Visual Arts, Representations and Interventions in Contemporary China

2018 ◽  

This edited volume provides a multifaceted investigation of the dynamic interrelations between visual arts and urbanization in contemporary Mainland China with a focus on unseen representations and urban interventions brought about by the transformations of the urban space and the various problems associated with it. Through a wide range of illuminating case studies, the authors demonstrate how innovative artistic and creative practices initiated by various stakeholders not only raise critical awareness on socio-political issues of Chinese urbanization but also actively reshape the urban living spaces. The formation of new collaborations, agencies, aesthetics and cultural production sites facilitate diverse forms of cultural activism as they challenge the dominant ways of interpreting social changes and encourage civic participation in the production of alternative meanings in and of the city. Their significance lies in their potential to question current values and power structures as well as to foster new subjectivities for disparate individuals and social groups.

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Richards ◽  
Katie Milestone

This paper explores the experiences of women in small cultural businesses and is based upon interviews with women working in a range of contexts in Manchester's popular music sector. The research seeks to promote wider consideration of women's roles in cultural production and consumption. We argue that it is necessary that experiences of production and consumption be understood as inter-related processes. Each part of this process is imbued with particular gender characteristics that can serve to reinforce existing patterns and hierarchies. We explore the ways in which female leisure and consumption patterns have been marginalised and how this in turn shapes cultural production. This process influences career choices but it is also reinforced through the integration of consumption into the cultural workplace. Practices often associated with the sector, such as the blurring of work and leisure and ‘networking’, appear to be understood and operated in significantly different ways by women. As cultural industries such as popular music are predicated upon the colonisation of urban space we explore the use of the city and the particular character of Manchester's music scene. We conclude that, despite the existence of highly contingent and individualised identities, significant gender power relations remain evident. These are particularly clear in discussion of the performative and sexualised aspects of the job.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (109) ◽  
pp. 55-69
Author(s):  
Hjørdis Havsteen Brandrup

CULTURAL DYNAMIC IN THE URBAN EXPERIENCE SCAPE – AN ANALYSIS OF BRANDTS KLÆDEFABRIKBrandts Klædefabrik (Brandt’s Textile Mill) is a cultural cluster in the city of Odense, Denmark. The cultural experiences available at Brandts Klædefabrik cover a wide field and are relevant for people of all levels of education and all ages, embracing as they do not only fine culture but also triviality and excitement. Brandts Klædefabrik is therefore a culturally inclusive place, although its symbolic power is dominated by a cultural and economic elitetrying to maintain an exclusively controlled social and physical order in the urban space. However, Brandts Klædefabrik is part of a city which contains a wide range of cultural groups: a Danish cultural elite, immigrants, homeless people and drug addicts. In this cultural multiplicity Brandts Klædefabrik is a cultural cluster and an urban entertainment district which does not include marginalised groups. Paradoxically, the attempt to maintainan exclusive order to satisfy an audience with buying power runs against the creative profile of the area, in which cultural and social multiplicity are important values. The area around Brandts Klædefabrik is a public space; but if it is going to be a public domain and the scene of cultural exchanges between different groups in the city, it needs to become more culturally inclusive. Brandts Klædefabrik may turn into a public domain if a cultural dynamic and multiplicity are given the chance to unfold there.


Author(s):  
Silnyk O ◽  

The central part of Lviv was formed over several centuries and in several stages. Favourable demographic, economic and political prerequisites in the XIX-XX centuries positively influenced the quantitative and qualitative state of urban homes. Demolition of defensive walls, the formation of a new citywide centre, measures to improve the central part of the city, regulate the street network, and increase the population are the main factors that underlie the planning and development of the city. The city was actively built up. Most of the houses were profitable. These are buildings that brought profit to their owners through rented premises and commercial parterre floors. The modern architecture of Lviv is developing under the influence of tourist infrastructure and the ordinary household needs of Lviv residents. The urban space of the central part of modern Lviv needs to be regularly updated to perform functions that are dictated by time. It is also important to preserve the existing historical centre that attracts tourists, represents the historical value and pride of the country. Professional implementation of projects requires a detailed study and analysis of the existing architecture. Since the second half of the XIX century, the development of houses parallel to the main roads of the city became popular. Dense buildings spread in concentric circles from the city centre and gradually replaced low-rise buildings in the peripheral part of the city. During this period, housing construction is carried out on a large scale. These are mostly two- or three-story houses, often with a courtyard. The size and configuration of the houses were dictated by technical capabilities, existing buildings and streets. The sites often had a complex shape, the development was carried out already in the conditions of reconstruction, which significantly complicated the solution of new projects. The houses had rectangular forms of plans, the dimensions of which averaged 400 m2 until the end of the XIX century. During the twentieth century, slightly larger plots – 570 m2 – were already allocated for construction. The built-up area on the plots ranged from 30 to 87 per cent. The density of buildings was dictated by both economic and practical factors that are relevant even today. The houses were distinguished by interesting planning solutions with a thorough set of architectural details both in the exterior and in the interior. The range of rooms includes dining rooms, offices, boudoirs, bathrooms, corridors and storerooms. During the nineteenth century, in the decisions of facades dominated Italian neo-Renaissance and neo-Baroque; in the twentieth century – secession. The style solution was based on the choice of details that were prototypes of classical architectural images. The architecture of Lviv of the XIX-XX centuries represents a wide range of artistic interpretations. The study of houses built during this period reveals both their development and the transformation of spatial planning, compositional and stylistic solutions. The necessary formative periods of historicism opened up new angles for the development of subsequent stylistic trends in the following years. The experience of architects, which is connected with the historical past of Lviv, testifies to the significant importance and place of the architecture of the XIX-XX centuries for the further development and development of the city.


Author(s):  
Вячеслав Михайлович Савеленко ◽  
Татьяна Владимировна Попова ◽  
Владимир Андреевич Ишунин

В статье рассматриваются основные концепции изучения города в разных областях научного знания, анализируются подходы и взаимодействие наук в общем познании городского пространства. Каждая наука по своему интерпретирует понимание города и рассматривает его элементы с точки зрения своей компетенции. Использование методико-методологического инструментария философии как интегральной системы научного знания позволяет анализировать полученные данные и приводить их к единой модели обоснования специфических черт города, представляющего собой уникальное явление человеческой жизнедеятельности. Однако каждая наука, опираясь только на собственный эмпирический материал, допускает ошибку: создаёт идеальный образ, который не всегда соответствует реальной картине. Каждый исследователь концентрирует внимание на конкретных элементах изучения, тем самым отдавая им приоритет в понимании городской среды. Этот факт актуализирует метод междисциплинарного изучения городского феномена. В контексте социогуманитарных исследований, опирающихся на методы социологии, демографии, политологии и культурологии, город рассматривается как среда осуществления властных полномочий, в которой нарастает зависимость социодинамических процессов от характера институциональных ограничений, накладываемых властными структурами в отношении населения. The paper considers the main concepts of studying the city in various fields of scientific knowledge, analyzes the approaches and interaction of sciences in the general knowledge of urban space. Each science interprets the understanding of the city in its own way and considers its elements from the point of view of its competence. The use of methodological tools of philosophy as an integral system of scientific knowledge allows us to analyze the obtained data and lead them to a single model of substantiation of specific features of the city, which is a unique phenomenon of human life. However, each science, relying only on its own empirical material, makes a mistake: it creates an ideal image that does not always correspond to the real picture. Each researcher focuses on specific elements of study, thereby giving them priority in understanding the urban environment. This fact actualizes the method of interdisciplinary study of the urban phenomenon. In the context of sociohumanitary studies based on the methods of sociology, demography, political science and cultural studies, the city is considered as an environment for the exercise of power, in which the dependence of sociodynamic processes on the nature of institutional restrictions imposed by power structures on the population increases.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Deslandes

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) urbanism has become increasingly recognised as a non-professional and non-technocratic practice of urban alteration and community building. Already thus marked as ‘amateur’ in the contemporary sense (where the lines between amateur, professional, producer and consumer are significantly blurred), two of its key features are support for ‘proam’ cultural production and the ‘meanwhile’ use of commercial buildings. Within this, DIY urbanism is an important reference to economic and spatial scarcity in the Australian, English and North American cities where it has manifested as a discourse. The reference is particularly evident in the proximity to marginal urban space that participants in DIY urbanism share with other potential users of that space, which includes people experiencing primary homelessness. It is through this proximity that DIY urbanism works as a kind of ‘exemplary amateurism’. DIY urbanism demonstrates spatial scarcity in the city — a phenomenon in which amateur labour, 'meanwhile' use of buildings and homelessness are implicated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
Ирина Владимировна Зыбина

В городском пейзаже важной характеристикой является понятие «образ города» как проявление духовной сущности материального городского пространства, выражение общих черт и уникальных особенностей, отражение исторической и культурной памяти, этнокультурной идентичности, присущих городам. Изучение эволюции образа города в изобразительном искусстве позволяет выявить представления о ценностях, эстетических категориях, социальных нормах определенного исторического периода, тенденции в развитии городских пространств. При обсуждении конструкции города по типам элементов в общегородском масштабе выделяются: районы, границы, дороги, узлы, ориентиры. Однако "только во взаимосвязанности частей в единое целое пути могут раскрыть последовательность и характер районов и связать различные узлы; Узлы соединят и очертят пути, границы охватят районы, а ориентиры обозначат центры активности”. Полная проработка всех этих звеньев с помощью света способна связать их в целостный ночной образ, ибо ориентир обладает достаточной силой, если он виден с большого расстояния и в течение  долгого времени; если, опираясь на него, можно установить собственную локализацию; узлы, как концептуальные опоры образа городов, которая может поддерживаться специфическим устойчивым освещением (применение ритмической световой инсталляции при визуальной организации  узлов предоставляет такую специфическую особенность в ночное время, что делает его более четким); четкие пределы позволяют легче распознавать узлы; районы города как однородные по характеру территории лучше воспринимаются при организации однородного фонового освещения. In the urban landscape, an important characteristic is the concept of the "image of the city" as a manifestation of the spiritual essence of the material urban space, the expression of common features and unique features, the reflection of historical and cultural memory, ethno-cultural identity inherent in cities. The study of the evolution of the image of the city in the visual arts allows us to identify ideas about values, aesthetic categories, social norms of a certain historical period, trends in the development of urban spaces. When discussing the construction of a city by the types of elements on a citywide scale, the following are distinguished: districts, borders, roads, nodes, landmarks. However, " only in the interconnectedness of the parts into a single whole, the paths can reveal the sequence and character of the districts and connect various nodes; The nodes will connect and outline the paths, the boundaries will cover the districts, and the landmarks will indicate the centers of activity.” A complete study of all these links with the help of light is able to link them into a complete night image, because the landmark has sufficient strength if it is visible from a long distance and for a long time; if, relying on it, you can establish your own localization; nodes as conceptual supports of the image of cities, which can be supported by specific stable lighting (the use of a rhythmic light installation in the visual organization of nodes provides such a specific feature at night, which makes it clearer); clear limits make it easier to recognize nodes; city districts as homogeneous in the nature of the territory are better perceived when organizing uniform background lighting.


Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Middleton

This paper explores the socialities of everyday urban walking. The paper begins from the starting contention that a wide range of social and cultural theory, urban planning and transport literatures position walking as a practice that unproblematically encourages ‘social mixing’, ‘community cohesion’ and ‘social interaction’. Through the analysis of in-depth interview and diary data from research on urban walking in London, this paper engages with a series of underexamined questions. What, for example, is the nature of social interactions on foot? Who are they with, what initiates them and how do they unfold? How do these interactions relate to how we understand the relationship between walking and urban space? Attention is drawn to verbal and non-verbal interactions of strangers as they walk and to the significance of the practical accomplishment of walking together. However, an examination of the discursive organisation of diary and interview data extends existing work concerning the practical organisation of everyday pedestrian mobilities by considering the significance of participants’ accounts of their walking experiences. This analytic move foregrounds a counterposition to dominant discourses surrounding everyday walking practices that is situated in the context of broader concerns with everyday urban politics and the ‘right to the city’. This approach contributes to a clearer engagement with the socialities of urban walking whilst raising important questions concerning the ways in which particular walking discourses inform urban scholarship. The paper concludes that in the promotion of walking as a form of low-carbon active travel greater account should be taken of pedestrian encounters.


Author(s):  
Vivian Lee

This chapter examines the trend towards Hong Kong-China co-productions, during which Hong Kong horror films have been in decline due to censorship restrictions in Mainland China. While this mega-market direction is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, Hong Kong filmmakers have made fresh attempts to revitalize this popular genre and inject it with new meanings in the changed and changing context of cultural production and cultural politics in the city. Between 2012-2014, several low to medium budget horror films were released. Local audiences responded enthusiastically and many saw these as a sign of the resilience of the local popular culture to counter or at least deflate the hegemony of the Mainland market. This chapter traces the trajectory of Hong Kong horror through the pre- and post-handover decades, situating horror within the evolving discourse of identity and the issues of local histories and collective memory. It also elaborates on the politics of horror as seem from horror films produced and released in the midst of escalating social and political tensions attributable to a popular/populist “anti-China localism”. The chapter further reflects on the cultural politics of delocalization and relocalization in the context of “re-occupying Hong Kong screens.”


2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 19-25
Author(s):  
Sarah Rogers

In a 2002 lecture at Home Works, Beirut’s contemporary art festival, writer and cultural critic Abbas Beydoun claimed that Lebanon’s internationalism had led to derivative cultural production. The well known critic’s comments evoked an angry outburst from members of his predominantly Lebanese audience of young artists and cultural workers. To varying degrees, however, this characterization of Beiruti culture repeats and prefigures descriptions of the city as a meeting point between East and West. Indeed, Beirut’s reputation as a multi-linguistic and cross-cultural Mediterranean port is traced to the latter half of the nineteenth century when the city became the capital of an Ottoman province and followed as a regional center for missionary, political, and cultural activities. Moreover, Beydoun’s characterization did not always carry such a negative connotation. This paper begins to trace the ways in which the visual arts is a field for producing, rather than reflecting, Beirut’s cosmopolitanism. To do so, I look at two historical moments pivotal in the institutionalization of the visual arts. The first is that of Daoud Corm (1852-1930), the city’s first professional easel painter whose career ran from the Ottoman period through the French Mandate (1920-1943). The second is the decades of the 1960s and 70s, the city’s heyday as a regional cultural capital when a number of artists and activists established a gallery system, further expanding the private sector’s consumption of painting and sculpture.


Urban History ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Foot

This article examines the changing images of the city of Milan over a period of two decades spanning the 1980s and 1990s. The article considers theoretical debates concerning city images. Milan is then analysed through the various spatial forms which encompass this modern city – political space, populated space, geographic space, urban space and economic space. The next section assesses the changing images of the city through shifting historical phases and crises. Finally the article draws together the fundamental economic and social changes which have marked the deindustrialization and reinvention of Milan.


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