing the
movement around the city of Novi Sad and recording times and places for a specific period of
28 days or four weeks, where some regularities can be observed, or processes that are
repeated cyclically and some places that, by measuring the time spent on them and the
frequency of visits, can be separated from the others. Daily movement is noted for the
members of a family of four and location, direction and time spent at a particular place, to
determine, among other things, how often and how much time is spent on different locations
in the city, and owing to which content, which is something that could be used in further
research. It is interesting to determine in what measure city’s offerings, as well as those of
some of the new neighborhoods, can satisfy the needs and interests of a family.
The family whose movement and stay in certain places are observed consists of an employed
middle aged man, PhD student mother of the same age and two boys, aged 7 and 4. The older
boy attends primary school and younger boy is not in school yet. The apartment in which they
live is located in the city area called Banati , while the father's workplace and son's school are
located near the city area called Sajmište. Sajmište is a city area where you can find various
forms of content lately, so that playground visited by the children, park, sport and foreign
language schools are also located in this part of town. Therefore, the time that the family
spends in this urban segment is considerable. The time spent there by the employed family
member and schoolboy is approximately 7.6 hours daily, time spent by the youngest family
member is 3.6 hours, and by the unemployed family member 3 hours. The highest
concentration of time spent in a place is naturally in the flat, because of, among other things,
the time spent sleeping. Time spent at home is large in relation to other positions and
differences are noticed in the cases of the member who is employed and the one who goes to
school where the average is 12.4 hours, while for the other two members it is 16.8 hours for
the adult and 16.1 hours for the youngest member. However, due to the aforementioned
collection of content, far greater concentration of time is observed in the city area of Sajmište
compared to other city parts. Downtown area, or Old Town, is still the very center of the city,
where there are facilities tailored to the most varied purposes, no matter how much some
other parts of the city strive to become the new centers, which was even envisaged by the
urbanization plan, with the attempts of decentralization and the establishment of several new
centers, and many cultural institutions are still exclusively found in the Old Town. For these
reasons, this part of town is in the third place according to the criterion of spent time.
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3.1
Study results and conclusions
Survival of the modern cities depends on defining their operation and creating opportunities
for different events. Therefore, research such as this is very useful in the future and represents
an unavoidable moment in urban design and planning. Each path, or movement in the urban
system, has three basic elements: starting position, goal, and a series of spaces that are
traversed to reach the goal. “Fig. 1” shows in shades of blue the city parts which the observed
family visited for a period of four weeks. The second image in “Fig. 1” shows the spatial
relationship of the average time spent in those places. Cone height represents the daily
average time spent in a place in town. Highest cone marked with brown color represents the
location of the apartment.
Figure 1 – Districts of Novi Sad that were determined to have a high frequency of visits in the course of the
research and illustration of the spatial relation according to the average time spent
The first group display in the series is time spent by the female adult, the second is the time of
the youngest member, third and fourth are older boy's and adult man's “Fig. 2”. Lines of
movement, or lines that connect these places, are not shown here, and may be a subject of a
new research, which can be analyzed to determine the cyclicality of some trajectories and the
possibility of further testing and the need for new adequate facilities along them in relation to
the frequency. Getting the facilities out on the street means clear dialogue with its ground
floor. Giving the street fronts a certain rhythm achieves vitality, activity, and excitement for
their public spaces. Vividness of the facades and the space between them encourages activity
and creates the impression of movement and events, as opposed to uniform sealed form. The
dynamic and rhythm of material things acts as a motivator for the people’s movement and
activities [17]. This research explores only the agreement of kinetic energy at certain points
which caused the increase in potential energy, and it is shown by physical forms. This
research explores only the agreement of kinetic energy at certain points which caused the
increase in potential energy, and it is shown by physical forms. The availability of content
surfaces as the dominant driver. Employment and unemployment initiate different movement
aspects, and it is here that the difference is biggest [8], which was confirmed by this study.
277
Figure 2 – The illustration of time spent on the visited locations for each of the members of the referential family
Most of the content is still closely concentrated in the city center. Contenders to become the
new centers are still very much unfinished, where housing and associated service activities,
like shops, still generally prevail. In such settlements, the population can mostly satisfy the
basic needs of obtaining the daily supply of food and other goods, and cultural, recreational
and entertainment facilities are still predominantly found in the wider circle of the city center.
In the second half of the twentieth century, the construction of this kind of modernist housing
concept represented an idea, but today similar settlements are the result of economic
influences. The sale of apartments is certainly most profitable activity, while facilities for
culture, education and similar purposes do not bring such a rapid capital flow [18], and longterm planning does not yet have a clear strategy and perspective in a country that is located in
the economic downturn and political position as Serbia is.
The problem that can often be perceived in the country such as ours, which is the case in this
study, is that the profitable residential development planned by urbanization always gets
finished first, resulting in the intensive sprouting of housing facilities, which is a direct result
of financialization, respectively, mortgages, credits and real estate markets. Other contents are
waiting for an investor and capital whose immediate interest would not be fast collection of
extra profit, but a far-reaching vision and, ultimately, seeing their promotion and marketing in
building and creating heritage for new generations, by building endowments, as famous and
wealthy people did in earlier centuries. Unfortunately, today's development, if it can be called
that, does not learn from the past experiences, but frantically competes in a marathon race for
money.
This is how once more settlements and city neighborhoods are formed based mainly on a
multifamily housing, poor in other forms of content, therefore, quite homogeneous in their
purpose. Criticism of such socialist village, it seems, would be unnecessary. The plans
incorporate public purpose objects and other public spaces [19], however, these often wait for
some better times to be implemented and some other types of investors. Our new settlements
and the American suburbs do not have public spaces. Coming back to the center is caused by
meeting, among other things, the need for public spaces, as this research confirms.
Former Stara, now Nova Detelinara, which was created in a similar way as Grbavica, today
aspires, same as some of the similarly positioned areas of Novi Sad, to become one of the new
centers. The development of secondary centers is planned on the already developing localities
of Liman, Bistrica and Detelinara and completely new ones on Klisa and a part of Mišeluk.
Local centers will be developed drawing on existing central facilities, forming smaller
complexes or ribbon type centers along major traffic routes. The need for integration of
278
centers in a unique city center requires forming "linkage zones" which grow into line centers.
The main connection with Detelinara is Rumena ka Street [20]. The tendency to connect the
new centers is realized by urban transformations of Detelinara. One positive outcome is
certainly the fact that it provided the much-needed new housing. The area, which had the
potential to grow into a modern and functional new center along the contemporary urban
roads, and become an example of new urban tendencies in our cities, unfortunately, for now,
has lost such a chance.
4
CONCLUSION
The symbolic and iconic significance of the city is built into the quest for a political
explanation, as a specific place of belonging within a continuously variable spatio-temporal
order. Through a rich history of utopian aspirations for shaping the cities according to the
tiniest human desires and aspirations, there surfaces a search to define the character of city
life, its symbols, secret and metaphorical meanings. The specific cities in concrete times and
spaces have also been explored [15]. As Mumford observes: "Without utopian past, people
would still be living in caves, miserable and naked. Utopians are the ones who drew the
boundaries of the first city" [21].
The experience created by a certain place is a combination of the physical structure and visual
effects. There is a wide range of elements of visualization, some of them are immediacy,
vividness, pretentiousness, detention, thrill, obstacles, perspectives, views, fence, movement,
level changes and others [22]. Today, flexibility is necessary for the modern city that is
rapidly changing and all solutions that would represent a finished product, without the
possibility of changes that would not be detrimental to its integrity, would be unsatisfactory.
The flexibility makes the space adaptable to different needs of users as well as various social
groups, time periods and events. Different negative effects can be neutralized or reduced, if
there is a possibility of adequate change of the assembly and visualization of urban
environments.
Revival and attractiveness of a certain area contribute to the achievement of a distinctive
identity, even to the point that it becomes the subject of recognition for the entire urban area.
There are a number of criteria that must be met in order to achieve an appropriate level of
animation and specificity. Certainly, architecture plays an important role in this. Buildings
that are architecturally restrictive should have adequate purpose and a variety of programmes
to offer. Stay in these areas which involves movement and spending time should be made
enjoyable, which is achieved by appropriate paving, contributing to easier movement and
creating unique picturesqueness and art in public spaces. Further more, a sense of security is
an important element in increasing the level of comfort in a place, which is achieved by
visibility, good lighting, ease of navigation, openness, etc.
Movement and time are very important and have a crucial role in learning and experiencing
the city’s physical structure, opposite of the architecture where time is not as important [23].
Urban structures have fractal series of observation sequences, and space is perceived in
motion, like on a movie screen. The moment and its associated image are important, because
movement takes us into a new frame. In accordance with this characteristic, the city’s form
and elements should provide and uphold the experience of motion and activity, or life in
general.
There is a tendency for the common good, which refers to the concept of the environment and
society’s attitude towards it, to not be treated as a market product. The city quality is
produced by the joint efforts of all its inhabitants and it represents a common good that cannot
279
be destroyed by being used, but it can be degraded and made less attractive, in the form of
cluttered and crowded streets, noisy and stuffy car traffic, as well as in other ways.
With such rapid change, the present merges with the past and future. Our time concepts have
been changed and there is an awareness of permeation, transience and transitivity. Nothing
seems permanent, longing for stability and durability is getting stronger every day. The result
is, according to Gitlin, that "Space is not real, only time" [24]. Widespread application of
product names and designers, including architects, as well as famous names for new housing
developments, shopping areas and streets - can be seen as a desire to create a "real" space.
While the difference between the past, present and future is being reduced, the apparent lack
of constancy also makes other differences suspicious, such as those between fact and fiction
and between scientific evidence and imagination" [24].
The concept of a computerized dual city, networked global cities, about which Castells and
Sassen speak, reveals the form in which the structural impact of the global economy and new
technologies influence the production of urban space. Sociospatial projection of digital, postindustrial and risk-based society in the form of increasingly powerful mega metropolises,
world cities or global cities largely shapes the statuses, resources, identities, and actions of
individuals and social groups as urban stakeholders [25].
REFERENCES
[1] Cul, L. 2013. Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance. UK: Palgrave Macmillan
[2] Boelens, L. 2009. The Urban Connection. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers
[3] Stupar, A. 2009. Grad globalizacije: izazovi, transformacije, simboli. Beograd: Orion Art
[4] Neuhaus, F., ed. 2011. Studies in Temporal Urbanism: The urbanTick Experiment. Dordrecht: Springer
[5] Castells, M., Cardoso, G., eds. 2005. The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy. Washington: DC:
Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations
[6] Castells, M. 2012. Network of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. UK: Polity Press
[7] Deleuze, G., Guattari F. 1988. A thousand plateaus. London: Athlone Press
[8] Kostreš, M. 2015. Dinamika i principi funkcionisanja savremenih gradova i regiona. Novi Sad: FTN
[9] Mitchell, W. J. 1995. City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Massachusetts: MIT Press, Cambridge
[10] Sassen, S. 2005. The Global City: introducing a Concept. The Brown Journal Of World Affairs vol. 11(2):
27-43
[11] Mach, E. 1985. Ekonomi na priroda fizikalnog istraživanja u Filozofija nauke, N. Sesardi , 29-44,
Beograd: Nolit
[12] Helmholtz, H. 1985. O porijeklu i zna aju geometrijskih aksioma u Filozofija nauke, N. Sesardi , 7-23,
Beograd: Nolit
[13] Kurtovi -Foli , N. 2014. Kulturno nasle e kao arhitektonski kontekst. Novi Sad: FTN
[14] Scruton, R. 1979. The Aesthetics of Architecture. Great Britain: Methuen & Co. Ltd London
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[15] Harvi, D. 2012. Kratka istorija neoliberalizma. Novi Sad: Mediterran publishing
[16] De Landa, M. 2002. Intensive science and virtual philosophy. London: Continuum
[17] Petrovi , G., Poli , D. 2008. Priru nik za urbani dizajn. Beograd: Orion Art
[18] Krsti I. 2015. Džentrifikacija Beograda, Budimpešte i Praga. Kultura (146):86-103
[19] Plan detaljne regulacije Stare ranžirne stanice u Novom Sadu, 2008. Novi Sad: Službeni list Grada Novog
Sada, 33/2008
[20] Analiza Suboti kog bulevara od ulice Kornelija Stankovi a do Futoške ulice u Novom Sadu, 2009. Novi
Sad: JP URBANIZAM, Zavod za urbanizam
[21] Mamford, L. 2001. Grad u istoriji, njegov postanak, njegovo menjanje, njegovi izgledi, Book Marso
[22] Cullen, G. 1990. Gradski pejzaž. Beograd: Gra evinska knjiga
[23] Radovi , R. 2003. Forma grada. Novi Sad: Stylos
[24] Ellin, N. 2006. Integral Urbanism. New York: Routledge
[25] Vujovi , S., Petrovi , M. 2005. Urbana sociologija, Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva
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282
THE SCENE DESIGNER AS A SCHOOLMASTER
Monika Ponjavi
1
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
monikaponjavic@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper examines the role the scene designer has in today's art production (theater, video,
film, performance etc.). During the research, a curious connection between two figures on the
rise – that of the scene designer and of a curator – came to life. With the process of spectator's
emancipation it became obvious that a figure of the curator is viewed as the one who activates
the spectator's schemata in the procedure of knowledge. However, this paper will not focus
exclusively or entirely on the aforesaid similarities and connections between these dominant
art figures since that is not the focal point of this research, but rather on learning and opening
a dialogue about how can we use scene design (theoretically and practically) in order to
enhance and perhaps even solve some of the ongoing curatorial problems, and vice versa.
With that in mind, this paper follows the thesis that the curator’s and/or scene designer's
ability to create social change, to activate modes of viewing and to eliminate exclusive
curatorial and/or scene design practice relies on their ability to create new frameworks of
understanding. In exploring the aforesaid topic and the role of scene designer, as well as scene
design (as a fairly new discipline) in general, theoretical frame of this paper will draw upon
the works of Jacques Ranciere (Ignorant Schoolmaster and Emancipated Spectator), Maurizio
Lazzarato (Immaterial Labor) and Roland Barthes (Death of the Author).
Keywords: scene design, curation, author, text, spectator
1
INTRODUCTION
With the understanding of culture in the plural2 in the sense that Michel de Certeau evokes,
installation itself is composed of and envelops multiple elements and media within its frame.
Each component has undergone a considerable history of development, many forms of which
operated outside the traditional and conventional sites for exhibition. Today, more and more,
the exhibitions are viewed as artworks comprised of multitude of other artworks, instead of
being viewed as a space which goal is to present one artist in particular or a specific artwork.
The existence of film and development of technology, which enabled the manipulation of this
medium, have redefined the subject-object relations in the art viewing experience.
The process of editing and cutting has been central to the work of many visual artist ever
since, in 1912, Pablo Picasso cut out a wallpaper printed with chair caning and attached it to a
drawing of things found at a café, an act that transformed both the artwork and the medium.
Since the early 1990s, an increasing number of artworks have been created on the basis of
preexisting works (not just films) and "more and more artists interpret, reproduce, re-exhibit,
or use works made by others or available cultural products".[1] Evidently indebted to the
appropriation strategies (existing since the 1930s) and the sampling in music of the 1990s
these artists are united under the umbrella of what we might call a expressional usage of
1
2
PhD student in Scene Design at the Faculty of Technical Science, University of Novi Sad (BiH)
See: de Certau, Michael. Culture in the Plural. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press. 1997.
283
editing which Bourriaud declared as Postproduction art. Whether through appropriation,
looping, repetition, distortion or compression, these artists are actively manipulating the
medium in a way that recalls the importance which Richard Serra gave to action or act of
doing when he composed his, now famous, Verb List (1967-68): a list of actions that a
sculptor could use to create a sculpture "to split, to cut, to tear, to fold"3 etc. By the very
choice of using preexisting or prerecorded films, these artists have supplanted the authorial
role of the director with that of the editor who is precisely due this authorial status of a
director very often neglected. And while the importance of the editor in the process of
filmmaking today becomes more widely recognized, the role he is having in this process is
still thought of as secondary, "a valued and respected assistant, rather than a shaping force
behind the film" (Basilico 29). Furthermore, his role is slowly moving into the role of a
curator who has a task to create a context for the existing (film) work because "as a material,
found footage offers a huge, almost infinite, wealth of possibilities and the artists
subsequently use a great many different methods and techniques to breath life into this found
material."[2]
Found material in the case of Tiravanija's Community Cinema for the Quite Intersection were
the much popular Hollywood films chosen by a public survey conducted among the citizens
in the area of Glasgow where the installation was to be set. Cleverly using this mode of
selecting, Rirkrit Tirivanija has managed to partially shift the role of a curator from himself
onto his audience who chose the universally popular films – It's a Wonderful Life (1946),
Casablanca (1942), The Jungle book (1967) i A Bug's Life (1998) – that have nothing in
common except the fact they are loved by a great number of fans. Given that these were the
"favorite films" chosen by the local audiences, the logical assumption is that the audience has
already seen them and therefore that they already have a certain preknowledge about those
films, i.e. the preknolwedge about their audible and visual components, which is the key
element of this work.
2
DEATH OF THE AUTHOR BIRTH OF THE CURATOR
“I tell you we have to start all over again from the beginning and assume that language is first and
foremost a system of gestures. Animals after all have only gestures and tones of voice - and words
were invented later. Much later. And after that they invented schoolmasters.” [3]
As the above quotation implies, when the figure of the ‘schoolmaster’ in Gregory Bateson’s
metalogues is introduced, the daughter, apparently in the position of the ignoramus questions
the necessity of language. Consequently, the father answers that without language life would
have turned to a sort of dance. Paradoxically, it’s exactly then, in the most abstract forms of
representation that schoolmasters proliferate.
Traditionally, the role of the curator is that of a caretaker - a keeper of cultural heritage whose
tasks were to collect, select, order, combine, present - an expert, one who establishes value in
a work of art by comparing it to another work of art. The curator, in this form, becomes an
arbiter of taste.[4] In the last decades however, the role of curator has moved in the direction
of mediator, someone responsible for creating a bridge between artist, artwork, and spectator,
meaning that the focus has shifted from establishing value to “revealing correspondences
between works”[5] and creating a dialogue. Emphasis is thus placed on the exhibition, instead
3
In 1968 Richard Serra made his piece titled Splashing by throwing molten lead in the corner where the floor meets the wall in the
warehouse of the art dealer Leo Castelli. This work was part of the exhibition 9 at Castelli in 1968. In a later version, called Casting, Serra
used a greater amount of lead - so the forms created by subsequent executions of this activity could be removed from the wall and placed in a
row on the floor. Casting was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the exhibition Anti-Illusion: Processes and Materials in
1969. At about this same time Serra wrote his now famous Verb List, which comprises more than one hundred different processes that could
be done to or with a given material. See Richard Serra Verb List in Richard Serra: Writings and interviews, 3
284
of an individual work of art. This diagnosis leads to two different problems. The first lies in
the apparent annihilation of the lines of demarcation set between the artist and curator, which
as a consequence enables a curator to become an artist, and vice versa. The second is
generated by the increase of artworks that define themselves through their contexts suggesting
that art works exhibited cannot be understood without the mediation process done by a
curator. The contemporary curator, as such, has much greater power (and thus, responsibility)
than the curator of just few decades ago because not only that he needs to be an expert who
selects art works and organizes exhibitions, he now also needs to be able to translate the
exhibition for the spectator to understand. Some of the characteristics in contemporary
performance production, and art in general, are fractured bodies, sophisticated media and the
deflection from the narrative, in a way that the spectators are usually struggling to find a sort
of context in a series of detached images. The lack of conventional narrative structure comes
hand in hand with the lack of a cohesion based on cause-effect relationships. Just as
rationality has been the origin of Western thinking, starting from the Pre-Sokratic
philosophers and continuing with the Cartesian cogito, similar fragmentation of everyday life,
identity, language and representation is characteristic since the late modern period. Under
these circumstances art production, as well as art theory, revalorized the function of the
author, as such, thus transferring the role of the author to the figure of the reader. As Simon
Sheikh aptly points out in his article “In the Place of the Public Sphere? Or, the World in
Fragments”, explaining the implied birth of the reader and the multiple interpretations of
meaning that arouse from Barthes’ announcement of the author’s death, “[t]he gaze of the
spectator is, of course, not only dependent on the work and its placement, but also on the
placement of the spectator socially (in terms of age, class, ethnic background, gender etc.).”
[6]
What follows the death of the author and the birth of the reader instead of being a liberation of
the recipient from the prescriptive authorial intention comes across as a puzzlement of the
latter. In this sense, the role of the curator, who will provide a certain context to accommodate
the artwork and welcome or guide the spectator of the artwork, becomes highly important and
problematic. In his seminal text Emancipated Spectator Rancière argues that being a spectator
is viewed a bad thing for two reasons: “First, viewing is the opposite of knowing: the
spectator is held before an appearance in a state of ignorance about the process of production
of this appearance and about the reality it conceals. Second, it is the opposite of acting: The
spectator remains immobile in his seat, passive. To be a spectator is to be separated from both
the capacity to know and the power to act”.[7] Following Rancière’s analogy, one can
conclude that the spectator emerges as a paradoxical figure condemned as the ignorant and a
passive voyeur of seductive images, yet there is no art or exhibition without spectators.
Rancière makes the point that one can suppose that what the spectator feels or understands
will be what the artist, or a curator, intended for him. The emancipation of the spectator thus
begins with the realization that viewing actively transforms and interprets its objects; what
she sees, feels and understands from the artwork/exhibition is not necessarily what the
artist/curator thinks she must.[8] Rancière rejects the ‘logic of straight, uniform transmission’
from one mind to another insisting upon the creativity of the spectator. The emancipation of
the spectator, to paraphrase Bal-Blanc, can thus be viewed as the death of the spectator for in
order to become "something else: a participant, or emancipated, as Rancière suggested",[9]
the passive instrument had to die. The recent interest in interactivity, participation and
dialogue in the new art of encounter whose: “addressee, no longer necessarily even a gallerygoer, is reconfigured as a participant, interlocutor, guest, peer, comrade and so on; the white
box institutions in which we encounter art have adapted by mimicking libraries, cafes,
laboratories, school rooms and other social spaces”[10] reinforces the idea of an active and
creative spectator. In this instance, “[curatorial practices] produce not only new kinds of
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knowledge spaces, but also a specific mode of viewing: They teach the viewers to view and
grant them access to specifically selected knowledge, or even refuse them that
‘competence’”.[11] Therefore, the curator emerges as the beholder of both the knowledge and
the spectator’s access to this knowledge, on account of this he is seen as a schoolmaster who
‘does not teach his pupils his knowledge, but orders them to venture into the forest of things
and signs, to say what they have seen and what they think of what they have seen, to verify it
and have it verified’.[12] The curator, or a mediator – who in “the operation of selecting two
different works from two distinct artists produces a third … generated by two others”[13] – is
in this sense the one who activates the spectator’s framework in the procedure of knowledge.
Following the logic of Pierre Bal-Blanc,4 if the death of the author gave birth to the
emancipated audience, it is as if we are saying that maybe the author is still not dead, i.e. the
death of the author gave birth to multiple authors (the audience). However, if the artwork is
not understandable without the translation through mediation provided by the curator-author
are we not saying that the Barthesian author has merely shifted into the figure of the curator?
3
ABSTRACTING AND RESTRUCTURING THE TEXT
Although thought and staged as a performance, the project Community Cinema for the Quiet
Intersection, with its act of dislocating the screens outside of the cinema context, positions
cinema not as a form of replication but of abstraction. The simultaneous projection of four
films renders the moving images abstract; the visual, aural, narrative abstraction complicates
normative cinematic spectatorship. This configuration does not represent one linear narrative
but rather a form of progression and constant advancement of multiple spatial, temporal and
diegetic sites. The simultaneous projection therefore defines the spectator’s experience by
plurality, rather than singularity, which turns the public square into a zone of illegibility.
Being an installation comprised of four films whose soundtracks were played simultaneously
from two speakers for each screen, the audience was presented with two different kinds of
sound space (primary and secondary). The proximity guarantees the legibility of each
soundtrack, while the distance forces the abstraction of all sounds – from chatter to diegetic
dialogue and ambient sound tracks. As the sounds overlap, they become indecipherable. With
Tiravanija’s abstract sound, the project does not present films as a linear narrative form. It
reveals what the selection of films represents culturally and socially within the community. In
the case of Community Cinema, the interpenetration of different sounds solidifies the
particular experience of the installation art as a social occasion, rather than offering an
occasion of passive consumption. The lack of sound, or rather the abundance of it, in
Community Cinema for the Quiet Intersection presents an open signifier, reveling the
accumulation of spectacles thus invoking a meta-image, or the experience of image, which
enables it to exceed the ontological horizon of visual images focusing on the participants'
image of reality. Intervening with the image (by multiplying it), intervening with the sound
(by abolishing it through cacophony), repositioning the screen (by detaching it from the wall)
Tiravanija reframes the original films, rendering them abstract.
Aside from that, the traffic of the intersection and its adjacent streets had to be closed
temporarily for this installation. The suppression of the sounds of everyday life, which denote
the contemporary city, was accomplished by substituting them for a cacophony of sound of
the selected films. By doing this, using two of the greatest symbols of 21st century – film and
4
“When Barthes writes about “la mort de l’auteur,” it means that the reader is implicated, that the spectator as passive instrument must die
and become something else: participant or, as Rancière proposes, “emancipated.” Either way, the roles change. To speak about the death of
the audience is also to ask whether the death of the author ever occurred.” Pierre Bal-Blanc (see the interview here: http://www.eflux.com/journal/the-death-of-the-audience-a-conversation-with-pierre-%20%20bal-blanc/)
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traffic –Tiravanija formed something we could call a technological cathedral. We mustn’t
neglect the importance of this kind of formulation because he uses technology very
consciously as a mean of expression by which he establishes not only the installation itself,
but also a certain kind of a temple for spectacle, which now assembles its audience,
incidentally, from four sides (of the world). Therefore, this installation becomes a specific
representation of contemporary society that experiences spectacle almost as a new type of
religion. This work is not only a form of artistic expression in the hands of Tiravanija, but
also a medium of urban function, and of intertextual communication, within which the
technology is considered as a nervous system of the society, its beating pulse. According to
Habermas’ definition, the public sphere is the bearer of public opinion.[14] Hoendahl argues
that the “the public sphere provides a paradigm for analyzing historical change, while also
serving as a normative category for political critique.” The democracy of this kind of
experience of viewing, observing and exchange among the audience enhances the quality of
the project. As we know, the works or Rirkrit Tiravanija (mostly organized and conceived as
exhibitions or events) usually consist of a material and an immaterial aspect, where the
physical dimension of the work, the domain of the event, is set as a material platform on
which, by the participation of its form and the spectators and spectators’ interaction as well,
the actual work is revealed in an immaterial way, in a form of a meta-text. In that way, by
providing a distracting spectacle, Tiravanija actually creates works in which the main goal is,
as the art historian Rochelle Steiner craftily formulates, “connecting people”.[15] So, to no
particular surprise, this Tiravanija's exhibition, as well as the former and future ones, is based
on the interaction and exchange among the spectators themselves. In the instances like this,
when Tiravanija eventually decides to create an object (an installation), that object is usually
ephemeral and in relation with the exhibition and the event itself (the meal), respectively.
Without the event (meal) the object (the installation) serves no purpose because its function
would be reduced to the mere creation of the physical environment, a frame, in which the
work is carried out. Therefore, through the act of conjoining the event and the object the artist
has managed to create a new context in which he reorganized the space of the Glasgow's quiet
intersection using the scene design as his agency.
4
THE SUBVERSIVE TEMPLE FOR THE SOCIETY OF SPECTACLE
In his seminal text Immaterial Labor, Maurizio Lazzarato argued that the very essence of
modern capitalistic production is not the production of commodity but instead the production
of cultural and informational content of that commodity, i.e., fashion, norms, tastes and
strategically most essential, the production of public opinion, where collaboration and
communication are at the basis of all work activities. In other words, the immaterial labor
produces the "cultural content" of the commodity, which is first and foremost a social relation
because it produces not only a commodity but also the capital relation and in doing so it is
using the activities that are not normally or traditionally recognized as "work". With this in
mind we have to once again go back to Bourriaud and his principal thesis that posits how art
today becomes a tertiary zone in which the sole function of art, as such, is to reproduce
(recycle existing culture) instead of produce (create new art objects). In Postproduction, his
seminal work, Bourriaud opens a discussion about the term postproduction that refers to the
works which were "created on the basis of preexisting works" by the artists who "reproduce,
re-exhibit, or use works made by others or available cultural products" and who "insert their
own work into that of others"[16] and by the means of technology.
In the past technology was only the means we used for achieving a certain goal whereas now
we use it as a way of life. According to Jacques Ellul the most terrifying thing that happened
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to our society is the fact that technology has ruined everything once thought sacred and holly.
According to him the best example for such notion is the systematic destruction of nature.
[17]Once upon a time, the origin of these sacred images came mainly from nature, however,
today, considering society has spontaneously and elementally moved towards the moment in
which technology was accepted and embraced as a new epitome of sacred, the nature was
completely desanctified which further resulted in the state of absolute domination of
technology over man, meaning that "internal reflection is replaced with the external reflex."
[18] By reflection he means the time required in order to, after gaining a particular
experience, conduct the introspection, which also entails a required analysis of the experience
gained. While in the case of reflex, on the other hand, we instinctively know what is it that we
are suppose to do without any further contemplation or thinking. Consequently, we are left
with the technology, which no longer requires the process of thinking regarding certain
things, but rather mere action, which further leads to alienation. According to Baudrillard as
long there is alienation there is a spectacle.[19] With the term spectacle, Debord defines the
system that is a confluence of capitalism, mass media and its “glaring superficial
manifestation.”[20] He argues that “the spectacle is the ruling order’s nonstop discourse about
itself, its never-ending monologue of self-praise, and its self-portrait at the stage of totalitarian
domination of all aspects of life”.[21] Thus the spectacle becomes the inverted image of
society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in
which the passive identification with the spectacle supplants the genuine activity or (material)
work. Furthermore, the contemporary man, living in the world of technology, is even willing
to renounce his freedom or individuality in exchange for legerity, commodity and material
security which leads to the situation in which he is not fully aware that he is being
manipulated in his so-called "choice". This manipulation comes as a natural outcome of the
change occurring within the man, as well as the society, as such, and by the means of media,
advertisements, images of popular culture etc. In other words, by the means of technology.
In that order of things, by observing and analyzing the Community Cinema for the Quiet
Intersection installation, the only logical conclusion to be drawn is that this is in fact a
subversive work. Under presumption that art and technology exist as polar opposites and that
their essential difference lies in the ability to produce emotions and certain feelings, which is
usually art’s role as opposed to technology, we must ask ourselves what was the initial
intention of Tiravanija with making a clear distance from his former works (in the sense of his
abundant use of technology)? Considering that the audience was selecting the films (on his
behalf) and that the selection was constituted out of popular and well-known films, we can
deduce that the films themselves are not essential to this work. Therefore their abstraction
(visual and auditive) becomes at the same time their greatest advantage. In that way the artist
has created a work that uses technology to enhance its meaning, which in return is the same
technology it uses. In other words, this installation doesn’t have other value (except its artistic
value) than to exist as a unique commentary on contemporary life, society and the life of
contemporary man in that society. That means that the Community Cinema for the Quiet
Intersection is actually a meta-text, which utilizes a multitude of technological layers, packed
into a spectacle, which criticizes the very technology, it is made of. This is its principle value
and that is what makes this work subversive.
One of the characteristic aspects of this work is the introduction of food into the mechanics of
the performance through an organized public kitchen, which is viewed as an annex to the
installation. A communal meal, the interaction of visitors to which the element of
interpersonal communication is offered and presented through food, here constitutes the final
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element, the one which completes the whole work in a metaphysical sense. In an ambient of
cathedral-like, sacral space, in which the technology now presents a new kind of religion, a
new functional concept of our society, its physical emanation in the form of a sculptural,
scenic installation of projection screens in their four-sided configuration alludes in a way to a
form of a cross, as well as to an intersection of the nave and the transept, hovering above the
intersection much like Bernini’s Baldacchino in the St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. A space
with this kind of subtext now becomes enriched with the element of communal meal. The
word community from the title of the work sounds unmistakingly like communion. In this
case, the food served is actually the bread and wine of this work. It represents the union with
the technology of the work, celebrating the general technological religion, binding the place,
a fragment of the city, its traffic function of assembling the four directions in a single focal
point, the work itself as a sculptural audio-visual installation, and lastly the people, at the
same time citizens and participants in this act which transforms into a form of a ritual, a
ceremony. By taking food together, in the context of the work, they take part in a rite, which
takes place in a manner of technology for technology’s sake, thus making the integral part of
the artist’s idea underlying the work. Only now his work becomes complete and only now can
we fathom its metaphysical image, its layers of meaning, formed by the interpretation of all
the constituting elements. His newly formed ritual actually reflects the state of the society,
material, technical as well as spiritual, so the two main elements, material and immaterial,
complete each other, presenting the artist’s critical commentary on the contemporary state of
mind and of civilization, tracing it by forming a sort of activity related to historical traditions
and ideas and concepts of spirituality, only now in an abstract way, using the attainments of
modern technology. An artistic pursuance which can be viewed as extremely positive, not
even without a certain dose of humor, can be seen in the fact that in this illustration of their
time, the people themselves are forced to do those things that ultimately make them human, to
touch, to communicate, to interact and, above all, to experience togetherness. In this way,
Tiravanija has managed, subtly and almost insensibly, to replace the senses of sight and
sound, characteristic to observing of the art displayed here, not only with the senses of touch
and taste (emanation of humanity and physical closeness), which are often neglected in the
context of contemporary way of life, due to rapid technological advances, but to also restore
their inherent vitality and value.
5
SCENE DESIGNER, A CURATOR AND A SCHOOLMASTER
In the effort to define the very meaning of the phrase scene design a several definitions have
come to light during this research among which that the notion of scene design, first and
foremost, stands for the articulation of space, not universally, as such, but rather the space
acting in the service of performing, exhibiting and interactive activities. In other words, scene
design is interpretation, reading, spatialization, transformation, configuration, reconfiguration,
organization and reorganization of space. Next, it is a unique set comprised of scenography
and concept this scenography uses as its own language of expression. However, scene design
is the superset in this constellation, which means that scenography, as the subset of scene
design, is actually its tool. Therefore, scenography is always in the service of the scene
design, whereas, scene design, as a superset, doesn’t necessarily have to use scenography as
the means of its own expression. Meta Ho evar argued that space doesn’t exist without an
event (taking place in a space). Using this analogy one can argue that scene design doesn’t
exist without space, which further implies that scene design also stands for: 1) creation of
space anew or 2) creation of the new space out of the old, existing one (transformation,
reconfiguration, reorganization), a) with or b) without any physical change. Last but not least,
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scene design is the concept that shouldn’t have any material value, meaning that, just like
performance art, but unlike ready-mades, it cannot be bought. Having said that, if we assume
that scene design, as the artistic practice as well as the educational model, is in fact the
practice of figuration or, better yet, creation of a form, established through the production of
scene, spatialization of the story, without the limitation of the medium or the agency, then
scene design is both an artistic practice and an educational model that carries the potential for
renewal of the existing urban spaces, because it introduces a new level of text, time, narrative,
program but also activates the spectator’s framework in the procedure of knowledge.
Using Jens Hoffman's definition in which curation stands for “formulating a certain theory or
argument, based upon which one makes a selection of artworks or other objects with the aim
of creating an exhibition in which those objects and artworks are displayed, in a certain
relation, to the public”[22] one can argue that Tiravanija's project for community cinema is
the classical example of curation (apart from being the artwork as well). He formulated an
argument (technology as the new deity of the contemporary society of spectacle) based upon
which he created an exhibition of the selected artworks (Community Cinema for the Quite
Intersection), in the certain relation (installation), to the public (citizens of Glasgow). Adding
to Hoffman's definition Tiravanija also didn't intervine with the artworks on display (cutting,
splitting, compiling, montage etc.), in the same fashion the artists working in Postproduction
art do, which is of crucial importance, since that is what ultimately separates Postproduction
art from curation. On the other hand, what places Tirivanija's installation in relation to the
scene design is not only the spatial, scenic and sculptural aspect of this work but also the fact
that he used an installation in order to articulate the space of the intersection, now acting in
the service of performing, exhibiting and interactive activities. As such, Community Cinema
for the Quiet Intersection is the work that wholeheartedly and completely belongs to the realm
of scene design, which places Tiravanija in the uncharted territory.
In his book Ignorant Schoolmaster Jacques Rancière has made a fascinating case study about
Joseph Jacotot, a lecturer and teacher of French literature in the late 1700s and early 1800s
who developed “a method for showing illiterate parents how they themselves could teach
their children how to read.” Instead of presuming that the teacher has to explicate and deliver
knowledge, Jacotot presupposed that students already have the capacity to, not only learn, but
also to read and understand complex books. It all started in 1818, when Jacotot discovered
this unconventional teaching method. Knowing no Flemish, Jacotot found himself able to
teach, in French, Flemish students who knew no French. Amazed with the results, and the
experience gained, Jacotot concluded that knowledge was not necessary for teaching, and
likewise, explication is not necessary for learning. According to Rancière equality is the basic
presupposition of pedagogy. The primary practice of education that sustains inequality is the
need for explication. Professors are obligated to explain material for students, who then learn
the methods of interpreting gained knowledge and information. But Rancière claims that
explication is in fact stultifying. If a student is reading a book, “the book is made up of a
series of readings designed to make a student understand some material. But now the
schoolmaster opens his mouth to explain the book."[23] Why does the book need to be
explained? Why does the teacher have to intervene and insert himself into the circuit created
by the student and the text? Because explanation concerns understanding, and understanding
is what the student cannot do by "herself without the explanations of a master.”[24]
According to Rancière, this logic of explication does not remedy but in fact rather reinforces
the incapacity to understand on the part of the student. He claims that explication "is the myth
of pedagogy, the parable of a world divided into knowing minds and ignorant ones, ripe
minds and immature ones, the capable and the incapable, the intelligent and the stupid."[25]
Consequently, explication and understanding lead to the need for more explication and more
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understanding, which in fact perpetuates the very inequality that education is supposed to
overcome. Jacatot had a different notion of teaching in mind. His practice is one of
emancipation, and it is based on the presupposition of a radical equality of all persons at the
level of intelligence. Therefore, in Rancière's words: “whoever teaches without emancipation
stultifies. And whoever emancipates doesn’t have to worry about what the emancipated
person learns. He will learn what he wants. Perhaps even nothing."[26] That said, we have to
ask ourselves the following - what drives learning? For Jacotot, it is the book rather than the
teacher because “the book prevents escape"[27] and furthermore, there are no hidden parts
that are accessible to the master but not the student.
However, today the book is no longer autonomous. Today “the brain is the screen,” as Gilles
Deleuze asserts, and this cinematic brain involves experiencing and processing images. [28]
As we already know, images are, for most part, accused of inducing passivity and ignorance,
but sometimes they can solicit thinking, and contribute to the creation of a brain, as we have
witnessed in the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija. These images compel us to think, not simply to
react. We can participate in the construction of a cinema-brain (in which the non-biological
brain is the screen) by following the linkages among and between multiple images and
discerning how to select an image that forces an association and creates a thought. While
Community Cinema for the Quite Intersection makes nostalgic returns to classical diegesis,
the filmic projection is contextualized in the form of an art event reminiscent of the theater
and the stage. The installation, as an abstract landscape of media, images, and sound, is
marked by “openness,” as detailed by Umberto Eco in The Open Work. [29] The “open” work
activates relations between the artist and his audience. By organizing new communicative
situations, Community Cinema installs a distinctive relationship between “the contemplation
and the utilization of a work of art.” Invited to perform in an “open” situation, the community
members (spectators) transcend their role as they become active participants in this work
(contributing to it, in progress), acting individually on their own, utilizing the knowledge
which they have acquired in the spatial and cognitive domain the artist has defined using the
scene design aspect of the installation. They are now emancipated from directed behavior and
they are taking part in the communication they alone create inside the material boundaries of
this work without any further explanation done on the part of the artist, who passed along his
knowledge.
REFERENCES
[1] Bourriaud, Nicholas. Postproduction (New York: Lucas and Sternbeck, 2002): 13.
[2] Guldemond, Jaap. Found Footage: Cinema Exposed (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012): 11.
[3] Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago: The university Press, 1972): 13
[4] Ramirez, Mari Carmen. ‘Brokering Identities: Art curators and the politics of cultural representation’
Thinking About Exhibitions Ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson, & Sandy Nair. (London: Routledge,
1996): 15.
[5] Meijers, Debora J. ‘The Museum and the ‘Ahistorical’ Exhibition: The latest gimmick by the arbiters of
taste, or an important cultural phenomenon?’ Thinking About Exhibitions Ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W.
Ferguson, & Sandy Nair. (London: Routledge, 1996): 5.
[6] Sheukh, Simon. "In the Place of the Public Sphere? Or, the World in Fragments" EIPCP 06 (2004): 6
291
[7] Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator (Verso, 2009): 2.
[8] ibid., 14.
[9] Bal-Blanc qtd. in Lebovic n.p.
[10] Beech, David. ‘Webberian Lessons: Art, Pedagogy and Managerialism’. Curating and Educational Turn. Ed.
Paul O’Neill and Mick Wilson. (Open Edition (London) & de Appel (Amsterdam), 2010): 54.
[11] Von Osten, Marion. “Producing Publics-Making Worlds! On the relationship between the Art Public and the
Counter Public”. Curating Critique 09/11: 59-66 On Curating. 62
[12] Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator (Verso, 2009): 11.
[13] Bal-Blanc qtd. in Lebovic n.p.
[14] Habermas, Jürgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of
Bourgeois Society. (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1991).
[15] Tomkins, Calvin, " Shall We Dance", The New Yorker (17. Oktobar, 2005): 82.
[16] Bourriaud, Nicholas. Postproduction (New York: Lucas and Sternbeck, 2002): 13.
[17] The Betrayal by Technology. Jan Van Boeckl (Amsterdam: ReRun Productions,1992)
[18] ibid.
[19] Baudrillard, Jean. 'The Anti-Aestetic: Essays on Postmodern culture' The Ecstasy of communication, (The
New Press, 2002): 127.
[20] Debord, Guy. Društvo spektakla (Beograd: Porodi na biblioteka, 2004): 13.
[21] ibid.
[22] Hoffman, Jens and Maria Lind. 'Talking About: To Show or Not to Show' Mousse 31 (2011) Web.
http://moussemagazine.it/articolo.mm?id=759
[23] Rancière, Jacques. The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation, trans. Kristin
Ross (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991): 4.
[24] ibid., 6.
[25] ibid.
[26] ibid., 18.
[27] Ibid., 23.
[28] Deleuze. G. Cinema I: The Movement-Image, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam, London and
New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001.
[29] Eco, Umberto. The Open Work. Translation A. Cancogni. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989): 22
292
PERFORMANCE SPACE IN THE PARTICIPANT’S THEATER
SET DESIGN FOR A PLAY FOR THE HUNGARIAN KÁVA
DRAMA/THEATRE IN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Zsófia Geresdi1
1
Doctoral School of Hungarian University of Fine Arts (HUNGARY)
zsofia.geresdi@gmail.com
Abstract
The scene is a substantive part of the total theatrical experience. The framed and designed
space is neither a simple prop nor necessarily a precise location, but „the geometry of the
eventual play”, as Peter Brook wrote in The Empty Space [1]. In the moment of reception, the
mental space expands, and the external performance space reproduces in the spectator’s own,
internal world. With its distinctive rules and symbol system, theatre teaches us how to express
ourselves in the rapidly changing world. It develops the ability to communicate our thoughts,
understanding, problem solving in addition to building social skills. Using drama and theatre
as a method of education, involvement in performances has been shown to improve and
develop students’ creativity, self-esteem, and particularly their personal confidence in their
talents.
My paper is aiming to show and describe my designing process of a set and costume design
for an educational, experimental play, which was created by the artists of the Hungarian Káva
Drama/Theatre in Education Association.
I’m a participant of the Doctoral Programme of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. As a
stage designer, my goal with my research topic, which is titled as „The theatrical space of the
modern rites”, is to examine the new possibilities of performance design in the Hungarian
contemporary theater. The subjects of my research are performances which are not created in
the classical, proscenium theater, but they are developed in non-traditional spaces and are
using theatre as an expressive tool to examine problems of nowadays’ youth. I would like to
depict the ideas and questions which emerged through the creative process.
Keywords: Theatre design, set design, costume design, theatre in education, interactive space
1
INTRODUCTION
Theatre is a shared observation and experience among those who are involved either as
spectator or as a participant. In theatre practise, the tectonic concept of space, as a symbolical
instrument and a living environment, is very important element of the whole impression. In
this paper I would like to summerize the procedure of the set and costume design, made for a
performance of a Hungarian theatre and educational organization.
What are the verges of using the performance space in TiE (Theatre in Education) play as an
interactive tool, or as a space for mutuality and identity negotiation? How can the scene
design be effective and beneficial part of the interactive progression?
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1.1
Introducing KÁVA Drama/Theatre in Education Association
KÁVA as a Hungarian dramapedagogy group has been working since 1996. [2] The members
of the group are some of the most proficient theatre and pedagogy experts: they are publishing
professional and methodological documentaries, they lead and organize trainings, workshops,
researching projects in the fields of dramapedagogy and communal arts. KÁVA is researching
social questions, moral and ethical problems, borders through the tools of theatre space and
variuos forms, for example puppet or dance theatre. Their plays, based on participation,
abolish and wash away the fourth wall, the boundary between actors and spectators.
Their most important intention as one of the first Hungarian theatrical and dramatical
education association is to create plays and performances for the youth. Now they summerize
their artistic activity and pursuit in the phrase of The Participant’s Theatre. This phrase sums
up very well their theatre perception, based on building community, participatory and
interactivity, and how important is to investigate the varying positions and dispositions of the
spectators.The main common features of performances of The Participant’s Theatre are, that
the students and children (and in some projects, adults) are not just bystanders, but they are
involved; they are active parts of the dramatical actions and the mise-en-scène as well. The
participants able to form their own relations to the problems in focus, and get to know more
about the world, the patterns of the environment they are living in.
In Hungary, the genre of TiE is may not yet an integral part of the classical, conventional
theatre palette and educational practice, but several initations can be observed which are
aiming to change this current situation. In the past few years many theatres launched juvenile
programs and workshops in connection to their repertoire and plays. They are offering
downloadable educational tutorials for teachers, and possibilities to look into the creative
work behind the stages for the students. But only a few documentation and material is
prepared about these programs or about the tendency itself, how theatre is changing in
Hungary, how theatres are becoming cultural public spaces, allowing various forms of
participating to the audience.
1.2
The play
Tibor Déry was a Hungarian novelist, poet, and playwright, one of the controversial figures in
20th century Hungarian literature. He wrote Surrealist poems and novels; one of his avantgarde plays is “The Giant Baby”.
The Giant Baby is the Dadaist verion of Everyman’s circular journey from nothing to
nowhere. [3] Immediately after birth, the Newborn is utterly grown and able to speak, but she
soon must confront a senseless world in which freedom and order, individual and society are
at war ad infinitum. The Father sells the miracle-child, the Newborn to Nikodemos (this name
means „victorious people”), who will make her work in a fabolous reality show, granting
whishes. The Newborn soon become tired from this routine: not finding love or any meaning
in life, she become pregnant with the next Newborn, who will certainly pass through the exact
same route. The machinery of the society is stronger than the wondrous Newborn: it
integrates the child’s marvelous desire-satisfying ability, and offers simulated ways out the rat
race instead. Déry combined a mysterium play from the middle ages and the routine actions,
rites of nowadays’ ordinary people, and portray them as an infinite circle: birth, job, marriage,
family, death, and so forth.
The group (director: Viktor Bori, writer-dramaturg: Anna Zsigó, actors/dramateachers: Dóra
Horváth, János Kardos, Dorina Lakatos, Edina Lovászi, Kristóf Márton, Melinda Milák) used
the original play, Déry’s grotesque tragifarce as a foundamental base, which is compounded
with nonsense rhymes, everyday cliches, and poetic speech as well. Through the rehearsals
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and experimenting, through a lot of improvisations and talking about own, personal memories
and experiences, the script and the visual toolbar of the play had been formed.
2
ABOUT THE SPACE
The basis of our visual conception was the phrase: transition. The space, the studio of the
association was given – it is a small, black room, with no fixed furnishing. First, we had to
define the space for the auditorium, then through the rehearsals, we specified the routes and
which characters and how they will interact with the spectators. In a small, black-painted
space, every move and every breath-taking is appreciable; the spectators are near, so it is
possible to investigate what is happening between a person and a person. Déry seriously
thought, that the activity and the precense of the audience can have influence on the
performance. He said, that the sudden vividness, which can be observed, when the audience
directly contact the play, shows how organically belong the performance to the spectators. [4]
When entering a theatre, the audience walk into a specific and significant space, which
generates thoughts, reactions, emotions. The reception of the drama’s spatial frame and
space becomes the essential part of the experience. Our questions were: how should we divide
this space? Where will the audience sit (or stand) in relation to the performance area, if we
define such formal partitions? Of course, there were practical and pragmatic aspects: it was
given, how many people have to be able come in, and all of them must have undisturbed view
of the performance.
Usually, any communication within that space is unidirectional – from stage to auditorium.
We meant to create a set which can work two-directional; which is about the spectator-actor
relationship. Grotowski wrote in Towards a Poor Theatre: „The elimination of stage auditorium dichotomy is not the important thing - that simply creates a bare laboratory
situation, an appropriate area for investigation. The essential concern is finding the proper
spectator-actor relationship for each type of performance and embodying the decision in
physical arrangements.” [5]
We drew a map, a network of the possible interactions and narratives. We used the play’s
circular structure as a base and then we gathered simple elements to parcel the whole,
detecting rythmic order of these parcels: white textiles as columns, two wooden benches and a
platform in the center to divide the space to geometrical partitions. We created certain points
in the space, which can be linked by the movements of the characters. The actors moved and
gestured in choreographed, angular patterns through the stylized set. We finally defined an Lshape auditorium, which made possible several angle of insight for the spectators.
2.1
The white curtains
The curtains are generally used for separating, stashing and covering the scenery, allowing to
modify the set, while doing no harm to the total illusion.
As Patrice Pavis wrote in the Dictionary of the theatre: “The curtain is a tangible sign of the
separation between stage and auditorium, the line between the watched and the watcher, the
border between what can be semiotized and what can be not. Like an eyelid, the curtains
protect the stage from the gaze.” [6]
We used the white curtain strips not as a border, but as an interface, as a connecting point, and
as a highlighting background, creating a spatial rhytm. (Fig. 1.) We utilized lighting to
incorporate the auditorium to the whole space, as Grotowski stated: „It is particularly
significant that once a spectator is placed in an illuminated zone, or in other words becomes
visible, he too begins to play a part in the performance.” [7]
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Fig 1. The set
We created shadows on the white textiles and on the black walls as well. These effects
composed intense silhoutettes and a depressed, heavy, gloomy, yet intimate atmosphere in the
narrow space. The light did not separate the auditorium and the set, but merge them to one
interior.
For the costumes, in the black and white space, we used mostly pale grey colours, which
represented the monotonous and dull world of the senseless, but almighty regime the play
exhibits. Only the Newborn wore vivid colours, for example red, and we also used red to
highlight the important props: the folder, the box of the sugar cubes, the tie, and the ball. The
first three symbolized object were connected somehow to the authority. The folder
represented all the contracts we have to sign; the sugar cubes represented the food, which of
the authority have total control; the tie represented the jobs we have to take to get money.
Only the red ball implied the childhood.
2.2
The “opening-up” points
Nikodemos was the character in total control. She represented the authority in one person, as
a business woman; she was elegant and tactical. Everybody have some kind of relationship
with people above him or her: the boss, the politicians, the policemen, the teachers, the
principal, or the parents. That is why we chose Nikodemos to be the character, who was
sitting between the spectators. (Fig. 2.) She was a puppeteer, moving the strings from the
outside, she was telling the whole story, asking the questions, leading the performance from
one scene to the next one.
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Fig 2. Nikodemos interacting with the participating students
Through the play, there were several, smaller interactions between the spectators and the
actors, mostly via the character Nikodemos, but there were two, important point of
interaction. At the first “opening up” point, the participating class were divided into three
groups. Each group had to picture a wish, or a desire they would like to be granted by the
Newborn, by forming a tableau from themselves. It allowed students to work together and to
share responsibility for the development. The process of the creation served as a diagnostic
surface for the drama teacher-actors: it showed how the student understood the story so far.
We located three area for the three groups in the theatrical space itself – they could use the
elements of the set, while stepping on the platform or the benches, using the curtains.
At the end of the performance, the students got the chance to tell their own notions about the
story, and visualize these ideas with placing the three symbolic objects (the box, the tie and
the ball) somehow and anywhere in the space. The precise placing of the props were
influenced by how the young people interacted with the performance and the installation they
were creating in the dramatical space, what they intuited about it: putting the tie on the ball, or
hid the ball under the podium. Each option carried a very particular meaning. Visualizing and
building an abstract concept from the frame of symbols with these particular props were
helping students understood the questions of the play while forming and raising their own
thoughts. As we experienced through the performances, students actively engaged in these
situations, connected to their past experiences and their present levels of understanding.
Because of this, these activities provided them with new perspectives about themselves, and
space of the stage, and not just
the play itself. They were able to go inside the
examine it from the inside, but use it to express their own ideas. They could contsruct, reconstruct the elements of the space.
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2.3
The masks
Déry mentioned originally a lot of powerful visual effects in the instructions, which can be
produced by the use of silence film and slide projections, animated objects, masks and chorus
of life-sized puppets. We visualized the life-sized puppets with masks, which were able to
give the characters universality, presenting average figures. (Fig. 3.) These puppets appeared
as components of the set, they spared the identity; they were confection, the exact same parts
of the machinery of the superiority. The masks – made from the white textile we used for the
set - enabled the actors to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the
audience from identifying the actor to one specific character.
Fig 3. Actors wearing the white masks
Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status: they played the
role of Father, Mother, Trainer, Teacher, Daughter, common people, girls at the gym,
Relatives, etc. We bolstered these changes with slight alterations of the grey base-costumes.
3
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our play’s moral intention is to question the general perception that we have no
control over our lives and are just the victims of what is happening around us. The life of
individuals with extraordinary abilities going off the rail, their talents burning off, or
becoming commodity of the society; it is almost necessary in this material and moral sell-buy
world. It is important that through theatrical means and interactive exchange of views, we
should talk about these problems.
Obviously, theatre means different things to different people. But dramatic practice, in all of
its forms, helps participating students to be not only able to express thoughts and images in a
complex, multi-layered, interactive form, but so they can also use the theatrical experience to
reflect better on their own expressions.
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My aim was to create and design a space for this probative performance, which is able to offer
chances and a nexus for interaction; which can work as a spontaneously formed structure,
proposing forms the younger and older participants can identify themselves with. I got the
chance to experiment with designing and thinking about a space in which there are
possibilities of dramatic engagement where participants can question the received
informations of the performance through altering, changing their own spatial positions, while
occupy the abstract space of the play.
REFERENCES
[1] Brook, Peter. 1996. The immediate theatre In The Empty Space, 124. New York: Touchstone
[2] Website of KÁVA Drama/Theatre in Education Association. 2015.10.22. http://kavaszinhaz.hu/in-english
[3] Cody, Gabrielle H., Sprinchorn, Evert (ed.). 2007. The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, vol. I.,
93. New York : Columbia University Press
[4] András, Csont. 2003. Kisded. Színház vol. XXXVI. (2. issue): 8-9
[5] Grotowski, Jerzy. 2002. Towards a Poor Theatre, 20. New York : Routledge
[6] Pavis, Patrice. 1998. Dictionary of the theatre: terms, concept and analysis, 85. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press Inc.
[7] Grotowski, Jerzy. 2002. Towards a Poor Theatre, 20. New York : Routledge
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300
EMPTY SPACE IN BETWEEN PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
Sla ana Mili evi
1
1
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences (SERBIA)
s.milicevic@uns.ac.rs
Abstract
Empty space has always been an object of scientific inquiry in various disciplines.
Nevertheless, the most important thoughts and ideas concerning this concept come from
physics and metaphysics. While physics questions the real existence of empty space,
metaphysics questions the possibilities of its cognitive existence and the overall significance it
could have in everyday life. Today, when contemporary physics claims to have the final
answer about the existence of empty space, we witness how the metaphysical questions are
becoming even more complex, more intriguing, and more worth of reopening.
In the shadow of the everlasting metaphysical question why there is something instead of
nothing (always present when it comes to empty space), this work inspects some
philosophical reflections about the (non)existence of empty space, as well as some
contemporary physics’ conclusions on the same subject. While nothingness appears to be an
exclusive property of empty space, it consequently becomes the main subject of this work as
well.
Besides having physics and metaphysics as the main research grounds, some theoretical
assumptions taken from Lacanian psychoanalysis are also used in the analysis of empty space.
Primarily, there is Lacanian concept of the Real, likewise his peculiar notion of the emptiness
(nothingness) that he saw as one of the most intimate properties of the subject and, at the
same time, as something strangest and most disturbing for the human psyche. This work thus
creates a new in between space, where the conceptions of the real emptiness of physical space
overlaps with the subject’s innermost emptiness.
Eventually, the main objective of this work is to confront some ideas deriving from modern
physics and philosophy, as well as from Lacanian psychoanalysis, in order to inquire
possibilities the notion of empty space could have in one’s experience of space, or even more,
in one’s experience of self in space.
Keywords: empty space, existence, metaphysics, psychoanalysis, the Real.
1
INTRODUCTION
HAMM: One day you'll be blind like me. You'll be
sitting here, a speck in the void, in the dark, forever, like me. (Pause.)
(...)
Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the
resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn't fill it, and there you'll be like
a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe. (Pause.)
Endgame, Samuel Beckett (1957)
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If we speak about the existential space of Beckett’s characters, it, of course, would not be
unusual for us to speak about the empty space. It would seem unnecessary to question the
existence of space without sense and meaning. However, when we speak about the empty
space in context of our everyday experience, we are instantly confronted with the question
what are we speaking about? Which part of the reality are we relating to? Eventually, these
questions become more important to us than the term alone and what it could express.
Consequently, I ask the obvious question - why is this happening? Why do we, in the name of
logical-rational empiricism, in almost fiercely resisting way, absolutely neglect the idealistic
potential of empty space? The existence in Beckett’s dramas is a mere emptiness. Inner space
of his characters likewise the physical space which they inhabit are completely emptied. The
horror that we are flooded by in this scene is not exclusively related to the story or its
symbolic and imaginary asceticism, but to the cognition that something of that emptiness and
meaninglessness is also part of our own lives. We realise that all the imaginary and symbolic
corpus of the drama is not a mere simulacrum.
This work will be exploring the issue of empty space, including both physical and
metaphysical aspects of its existence. As it will be shown, the physics is close to providing a
final conclusion to this question, while the metaphysical problems of this topic rooted deeply
in the consciousness and human existence do not indicate any resent solution. The
interpretation of the Lacanian theoretical model at the end of this work will be used to show
that empty space is not a mere simulacrum. The psychoanalytical perspective is used here to
open up a kind of liminal area in which the experience of empty space could emerge in the
most radical ambivalence – as something most intimate to the subject, while simultaneously
being a form of extreme otherness.
2
EMPTY SPACE IN BETWEEN PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS
Until the 17th century the theories of space were part of the philosophy of nature. Since this
discipline had metaphysical and at the same time logical-scientific character, reflections about
space were mostly speculative in the essence. Isaac Newton was the first who tried and partly
succeeded in dividing this field into two independent disciplines, although not completing the
process. Even today, concepts of space and time are looked upon as both physical and
metaphysical categories.
Earlier authors were reflecting about space only relying on their own everyday experience and
theoretical speculations. The first truly scientific contribution to space emerged in the early
20th century. Albert Einstein’s Theory of relativity and the rise of Quantum Physics actually
marked this shift. In his book The Concepts of Space in Ancient Thought, Keimpe Algra says
that during the whole pre-Einsteinian era, either in physics or metaphysics, space is defined as
a function of three different conceptions [1]:
1) as a primary matter everything consists of;
2) as a framework of (relative) locations;
3) as a container in which everything is placed and through which everything moves.
The first conception is related to René Descartes’ theory of space which states that space is a
kind of extension (res extensa). According to this theory, matter and its extension are
equalled. There is an inner space which some body occupies, and there is the outer space of
that body. The outer space represents the extension of the body. The extension is that primary
matter which unites the comprehension of spatial totality.
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The second conception is related to Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz’s theory of relations. This
theory states that space as such does not exist. Space only exists as a system of relations
among things. The matter forms different relations regarding some parts of its own spreading.
In this way some relative locations in space are formed, even if space as an independent
identity does not exist.
The third definition of space is directly based on Newton’s idea of absolute space. Newtonian
absolute space is homogeneous, isotropic, infinite, three-dimensional space, which exists
regardless of things it contains. Besides this type of space, Newton also developed an idea of
relative space more similar to Leibniz’s relational space. However, unlike the relative, the
absolute space is self-referential, which means that there is nothing that could serve as a
reference in determining this space. The lack of reference was the main reason for frequent
denotation of this theory as speculative. [2] The apparent speculative potential Newton traced
from similar ancient theories about empty space – the atomist theory of Leucippus and
Democritus or the Stoic theory of void.
Having in mind these three general conceptions of space, it could be concluded that during the
whole pre-Einsteinian era there were only two mutually opposed visions of space. First,
relativistic, more subjective and idealistic, according to which space is reduced to only
specific arrangement of matter. Space is a set of relations among objects. Second, the theory
of absolute space which implies that space is independent reality, devoid of any aspects of
matter. These two theories, that is, reflections on space, also include a specific understanding
of empty space. Regarding the first, empty space does not exist, while the second theory leads
to conclusion that only empty space allows comprehension of space as such. The empty space
is thus basic presumption in defining space in general.
The problem of space lies in its ideality, that is, in asking whether space is an a priori
category with subjective character or it exists objectively. Another question that could be
raised is related to the existence of empty space.
If empty space existed, then it would contain nothing and the space itself would have to be
some objective matter. However, it is difficult to imagine space as some matter, substance or
some tangible reality because, if space were some substance, it would be possible to replace it
with some other substance or to destroy it. Eventually, it would be possible to imagine even
the non-existence of space. However, it is quite difficult to imagine such a thing. “We can
imagine the empty space, but cannot imagine a lack of space in general”, Kant used to say.
This paradox of empty space opens up a key metaphysical question “why is there something,
instead of nothing?” Therefore, in conceptual terms, the question of empty space balances
between being and non-being. This is a theme that has been present in philosophy since
Parmenides. Because non-being is impossible, Parmenides thought that empty space does not
exist. Otherwise, it would mean that empty space is nothing (non-being), which is actually
impossible. According to him, there is only one unified whole (or the being) of which
everything is made. Ancient philosopher Zeno also thought that empty space does not exist,
albeit for different reasons. In order to imagine the empty space as such, Zeno says, we should
assume that it exists in some bigger space, this one in some even bigger, and so on, infinitely.
Since the earliest times the question of space emptiness is related to cosmology. The very first
idea of empty space was made with the first attempts to understand the formation and origin
of the world. So, the comprehension of empty space is essential and is closely linked to
human need to understand the world, but also to understand himself.
In ancient times there were two schools acknowledging the existence of empty space: stoic
and atomist school. Stoic’s understanding of emptiness was limited to extramundane space.
Space of Cosmos is made of matter whose unity only emptiness could destroy. [3] Unlike
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stoic, atomist school of Leucippus and Democritus thought that there was only the void and
the particles of matter in it. Those particles they named atoms. The organisation of atoms,
their size and the way they were bound formed the structure of the Universe. [4] Space is a
receptacle containing all matter. Here we can conclude that Stoics used emptiness only as a
term for the extramundane, the unknown, and the infinity alone. On the other side, atomistic
emptiness is reality, objective as much as the matter, albeit abstract. Hence, in ancient times
we could say that two substantial features of empty space emerged:
1) space as a metaphor for the impossible, the unthinkable, the incomprehensible content,
which, both then and now, was related to the term of the Outer Space;
2) empty space is a product of the abstract way of thinking. It is a quality of consciousness
itself.
Through Medieval period, the idea of empty space was considered to be the religious issue,
mostly because the existence of space not containing anything was opposed to the
omnipresence of God. Since the idea of empty and independent space was not possible, the
scholastic philosophy identified space with the God himself.
With the rise of science and Torricelli’s experiments with the vacuum, the concept of empty
space became not so odd as earlier. However, with the Einstein’s General and Specific Theory
of Relativity, as well as with the advent of Quantum physics, it seemed that the atomistic void
was just an interesting idea, not something really possible.
In the 20th century, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity completely changed the former vision of
space. It was the first truly scientific theory about space. Space and time were no longer
considered separately, but as one unique continuum. According to this theory, space is not
detached from matter. It is exactly the opposite: space contracts, expands and deforms
according to the objects’ velocities in it. Accordingly, we can see that Einstein’s theory of
space confirmed Leibniz’s relational space, much more than Newtonian absolute space.
Contemporary physics, as Henning Genz says in his book Nothingness – the science of empty
space, confirms that the empty space does not exist. He says that it is impossible to extract
everything from some region of space, because, at the end, there will always remain some
radiation, or light, or some energy. Physical vacuum, as it is called in physics today, is as the
emptiest space as it can be, even if the experiments show that it is not absolutely empty. It
fluctuates and it has its own energy which could be attractive or repulsive. In order to attain
really empty space, the temperature should decrease under the absolute zero (-273C). But, as
we know, this is impossible because at this temperature everything cease to exist.
However, there is also one term still not defined in contemporary physics – dark energy. This
energy is the biggest mystery of contemporary theoretical physics, because there are a lot of
unanswerable questions. Nevertheless, among many possible definitions there are also some
describing the dark energy as the energy of empty space, or as the property of space itself.
During the 1990s, it was assumed that the expansion of the Universe, which started with the
Big Bang, was slowing down. As the prediction indicated, this process would finally stop
because of the force of gravity. However, the new experiments and investigations completely
opposed the former predictions. It has been found that the Universe was accelerating and that
the velocity of its expansion was increasing. Since then, many theories have been made in
order to explain this phenomenon. One of them is the theory of dark energy. This energy is
repulsive. It increases with the rise of distances, and in doing so, it threatens to dissolve our
Universe into real nothingness.
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„But energy is supposed to have a source – either matter or radiation. The notion here is that
space, even when devoid of all matter and radiation, has a residual energy. That ’energy of
space’, when considered on a cosmic scale, leads to a force that increases the expansion of the
universe. “[5]
Therefore, the dark energy is in some way the energy of empty space, which is not mere void
as we used to think before Einstein’s work and quantum physics’ discoveries. Even if
physicists do not know almost anything about the dark energy, whether it will continue to
increase the expansion of the Universe or not, there is still one terrifying possibility left open
– it could be possible that all “normal” matter disappears under the influence of dark energy.
This terrifying scenario vividly speaks about horror vacui – the way Aristotle intuitively
named a fear of empty space. [6]
Throughout history as well as today, conceptions about the Universe are based on different
speculations of empty space. Comprehension of the inner universo can also be understood in
terms of emptiness, which will be presented in the next chapter of this work.
3
EMPTY SPACE IN LACANIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Scientific discoveries from the last two centuries established the process of continuous
illumination of certain parts of reality (physical, social, psychic, etc.). This process was
guided by the thought that overall knowledge about the world is possible. The idea of
progress as an ultimate goal of humankind was the legacy of the Enlightenment era. However,
besides glorifying science as the dominant world view, the 20th also century demonstrated a
doubt in the capacities inherent in scientific methodology and in possibilities of the overall
determination of reality.
„We hear of unstable particles in physics and of unconscious mind in psychology. (...) Physics
and psychology are each using the negative prefix un- to announce a transformation of ideas
which is still incomplete“. [7]
This transformation of ideas is related to the refusal of enlightenment legacy and the illusory
transparency of Cartesian cogito. At first Freud and psychoanalysis, and afterwards the
emergence of the quantum physics in the 1920s brought about a specific feeling of
uncertainty, doubt and vagueness. This state of mind is not characteristic for the rational
thought. Lancelot Whyte here makes a parallel between uncertainty in the positioning of
subatomic particles and the unconscious, which is also determined by some degree of
indeterminacy. The uncertainty of unconscious is evident either we speak of its existence in
the wider order of things, or of its content. The content inaccessible for consciousness was the
central issue of psychoanalysis, as well as the new scientific paradigm of the 20th century.
Freud ambiguously defined the unconscious (das Un-bewußte) both as an adjective and as a
noun. As an adjective, the unconscious refers to mental processes unavailable to the
consciousness. Whereas, as a noun it denotes the part of human psyche radically detached
from its conscious parts. This inaccessibility in Lacanian theoretical system is typical for the
Real, the most important and yet the most controversial concept in his work. Throughout his
work, Lacan gave different attention to this concept, and after 1950s, it becomes the central
place of his register theory (Real, Symbolic, Imaginary). This theory defines the subject’s
relation to the reality, and the way of constituting the subject as such. In this theoretical
system, Symbolic is related to the knowledge adopted by language. Imaginary register relates
to the knowledge adopted by images, while the Real represents the impossible and
inexpressible knowledge.
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„The real is ‘the impossible’ (S11, 167) because it is impossible to imagine, impossible to
integrate into the symbolic order, and impossible to attain in any way. It is this character of
impossibility and of resistance to symbolisation which lends the real its essentially traumatic
quality“. [8]
The Real which is impossible to symbolise or express by language is still the most real entity,
because of its effects (symptoms). But, it we can again ask if the Real is some kind of
simulacrum – signifier without a signified? The Real is a fundamental core of the subject’s
picture of reality. It means that there is a significant difference between the Real and reality.
Reality is a phantasmatic construction or a mere function of the RSI system, while the Real is
only a part of that reality, although the one essentially unsubstantial and impossible.
“Reality is never given in totality; there is always emptiness in its centre that is filled with
monstrous phantoms”. [9]
This emptiness in the construction of reality is equal to the Real – the part of reality unable to
be symbolised or equated with some positive identity. However, although impossible, this
term of Lacanian register theory is the most real, and the whole picture of reality is formed
around it [10]. In Kantian philosophy, this term corresponds to the noumenon – the “thing-initself.“ We can only make room for this “thing”, but do not know in itself. The emptiness
created for placing the noumenon is a crucial term in Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Two questions are evident here: What is the purpose of this emptiness? And: Is the Real, as
previously described, something immanent to the subject, or is it the form of radical
otherness?
Lacan’s usage of space in theoretical issues is mostly defined by his understanding of the
terms continuity and discontinuity. Discontinuity is a fundamental term because it has been
equalled with the cut, the gap that reflects the unconscious. The gap is emptiness of the
unconscious. It could also be explained as a breakdown of causality, or causal continuity. The
gap works as a symbol of absence or a key psychoanalytic term of “lack.” [11] On the other
side, the continuity is a basis for the emergence of discontinuity.
The term of discontinuity is also important regarding different theories of space. The theory
of relational space excluding the existence of empty space also excludes the term of
discontinuity. On the other hand, the theory of absolute space, dividing space and matter, in
some way confirms the discontinuity as a general principle. Moreover, it is interesting that
Lacan, whose all theoretical reasoning is based on the notion of discontinuity (he is very
suspicious of the wholeness) [12], at the end uses space more in the sense of Leibniz’s
relational space, i.e. in the sense of continuity.
Usage of space is very important for both Freud and Lacan. Freud used spatial categories as
metaphors for describing human psyche. His approach was also used by a German
contemporary philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, saying: “I relate my project to that attempt, known
through Freud, which seeks to identify the human being as a topological enigma or, more
specifically, as a creature about which we must constantly ask the question: where is it
really?” [13] Therefore, in psychoanalysis, space is used as a means for describing and
positioning the subject inside its own psychical structure, as in relation to the order of overall
reality. [14] Unlike Freud, Lacan uses space much lesser in terms of Euclidean threedimensional space expressed through distances, magnitudes, surfaces, angles. Lacan’s space
is more topological [15] in its nature and is exclusively expressed by terms of proximity and
neighbourhood, or, we could say, by relations. For Lacan, topology is “an elastic geometry”
much more appropriate in describing inexpressible and elusive core of the subject.
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The first topological model used by Lacan is a Möbius strip. This model best represents
paradoxes of Euclidean geometry and simultaneity of continuity and discontinuity. Lacan
used a Möbius strip to show the co-presence of consciousness and unconsciousness, as well as
for presenting these two as two sides of the same coin. It is also a good illustration for
crossing the border between two sides, or accidental and anti-logical encounter with the
unconscious.
The second topological model which Lacan used is a Borromean knot. This topological model
is analogous to the Lacanian register theory (RSI theory). The way of linking rings in a
Borromean knot is identical to the way symbolic, imaginary and real registers are connected.
Cutting only one of the rings would untied the whole knot. Borromean rings at the same time
present the notion of continuity and discontinuity. Interrelation and unity of the rings are
metaphors for the continuity. On the other side, the mind suffers heavily attempting to
understand that continuity and eventually ends up in the emptiness of discontinuity.
“The emergence of elusive occurs between the initial and final poles of that logical time –
between the moment when we see that something is elided, i.e. lost for the intuition and that
elusive moment when the seizing of the unconscious does not end, when it is always about
enabled renewal.” [16]
Lacan uses the term empty space in order to build the spatial structure of the subject’s
psychical reality. This reality is based on the topological understanding of continuity that
relates to the theory of relational space. On the other side, the Real defined as a gap in reality
is understood as discontinuity and analogous to the empty space.
Only one question remains to be answered: is the Real a form of the otherness or is it
something from the inner universe? And, at last but not least, how is the term empty space
used to define the subject alone?
In Lacanian RSI theory the Symbolic has a form of otherness because language is an outness
for the subject. The Imaginary has a form of inwardness, while the Real is simultaneously a
form of otherness as well as inwardness. At the same time, the Real is the most intimate part
of the being, but also the strangest experience one could have. For this type of intimate
otherness Lacan created the word – extimité. This word is a compound of prefix ex- related to
the exteriority and the word intimité which in French language stands for intimacy and
interiority. This kind of uncertainty, ambiguity, the unconscious transition and simultaneity
belongs to the Lacanian understanding of continuity. This is also tied to the relational
definition of space. However, right here, in the centre of this indeterminacy, Lacan also finds
the discontinuity, i.e. the emptiness of the Real. The topological model that describes this
spatial situation is a torus. This is a geometrical form used in Lacan’s theory for describing
topology of the subject. A specific structure of the torus with empty space in its middle is
equal to the subject’s inner emptiness. Empty space in its centre is neither inner nor outer, but
both at the same time. “One important feature of the torus is that its centre of gravity falls
outside its volume, just as the centre of the subject is outside himself; he is decentred, excentric.” [17] Hence, empty space is in the middle of the subject, presenting a metaphor for
uncertain and impossible determination of the subject, as well as his or her decentring. The
emptiness of the Real is emptiness of the subject’s inner universe.
Lacan’s famous definition says that the unconscious is structured like language. [18] It means
that the subject realises himself in the chain of signifiers. In one place, he says:
“Thing that was said is forgotten behind what is said in that what is heard”. [19]
If we want to translate the previous quotation in more spatial terms, we would say the
following: the process of symbolisation happens inside the net of signifiers. This net could
307
spatially be seen as the Leibniz’s system of relations, while the unconscious in this
configuration emerges from “the background” the same moment some discontinuity occurs,
or some cut appears there. Therefore, the situation unthinkable for Stoics (to imagine the
empty space in the existing, material Cosmos) [20] Lacan asserts as an immanent spatial
structure of the human psyche. Consequently, the empty space is not unthinkable or
unimaginable thing, but, on the contrary, it is the core of reality alone. Whether it is able to be
presented or caught, the answer is no because the empty space is analogous to the Real. Lacan
actually uses in almost paradoxical way both Leibniz’s relational theory and Stoic’s theory of
empty space in order to explain and get closer to: “the mysterious Real that exists outside of
us.” [21]
4
CONCLUSION
At the end, it seems necessary to ask the key question once again: is empty space only a kind
of simulacrum, a product of imagination, or is it something that really exists?
Taking into account different theoretical approaches presented in this work, it could be said
that empty space is a syntagma related to a non-existent content. However, the relation
between the signifier and signified is a bit more complex. In order to better understand this
relation, we will again rely on Lacan.
Lacan uses Saussure's structuralist model of sign and signified, but in a slightly different
context. In Lacan’s interpretation of the sign and signified, they are not in an intimate and
reciprocal relation. There is a gap between them which forever separates the two. But, the
most significant distinction is a fact that the sign produces the signified.
“The signifier creates the signified, brings the signified into being (Lacan, 1998:41)” [22]
Therefore, the sign produces the signified, which means that in the context of empty space as
a sign, the syntagma “empty space” at the same time produces what it signifies. The empty
space is a symbol of what the link of these two words produces in our mind. That is why the
empty space is not a mere simulacrum.
The conducted analysis of empty space shows that the human consciousness is also
determined by space, i.e. by empty space. The fact that abstract thinking is in a way
conditioned by comprehension of space is the first evidence of the spatial character of human
consciousness. The researches showing that the comprehension of space of primitive people
was not separated from their direct experience of space confirm that. [23] The consciousness
alone could be defined as a process of distancing and creating empty space between positions
of a spectator and an observed content. Accordingly, the notion of empty space (because it is
an absolutely empty abstract space) is a major precondition for the creation of consciousness.
Lacanian emptied subject is the second possible evidence for spatial definition of the
consciousness. Specifically, it could be the evidence for defining the inner universe as empty
space. In previous sections of this work, it was shown that Lacan used space in order to
describe the psychical structure of the subject. But, the usage of empty space in theoretical
psychoanalysis has even more profound significance. The unconscious takes place of a
trauma, because the Real has a traumatic effect. The subject experiencing a horror while
facing its own nothingness feels the same fear as that of empty space (horror vacui). This
dimension of fear caused by the experience of empty space essentially determines the
Lacanian psychoanalytical subject, acting also as a main motive for the production of
fantasies. Faced with the horrible and unbearable emptiness, the subject produces a
fantasmatic content that he fills the empty space with. But, the emptiness of produced fantasy
is also the empty space created in the process of violent symbolisation. Taking into
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consideration that the transfer of fantasy is the final outcome of the psychoanalytical
treatment, that is, a complete identification with the fantasy, it can be concluded that the
reality alone is fantasmatic and emptied, while the subject represents double emptiness – first
is the emptiness of its own inner universe, and the second is the emptiness of its own
fantasmatic constructions.
At the end, we return once again to Beckett, asking more rhetorical questions: why is the
existential space of Beckett’s characters so easily understood, self-explanatory and logical?
What do we oppose to in our desire to erase any possibility or legitimacy of empty space in
our everyday experience? What is the future of this term – full adoption, as in Beckett’s plays,
or an everlasting balance between being and non-being? Eventually, why should all of this be
of any importance to us?
REFERENCES
[1] Algra, Keimpe, 1995, The Concepts of Space in Ancient Thought, p. 16, New York, E.J. Brill
[2] Newton's Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion, Date of access: 10.07.2015,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/scholium.html
[3] “The Stoics, like Aristotle, held that there is no void space within the cosmos: matter fills the whole region
within the exterior spherical boundary within any interstices (e.g. Aët. i.18.5, iv.19.4). This decision
probably arose from the need to preserve the unifying tension imparted to the whole by pneuma. Void
intervals would interrupt and endanger the unity”; Algra, Keimpe; Barnes, Jonathan; Mansfeld, Jaap;
Schofield, Malcolm (ed.), 1999, History of Hellenistic Philosophy, p. 441, Cambridge University Press.
[4] “All nature then, as it exists, by itself, is founded on two things: there are bodies and there is void in which
these bodies are placed and through which they move about.“, Jammer, Max, 1993, Concepts of Space – The
History of Theories of Space in Physics, p. 12, New York, Dover Publications. Inc.
[5] What Is Dark Energy?, Date of access: 14.01.2014,
http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/de-what_is_dark_energy.php
[6] (lat. horror vacui) the Nature’s fear of the empty space (the former physicist assigned this property to the
Nature in order to explain some of its phenomena, e.g. Climbing of water); the fear of emptiness, loneliness,
aimless and meaningless life; (translated by S.M.); Vujaklija, Milan, Re nik stranih re i i izraza (Dictionary
of Foreign Words and Phrases), 1980, Belgrade, Prosveta
[7] Whyte, Lancelot Law, 1961, Essay on Atomism – from Democritus to 1960, p. 5, Connecticut, Wesleyan
University Press: Middletown
[8] Evans, Dylan, 2006, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, p. 163, Routledge, Taylor &
Francis e-Library
[9] Žižek, Slavoj, 2008, Ispitivanje Realnog (Interrogating the Real), p. 185, Belgrade, Akademska knjiga
[10] The horrific existence of the real requires its own neutralisation. Consequently, the Real is needed to be
filled by different phantasms, whose final summation is something usually called “a picture of reality”.
Something which is simultaneously the only possible form of reality.
[11] „As a formulation of the one state of things RSI enables the subject to establish relation with the absent, the
lack which is the reason of the subject’s existence. Lacan is saying about the lack as “the reason of the
subject’s existence” … the subject exists as a function of the lack, but this is also the Lacanian turn, a saying
309
that this function is about a will to be the subject.”; (translated by S.M.); Kordi , Radoman, 1994, Subjekt
teorijske psihoanalize (The Subject of Theoretical Psychoanalysis), p. 37, Novi Sad, Svetovi
[12] „Lacan is generally suspicious of the whole and is ever pointing to the whole in every whole, to the gap in
every psychoanalytic theory that attempts to account for everything, whether to explain the whole of the
analysand’s world or to reduce all of psychoanalytic experience to, say, a relationship between ’two bodies’
(in a ’two body psychology’) or to a ’communication situation’“; Glynos, Jason; Stavrakakis, Yannis (ed.),
Lacan and Science, p. 173, New York, Karnac Books
[13] Dion, Nicholas, 2012, Spacing Freud: Space and Place in Psychoanalytic Theory, p. 63, Centre for the
Study of Religion University of Toronto
[14] It is an essence of psychoanalysis both as theory and practice; Bromberg, Philip M., 1996, Standing in the
Spaces: The Multiplicity of Self and the Psychoanalytic Relationship, Contemporary Psychoanalysis,
(32:509-535), Date of access: 03.12.2014,
http://dev.wawhite.org/uploads/PDF/E1f_5%20Bromberg_P_Standing_in_the_Spaces.pdf,
[15] „It is about exploring a creative spatial properties – as opposed to quantitative geometry”; (translated by
S.M.); Assoun, Paul-Laurent, 2012, Lakan (Lacan), p. 138, Belgrade, Karpos
[16] Lacan, Jacques, 1986, etiri temeljna pojma psihoanalize – XI seminar (Four Fundamenta Concepts of
Psychoanalysis – XI seminar), p. 38, Zagreb, Naprijed
[17] Evans, Dylan, 2006, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, p. 211, Routledge, Taylor &
Francis e-Library
[18] „If psychanalysis should be established as a science about the unconscious, it would be necessary to admit
that the unconscious is structured like a language”; (translated by S.M.); Lacan, Jacques, 1986, etiri
temeljna pojma psihoanalize – XI seminar (Four Fundamenta Concepts of Psychoanalysis – XI seminar), p.
217, Zagreb, Naprijed
[19] Assoun, Paul-Laurent, 2012, Lakan (Lacan), p. 123, Belgrade, Karpos
[20] Having in mind that the material Cosmos here has more speculative, metaphysical character, it is possible to
make a comparison.
[21] Assoun, Paul-Laurent, 2012, Lakan (Lacan), str. 157, Belgrade, Karpos; (taken from: Freud, S.,
Correspondance avec le pasteur Pfister, p. 191, Gallimard)
[22] Glynos, Jason; Stavrakakis, Yannis (ed.), Lacan and Science, p. 173, New York, Karnac Books
[23] „Philological, archaeological, and anthropological research shows clearly that primitive thought was not
capable of abstracting the concept of space from the experience of space. To the primitive mind, „space“
was merely an accidental set of concrete orientations, a more or less ordered multitude of directions, each
associated with certain emotional reminiscences“; Algra, Keimpe, 1995, The Concepts of Space in Ancient
Thought, p. 7, New York, E.J. Brill
310
(THEORIZING) INFINITESIMAL SPACE
Dragana Konstantinovi 1, Miljana Zekovi
2
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (SERBIA)
konstan_d@uns.ac.rs; miljana_z@uns.ac.rs
2
Abstract
This paper attempts to address existence of infinitesimal spaces in modern and contemporary
architectural praxis and theory. This syntax, which is not commonly used in architecture,
withholds the tension in its very definition: how can one architectural space be so
infinitesimally small and yet contain? The origins of the phenomenon can be traced back to
late modern and Postmodern movements in architectural theory and practice, when the issues
of building Big consequently led to the space fragmentation and modularisation, or
programmatic invisibility. Thus, the issues of infinitesimal is closely related to the
phenomenon of bigness, and as such needs to be addressed within new strategies for building
big. Still, in nowadays practice, the definition of infinitesimal space is vague, or even
nonexistent. Whose space that is, who designs it, and who cares, remain the un-raised
questions, and thus unresolved issues.
Keywords: infinitesimal space; megastructures; existential space; architectural design; theory
of bigness
1
DEFINING INFINITESIMAL SPACE
The word "infinitesimal" describes the quality of something extremely small, or, further more,
of something that has value close to zero. Also, comprehended in terms of physical or spatial
capacity, it can point to something which has quality of scale which is immeasurable or
incalculably small. These features, naturally, keeps this adjective far from architecture, or any
discipline which deals with space, or space containers, which are, then, measurable. However,
in certain theoretical discourses, the syntax infinitesimal space is used to describe the space
unit which is infinitesimally small, but still has properties and values of space. Put in this
context, this syntax challenges definition of adjective infinitesimal, or, on the other hand,
disturbs our basic comprehension of space quality - its spatial capacity to contain and house
smaller bits and pieces of our reality. This, of course, is possible, if we lift the threshold of
infinitesimality applied to space, and say that something is (infinitesimally) small compared
to something (incomprehensibly) big. This paper examines basic qualities of infinitesimal
space - its programmatic and physical values, theoretical conditions of its existence and
fundamental ideas behind its conceptions. Also, the focus is set on radical comprehension of
space - its infinitesimal capacity (although, in certain way, infinitesimal is opposing the
ability to has any capacity), which gets its meaning and purpose in the whole, composed by
systematic repetition of this spatial sequence.
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2
2.1
INFINITESIMALLY SMALL IN ARCHITECTURE
Structure and module
The idea that something can be so small to become infinitesimal is born in the second half of
20th century. Discussion of this phenomenon can be easily grasped through some critical
discourses of post modernism, which particularly tries to stress modernism's inability to deal
with issues of megastructures. The existence of something which overwhelms our basic
understanding of architectural structure changes the hierarchy of functions and put some basic
features, such as space, into the shade of overall structure and its narratives. Two important
issues of postmodern times - quest to build bigger and higher, and the fact that these could be
(financially and technologically) provided, triggered the need for new design strategies.
In his retrospective overview of modern theory and practice, Theory of bigness, Koolhaas
defines two major (and in his opinion tragically unsuccessful) strategies in dealing with big
architecture: dematerialisation of architecture and promotion of vague glass images which
blend built and unbuilt into one image, what he calls "dismantlement of architecture; and, the
strategy of programmatic and spatial "modularisation", "a paroxism of fragmentation that
turns the particular into a system" [1]. Starting from Structuralists' movement and
fragmentation of space into units and modules, this approach takes spatial unit for a module,
and thus puts it in subordinated relation to the structure. However, the Structuralism, as a
movement, was not developed with this particular idea in mind: under the flag of humanism
and democracy, while facing exhausted Modernism, Structuralists dealt with issues of
architectural sprawl, organic growth, which ruins architectural authority in order to bring it
closer to the user. [2]. This evoked interest in user, social relations, and particularly patterns
transferred into architectural space/structure, shifted interest of architects onto transient and
transitory spaces of commuting, meeting, gathering and communication. The basic
programmatic unit - living or working space - became (structural) supporting system,
standardised and put into configuration. Demoted to the level of life or work container, which
has compositional rather than programmatic relations to other units, in some scenarios, spatial
modules ended up with compromised existential values. This new hierarchy of relations
implied the existence of something of greater value which regulates the conditions of the parts
- the system, architectural or ideological one. In the "greater unity" the singular features of
the units are subordinated to the various, usually ideological, tasks and values of the greater
whole - to the BIG.
2.2
BIG and Megastructure
While discussing challenges of post modern times in dealing with Big, attempts and fails to
put undergoing changes into meaningful architectural frameworks, Koolhaas tries to identify
the point of depart. For him, the legacy of the 1968's generation is a loss of architectural
vitality in dealing with the issues of a day. As a result, denial of architectural evolution, which
Koolhaas underlines, discredited profession and made it unable to deal with its own future,
which is grasping the obvious and omnipresent in its bigness.
Ideological function of Big architecture, where "size of a building alone embodies an
ideological programme" [3] was something that generations of architects in 70-ies could not
address without prioritising. Previously addressed tactics of dematerialisation and
fragmentation of the Big were both employed, where first one led to concept of infinitesimal
space. The evident need to theorise Big, mega or super architecture, which are from seventies
continuously in design spotlight, could be the starting point for addressing infinitesimal, as its
containing element and spatial unit. So far, all the theorising, experimenting and practising
happens much more in the field of symbolism, communication, imaging and iconology. Also,
312
in rare and far more experimental cases, these issues are employed in scenarios for
anticipating future and its unpredictable flows and changes. Megastructures and metacities
operate through data management, facts and figures, units and flows of any kind, trying to
grasp instability of present and future and put it in a system. These futuristic experiments are
playgrounds for recognising and addressing infinitesimal.
2.3
BIG (in) experiment
In times after modernism, experimental platforms gave probably the most advanced answers
in coping with changing ideals in architecture. This radically new approach was conceived in
a fusion of issues of a time: architecture, technology, cosmic future, pre-informatics society,
neo-liberal capitalism, etc., and as a result giving the superposition of architectural and urban,
in the form of mega. Nomadic, changing, growing, evolving cities of Archigram were highly
influential in shifting attitudes from formalistic modern to futuristic Avant-garde.
Synthetic urbanism (sinturbanizam) of Vjenceslav Richter was one of the pioneering attempts
to tackle the issues of new urban development, within experimental social model - new
society of workers’ self management. It rests on the critique of the Courbusian’s modern city,
which was established as a main stream in urban practice of Yugoslavia. At the same time, it
critically addresses all the peculiarities of social realms in which new urban techniques are
explored, and gives environmental conditions for full realisation of self management society.
His urban and architectural platform is not scenario for distant future, but experimentation in
the realms of the present day.
Richter’s professional development showed even in its earliest stages clear orientation
towards synthetic thinking and working. His earliest works, done within the group EXAT 51,
clearly marked the basis of his personal and professional agenda: „firstly, direction of artistic
activity towards synthesis of arts, and secondly, giving the work experimental character, since
without experiment the progress of the creative approach could not be anticipated“ [4]. Thus,
for Richter, experimental work is in the core of creativity and he establishes this approach
through elimination of the strict boundaries between architecture and the other arts, where the
work of “plasticist” gives new opportunities for work of the architect, through exploration of
the cinematic relations of the composition and new domain of visual.
From this synthetic approach, Richter developed the theory of synthetic urbanism –
sinturbanizam, unique urban and architectural system which is anticipated in new society and
designed on the foundation of the same. The city is anticipated as spatial system of urban
units - cikurat (ziggurat), as predefined framework of urban living, which can be multiplied,
in order to provide city growth. This (mega)structure for 10 000 people, in which the values
of socialist living are strengthen – community and work, in complementary programmed built
system which is zoned on new grounds, enables the life standard of highly responsible social
community. In his manifesto, Richter condenses his basic ideas, where among his strategies
for cutting commuting and raising the value of people's time, he points main strategy for
dealing with space:
"(3) build urban blocks of such dimensions in which the dwelling unit or floor is
infinitesimally small, what frees form making;" [5]
The sense of community is essential for anticipation and fostering of collective being. “Inside
the cikurat, all life functions of the collective are appearing in front of each and every member
– citizen. From the earliest childhood, people see and learn these functions as part of the
integral collective organism, and by that the feeling of collective affiliation and responsibility
is born. At the same time, the capacity of self management is developed, as a real and
touchable political function”. [6] Richter's humane approach, developed from critique of
313
Corbusian urbanity challenged by zonning, commuting and irresponsibility towards
individual, starts as a setting for "equal opportunities for social participation" [7], but
somehow becomes lost in dealing with his own issues. Carved by social realms of the present
time where the society of workers' self-management was still in inception, sinturbanism
reflected design strategy overwhelmed with completely different set of priorities.
Fig. 1. Ziggurat: cross section/perspective: complexity of the internal structure (public) and uniformity of the
"skin" with dwelling units
Fig. 2. (left). Ziggurat: typical plan with zoning: a) dwelling, b)offices, c)crafts, d) industry
(right): Organisation of the dwelling unit, option A and B within the same spatial capacity/structural
system module
3
SPACE (IDEOLOGICAL) CAPACITY
In his opening for Theory of Bigness Koolhaas says that ideological programme of the Big
exists and evolves "independent of the will of is architects." In Richters' case this
"independency" becomes opportunity, as he intentionally deploys ideological weapon narrative form which talks about "urban future certainty – which is permanent and
314
guaranteed".[8] His approach, thus embraces the Bigness in his potency and decadence,
putting it into action: the synthetic approach is not ironic gesture created as a reaction on
social momentum, which tries to implement the art into society and criticise it at the same
time, but actually a system in which current social order could come to its climax. [9] This
commitment to the social programme thus changes the perception of the individual, where
social programme overcomes personal life and individual space. "The principle of structure
cancels fixed value of the form which becomes infinitesimal unit of the system and loses any
sense and meaning outside the system. Its almost imperceptible, but equally valuable
participation in the system gives it maximum flexibility and enables organisation of form of
the higher rank".[10] Also, in contrast to Koolhaas's theory, this fragmentation did not
resulted in autonomy of parts, but, contrary, resulted in architectural transfer of ideological
and social authority into architectural space - form of the higher rank, where infinitesimal
space is certain reflection of individual participation in the (social) system.
Thus, what genuinely unites praxis of Richter and Koolhaas is the firm acknowledgement of
the scale and ideological function of the greater unity, which is regulated by repetition of
infinitesimal spaces and infinitesimal programmes, whose relations and configuration, aside
to "programmatic alchemy", give new potential to development of architecture. While for
Koolhaas designing Big triggers autonomy of the parts, for Richter, this subordination to the
whole is reflection of the social order, which needs to synthesize all aspects of people's life.
"For us, this here, important as a part of the overall change of image of the world, about
society and us, building of our knowledge on each discipline in which we act, is inevitable
and necessary process which did not spare any single discipline of human acting.”[11] The
use of the Big is intentional, with strong interest in its narrative function, and with decisive
strategy to use infinitesimal units for supporting ideological capacity of the form. This means
that space is comprehended almost as a structural element, what further puts into question its
major quality - to be existential.
4
INFINITESIMAL SPACE FOR INFINITESIMAL LIFE?
Addressing the infinitesimal is taking it from invisible. The inevitability of building big, thus,
seeks for new strategies for designing big, since infinitesimal spaces are in a best way
residues of such endeavours, if not structural elements. In these scenarios, changed hierarchy
of functions of architecture prioritises in a different way: the quest to represent, stun, show,
outstand or tell, overwhelms some basic architectural and spatial virtues. The care for user
and his existential or working spatial habitués is basically standardised and transferred into
spatial units/modules, or, in better scenario, treated like a programmatic unit which will
become someone else's problem to design. However, this is not the consequence of the
designer's negligence or incompetence of design authority; simply, the methodological
solution for dealing with something incomprehensibly big, seeks for certain level of
simplification and problem abstraction.
In these realms, at least two strategies can be discussed. The first one is deployed in the
concepts of "modular" design, where spatial unit is basically taken as smallest measure of
space (almost at the level of metric unit), and treated as such. These concepts will not be
extinct in the near future, since they give solid base for form experimentation and form
finding, especially in parametric design strategies. The thorough investigation of the unit, in
the context of its spatial variation, liveability and personalisation needs to be in the foundation
of such design endeavour. The existential capacity and values must be at the forefront of the
unit design, so if space is taken as a unit, it needs to contain design capacity for its further
singular modification.
315
The second strategy relates to the issues of programmatic invisibility, where infinitesimal
space becomes irrelevant space, put in the context of the Big. In the opened-up system of
relations and "vastly richer programmation", which is triggered by existence of Big, the limits
of the units are rather blurred, and as such, challenge the definition of infinitesimal space, in
physical sense, as a space container. Thus, in this strategy, precaution needs to be set in the
realms of programmatic marginalisation, which leads to infinitesimal programmes put on the
outskirts of design process. In both cases, the scale of the space, whether is a result of space
fragmentation or programmatic pixelisation, can not be taken as a value of importance. If "the
greatest sense of architecture is to support human existence" [12], this principle must reflect
regardless the scale, hierarchy or importance; infinitesimal spaces in its relatively small
capacity frame the someone's life totality.
REFERENCES
[1] Koolhaas, R. 1995. Bigness and the Problem of Large In S, M, L, XL, R.Koolhaas and B. Mau (eds.). 494516. New York: Monacelli Press
[2] Soderqvist, E. 2011. Structuralism in Architecture: a definition. Journal of Aesthetics and Culture [Online]
3: Web. 3 Nov. 2015
[3] Koolhaas, 494.
[4] Koolhaas, 494.
[5] Richter, V. 1964. Sinturbanizam. Zagreb: Izdava ko knjižarsko preduze e Mladost, 86.
[6] Richter, p. 87
[7] Meštrovi , M. 1964. Iznimno ka op em (From particular to global). Arhitektura urbanizam 5, 27 : 22-23,46.
[8] Konstantinovi , D. 2012. Dealing with the Programme of the Socialist City - Synthetic Urbanism of
Vjenceslav Richter In Proceedings of IV International Symposium for Students of Doctoral Studies in the
fields of civil engineering, architecture and environmental protection PHIDAC 2012. 136-142. Nis: Faculty
of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
[9] Konstantinovi , D. 2014. Programske osnove jugoslovenske arhitekture: 1945-1980 (Programmatic basis of
Yugoslav Architecture, doctoral dissertation), 161. Novi Sad: Fakultet tehni kih nauka
[10] Meštrovi , p.23
[11] Richter, p. 15.
[12] Radovi , R. 2000. Predgovor. Egzistencija, prostor i arhitektura, Kristijan Norberg Šulc. Beograd:
Gra evinska knjiga.
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RADICAL FENCES IN BETWEEN DISCIPLINES
Piroska É.Kiss1
1
Hungarian University of Fine Arts (HUNGARY)
piroskaekissgmail.coms
Abstract
We are living in a radical space, here in Central-Eastern Europe, where many nations,
ethnicitiess and religions are living together among occasionally changing borders resulting in
a large number of ethnic minorities and historical frustrations, afflicted by political games that
result in extreme nationalism, violence and wars.
The only chance for us is the way of understanding, by cooperation with permeable, open
borders. Hungary started to knock the Iron Curtain down in 1989. 26 years later Hungary built
a new one between Serbia and Hungary because of mass migration. Certainly, both Hungarian
and Serbian people know how easy it is to become a refugee or migrant! A fence on the
border doesn’t solve the problem of mass migration but has a very negative symbolic
meaning.
For this reason, the FENCE, this really important spatial structure, is the topic of my paper. I
focus on fences from the point of view of function, meaning and appearance.
You can find 25 pictures completing my presentation for a more effective and better
understanding under the following link: http://piroskaekiss.weebly.com/presentations.html
Keywords: Fences, history, politics, social questions, mass migration, refugees, art, stage
1
FENCES ON THE STAGE
Let’s start with a special field of fences. Fences on the stage are really strong and useful
elements of the spacial structure, holding the special meaning of a given fence.
A fence as a theatre scenery may be the place of meeting, a strong point of presence, an
opportunity of acting, or the device of separation. A low transparent metal fence can separate
a well visible personal space. A big brick fence completely separates the heroes’ closed world
and the world outside. A strong metal fence of an overhead railway, which is permanantly
present over the site, suggests a huge, threatening power over the protagonist’s life from the
audience’s point of view. Sometimes just the elements of a fence structure the space in the
scenery. Of course, the appearance of fences on the stage also shows a great variety from the
naturalistic pieces to the abstract ones. You can find a few exciting examples on the offered
link above.
2
FENCES AROUND HOUSES
Private fences around houses show a great variety from the point of view of function,
meaning and appearance including their material, structure, measurement, shape or
transparency.
In some cultures a fence just indicates the border of a private zone with a low wooden, stone,
metal, or hedge marking. In other cultures the fence protects private territory, sometimes to
cover it completely. A fence can be very simple just to serve as separation. In the case of a
high standard work the fence is an important part of the building in the same style. In many
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cases the role of the fence is to show the house owner’s wealth. Noveau riches ridiculous
fashion is to copy the fence of the Palace of Versailles around their villas. Sometimes the
owner’s humorous character shows up in front of the house using old, colourful bicycles, skis
and other objects as a material of the fence. Fortunately, the so-called green fences are once
again fashionable.
3
FENCES AROUND COMMUNAL SPACES
Many fields of communal life are protected by fences. The wall around a medieval fortresschurch protected the resident population against attacks. A very new wall around a presentday church in Budapest shows similarity but with a different function: it makes the sacral
space larger and creates the space of silence in a noisy urban surrounding.
Fences of playgrounds keep the children inside in a safe territory of fun. These are mostly
practical wire fences but we can find really nice, tailor-made playground fences too. Wire
fences of sports grounds are always high enough to keep balls inside. Matches can be
followed by parents, friends and spectators because of their transparent material.
Fences of pastures are qualified for keeping animals on a given territory. But, there is an
example of a fenceless version! Animals could move free and together on the Great
Hungarian plain (puszta) named Hortobágy. The owners of horses, cows, and sheep paid the
shepherds, according to the number of animals.
A relatively new type of fences are those which have the function of protecting the
enviroment like fences on both sides of highways, or the increasing green walls.
4
FENCES OF SOCIAL SEPARATION
A special type of fence separates large groups of people from each other, sometimes to serve
social separation like ghettos of deep poverty, or „ghettos” of extreme wealth. These fences
help deter the meeting of different social groups for a short time, but this is just a treatment of
symptoms instead of a solution for serious social problems. Social separation often coincides
with ethnic separation like the gypsy slums of Central Europe.
4.1
Haiti
Royal Caribbean International Cruises decided to create a stop in Haiti, which is one of the
poorest countries in the world. So the cruiseline invested many millions of dollars into a small
peninsula, Labadee, which became a luxury mini paradise. If one looks at the seaside behind
the wall, out of Labedee, they see Haiti. Pétonville is a small town of the very thin layer of
riches, political and economical leaders, foreign businessmen and aid organisations. They
exist among walls and fences, saved by a private army. On the other side of the wall is Haiti.
Five years ago Port au Prince, the capitol was the epicentre of a serious earthquake and
completely destroyed. Haitians have been living among the ruins even since, without running
water, electricity, public transport, garbage collection, and afflicted by the misery and
epidemics. Fences surely won’t give a long-term solution!
4.2
Brazil
Mountains and highways can function as borders between hopeless slums and elegant, smart
districts in Brasilian big cities. If they are too close to each other, like Paradise City and a
large favela in São Paulo, the upscale apartment complex is separated by a fence from the
impoverished neighbourhood. All the apartments of Paradise City have a balcony with garden
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including a private pool. How is it possible to enjoy these private paradises with a view of a
poverty-stricken area on the other side of the fence?
5
FENCES OF JAILS
Fences of jails must guarantee the separation of criminals, which is why are they equipped
with barbed wire, electricity and nowadays with cameras. These jail fences are very similar all
over the world but, the role of jails can be different. Jails often serve purposes of politics in
addition to punishing criminals. For example, Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a United
States military prison, is a significant point. The territory, located on Guantánamo Bay in
Cuba, has been rented by the US since 1903. The prison camp was established in 2001 to
detain extraordinarily dangerous people and to prosecute detainees for war crimes. Today
Guantanamo is outside US. legal jurisdiction as a shameful element of American democracy
6
THE STORMY TWENTIETH CENTURY
The stormy twentieth century showed a preference for using this jail-type of fence even out of
prisons. Look back on the recent past.
6.1
Fences of Nazy Germany
All the countries occupied by Nazy Germany faced the enclosed Jewish ghettos and the
brutal fences of concentration camps. You can see memorials of them from Budapest to
Berlin. Long pieces of ghetto walls can be seen in Warsaw as well as concentration camps
covered by brutal fences in Buchenwald or Auschwitz even today. Among these fences 6
million Jewish people died, with a total number of victims around 11 million.
6.2
Fences of Communist Dictatorships
Communist dictatorships also created a large network of enclosed concentration camps, like
the GULAG in the Soviet Union. In Hungary Recsk was used for the same purpose.
Concentration camps and barbed wire fences were well-known in all the communist countries
including Yugoslavia too. In a few countries like in North Korea these kinds of camps exist
even today. The exact numbers aren’t known but millions died among these fences.
6.3
Fences of Political Separation
Typical products of the twentieth century are the fences of political separation, mostly
between the parts of countries and cities that have been split in half, like the Berlin Wall.
6.3.1 Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier, constructed by the socialist state of East Germany, that divided
Berlin and completely cut off West Berlin for 28 years. (Border length / around West Berlin:
155 km / between West Berlin and East Germany: 111.9 km / between West and East Berlin:
43.1 km. Concrete segment of wall height: 3.6 m. Number of watch towers: 302. Number of
bunkers: 20.) The Wall served to prevent the massive emigration from the communist bloc.
During the post-Second World War period, 3.5 million East Germans and Eastern Bloc
emigrants left via West Berlin to Western Europe. Between 1961 and 1989 around 5,000
people attempted to escape over the wall, of which more than 200 didn’t survive.
6.3.2 Korea
In 1945, the Soviet Union occupied Korea north of the 38th parallel, in agreement with the
United States, which occupied the south. But, neither side accepted the border as permanent.
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The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea in
1950. That was the first armed confict of the Cold War. The fighting ended in 1953, when the
armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North
and South Korea hermetically. Clashes continue until the present day.
There is an interesting and really sad opportunity of a one-day trip to the zone,(Interestingly,
the trip isn’t available for children, drunk people, and Korean people.) It’s quite a shame that
existing fences of millions’ tragedies become tourist destinations. This type of tourism makes
such a situation a normal and acceptable fact: cut families, a cut country.
6.3.3
Szelmenc
Szelmenc was a Hungarian village. When Hungary lost the two thirds of it’s territory after the
World War, the new border between Slovakia and the Ukraine directly split the village in two,
without an opportunity of passage. Friends and relatives could only shout to each other
through the border-fence. They saw the new babies through the barbed wire fence. All the
funerals started with a walk to the border-fence to share the mourning with the other side of
the village. After Slovakian accession to the EU this fence became an EU border that made
the problem even more difficult. Finally, in December of 2005 a walker checkpoint was
opened specially for the citizens of Szelmenc. People on the Ukrainian side need a visa to
cross the checkpoint even today. But, after 60 years, the barbed wire fence was destroyed.
6.3.4 Cyprus
The Green Line, the United Nations buffer zone, runs from sea to sea cutting Cyprus in two,
even its capitol in two since the Turkish occupation of 1974. The occupation is viewed as
illegal under international law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus
became a member of the European Union.
In the countryside they use the wellknown barbed wire fence. A great variety of fences and
barricades close dozens of Nicosian streets. Ledra Street in the heart of Nicosia and, a strong
symbol of the 32-year division, was reopened in 2008, in the presence of Greek and Turkish
Cypriot officials: a first step in a hopeful direction.
6.3.5 The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain, the „Great Wall” of the Cold War, separated Western Europe and the
Eastern Bloc. The Iron Curtain blocked people’s free movement, as well as the flow of
information. We all, who grew up behind the "Iron Curtain", know what it means to live
locked up.
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Fig 1. The photos around the map of the Iron Curtain were made in different involved countries.
7
1989
In 1989 began the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments, first in Poland
and Hungary. In August Hungary organised the Paneuropian Picnic, opened the border to East
German people, and started to tear down the Iron Curtain.
Three months later East German citizens were allowed to visit West Berlin. Crowds of East
Germans climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans, in a euphoric atmosphere. During
the following weeks a crowd of people demolished the Berlin Wall.
That time we really believed in a peaceful, cooperative, and free Europe, and in a better
world.
8
FENCES OF RECENT PAST AND PRESENT
But more than 8 000 km of new fences and walls have been built all over the world from 1989
to 2014. This map was made in 2014, and the rate of fence-making has sped up in the last
year. Now we know about even more construction and plans for new border fences.
The first border-fence, the Great Wall is huge and aesthetic, a value of architecture. New
border-fences are frightening, brutal and ugly, with the ability to injure or even murder.
Some of these walls and fences were built because of political conflicts, wars, and terrorism,
but most fences were built because of mass migration. Just a few examples: Jemen – Saudi
Arabia, Algeria – Morocco, India – Bangladesh, Israel – Palestine, Lithuania – Belarus,
Latvia – Russia, Melilla, Ceuta / Spain and EU border in Morocco, Turkey – Grece, Turkey –
Syria, Bulgaria – Turkey, Hungary – Serbia, Hungary – Croatia, … The border-fence between
Mexico and the US is the second longest structure in the World after the Great Wall.
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Fig 2. This map was made in 2014, and the rate of fence-making has sped up in the last year.
The first border-fence, the Great Wall, is a value of architecture, the new ones are frightening and brutal,
with the ability to injure or even murder
9
TRUE SOLUTIONS
Fences created by politicians are similar to fences of prisons. A prison world is growing,
rather than real solutions.
Basically, people want to live in their own enviroment. They leave their relatives, friends,
their language and culture, - in one word -, their home, if it is not suitable for life, because of
war, genocide, terrorism, dictatorships, enviromental or economical catastrophies.
Main decision-makers in politics, economy, science, and business must wake up to global
questions and start to work on a suitable world. Today, particular interests overwrite the really
important issues, like serious effects of global warming, lack of drinking water, enviromental
pollution, deep poverty, epidemics, uncontrolled arms trade, irresponsible political games,
and poisoned conflicts. Without global cooperation we will lose everything.
10 FENCES ONLY LEAD TO MORE FENCES
It’s easy to build fences. Moreover, it’s a quite good business. But fences don’t stop the
millions migrating from impoverished regions. They will find ways around the fences which
will only lead to more fences. Hungary started with a fence on the Serbian border, which was
quickly, followed by a fence on the Croation border. Now, new ones are planed on our
Romanian and Slovanian - Austrian border. Finally, we all will be living among barbed wires,
of course, together with immigrants.
Walls and fences have never stopped people, who are running for their lives. They accept
difficulties and risk their lives. Different ways are known to cross fences like tunnels under
the Berlin wall or the Mexico – USA border, all kind of technics of climbing as well as
making holes into fences. Victims’ memories at the place of the Berlin Wall and at the
Mexican USA border show risking one’s life is worth it for a chance at a human life.
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11 A BETTER WORLD
It’s easy to build fences. Moreover, it’s a quite good business. But fences don’t stop the
millions migrating from impoverished regions. They will find ways around the fences which
will only lead to more fences. Hungary started with a fence on the Serbian border, which was
quickly, followed by a fence on the Croation border. Now, new ones are planed on our
Romanian and Slovanian - Austrian border. Finally, we all will be living among barbed wires,
of course, together with immigrants.
Walls and fences have never stopped people, who are running for their lives. They accept
difficulties and risk their lives. Different ways are known to cross fences like tunnels under
the Berlin wall or the Mexico – USA border, all kind of technics of climbing as well as
making holes into fences. Victims’ memories at the place of the Berlin Wall and at the
Mexican USA border show risking one’s life is worth it for a chance at a human life.
12 ART AND ARTISTS
12.1 Hungary
More and more artists reflect on the Hungarian border-fence. The Fenceforeurope group
organised an action at the Venice Biennale: They built a blockade around the Hungarian
exhibition hall, using elements of the border-fence and the poster campaign of the goverment.
Peter Weiler created a portable one-man safety fence. Certainly, this is where fence-building
is leading.
Fig 3. An action the Fenceforeurope group at the Venice Biennale. Peter Weiler’s portable one-man safety fence.
12.2 Among and out of Closed Walls
Art is present even among refugees and in those people’s lives who must stay behind fences,
or living among closed walls. Painters use the walls to leave a message or to make them a bit
more human.
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12.2.1 Border Angels
Last summer the San Diego Symphony and the Baja California Orchestra met on opposite
sides of the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Friendship Park and played music together. The nonprofit group Border Angels organized the concert by the two orchestras as a symbolic gesture
to send the message “that music is without borders, like the title of our concert, and it should
be like this with relationships with humans.”
12.2.2 Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra
Recently, Syrian musician refugees formed a Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra in
Germany. The SEPO is the first symphony orchestra for the Syrian professional musicians
who live in European Union countries. The opening-concert was on the 22nd of September
2015 at Sendesaal theater in Bremen, bringing together 30 Syrian players and 20 German
musicians of Bremen’s philharmonic. A Bremen music conservatory donated rehearsal space
and instruments. Local people let the musicians stay in their homes for free. At the concert,
audience members weren't charged an entry fee but asked to donate to a fund to help the
migrants. “With music we can liberate ourselves from all the designations,” said flutist Fadwa
Merkhan.
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CONCLUSION
Fences can cover, divert and sometimes even create problems, but never solve them.
The future of our world and humanity is basicly in the hands of main decision makers’. But,
everybody can help, and must do their own part. We all, including artists, are responsible to
work on a more human world.
REFERENCES [Times New Roman, 12-point, bold, left alignment]
[1] Díszlet – Jelmez / Hungarian Stage Design 1995- 2005. 2005. Budapest: Göncöl kiadó
[2] Ormos, Mária 1982. Világtörténet évszámokban 1789- 1945. Budapest: Gondolat kiadó
[3] Ormos, Mária 1982. Világtörténet évszámokban 1945- 1975. Budapest: Gondolat kiadó
[4] Rieder, Kurt 2001. A koncentrációs táborok története. A náci lágerekt l az orosz gulagokig. Budapest:
Vagabund kiadó
[5] (1) Map of Border Fences (1989- 2014). 2014. Courrier International; Thierry Gauthé, Elisabeth Vallet
[6] Samih, Amri. 2015. Syrian orchestra in exile: Changing the Image of Refugees, Deutsche Welle
http://dw.com/p/1GaOS
[7] Der Krieg wird uns nicht stoppen! Radio Bremen. www.radiobremen.de/.../syrisches-exilorchester100.html
[8] Tijuana, San Diego Symphonies Play Concert at Border Fence. www.tijuanametropolitana.com/.../1818tijuana-san-dieg...
[9] Walls in Cities: A Conceptual Approach to the Walls of Nicosia
[10] http://www.cyprusgreenline.com/
[11] Daily News
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PERFORMING EXHIBITIONS – A CURATORIAL GLOSSARY1
Sodja Zupanc Lotker
Prague Quadrennial (CZECH REPUBLIC)
sodja.lotker@pq.cz
Abstract
By presenting four performing exhibitions that I have worked on for the Prague Quadrennial
since 2003 (The Heart of PQ 2003, Street 2007, Intersection 2011 and Tribes 2015) I will
show how easily the ´traditional´ ways of exhibiting (not only scenography) can be
challenged as well as show that ´performing´ in performing exhibition does not only stand for
live but also for non-illustrating exhibitions that perform (that do, narrate and play) and
enable ambiguous in-between situations for multiplicity of relations, experiences and
meanings to appear, true third spaces where real and imagined meet. I will try to unfold my
own system of curation via talking about a series of terms such as curation, situation,
hierarchy, change, local/locus, love/trust, dramaturgy, alienation, scenography, tradition, fun,
impossibility etc.
Keywords: Prague Quadrennial, curation, situation, hierarchy, change, local/locus, love/trust,
dramaturgy, alienation, scenography, tradition, fun, impossibility.
Here I will present four performing exhibitions that I have worked on for the Prague
Quadrennial since 2003 (The Heart of PQ 2003, Street 2007, Intersection 2011 and Tribes
2015) to show how ‘easily’ the ´traditional´ ways of exhibiting (not only scenography) can be
challenged. And more importantly to talk about the new form that has arisen in the last
decades the performing, live exhibition.
I will try to unfold my own system of curation via talking about a series of terms such as
curations, situation, hierarchy, change, local/locus, love/trust, dramaturgy, alienation,
scenography, tradition, fun, impossibility etc. and propose that the term ´performing´ in
performing exhibition does not only stand for live but also for non-illustrating exhibitions that
perform (that do, narrate and play) and enable ambiguous in-between situations for
multiplicity of relations, experiences and meanings to appear, true third spaces where real and
imagined meet.
IMPOSSIBLITY, MARGIN - It is important to note, and I repeat this every time when I talk
or write about the Quadrennial (and it´s a lot) that this scenography exhibition is built on a
simple impossibility: the premise that scenography cannot be exhibited. Even if you do get
space big enough to fit it in, you will still present it out of the context of performance as one
element that was not meant to be separated, and is not an art piece in itself without the other
elements. Drawings, models, photos and videos are documentation either of process of the
making or consumption, but still (only) documentation and not artifacts themselves.
I repeat this often not only because I find it very intriguing that such a big and long-existing
event such as Quadrennial is built on such a paradox, but because I think that impossibility,
paradox and margin are often the most fruitful creative positions. From my own personal
1
Dedicated to my partner Daniela Pa ízková, who made all of this possible.
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perspective: struggling with this impossibility for the last 15 years has been a challenge that
brought me many new perspectives and opened new spaces (literally).
It is important for me to say that originally I am a dramaturg that has lost language (I was
born in Yugoslavia and live in Czech Republic), and this second impossibility, has enabled
me to grasp space as a new dramaturgical language.
So this is where I always start – from a place of impossibility – it´s a very comforting position
because one has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
CURATION - Now curation has become a very fashionable word that is used for almost
anything, but for the Quadrennial in my opinion it is crucial for this simple reason. Since it is
impossible to exhibit scenography, curation as a tool for this struggle is the key concept.
Scenographic things cannot just be put into space and called an exhibition, more than visual
arts artifacts, these objects need to be presented in some kind of context, for their ´story´ to
come out. The context can be simple: historical, or of the initial performance or of other work
of the same discipline or style etc, but there are more performative ways to create curatorial
context, too, as I would like to show.
As I might show later the question who is the curator (similarly to who is the ´author´) in the
performing exhibition of course arises (scenographer as curators, audience as curator) but this
theoretical question does not diminish the crucial fact that scenography exhibitions do need to
be curated (in practice) in order to ´work´. (And one is often surprised to find out how many
exhibitions of scenography are actually not curated).
In a way scenography exhibitions need ´dramaturgy´ in order for the ´narrative´ of the
exposition to unfold for the audience, for the exposition to speak to the audience. And I still
think of myself as a dramaturg, rather than curator.
SITUATION - Dramatic situation is one of the key tools of dramaturgy practice. In drama
theatre it stands for (often irresolvable) conflict between the characters at the core of the play,
as well as a series of sub-situation (and sub-sub-situations – the beats) of that main conflict
that create the chain of the unfolding of the play. Dramaturgically it is crucial to establish the
position of each character in detail as well as individual relationships between the character in
order to both analyze the play and propose new readings of it to be translated into stage
action. In contemporary theatre, that is not necessarily based in pre-written plays, or the postdramatic theatre, the dramatic situation is redefined to mean positions and relationships
(conflicting or not) between dramatic elements (beyond characters only).
Once we exchange dramatic characters for any dramatic elements, and conflict (of interests)
for multiplicity of different relationships it is easy to apply this concept also to scenographic
exhibitions. In scenographic exhibition understood as dramatic situation the spatial aspect is
an important element (being scenographic): the space of the exhibition itself (and the space
where exhibition takes place) can provide for the exhibition environment that plays: the
situation, the curatorial context.
But the dramatic situation of scenographic exhibition has of course other relational aspects
besides the space, relations in-between bodies, people, artifacts, sounds, words, lighting etc.
And this is how scenographic exhibitions perform.
SCENOGRAPHY - Without going deep into analysis of scenography terminology (that varies
tremendously in different countries) it is important to state that theatre has changed very much
in the last decade and so has scenography, the performance design. With the raise of found
space, site specific, community, digital and other types of theatre either working with some
level of reality/ authenticity and/or technology, scenography has stopped being mainly stage
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design, space built on stage for the purpose of play. Scenography today can be ´built, found
and virtual´ [1]. Further with the raise of new strategies in theatre such extreme collaborative
work (devised theatre) the role of the scenographer has also changed and it is stopping to be
mainly a service to director and play, but becomes an activity that described designing for
performance in wider sense.
Furthermore scenography here is not only making the space but as Dutch curatorial team for
the PQ 2015 wrote in their concept: scenography becomes ´both reading and writing
space´[2], which to my mind means that it is not just the making space and researching space,
but also conceptually rethinking space and adjusting/changing it. Scenography today is often
emancipated artistic activity that can even initiate its own projects (extreme example would be
scenographic installation but also other performance design projects). And considering the
multiplicity of forms that scenographers are working with today (from stage design to VJing,
fashion shows and performance art) we can say that scenography is multidisciplinary activity.
So we can say that some of the main aspects in the new apprehension of scenography is: new
relationship to authentic; independence of the discipline in certain projects; change of division
of tasks within theatre-making group; influence of new technologies; inter-mediality and new
relationship to spectator (inclusive, interactive, co-created).
A few years ago, I have started using word performance instead of theatre and performance
design instead of scenography that also led to change of title of the Quadrennial [3] in 2008
that had the aim to point to this expanded field of scenography. Later I became more
favorable for the change of definition of theatre and scenography, expanding the term rather
than exchanging it for another, since both terms have anyway historically meant different
things in different eras already (not to mention again the difference in terminology in different
languages). For this reason I use words performance design and scenography interchangeably
today.
Here I will very briefly introduce some of the special project that I have worked on and
curated for the Prague Quadrennial. In 2003 I worked on the Heart of the Prague Quadrennial
[4] - indoor live installation of 1 800 m2, that consisted of a series of opened and closed
spaces – five towers, a table, a staircase, a wall, a couple of ´containers´, a ´well´ etc, that
architecturally explored different stage situations of contemporary theatre. Over the course of
13 days 8 main and additional 14 theatre and art groups inhabited this space and performed
more or less constantly from morning to night.
For 2011 I have curated Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle, a maze of 30 white cubes and
black boxes designed by architect Oren Sagiv in a semi-public space of pizzetta of the
National Theatre Prague. Each box presented work of different artist or group, most of them
were live presentations, showing the wide spectrum of performance and performance design.
The white cubes/ black boxes were built in such a way that they could fit 1 – 3 audience
members providing for a possibility of an intimate experience.
The Tribes project consisted of 83 groups of masked people taking a walk on a strictly
prescript route through the city of Prague during 11 days of the PQ 2015.
All these projects challenged definition of scenography to introduce new practices, all
of them were live, inter-disciplinary and to a degree relational. And here I would like to share
some of the curatorial ideas behind the projects.
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Fig.1 Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle, Prague Quadrennial 2011.
SPACE – The space itself of exhibition itself (found or built) has layers of history, memory,
(Prague Castel as environment for Lucy Orta´s piece Fallujah Casey´s Pawns 2007)
psychology, phenomenology (the Tower of Smell in the Heart of the PQ) that plays the part in
the experience and understanding of the exposition. Placing and misplacing of exhibition in
certain environments (it’s always a space within a space in a way) adds for dramatic situation
of the exhibition (like placing experimental Intersection project on the pizzetta of the National
Theatre in Prague in 2011, or putting masked groups the Tribes into the center of Prague in
2015). The spatial situation further provides the audience often with mulitiplicity of specific
positioning of audience within the space (around the table, within the tower, on the top of the
tower for instance in the Heart of the PQ, or the labyrinth and inside and on the top situation
of the Intersection).
Another important starting point for my work is a new understanding of space not as a
passive, static, unified entity (opposite of time).
Social geographer, Doreen Massy, in her rethinking of space writes about “space as the
product of interrelations; as constituted through interactions, from the immensity of the global
to the intimately tiny. […] space as the sphere of the possibility of the existence of
multiplicity in the sense of contemporaneous plurality’s the sphere in which distinct
trajectories coexist; as the sphere therefore of coexisting heterogeneity; Without space, no
multiplicity; without multiplicity, no space. If space is indeed the product of interrelations,
then it must be predicated upon the existence of plurality; Multiplicity and space as coconstructive. […] space as always under construction […] in process of being made.” [5]
I have already talked about scenography as dramaturgical situation – set of interrelations. The
understanding of space as ´radical contemporaneity´ where no ´history´ is central, but
multiple ´stories´ co-exist in the same time one - next, over and in conflict - to each other, as
well as live and living performance space (“always under construction in process of being
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made”) is at the core of my interested in scenography and exhibitions themselves. (I am a
Yugoslav female, married to US Jew, having a Roma child in the Czech Republic and this is
the only possible constellation for me.) Behind this interest is an obvious political motivation,
a curatorial decision, and a personal need for understanding the world in terms of ´AND AND
AND…´ rather than ´OR´.
Here I would like to show how I implemented this specific ideology of ´AND AND AND…´ ,
while trying to avoid the ´anything goes´ dramaturgy that unfortunately sometimes happens to
similar attempts.
HIERARCHY - Questioning hierarchy is at the core of a lot of contemporary theatre practice.
I have mentioned above the post-dramatic theatre that changed the hierarchy of dramatic
elements of performance (written play is not the leading element anymore); as well as devised
theatre (changes in hierarchy within the creative team, inspired by anarchist practices);
participatory, interactive theatre and scenographic installation (where audience become
actors) are yet another shift in hierarchy of performance – shift in who is the author.
Thanks to the Quadrennial I had to think about scenography as first, as initiating as the main
exhibited element (if not the most important). All the projects that I have described above
started with the architectural or space idea (the Heart of PQ and Intersection architectural
idea, Street and Tribes with public space). But because it is an international event showing
work from up to 90 countries, I had to adopt less hierarchical, open approach, simply because
I am not in a position to judge quality and reasons behind work from cultures that I have no
understanding of.
The most striking example would be Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle, where the thirty
scenographic projects within the white cubes/ black boxes consisted of a variety of art
disciplines, approaches and strategies (including choreography, theory, playwriting etc.), from
a series of artists of variety of ages and diverse fame (from Kabakov, Nadj and Castellucci to
less known young performance makers) right next to each other. The spaces were not labeled
and the audience with the help of maps had to find their own way and experience individual
projects rather than follow the pre-scribed quality line. (This has showed to be rather a big
problem for Czech theatre critics who wanted to see only Nadj and Castellucci and could not
find them fast enough.)
The core idea behind the Intersection was to question what contemporary performance and
performance design was. Rather than creating a new definition of scenography, it attempted to
start an unfinished spectrum of various performance and performance design project, and the
non-hierarchical approach was appropriate.
The ‘no hierarchy’ exercise in curatorial practice is psychologically nerve-wracking. One has
to let go of control and make audience understand that there is no ´quality guarantee´ (which
was quite a problem with conservative Czech audiences). Further it is never complete, it is
always an attempt as one (being a curator) always makes choices and one (being human)
always has favorites.
RHIZOME [6] – The Heart of the Prague Quadrennial for instance was built in such a way
that seven main groups of artists inhabited the space for the duration of 18 days, sometimes in
contained sometimes in open spaces often ‘spilling’ into each other’s performance space
throughout the day (which created for many beautiful images and situations as well as very
serious conflicts. For instance when Maori New Zealand group MAU wanted to do a ritual
killing of a chicken in front of the tower inhabited by Russian group Akhe, who I think were
vegetarian. Russians won.)
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Here audience could not follow a strictly prescribed script but had to ‘dive’ into the space and
simply follow often extremely spontaneous action and friction. The Heart of PQ created a
fluid performance space, without center or starting point.
Fig.2 Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle, Prague Quadrennial 2011.
In the Intersection project individual artistic project were separated into white cubes/ black
boxes (I purposely wanted to avoid the socio-artistic experiment aspect of co-habitation.). But
what was fluid, thanks to the no-hierachy dramaturgy, without centre and the architectural
labyrinth with many sub-clusters, was again the audiences experience. Intersection was made
in such a way that you could not experience it all in one day, so you had to choose and you
had to come back. Lack of textual titles and texts, pointed to the fact that one has to simply
experience it and that there is no right or wrong – but simply individual experiences.
Multiplicity of disciplines, modes and types of projects also provoked the thinking but not in
the straight forward sense of filing and defining but rather of breaking of old definitions and
providing place for new questions. The architecture of the Intersection itself had many
windows and doors, cul-de-sacs, as well as top area where people without ticket could climb
and watch the life inside, and provided for variety of positions (of body and view) for the
audience. The projects were loosely, in my mind, divided into groups – basic ideas about
performance, anthropological ideas about performance, conceptual performance, experiential
performance, performance documentation etc. that were not publicly announced.
I call this type of dramaturgy cultivated chaos. It provides for chaotic, open, de-hierarchized
experience with no central message, where there are multiple centers and multiple themes.
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MIS-READING and other curatorial strategies – One of the white cubes/ black boxes of the
Intersection project was occupied by Harun Farocki’s video installation Immersion, in which
you see a therapist and US soldiers use virtual reality program to revisit a place of trauma of
the individual soldiers. The video is very emotional and moving. For years during the
preparation for the Intersection I would talk about this video as documentary video that plays
with real-virtual place of memory-trauma through certain theatrical means. Only once I was
preparing the catalogue I found out in the text that the artist has sent me that the video is
actually performed and that the soldiers are actors. So the one project that I perceived as ‘real’
performance in the whole Intersection has played a trick on my simply because I mis-read the
text initially. And to this day I am not sure if it was ‘real’ or not. (Facts are dangerously
overestimated in understanding of art anyway.)
This type of mis-reading and mis-understanding is highly valuable and discussed in
connection to reading contemporary theory. It is of course an important part of a lot of
experiencing of contemporary art. But I think it’s a valuable practice for the practice of
curation, especially when one is looking for open-forms of exhibitions. The mis-reading here
performs itself, and lets the meaning play and move, rather than be static.
The Intersection, as well as the Tribes (2015) or the Street (2007) included a few projects that
could not be called scenographic no matter how much the term ‘scenographic’ would be
stretched as well as projects that were not according to my taste, project that I did not like. I
will never name them, mystery must be kept. Such projects sometimes provide for the
possibility for one ‘to get to places’ where one never dreamt of being capable of going.
I will talk here about Bulgarian exposition [7] in the Section of Nations and Regions of the
PQ 2015. When I first received the concept of the exhibition for the PQ 2015 under the title
SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics – with very strong political sub-text, I was rather scared
if not horrified. The Bulgarian exposition consisted of a nostalgia merry-go-round that invited
audiences to hop on, take a ride and forget all their worries. This in the middle of the scary
refugee crisis, financial crisis and over-all crisis of values seemed like the last thing that
would be interesting and ‘contemporary’. On the evening after the opening of the Quadrennial
I went to the venue where the Bulgarian exposition took place. There was nobody there
except me, my colleague and the manager of the venue, who proposed for me to climb on the
merry-go-round. I was tiered and thought to myself ‘what the heck’. I climbed and the
manager turned on the merry-go-round. What happened is the closest to miracle I have ever
experienced, after two rounds on the merry-go-round I forgot, felt the wind around my body
and the blur around the merry-go-round. The merry-go-round performed. In that moment of
heightened political situation, I re-evaluated the value of forgetting. And this was an exercise
in radical ´otherness´ in curatorial-terms. The unexpected is not just a way to stay new, to
shock, to entertain but it is a way to go places where one has not been and that one could
maybe not even imagine, new territories of experience and knowledge.
But besides the situation in which one understands a thing one tends to hate, I also think that
love is highly underestimated in theory, criticism and curatorial practice. While I think critical
thinking is crucial in contemporary theatre and arts and even everyday life, where one says:
“Yes, but…”, we tend to forget the beauty of discovering through unconditional: “YES, YES,
YES!”. This is a technique, I think we use when we are younger, and I am trying to continue
using it. (For instance I started listening to blues that I am not very fond of just because Paul
Weller, musician that I have listened to and loved to over 30 years started to play blues.) This
is a type of positive alienation, opposite of what Brecht was trying to achieve: alienation not
from the art-piece but alienation from one’s self for the sake of the art-piece, artist – the other.
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In visiting the performing exhibitions that I am describing both situations for critical and
unconditional love are at play. Audience is provided for multiplicity of projects and situations
to ‘weight’ against each other, but in the same time the amount of projects and the length
provides for a possibility for audience to become not just a mere visitor but a co-inhabitant, a
roommate. At first the unusual form of the exhibition is illegible even repellant for some
audiences, but if they stick to it and start understanding the currents within the cultivated
chaos it can take them to places where they have not been and did not even possibly imagine.
The Heart of PQ, as well as Intersection and the Tribes, created groups of audience-followers,
that continued to come back, and even joined the creative process at some points. Some of the
groups even created their own ways of being, sets of rules for the habitation of the project.
For instance one day the architect of the Intersection Oren Sagiv and me were walking around
the Intersection when all of a sudden we heard applause above us. A group of young Spanish
people created an auditorium and applauded the other audience members below when they did
certain things: (I might be mis-remembering) stepped on a certain live, looked up etc. There
was a whole set of rules.
So this dramaturgical ‘cultivated chaos’, purposely created live complex organism, where
there is no hierarchy, no guarantee of quality experience, no central meaning is an open
structure shared by the curator, architect, artist and audiences. But contrary to ‘street talk’
chaos is not lack or order, within chaos there is order that is barely legible or illegible.
Fig.3 Massimo Furlan, Blue Tiered Heros, in the Tribes, Prague Quadrennial 2015.
CLEAR RULES – Now order, rules, structure and this is where dramaturgy (as structure and
composition) comes to play in a strong way, because the rules are at the core of a possibility
for openness, and actively enable the openness. Inexperienced curators tend to give a lot of
freedom to artists as they imagine this to be helpful. But the restrictions are, too. This was
confirmed to me by Monika Pormale Latvian artist and scenographer, who told me once (I
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think in Bogota in 2008 over lunch) that the designers at the Quadrennial would be much
happier if they were give a strictly designated spacing for the expositions (opposite to build
your own pavilion strategy that we used). I have realized that this would of course provide for
more structured, rhythm of the overall exposition space of course too.
So with the Intersection project we have built exactly this (for her): 30 white cubes/black
boxes of approximate size 3m x 3m x 3m. The starting point was the same for all but thought
the process individual artists could negotiate variations to the ´box´. South For instance
African director Brett Baily had built miniature labyrinth for one person within the box that
was pitch-dark, while Guerra de la Paz made the walls of the box out of fabric – white shirts
and wedding dresses.
So the beginning of the Intersections sounded something like: let´s make a live exhibition,
where there will be performance all day presenting multiple artists; let them present variety of
disciplines, modes and genres of performance (even beyond theatre into visual arts, theory
and everyday); let them inhabit 30 white cubes/ black boxes – and explore possibility of
miniature ideal theatres and galleries that can be entered by one or three people at the time –
so the audience can have intimate experience with the piece; let´s build this habitat in public
space; and let´s make this habitat into a labyrinth, something that has order and chaos [8]. At
the time I did not know of the term ´labyrinthine clarity´ used by Doreen Massey to describe
exactly the cultivated chaos, created mixture of order and accident that I was aiming at.
The clarity of the 30 white cubes/ black boxes, the simplicity and elegance of the architectural
form provided for the possibility to create a larger chaos inside. Spatial order helped
audiences ‘digest’ the often unclear content.
Fig.4 Julian Hetzel Sculpturing Fear in the Tribes, Prague Quadrennial 2015.
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The same clear beginning ´rules´ I have made at the beginning of the Tribes project: public
space will be our gallery, living people wearing masks will be our artifacts the exhibition will
have a form of a walk through the city. The minimum and maximum of performers was set as
well as exactly strict route of the walk – taking performers through different kinds of parts of
the city (tourist part, leisure part, important station for working people etc.) – and strict tasks
to be done during the walk – buy something for 50 crowns, take a photo in front of the
National theatre etc. And we had over 80 groups walking through the center of Prague.
In group exhibitions that are at least partly [9] consisting of newly commissioned work very
strict dramaturgical rules create possibility for creativity for artists as well as help audience
follow the project. Rules have to be strict, precise but in the same time open to interpretation
and play.
TRADITION – Very quick note on tradition: when one is doing theatre projects one should
keep in mind that most of the things that we call traditional in the theatre is either only a few
hundred years old (like indoor stage theatre) or we actually cannot have a clue what it looked
like (like acting), or was seriously mis-interpreted during the history (for instance Aristotle´s
unities). So it is always good to be critical towards these social constructions. Sometimes
mere questioning can bring interesting dramaturgical situations. The dramaturgical rules of a
project can be a play on and around the old, ‘traditional’ rules, and this is often the case in
contemporary theatre.
SHIFTING THE VIEW- A lot of the above described rules are direct play with what we
understand exhibition is – artifacts exhibited in a museum or gallery in a static way. So by
simply changing what is exhibited, how it´s exhibited and where it is exhibited - we
challenged the social construction of what exhibition is. When we first did the Heart of the
PQ in 2003 live, performance exhibitions barely existed and today they are still rare. But for
the Quadrennial this was a logical solution – because you ´cannot´ (slight exaggeration)
exhibit scenography without the context of performance. So what was exhibited was ‘live’
space. The gallery becomes a labyrinth stage in the Heart of PQ, or labyrinth miniature
intimate spaces (Intersection) or public space in the Tribes. The form of exhibiting was cohabitation in the case of the Heart of PQ, a maze in Intersection and a walk for the Tribes. All
these shifts come from the impossibility to exhibit scenography the way one exhibits a
painting or a sculpture, and this of course is changing in visual arts too now due to the raise of
performance in art.
This of course created a situation somewhere between an exhibition and a performance (or
festival). Performance turned into installation that can be entered by audience or an exhibition
where people perform if you will, but in any case this provides for a shift of audiences view,
the position within the event. Audience here has to follow, enter and spend time. So the view
is shifted both mentally (what is exhibition) as well as physically (where am I looking from).
And this positioning of audience was an important point for me in most projects, where it was
important for me to create situation in which audience gets more from the project the more
they invest (time, energy, curiosity) and where they can be aware of their own positioning.
PERFORMING EXHIBITON – These projects are performing exhibitions for a clear reason
that there is steady live action during the ´opening hours´. The performer, live body is present
within the exhibitions. Further the visitors, the audience also performs: follows, enters the
stage with performer or enters scenographic installation where they themselves often become
the main performers.
But what is most interesting for me is that these exhibitions ´do´ things. Audience participates
of course. But the interaction between audience and performance, between the space and
performance, and between individual projects creates encounters, frictions and conflicts that
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are performance in themselves. Extreme example would be audience members coming from
Paul´s boutique box in the Intersection, where they could borrow costumes and masks and
walk around the exhibition wearing them. It happened quite a few times that a men for
instance in a wedding dress in his carnivalesque mood all excited and having fun enter an
extremely serious and sad box (Brett Baily´s for instance). And this is how these exhibitions
´do´ things via mistake and accident.
But I tend to use the word ´perform´ for something else, too: these expositions not explaining
and illustrating but providing for a very specific experience - via being live, via these
interactions between elements, via being a place of radical multiplicity that´s often in conflict,
via being rhizomatic. Norman Brycon writes about Mieke Bal’s new way to see art works,
where “the work is thus an occasion for a performance in the “field’ of its meaning – where
no single performance is capable of actualizing or totalizing all of the work’s semantic
potential” [10]. And this of course goes for any analysis of any art piece. But in the
performing exhibitions that I made this was the core of the project: to provide this specific
experience of the whole open “field” that escapes audience’s definition, a situation in-between
understanding and experiencing, and much more ambiguous.
This open field of course in art happens between audience and the art piece, in the theatre or
performing exhibition other spectators often come into the equation of the field of meaning
and experiencing.
BEING WITH - Explaining Niklas Luhman’s thinking about aesthetics, theorist Juliane
Rebentisch writes: “Whereas we can otherwise only communicate about perception, art
communicates through perception.” [11] Now there are many ways for audiences perception
to be activated, to engage with art, and this was one of the focuses of exploration in art and
theatre since the 60’, most notoriously marked by the minimalist installation that became a
stage for never-ending ungraspable experience of the spectator. All good art is engaging, but
there are many ways to provide for this engagement. Especially in the Intersection projects I
have played with the modes of engagement: interactive, participatory, evoking, confusing,
joining, shocking, passive, playful, understanding, thinking, experiencing and of course many
combinations.
In recent decades there has been a focus on experience as well interactivity and participation
of the spectator, that is often read as social if not political activation of the spectator, and I
think this is an important factor in contemporary world where the technology is often making
us passive or quasi-active.
But there is one mode that I think has not been thoroughly explored yet and that is ‘being
with’, very often giving time and space to the art piece or performance will ‘take us places’,
like being with a friend, neither expecting experience, nor knowledge, neither being active nor
passive, just being with this other person. This ‘being with’ in my projects, I think, happened
somewhere in the tension between the freedom of audience to go anywhere, their activation to
do things and the overwhelming feeling that they will never no matter how much time they
spend see everything that the project performs.
THEATRE: RADICAL CONTEMPORANEITY, CHANGE and THE 3RD SPACE –
I would like to finish with three things that inspire me at the moment. While trying to work
interdisciplinary – to connect theatre and visual arts through scenography, to connect theory
and practice etc. – I have come across a certain negative apprehension of theatre, theatricality
as a negative word as theatricality of the society of spectacle, as a form of voyeurism, as
pretending if not straight forward lying. And through the projects that I have described I have
explored the ethical and political aspect of scenography. And I was seduced by the purity of
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authenticity, one of the main objects of contemporary theatre (documentary, community, site
specific etc.) But my relationship to theatricality, truth and ethics is much more ambivalent
now. There are things that I have discovered though my practice but that have also theoretical
and political implications: these are things that occupy me now.
I am not sure if the radical contemporaneity, as described by Doreen Massey (where different
entities exist simultaneously next to each other) is somehow inherent in the theatre or not.
What speaks for is that there is obviously so many dramatic elements, many characters, many
different people (audience including) in one place. But there seems to also be a radical need
for unification at work here, too. All these elements and voices seem to have to be connected
in order to be coherent. (And this coherency might be the reason why Mikhail Bakhtin
considered drama least dialogical of all literary forms [12].) Despite the fact that I have not
resolved this issue I found it very inspiring to play with the radical contemporaneity within
the performing exhibitions, and I tend to think that I was to an extent successful at creating
these radical contemporaneities.
But what is definitely inherent in the theatre (act as well as process) is theatre as a place
where both reality and imagination happen in the same time; things that are, the things that
could be, the things that should be, and the things that will be. And this is what makes the
open “fields” of performing exhibitions perform, too.
Henri Lefebvre wrote about three types of social space: perceived space, conceived space and
lived space. (The perceived space is the space that can be measured and described, while the
conceived space is the space is made, controlled and surveilled.) The lived space, described
by Edward W. Soja as Thirdspace is “combining the real and the imagined, things and
thought on equal terms, or at least nor privileging one over the other a priori, th