Space And Place (Art)

Branding Cities: a case study of collaborative methodologies in cultural, film, and marketing research

by Stephanie Hemelryk Donald

Festival connections: people, place and social capital

by Linda Wilks

Co-authored with Bernadette Quinn, Dublin Institute of Technology
To be published in: Richards, G., DeBrito, M. and Wilks, L. (eds.) (2013 [expected]) Exploring the social impacts of events. Abingdon: Routledge

Virtual Progression: the High Line as Verdant Infoscape

by Aja Martin

VIRTUAL PROGRESSION: THE HIGH LINE
AS VERDANT INFOSCAPE


  Abstract
more VIRTUAL PROGRESSION: THE HIGH LINE
AS VERDANT INFOSCAPE


  Abstract

The phrase ‘green space’ has new currency in contemporary society.  The High Line park, as a complex example of green space stitched over the existing urban fabric, places the city of New York at the forefront of global efforts to repair the urban landscape.  Local goals to refurbish and enhance the city reflect larger questions about the environment, sustainability and our cultural understanding of ‘nature.’
The High Line park, as open-air art space, urban garden and busy promenade, functions within and in spite of the city below.  The site, in all its complexity, dictates that the careful reader consider themes in landscape architectural history and practice, art history, as well as the design field.  These discourses help to carefully untangle the choreography inscribed by and in the site.  Landscape architecture firm James Corner Filed Operations and architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro organize art installations, innovative landscape design, and space for diverse cultural events, coaxing the High Line into an alternative relationship with the city and the populous.  This minimalist garden offers the sort of ‘blinkered’ history of the city that allows the viewer to initiate and cultivate her own narrative.  In the study that follows, the High Line is shown to operate as a space couched in landscape urbanism, a practice dedicated to the contemporary urban subject.  Working from the formal visage of the site, this thesis assesses the industrial, virtual, and biologic data path that is the High Line park in a manner that also proposes the fluidity between design and art.

Espacio y desaparición. Los campos de concentración en Argentina - Pamela Colombo

by Pamela Colombo

Isegoría, No 45 (2011):639-652

Partiendo de la hipótesis de que la técnica aniquilación por desaparición forzada de personas en Argentina (1974-1983)... more Partiendo de la hipótesis de que la técnica aniquilación por desaparición forzada de personas en Argentina (1974-1983) reconfiguró el espacio; el trabajo que desarrollo en el presente artículo consiste en indagar acerca de las particularidades de la dimensión espacial en los campos de concentración en Tucumán. El análisis gira en torno a tres ejes centrales: la negación de las referencias espacio-temporales a los detenidos-desaparecidos dentro del campo; el modo en que los desaparecidos «a pesar de todo» se representan un espacio y un tiempo concentracionario; y por último, el modo en que superponen e interpenetran los espacios del afuera con el adentro del campo. Este trabajo de análisis se sustenta en entrevistas en profundidad que he realizado a familiares de desaparecidos y sobrevivientes de campos de concentración en Tucumán.

The spatial (re)production of the Kurdish issue: multiple and contradicting trajectories—introduction

by Joost Jongerden

co-authored with Zeynep Gambetti

Awareness and Reunion: A Phenomenology of the Person-World Relationship as Portrayed in the New York Photographs of André Kertész

by David Seamon

originally published in Leo Zonn, ed. Place Images in Media (Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), pp. 31-61.

This essay examines, from a phenomenological perspective, the New York photographs of André Kertész (1894 1985), one... more This essay examines, from a phenomenological perspective, the New York photographs of André Kertész (1894 1985), one of the great pioneers of modern photography. In one sense, Kertész's photographs are an implicit phenomenological record because they portray the fabric, style and tenor of the lifeworld—the ordinary, tacit pattern and elements of life's everydayness, normally taken for granted but given direct scholarly attention in phenomenology.

My aim is twofold: first, to examine the underlying qualities of the lifeworld suggested by Kertész's photographs, especially the way they illustrate lived immersion in the world; and, second, to identify phenomenologically the underlying pattern and process that sustains the vividness and power of Kertész's lifeworld presentations.

First, I discuss the phenomenological interpretation of the person world relationship, drawing particularly on philosopher Martin Heidegger's picture of human-immersion-in-world.

Second, I examine several Kertész photographs to illustrate variations of this person-environment immersion. Third, using Heidegger's notions of "readiness to hand" versus "presence to hand" and "belonging together" versus "belonging together," I seek to understand phenomenologically the underlying dynamics that make Kertész's photographs so powerful.

Key words: André Kertész, phenomenology, photography, belonging, wholeness, place, New York City photographs

Place, Place Identity, and Phenomenology

by David Seamon

A chapter in The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of the Built Environment, Hernan Casakin, Ombretta Romice, & Sergio Porta, editors. London: Betham Science Publishers, 2011. © 2011 David Seamon.

As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic... more As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic 2000), the phenomenon of place is a multivalent structure sophisticated and complex in its existential constitution. In this chapter, I offer one phenomenological vantage point from which to examine this lived complexity. I contend that, as an integral structure of human life, place can be understood in terms of three dimensions: first, the geographical ensemble—i.e., the material environment, including both its natural and human-made dimensions; second, people-in-place, including individual and group actions, intentions, and meanings; and, third, spirit of place, or genius loci.

Drawing on the conceptual approach of “systematics” developed by the British philosopher J. G. Bennett, I argue that these three dimensions can engage in six different ways, each of which relates to one particular lived mode whereby place contributes to human life. These six modes are: (1) place interaction; (2) place identity; (3) place creation; (4) place intensification; (5) place realization; and (6) place release.

I argue that place identity is important for understanding the nature of place but is complemented by other modes of relationship that together help clarify the complexity and richness of place and place experience.

Merleau-Ponty, Perception, and Environmental Embodiment: Implications for Architectural and Environmental Studies

by David Seamon

chapter prepared for Carnal Echoes: Merleau-Ponty and the Flesh of Architecture, Rachel McCann and Patricia M. Locke, editors, forthcoming, 2012 or 2013. © David Seamon 2010.

In this chapter, I draw on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to explore environmental embodiment—the various lived ways,... more In this chapter, I draw on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to explore environmental embodiment—the various lived ways, sensorily and motility-wise, that the body in its pre-reflective perceptual presence engages and synchronizes with the world at hand, especially its architectural and environmental aspects. First, I consider Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of perception, giving particular attention to his claim that perception involves a lived dynamic between perceptual body and world such that aspects of the world—for example, the heavy hardness of a granite block or the cool smoothness of a chrome railing—are known because they immediately evoke in the lived body their experienced qualities.

Second, I consider the architectural and environmental significance of what Merleau-Ponty calls body-subject—pre-reflective corporeal awareness expressed through action and typically in sync with and enmeshed in the physical world in which the action unfolds. I focus on the taken-for-granted sensibility of body-subject to manifest in extended ways over time and space. I ask how routine actions and behaviors of individuals coming together regularly in an environment can transform that environment into a place with a unique dynamic and character—a lived situation I term place ballet. For both perception and body-subject, I consider how qualities of the physical and designable world—for example, materiality, form, and spatiality—contribute to the lived body’s engagement with and actions in the world.

A Respectful World: Merleau-Ponty and the Experience of Depth

by Susan Bredlau

With kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media: Human Studies, "A Respectful World: Merleau-Ponty and the Experience of Depth," 33 (4), 2011, 411-423, Susan M. Bredlau. Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

The serial spaces of Ana Mendieta

by Susan Best

Art History 30.1 (2007): 57-82.

The work of the Cuban American artist, Ana Mendieta, has often been criticised because she embraced the traditional... more The work of the Cuban American artist, Ana Mendieta, has often been criticised because she embraced the traditional alignment of woman and nature, an alignment which is generally perceived as reliant upon essentialist ideas about female identity. Recent commentators have defended Mendieta’s work against the charge of essentialism by interpreting her work through the lens of Judith Butler’s idea of gender as performance. Mendieta’s work, it is argued, destabilises identity by emphasising the repeated performances of this alignment. In other words, the emphasis falls on the “deed” rather than the “doer,” to use Butler’s terms. While the capacity of Mendieta’s work to sustain these different readings points to its richness, it is curious that essentialism still remains a scare term, despite the feminist literature from the 1980s and 90s which point to the inescapability of essentialism. This article considers Mendieta’s Silueta Series in the light of this reconsideration of essentialism.

Art and (Second) Life: Over the Hills and Far Away?

by Caroline McCaw

Buildings in the Windows: Representations of Architecture in the St William and Great East Window, York Minster

by Emma Jane Wells

Antiquaries Journal (in review)

The miniature images of architecture that populate the compositions of medieval stained glass are often referred to... more The miniature images of architecture that populate the compositions of medieval stained glass are often referred to only in passing, yet are truly magnificent displays of civic pride and unity – products of their social and cultural milieu. Although some were representational, merely suggesting the overall look of a structure, others portrayed how specific monuments looked at the time. Suitable for varying narratives, architectural depictions rapidly proliferated, not only in glass but across medieval art, developing into literal micro-architectural renderings of full-scale physical structures in the fifteenth century. This paper considers York Minster’s Great East and St William window which feature some of the most complex and unique miniature renderings of contemporary built structures of the late medieval period. Examination focuses on the premise that these architectural ‘motifs’ served much more than simply ‘setting the scene’ – viewers could essentially relate them to their own devotional experience. How and why their representations changed is explored below.

Moving Landscapes, Making Place: Cities, Monuments and Commemoration at Malizi/Melid

by Ömür Harmansah

Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 24.1 (2011) 55-83.

The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional... more The urbanization of Syro-Hittite (Luwian and Aramaean) states is one of most complex yet little explored regional processes in Near Eastern history and archaeology. In this study, I discuss aspects of landscape and settlement change in northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–850 BC), and suggest that the emergent geo-politics of the region involved the foundation of cities and construction of specific types of commemorative monuments including rock reliefs, steles and city gates. While defining new forms of territorial power, these monuments linked local polities to a shared Hittite past through their literary and visual rhetoric, and a discourse of inherited agricultural land. To contextualize the subject matter, I first discuss the gradual southward shift of an imperial Hittite center of power from central Anatolia towards Karkamiš and Tarhuntašša at the end of the Late Bronze Age, arguing against the widespread models of a sudden collapse of the Hittite Empire followed by dark ages. Furthermore, I present archaeological
and epigraphic evidence for the formation of the regional state Malizi/Melid. This Syro-Hittite kingdom established itself in the Malatya-Elbistan Plains in eastern Turkey during the first centuries of the Early Iron Age as one of the earliest political entities to emerge from the ashes of the Hittite Empire. Monuments raised by Malizean ‘country lords’ in rural and urban contexts suggest a picture of a fluid landscape in transition, one that was configured through the construction of cities, and other practices of place-making.

There is no space: meaning and embodiment in mediated environments

by Michael Schandorf

This paper is being published (in Spanish translation) by a Latin American university press collection on online art. But it's really just a rough agglomeration of the various theoretical positions I'm working with in my dissertation project (wrapped in a frame suitable for a collection about online art that was taken from Carrie Noland). Comments and suggestions are invited, welcomed, and much appreciated.

How are we to understand digital objects? How are we to relate ‘cyberspace’ to physical space? This chapter attempts... more How are we to understand digital objects? How are we to relate ‘cyberspace’ to physical space? This chapter attempts to provide a set of theoretical tools to understand ‘spaces’ of online interaction and what happens within them without resorting to filamentous constructions of ‘disembodied’ online interaction or to the underlying idealistic Cartesian dualism that pervades many of the theoretical positions that ostensibly refute it. To do so, I make connections between cognitive processes of human subjectivity, the embodied, gestural enactments of physical social spaces, and the social interactions that take place in online environments. The crux of the argument is that like identity, meaning and subjectivity are social phenomena: individual cognition requires social interaction. Similarly, social interaction, mediated or immediate, defines our spaces of subjectivity. This connecting of online ‘spaces’ to embodied cognition may provide a way to understand digital objects and the online interactions they enable through a reconsideration of the concept of space.

Lugares Comunes. Acerca De La Figuración De Espacios Identitarios En El Cine Del Mercosur.

by Marina Moguillansky

Presentado en las V Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores del Instituto de Investigación Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 4-6 de noviembre de 2009. Argentina

La formación del Mercosur coincidió en el tiempo con cierta reactivación y renovación de la producción cinematográfica... more La formación del Mercosur coincidió en el tiempo con cierta reactivación y renovación de la producción cinematográfica en Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay, así como con el incremento de las coproducciones entre estos países. Algunas de las películas del período presentan marcas que dan cuenta –y elaboran en el plano simbólico– los cambios políticos e identitarios que comenzaron a producirse en la región. En este trabajo exploramos distintos tipos de inscripciones de espacios de pertenencia (local, nacional, regional) en las representaciones cinematográficas a través de un análisis en las dimensiones narrativa e icónica de las películas. Este primer abordaje del corpus propone una sistematización de herramientas conceptuales que permitirá profundizar el trabajo de investigación acerca de la representación cinematográfica de los espacios comunitarios en el Mercosur.

Music festivals and local identities

by Paolo Magaudda

co-authored with Marco Solaroli, Jasper Chalcraft and Marco Santoro; in European Arts Festivals: Strengthening cultural diversity, Luxembourg, Office of the European Union, pp. 57-67.

Sound makes places, and as organised sound music contributes to the sonic organisation of place. Some sounds, some... more Sound makes places, and as organised sound music contributes to the sonic organisation of place. Some sounds, some music genres, make places more than others. Think of folk or ethnic music. As they emanate from shops, cars, or radios, the sounds of folk and traditional music genres typ- ically demarcate neighbourhoods, cities, even whole countries, by signalling that these places ‘belong’ to a specific cultural space (Stokes 1995). Also life-style subcultures often work in this way, that is, by demarcating places in different urban settings. Venues for youth are often char- acterised by the loud music associated with their subcultures, which in this way reclaim certain urban places as their ’natural’ habitat (Bennet 2000; Connell and Gibson 2002). In sum, we can say that music works as a cultural tool in the construction of locality, in the domestication of space, transforming it into a place that could be associated with, and claimed to belong to, par- ticular groups – be they age groups, ethnic groups, or social classes. Anthropologists, ethnomu- sicologists, geographers and sociologists have documented how music can help define the cultural ownership of space by ethnic, regional, generational, national and even economically based groups (e.g. Mitchell 1996; Leyshon, Matless, Revill 1998; Connell and Gibson 2002; Krims 2007). We suggest that with respect to place, music works like architecture or public art: while build- ings, posters or graffiti create particular semiotic spaces, loading them with special meanings, music can function as a marker of specific meaningful places inside geographical spaces...
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“Must we to bed indeed?” Beds as cultural signifiers in picturebooks for children

by Maria Nikolajeva

New Review of Children's Literature and Librarianship 2011:2
DOI:10.1080/13614541.2011.624940

The materiality as a characteristic feature of the picturebook does not only imply its existence as an artefact, but... more The materiality as a characteristic feature of the picturebook does not only imply its existence as an artefact, but also its ability to represent a material world through images in a more direct and immediate manner than verbal texts. This paper considers the representation of beds in picturebooks from two discreet yet closely connected perspectives: semiotics and cultural geography. The concept of place and space in a broad sense is central for the argument. Beds constitute a young child’s closest surroundings and are frequently the only private space available. At the same time, beds are areas of power struggle between child and adult, as well as a border between self and the world, private and public. The paper discusses, firstly, the physical aspects of the represented objects: their form, size, position on the page and spatial relationship to other objects and characters, which all create a sense of space. Secondly, it probes into the function of the objects, such as their cultural connotations, significance for the narrative and metaphorical implications.

Counter)narratives of space and resistance in a multicultural Parisian banlieue

by David GARBIN

"People in Space make Place"

by tamlyn young

- quote by Doung Jahangeer

An investigation into the socio-spatial relationship between subject and place;
with specific reference to the... more An investigation into the socio-spatial relationship between subject and place;
with specific reference to the artistic practice of Layla Curtis, Doung Jahangeer,
Richard Long and Jeremy Wood.
The paper is motivated by an interest in walking and mapping as art forms. it investigates the relationship between art and psychogeography.