The Aesthetic versus the Political

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Song
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Material Basis ◽  
Industrial Civilization ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

This chapter addresses how Lin Huiyin, a female poet and architect, carries out modernist, impressionist, and urbanist mappings of Beijing’s everyday objects, imperial relics, and socialist sites from the post-Warlord Era to the high Cold War years. In her literary writings of the 1930s and her failed project of urban planning of the socialist capital in the 1950s (against Maoist and Stalinist propaganda), Lin deliberately juxtaposes the pastoral and the counterpastoral, the threatening and disturbing images of modern industrial civilization and the lyrical and aesthetic items in everyday life. Imperial palaces and other grand buildings still dominate the urban landscape of Beijing. However, in Lin’s poetics and politics of daily objects, the sensuous, superfluous, and aestheticized things constitute the cultural texture and material basis of the city, which outlive historical transformations and political turbulence and protect Beijing from the “gust and dust” of modern times.

scholarly journals Toponymy, Pioneership, and the Politics of Ethnic Hierarchies in the Spatial Organization of British Colonial Nairobi

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita ◽  
Frédéric Giraut
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Urban Citizenship ◽  
Ethnic Affiliation ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
British Asians ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The City

Toponyms, along with other urban symbols, were used as a tool of control over space in many African countries during the colonial period. This strategy was epitomized by the British, who applied it in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya from the late 1800s. This paper shows that toponymy in colonial Nairobi was an imposition of British political references, urban nomenclature, as well as the replication of a British spatial idyll on the urban landscape of Nairobi. In early colonial Nairobi, the population was mainly composed of three main groups: British, Asians, and Africans. Although the Africans formed the bulk of the population, they were the least represented, socially, economically and politically. Ironically, he British, who were the least in population held the political and economic power, and they applied it vigorously in shaping the identity of the city. The Asians were neither as powerful as the British, nor were they considered to be at the low level of the native Africans. This was the deliberate hierarchical structure that was instituted by the colonial government, where the level of urban citizenship depended on ethnic affiliation. Consequently, this structure was reflected in the toponymy and spatial organization of the newly founded city with little consideration to its pre-colonial status. Streets, buildings and other spaces such as parks were predominantly named after the British monarchy, colonial administrators, settler farmers, and businessmen, as well as prominent Asian personalities. In this paper, historical references such as maps, letter correspondences, monographs, and newspaper archives have been used as evidence to prove that toponyms in colonial Nairobi were the spatial signifiers that reflected the political, ideological and ethnic hierarchies and inequalities of the time.

scholarly journals Um olhar comparativo sobre a regulamentação dos veículos de mídia exterior urbana: os casos de São Paulo (cidade) e Roma | A comparative view of urban outdoor advertising (Out-Of-Home media) regulation: the cases of São Paulo (city) and Rome

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-44
Author(s):  
Vanessa Casarin ◽  
Raquel Martinelli
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Outdoor Advertising ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Media Regulation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

O objetivo central deste trabalho é apresentar um estudo comparativo sobre como as cidade de São Paulo e Roma tem lidado em suas regulamentações com os diferentes suportes de mídia exterior urbana, uma vez que são estas normas que moldam com maior ou menor rigor a forma com que a informação de caráter comercial chega aos cidadãos. O desenho da informação depende, fundamentalmente, do suporte através do qual será veiculada.  A mídia exterior tem um forte impacto na paisagem urbana e a partir da Lei Cidade Limpa implantada em São Paulo diversas cidades brasileiras se viram incentivadas a implantar ou alterar suas normativas neste sentido. A fim de contribuir com este fenômeno, procurou-se então estabelecer um paralelo entre a cidade de São Paulo, uma cidade de negócios, e a cidade de Roma, fortemente orientada ao turismo incentivado pelo seu profícuo patrimônio histórico, principalmente arquitetônico. No caso de São Paulo abordou-se o contexto de aplicação da regulamentação específica mais recente e suas alterações posteriores. Fez-se, a partir de uma analise documental da legislação vigente, uma comparação com a cidade de Roma. Observou-se que embora a cidade de Roma seja fortemente orientada ao turismo e a exploração da qualidade estética de sua paisagem, é mais permissiva em relação a presença de diferentes suportes de mídia exterior na paisagem urbana do que a cidade de São Paulo.*****The main aim of this paper is to present a comparative study between the cities of São Paulo and Rome, and how these cities are dealing with different types of urban outdoor advertising (Out-Of-Home media) in its regulations since these regulations shape the way commercial information is placed in the landscape. The information design depends, mainly, on the support it will be placed. Outdoor advertising has a strong impact on the urban landscape. Since the Clean City Law was implanted in São Paulo, several Brazilian cities have been encouraged to implement (or modify) regulations in this sense. In order to contribute to this discussion, a parallel between the city of São Paulo, a business city, and the city of Rome, strongly oriented to the tourism encouraged by its historical heritage, mainly architectonic, are presented in this paper. The results shown consider only the documental analysis (of the normative legislation, maps, and publications pertinent to the subject) which formed the basis for the evaluation of the landscape, and not the evaluation of the landscape itself. It refers to the initial stage of the research. Its character is, therefore, descriptive and the comparison established between the different case studies aims to foment the discussion around the paths followed by the cities to deal with the spread and diversity of the OOH media nowadays. It was observed that although the city of Rome is mainly oriented to tourism and the profiteering of the aesthetic quality of its landscape, it is more permissive in relation to the presence of different types of OOH media in the urban landscape than the city of São Paulo.

Labouring for Kashmir’s azadi: Ongoing violence and resistance in Maisuma, Srinagar

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Sarbani Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Central Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

While much has been said about the historicity of the Kashmir conflict or about how individuals and communities have resisted occupation and demanded the right to self-determination, much less has been said about nature of everyday life under these conditions. This article offers a glimpse of life in the working-class neighbourhood of Maisuma, located in the central area of the city of Srinagar, and its engagement with the political movement for azadi (freedom). I argue that the predicament of ‘double interminability’ characterises life in Maisuma—the interminable violence by the state on the one hand and simultaneously the constant call of labouring for azadi by the movement on the other, since the terms of peace are unacceptable.

Food, Fear, and Dreams

2019 ◽  
pp. 144-166
Author(s):  
Robert Lemon
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
Taste Preferences ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Spatial Strategy ◽  
Legitimate Business ◽  
The Social ◽  
Immigration And Customs Enforcement ◽  
The City

Chapter 7 takes a detailed look at how taco truck owners continually have to develop new ways of adapting spatially to the political and social dimensions of Columbus’s landscape. For most taco truck owners in the city, deportation is a legitimate business concern. Many taco truck owners fear confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while vending along city streets. Thus, taco truck owners use their mobility as a spatial strategy for survival in an uncertain and unsettling urban landscape. As taco truck owners navigate the social terrains of Columbus, they must modify their menus to their newfound community’s taste preferences. This is to say that food is spatial, and so the chapter makes an argument for the ways in which food evolves across space.

scholarly journals Place brand communication as aspirational talk-further exploring the constitutive model of communication

1970 ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Cecilia Cassinger
Keyword(s):  
Constitutive Model ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Place Branding ◽  
The Political ◽  
Brand Communication ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
Place Brand ◽  
The City

This paper introduces the concept of aspirational talk to examine the constitutive features of place brand communication. Aspirational talk builds on a performative view of communication and is characterised by a gap between future-oriented visionary talk and concrete action. The study explores place brand communication as aspirational talk through a qualitative case study of how place branding is used to drive changed in two Swedish cities. Two ideological different aspirations are identified and contrasted. It is argued that aspirational talk helps us to further understand the gap between the political visions and ideals that underpin place brand communication and residents’ everyday life in the city.

Memorial Urban Art as an Aesthetic Experience in the City - An Aesthetical Reading of War Murals in Tehran’s Urban Landscape

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Maryamalsadat Mansouri ◽  
Parisa Shad Ghazvini
Keyword(s):  
John Dewey ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Urban Art ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

Abstract In the city of Tehran, a series of war-themed murals, often focused on strengthening the audience’s historical memory, stand out among all types of urban art. These works of art, which are generated by the government’s order and created by different state institutions, all carry political and ideological dimensions. They are considered a source of environmental qualitative assessment and recognised as a kind of ‘urban aestheticisation’; in other words, it is a process leading to the production of value according to the ‘John Dewey’ theory. Knowing that the war artworks contain a major political dimension and are mainly created by the order of the ruling governments to ‘strengthen the audience’s historical memory’, an added quality is inevitably integrated, which in the aesthetic domain is commonly known as kitsch: taking advantage of people’s standard associations and confirming them by employing proven stereotypes and clichés, as Ortlieb and Carbon (2019b) wrote. The urban landscape as an exhibition platform is therefore important as it is the context of social events and daily life that affects the audience’s perception. John Dewey defines this perception as an aesthetic experience which takes place in the field of empirical aesthetics and begins by explaining why specific objects give pleasure or displeasure. These explanations will later be integrated into a set of principles which, in turn, will join a global system of analysis, such as Fechner’s aesthetic valuations. The aesthetic experience of war urban artworks is analysed from the observation that in the creation of these works in Tehran, the government, as the sponsor, focuses on the use of the aesthetic qualities of the kitsch. The article then presents the reading of this aesthetic experience through the analysis of a selection of works, based on evaluation criteria and indicators. The interpretation of this experience is to discover the ‘quiddity’ of the evolutions which have occurred in these works from the beginning of the war until today. The following statement highlights one of the most notable results of the research: the weakening of the art position, from a promotional state that improves the urban landscape quality, into a way of showing government’s positioning concerning the paradigms of the country.

SMOLENSK IN JAN KUNOWSKI’S POETRY AND LIFE

2019 ◽  
pp. 324-336
Author(s):  
Ludmila Ivonina
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Individual Person ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
The City ◽  
Xviith Century

The article analyzes a career and a number of poetic works written by a Polish poet Jan Kunowski. The books are associated with Smolensk and the wars between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Moscow State in the first half of the XVIIth century. The example of Kunowski’s poems and life demonstrates the place of Smolensk both in the political thinking of the Polish nobility of the Early Modern Times and, in particular, of an individual person. In addition, the article demonstrates some methods used by the propaganda of the Early Modern Times; they are dedicated to the event under the study. The author agrees that the writings by Jan Kunowski about Smolensk are an expression of the mentality of the Polish nobleman lived the XVIIth century, who was confident in Providence protecting the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and convinced of the special mission of the Polish-Lithuanian State. In a certain way, the canticle to Smolensk was propaganda. In reality, Kunowski renewed the state and ethnic myth of Polish and partly Lithuanian political thought; he added a new element – Smolensk – to the thousand-year history of the state. Moreover, the article emphasizes that comprehension of Kunowski’s poems content from the only perspective of gentry’s mentality, propaganda and love for the city can be incomplete. The poet’s reflection of the reality was largely stimulated by material reasons, career aspirations, and religious confession.

Urban Landscape and Architecture

2009 ◽  
pp. 237-247
Author(s):  
Robin Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Ideals ◽  
Common Identity ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
The City

That the idea of the polis came to stand as a reference point for Hellenic cultural ideals is not, as one might have thought, purely the result of later memory, or memorialization of the political structures that obtained during a rich and productive era in Greek cultural history. This happened, of course; but it built on a conscious attempt by its inhabitants to promote the polis as a centre for cultural identity. This article looks at how the city developed and how it was developed physically to reflect an ideal, ‘common’ identity, both cultural and political.

The 1945 Stravinsky Debates: Nigg, Messiaen, and the Early Cold War in France

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie A. Sprout
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Political ◽  
Piano Concerto ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
Pierre Boulez ◽  
French Composers ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract In spring 1945, a small group of students, among them Serge Nigg and Pierre Boulez, protested during the first performances in liberated Paris of the neoclassical works Stravinsky had composed in America. Whereas Boulez's biographers have interpreted the student protests as a sign of Renéé Leibowitz's successful promotion of serialism in France, scholars of the Cold War have seen the 1945 concerts as a precursor to Stravinsky's participation in the 1952 L'ŒŒuvre du XXe sièècle, a festival in Paris indirectly funded by the CIA. These interpretations subsume the immediate postwar period in France within a synchronic view of the early Cold War era. But the 1945 protests against Stravinsky were not about the decisive embrace of a single musical style; rather, they were about the desire of young French composers to play an active role in shaping the postwar future of music in France. In 1945, Nigg——and not Boulez——represented the aesthetic opinions of a generation of French composers who had grown up during the German occupation of Paris and the political aspirations of those who, like Nigg, flocked to the French Communist Party at war's end. Nigg's participation in the 1945 Stravinsky debates gives us occasion to examine his earliest musical compositions and the political opinions he would express with increasing ideological fervor in the 1950s. Although in verbal pronouncements he supported socialist realism, Nigg's rare and complex use of a French folk tune in his 1954 Piano Concerto betrays his ambivalence about the Soviet demand for communist composers to reject "falsely cosmopolitan tendencies" in favor of their national cultural heritage. Having rejected in 1945 both Stravinsky's neoclassicism and French nationalism (the latter tainted by associations with Vichy during the occupation), Nigg had to choose in the early Cold War between his aesthetic and political loyalties.

scholarly journals Propositions for the Aesthetic Continuity of Urban Landscapes

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402094185
Author(s):  
Hyejung Chang
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Irreversible Loss ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ethical Significance

While many global societies have undergone radical transformations, places have suffered from the irreversible loss of public memory. The value of continuity in the urban landscape has gradually declined due to the culture of “avant-gardism.” This article explores the enduring values necessary for human cohabitation and aesthetic qualities inherent in the rapidly changing urban environments of today. It draws attention to the ethical significance of continuity as the whole notion of “place” hinges, and argues that the experience of urban continuity in everyday life is an intrinsic and instrumental factor for our sense of identity, well-being, and belonging. Continuity, as predicated on human existence, is essential for the evolutionary, ecological, cognitive, cultural, and spiritual experience of the shared environment. The proposed dimensions of an aesthetic continuity are intended to provide a normative and pragmatic framework useful for application to placemaking in ever-changing urban environments.

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