Potentials for Improving Makkah Almukarramah Cultural Identity: Public Art Work and Its Relation to the Open Space Systems

Francis Henry Dumville Smythe, a humble clergyman from England, spent a lifetime amassing his private collection of watercolours. During the 1950s, he decided to gift them to two art institutions in New Zealand – Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Wellington. They were welcomed with open arms and celebrated as “the finest collection of water colour pictures in the Southern Hemisphere.” However, they soon fell out of favour: rarely exhibited, the collection remains poorly understood and unexplored to this day. Was their initial praise simply a matter of taste? This project looks at the rise and fall of the Smythe collection and aims to reveal the circumstances that led to its current low profile within its respective institutions. The collection itself will be analysed in depth for the first time, and the impact that changing artistic tastes have had on its status will be examined. In New Zealand’s case, these shifting tastes are symptomatic of the redefinition of national and cultural identity during the 1950s-1980s. How did this redefined national and cultural identity contribute to the continued drop in status of the Smythe collection in New Zealand? This dissertation considers the geographical contexts of both Britain and New Zealand and seeks to explore new ways of engaging with New Zealand’s public art collections, through combining the different research fields of watercolours, taste, and identity. While British watercolours are now mostly considered old fashioned, this thesis will find new ways of making them relevant again.

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Transformações da metrópole contemporânea: novas dinâmicas espaciais, esfera da vida pública e sistema de espaços livres

Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais ◽

10.22296/2317-1529.2010v12n1p29 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 29

Author(s):

Denio M. Benfatti ◽

Eugenio F. Queiroga ◽

Jonathas M. P. Silva

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Open Space ◽

Public Life ◽

Space Systems ◽

Way Of Life ◽

Production And Consumption ◽

Metropolitan Growth ◽

Consumption Practices ◽

Flexible Schedules ◽

The One

O trabalho reflete sobre as novas formas de expansão e crescimento metropolitano, associando-as a transformações igualmente importantes na esfera da vida pública. A expressão cotidiana desse processo de expansão e crescimento se deixa transparecer a partir de dois movimentos complementares. De um lado, o aumento em número e extensão dos deslocamentos cotidianos de uma comunidade a outra em um mesmo ambiente metropolitano. De outro, reflete as transformações resultantes do modo de vida metropolitano: horários variáveis e flexíveis, individualização das práticas de produção e consumo. Temos como objeto desta reflexão a Metrópole de Campinas como parte do território metropolitanizado que ocorre no entorno da capital paulista. Nossa hipótese é que essas transformações não se restringem anovas denominações de um processo ampliado de urbanização, mas que essas transformações têm engendrado novos padrões e espaços de sociabilidade e, mais do que isso, um modo de vida e produção específicos. Nesta reflexão, interessa-nos mostrar como essa nova dinâmica afeta a esfera da vida pública e a definição e constituição dos sistemas de espaços livres. Palavras-chave: megalópole; urbanização fragmentada; esfera da vida pública; espaço público; sistema de espaços livres. Abstract: The paper reflects on new forms of metropolitan growth and expansion, associating them with equally significant changes in the sphere of public life. The daily expression of this process of expansion and growth can be perceived through two complementary movements. On the one hand, the growth in number and extent of daily displacements between communities within the same metropolitan area. On the other, reflecting changes in the metropolitan way of life, flexible schedules and individualization of production and consumption practices. Our focus is the metropolis of Campinas as part of the metropolization process that occurs in the vicinity of the capital – São Paulo. Our hypothesis is that these transformations are not restricted to new names for an extended process of urbanization, but that they have generated new patterns and spaces of sociability, and more than that, they have generated a specific ways of life and production. In this reflection, we are interested in showing how this new dynamic affects the sphere of public life and in discussing the definition and constitution of open space systems. Keywords: megalopolis; fragmented urbanization; public life sphere; public space; open space system.

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Rural Roots

The Brock Review ◽

10.26522/br.v11i2.312 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 137-140

Author(s):

Kristine Thoreson

Keyword(s):

Cultural Identity ◽

Performance Studies ◽

Visual Art ◽

Open Space ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Body Of Knowledge ◽

Southern Alberta ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Rural Places

As a Western Canadian artist, my work investigates methods through which we construct and deconstruct narratives of personal and cultural identity and the role of self-performance within these practices. My work is situated within the intersection of Performance Studies, visual art, and local scholarship. Through art I seek to enrich the growing body of knowledge regarding photography as a performance of identity, and to document personal experiences in the region of Southern Alberta. This photographic project is indicative of my tendency to work out in the landscape while not attempting to “capture” traditional landscape “scenery”. My goal is instead to get to know a place, and to discover or resist some kind of personal, cultural or topographical attachment; it is to discover what it is that draws me in (or repels me). Thus with this project, I do not seek to do an ethnographic study of what the rural places around Calgary Alberta may mean to certain people. Rather, I am interested in the intersection of space with place and how we transform wide open space into meaningful place.

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A GIS-base exploration of the relationships between open space systems and urban form for the adaptive capacity of cities after an earthquake: The cases of two Chilean cities

Applied Geography ◽

10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.01.010 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 48 ◽

pp. 64-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Paula Villagra ◽

Carolina Rojas ◽

Ryuzo Ohno ◽

Ma Xue ◽

Karina Gómez

Keyword(s):

Adaptive Capacity ◽

Urban Form ◽

Open Space ◽

Space Systems

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A Matter of Taste: the Fate of the Archdeacon Smythe Collection of British Watercolours in New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.15066360 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Annika Sippel

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Cultural Identity ◽

Public Art ◽

Art Gallery ◽

Art Collections ◽

Research Fields ◽

Low Profile ◽

Private Collection ◽

The 1950S ◽

The Impact

Francis Henry Dumville Smythe, a humble clergyman from England, spent a lifetime amassing his private collection of watercolours. During the 1950s, he decided to gift them to two art institutions in New Zealand – Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Wellington. They were welcomed with open arms and celebrated as “the finest collection of water colour pictures in the Southern Hemisphere.” However, they soon fell out of favour: rarely exhibited, the collection remains poorly understood and unexplored to this day. Was their initial praise simply a matter of taste? This project looks at the rise and fall of the Smythe collection and aims to reveal the circumstances that led to its current low profile within its respective institutions. The collection itself will be analysed in depth for the first time, and the impact that changing artistic tastes have had on its status will be examined. In New Zealand’s case, these shifting tastes are symptomatic of the redefinition of national and cultural identity during the 1950s-1980s. How did this redefined national and cultural identity contribute to the continued drop in status of the Smythe collection in New Zealand? This dissertation considers the geographical contexts of both Britain and New Zealand and seeks to explore new ways of engaging with New Zealand’s public art collections, through combining the different research fields of watercolours, taste, and identity. While British watercolours are now mostly considered old fashioned, this thesis will find new ways of making them relevant again.

Download Full-text