scholarly journals VISUALIZING THE CITY IN ROOFTOPPING PHOTOGRAPHY

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Abashev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Energy Flows ◽  
History Of ◽  
Urban Imagination ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City

The article examines the representation of the city in rooftopping photography. Methodologically, the research is based on A. Lefebvre’s concept of social space, and also M. de Certeau’s concept of spatial practices as agents of its production. The principal notions in this analytical framework employed in the article are the urban imaginary and the gaze in constructivist understanding, which not only reflects, but also forms the object of vision. Rooftopping photography is considered in the context of the history of the view of the city from above, which has become an important factor in the urban imagination. The expansion of rooftopping photography into the public space and the presentation of cities is associated with the development of new communication and optical representation technologies in the 2010s. The analysis of the rooftoppers’ visualizing of the city carried out in semantic, aesthetic and rhetorical aspects revealed its substantive and aesthetic qualities. Rooftoppers photos capture the moment when a person faces the city as a whole. The city converges with natural and landscape objects. In the night panoramas that make up the bulk of roofer photography, the city is represented as a space of energy flows. In rhetorical terms, in contrast to the metonymy of a promenade, roofer photography is metaphorical. In general, it is concluded that the subject of rooftopper photography is not so much the identity of the city as its universal urban beginning embodied in the centers of the world’s megalopolises. Following D. Nye and his interpreters, the aesthetic mode of the city in roofer visuality is interpreted as urban version of the sublime.

Puccini's La Bohème

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Music Drama ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
La Boheme ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City

La bohème is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. But how did it come to be so adored? Drawing on an extremely broad range of sources, Alexandra Wilson traces the opera’s rise to global fame. Although the work has been subjected to many hostile critiques, it swiftly achieved popular success through stage performances, recordings, and filmed versions. Wilson demonstrates how La bohème acquired even greater cultural influence as its music and dramatic themes began to be incorporated into pop songs, film soundtracks, musicals, and more. In this cultural history of Puccini’s opera, Wilson offers a fresh reading of a familiar work. La bohème was strikingly modern for the 1890s, she argues, in its approach to musical and dramatic realism and in flouting many of the conventions of the Italian operatic tradition. Considering the work within the context of the aesthetic, social, and political debates of its time, Wilson explores Puccini’s treatment of themes including gender, poverty, and nostalgia. She pays particular attention to La bohème’s representation of Paris, arguing that the opera was not only influenced by romantic mythologies surrounding the city but also helped shape them. Wilson concludes with a consideration of the many and varied approaches directors have taken to the staging of Puccini’s opera, including some that have reinvented the opera for a new age. This book is essential reading for anyone who has seen La bohème and wants to know more about its music, drama, and cultural contexts.

The Black Diamonds of Sydney Harbour

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-664
Author(s):  
Ann Elias
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
Pastoral Area ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
Sydney Harbour ◽  
History Of ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

This article explores the case study of a coal mine that was first tunneled under Sydney Harbour in 1897 but closed in 1931. Specifically, it examines how the history of the mine intersects with aesthetics, race, colonialism, and Indigenous dispossession. Centered on the story of an English mining company that first sought a mine site in a pastoral area of the city, but under public pressure was forced to select instead a grimy working class suburb on the opposite harbor shore, the article argues that environmental aesthetics and tastes in beauty collaborated with extractivism. The argument emerges that economics, art, and aesthetics are inextricably linked in this history and further, that while the mine excited the industrial imagination through the aesthetic of the sublime, and associations with darkness and vastness, it conflicted with colonial settler tastes for the pastoral imagination defined by the aesthetics of the beautiful and its associations with light. The article discusses the context of a settler economy in lands stolen from Indigenous peoples, and how conceptualizations of the sublime and beautiful, as well as dark and light, were aligned with the racialization of the properties of coal and space above and below ground.

scholarly journals Sacred Architecture and Public Space under the Conditions of a New Visibility of Religion

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 379
Author(s):  
Jakob Helmut Deibl
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Sacred Architecture ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

Embedded in the paradigm of the “New Visibility of Religion,” this article addresses the question of the significance of sacred buildings for public spaces. ‘Visibility’ is conceived as religion’s presence in cities through the medium of architecture. In maintaining sacred buildings in cities, religions expose themselves to the conditions of how cities work. They cannot avoid questions such as how to counteract the tendency of public space to erode. Following some preliminary remarks on the “New Visibility of Religion,” I examine selected sacred buildings in Vienna. Next, I focus on the motifs of the city, the “ark” as a model for sacred buildings and the aesthetic dimension of public space. Finally, I consider the contribution of sacred buildings to contemporary public spaces. What is at issue is not the subject that moves in public and visits sacred buildings with the aim of acquiring knowledge or with the urgency to act, but rather the subject that feels and experiences itself in its dealings with public space and sacred buildings. In this context, I refer to the experience of disinterested beauty (Kant), anachronism, multi-perspectivity (Klaus Heinrich), and openness (Hans-Dieter Bahr).

Stars & Stones: Astronomy and Archaeology in the Works of the Mexican Polymath Antonio León y Gama, 1735–1802

Itinerario ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pimentel
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Construction Work ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mary Louise Pratt ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City

The main square of Mexico City, known as the Zocalo, occupies a central place in the make-up of the city, the nation, and even the national identity of Mexico. As we all know, the conquistadors built Mexico City on the site of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Indeed, the ruins of the Great Temple of the old city lie hidden under the square itself. This essay deals with the moment when the native past began to emerge from beneath the plaza, when a viceroy had the ground paved, and undertook a series of public works to solve the problems of drainage and water channelling which had existed throughout the history of the city. In his effort to modernise, the viceroy brought his contemporaries face to face with a long-buried past. For amidst the construction work two great archaeological pieces were discovered in 1790. These findings were subsequently studied by the multi-talented Creole, Antonio León y Gama, one of the most steadfast representatives of the Enlightenment in New Spain. By examining elements of Leon y Gama's work, I want to do a bit of historical excavation myself and reveal the existence of what we might describe, following Mary Louise Pratt, as a contact zone—one in which contemporary tools for investigatively ordering time and space were brought to bear on natural and cultural phenomena alike, in order to situate Mexico and its cultural heritage historically as well as geographically.

URBAN FOOTBALL PERFORMANCES: PLAYING FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN SENEGAL, 1950s–2000s

Africa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susann Baller
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Social Space ◽  
National Football League ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

ABSTRACTIn Senegal, neighbourhood football teams are more popular than teams in the national football league. The so-called navétanes teams were first created in the 1950s. Since the early 1970s, they have competed in local, regional and national neighbourhood championships. This article considers the history of these clubs and their championships by focusing on the city of Dakar and its fast-growing suburbs, Pikine and Guédiawaye. Research on the navétanes allows an exploration of the social and cultural history of the neighbourhoods from the actor-centred perspective of urban youth. The history of the navétanes reflects the complex interrelations between young people, the city and the state. The performative act of football – on and beyond the pitch, by players, fans and organizers – constitutes the neighbourhood as a social space in a context where the state fails to provide sufficient infrastructure and is often contested. The navétanes clubs and championships demonstrate how young people have experienced and imagined their neighbourhoods in different local-level ways, while at the same time interconnecting them with other social spaces, such as the ‘city’, the ‘nation’ and ‘the world’.

scholarly journals Charakterystyka polskiej diaspory w Kurytybie (Brazylia) w świetle badań społecznych = Characteristics of the Polish diaspora in Curitiba (Brazil) in the light of social research

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Magdalena Szmytkowska ◽  
Karel Doliński
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Fourth Generation ◽  
Migration History ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Polish Migration ◽  
Polish Migrants ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

The article addresses an issue of the modern Polish diaspora in Curitiba, which is an important and symbolic city in the context of the Polish migration to Brazil since the second half of the 19th century. Moreover, the article presents an overview of the history of Polish migratory flows to Curitiba as well as significance of the city itself as a unique space for social activeness of the Poles living in Brazil. The main objectives of the article are as follows: identification of “Polish” places and areas in social space of Curitiba, determining a profile of a Polish migrant and assessing relations between the modern Polish diaspora and the mother country in the context of particular migration generations. The city of Curitiba has been perceived a significant and symbolic place for Polish migrants since the very beginning of the Polish migration history. Social activities taken up by the Polish diaspora in Brazil results from the necessity to sustain the national identity and they are aimed at promoting Polish traditions. The public space of Curitiba is marked by Polish monuments, plaques and street names commemorating famous and appreciated Poles as well as by Polish national institutions. There is only one Department of Polish Language in Latin America and it is at the Federal University of Parana in Curitiba. For the purpose of this article, a survey among a significantly differentiated group of respondents has been done. The group comprised representatives of the Polish diaspora having Polish ancestors in the fourth generation as well as modern Polish migrants. As the survey shows, although the descendants of Polish settlers are not fluent Polish speakers and they do not visit their mother country very often, the Polishness is demonstrated by the Polish diaspora in Curitiba. It is clearly visible in public space of the city as there are numerous objects representing Polish historical and cultural heritage as well as cultural events.Since the day when the first Poles settled in Brazil and Curitiba, they have been systematically integrating and assimilating with Brazilians.

scholarly journals On the Issue of Creating a Russian Agent Network in Shanghai at the Beginning of the 20th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Drobotushenko Evgeny V. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City

The history of the creation of the agent network of the Russian Empire has not found comprehensive coverage in scientific publications so far. The existing research referred to specific names or mention private facts. This predetermined the relevance of the work. The object of the study is the Russian agents in China in general and in Chinese Shanghai, in particular. The subject is the study of peculiarities of the first attempts in creating Russian agent network in the city. The aim of the work is to analyze the attempt to create a network of Russian illegal agents in Shanghai in 1906–1908. The lack of materials on the problem in scientific and popular scientific publications predetermined the use of previously unknown or little-known archival sources. This is the correspondence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Imperial envoy in Beijing and the Russian Consul in Shanghai stored in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (SARF). The main conclusion of the study was the remark about the lack of scientific elaboration, at the moment, the history of official, legal and illegal agents of the Russian Empire in Shanghai, China. Private findings suggest that, judging by the available data, creation of a serious network of agents in the city during the Russian Empire failed. The reasons for this, presumably, were several: the lack of qualified agents with knowledge of Chinese or, at least, English, who could work effectively; the lack of funds for the maintenance of agents, a small number of Russian citizens, the remoteness of Shanghai from the Russian-Chinese border, etc. A network of agents will be created in the city by the Soviet authorities by the middle of the third decade of the 20th century, and Soviet illegal agents began to work in the early 1920s. The History of Soviet agents in China and Shanghai, in particular, is studied quite well which cannot be said about the previous period. It is obvious that further serious work with archival sources is required to recreate as complete as possible the history of Russian legal and illegal agents in Shanghai in pre-Soviet times

scholarly journals Mapping the History of a Territory: Bon Pastor (Barcelona) – Social Remembrance and Heritage Project

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Salvador Angosto
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Health Centre ◽  
City Council ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The City

The topic of the article are the complex stages of the formation of the Bon Pastor neighbourhood in Barcelona, and contemporary efforts to create the remembrance space system that would preserve the social memory and historical identity of the place. The author presents how the urban development plans for the district were transformed as a result of major changes in national politics, economy, and social policy, since the 1930s, through 60s and 70s, till today. The article describes the Bon Pastor Civic Memory project as an interesting example of a participatory action aimed at the preservation of local heritage. The implementation of the Civic Memory project was possible due to the neighbours’ initiative and their cooperation with cultural and academic institutions. The aim of this project is to mark certain points of the territory which possess historically and socially significant value, and to enhance them through public art, urban design and other implementations envisaged. The Association of residents of Bon Pastor (Barcelona) has been characterized, since 1974, for its combative and vindictive nature, at the same time as for its great capacity to launch solidarity initiatives and manage complicated processes to improve the living conditions of residents of the neighbourhood. After the struggles to obtain a health centre, the improvement of communications by metro and bus, and the constant improvement of public space, in recent years, the Association is co-managing with the Barcelona City Council, the radical transformation of the neighbourhood. The different phases for the remodelling of the neighbourhood, by replacing the so-called “cheap houses” with new buildings, with more spacious apartments and with better material conditions, is coming to an end and now, the possibility opens up, driven by the neighbours and the Museum of the History of the City (MUHBA) to have a metropolitan museographic space devoted to the presentation and study of the evolution of workers’ and popular housing in Barcelona.

scholarly journals Citra Kawasan Manahan Kota Surakarta Sebagai Lokasi Stabilisasi PKL

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Murtanti Jani Rahayu ◽  
Imam Buchori ◽  
Retno Widjajanti ◽  
Rufia Andisetyana Putri ◽  
Erma Fitria Rini
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Street Vendor ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Environmental Orientation ◽  
Visual Technique ◽  
Aesthetic Style ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The City

Stabilization as one of the street vendors arrangement type conducted by the government of Surakarta, that have great implications on the aesthetic style and form at some city parts. Some parts of Surakarta has changed a lot since the inauguration of the location, that is a public space, as a street vendors stabilization location in part of the area. Manahan area is one of the locations of street vendor stabilization that is considered successful. The presence of street vendors who have been arranged in the area Manahan able to attract visitors both weekand and weekdays, especially on holidays. This area is also more easily remembered by the visitors than other areas that there is no stabilization of street vendors. It means that this area has good and unique image quality that can be a memory for visitors. The purpose of this paper is to explore the image of street vendor Manahan stabilization area. Understanding the image of city area, principle that is used to assess the five basic elements of image formers include landmarks, path, edge, district and node. All five elements will be the componens in assessing the identity, identity and meaning that will shape the cognition of visitors so that it can be used as environmental orientation when someone is in a place. The introduction of Manahan stabilization area begins with stimulation done by graphic and visual technique before the interviews made a cognitive map in Stabilisasi PKL Manahan area and also made familiarity-favorability-semantic differensial assesment. This area has the potential of sustainability and good image compared to other stabilization locations, so that the managed street vendors can continue to grow and the location of the arrangement becomes an attractive area and supports the identity of the city of Surakarta as a merchant friendly city by staying a beautiful and friendly city for all the citizens and tourists who visit it.

scholarly journals Quarantine conditions of education and life of Osyp Bodiansky in 1830–1831 (according to the letters of the Bodіansky brothers)

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 96-103
Author(s):  
Vita Bova
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
Academic Year

The chronological boundaries of this study cover one academic year. That was the last year of Osyp Bodiansky’s studies at the Poltava (Pereiaslav) Seminary. The main source base consists of Osyp and Fedir Bodiansky’s letters from Pereiaslav addressed to their parents. The article aims to study the quarantine period of Osyp Bodiansky’s life in Pereiaslav during the second cholera pandemic. It is an attempt to recreate one year of Osyp Bodiansky’s life from the moment he arrived to study before leaving for Moscow. The sequence of events helps to answer the question: where did O. Bodiansky live, how did he earn from the conditions, what was distance education in 1830–1831 like, how did he manage to avoid cholera? This year began with finding a good apartment and a trip to Kyiv to buy some books. O. Bodiansky planned to re- ceive 660 rubles from the conditions. In October, the seminary was quarantined and all the students were sent home. There were two attempts to resume the study, but cholera reached Pereiaslav and the study did not take place. O. Bodiansky completed a full seminar course in Pereiaslav only in September 1831 and went to continue his studies at Moscow University. The main focus of the article is the quarantine conditions of study in the seminary and the life in the city. This study has a prosopographic context, which contributes to the retrospective of the social portrait of O. Bodiansky and the city of that time. Osyp Bodyansky was one of those who studied in this city and kept in touch with the locals throughout his life. His character was formed here together with the desire to know the truth, love for the Ukrainian way of life.The relevance of the study of such a historical figure as O. Bodiansky, who made a significant contribution to the preservation and development of Ukrainian history and culture in the Moscow ideology, is dictated by the socio-political realities of today when Ukrainian culture once again needs protection and promotion. This is a human-dimensional vision of both the history of a particular region (in this case, Pereiaslav in the early nineteenth century) and the understanding of a person of a particular era and region as a person, not a known historical figure without any ideological involvement.

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