From Crisis to Compensation: Reinventing Identity and Place in the Sideshow and the Laboratory

Examining the ambivalent place of the sideshow and the laboratory within Victorian culture and its reimaginings, this essay explores the contradiction between the narratively orchestrating role and peripheral location of the sideshow in Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels (2015) and the laboratory in NBC’s Dracula (2013–2014), reading these neo-Victorian spaces as heterotopias, relational places simultaneously belonging to and excluded from the dominant social order. These spaces’ impacts on individual identity illustrate this uneasy relationship. Both the sideshow and the laboratory constitute sites of resignification, emerging as “crisis heterotopias” or sites of passage: in Parry’s novel, the sideshow allows the Church twins to embrace their unique identities, surpassing the limitations of their physical resemblance; in Dracula, laboratory experiments reverse Dracula’s undead condition. Effecting reinvention, these spaces reconfigure the characters’ senses of belonging, propelling them to places beyond their confines, and thus projecting the latter’s heterotopic qualities onto the city. Potentially harmful, yet opening up urban space to include identities which are considered aberrant, these relocations envision the city as a “heterotopia of compensation”: an alternative, possibly idealized, space that reifies the sideshow’s and the laboratory’s attempts to achieve greater extroversion and visibility for their liminal occupants, thus fostering neo-Victorianism’s outreach efforts to support the disempowered.

EDUCAÇÃO DECOLONIAL:

O presente artigo parte da sistematização das práticas pedagógicas interdisciplinares (Geografia e História) realizadas ao longo do ano de 2019 no Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca (CEFET), Unidade Maria da Graça (Rio de Janeiro), para dialogar e debater as questões raciais e o ensino decolonial. Nesse intuito, foram realizadas três saídas de campo: primeiramente para o Museu Nacional de Bela Artes, em seguida ao sítio inscrito pela UNESCO como Patrimônio Mundial, conhecido como Pequena África e por fim a região da Praça XV de Novembro. A atividade trouxe novos olhares a respeito da paisagem da cidade do Rio de Janeiro e levou os discentes a refletirem sobre mudanças e permanências no uso do espaço urbano. Essas mediações ganharam corpo através de uma série de publicações realizadas pelos alunos nas redes sociais. Palavras-chave Praça VX, Interdisciplinaridade, Educação étnico-racial, Paisagem carioca. DECOLONIAL EDUCATION: the landscape and the black History in the narratives of downtown Rio de Janeiro Abstract This article starts from the systematization of interdisciplinary pedagogical practices (Geography and History) carried out throughout 2019 at the Federal Center for Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca (CEFET), Maria da Graça Unit, to dialogue and debate on racial issues and the decolonial teaching. With this in mind, three field trips were made: first to the National Museum of Fine Arts, then to the UNESCO World Heritage site known as Little Africa and finally to the Praça XV de Novembro region. The activity brought new perspectives on the landscape of the city of Rio de Janeiro and led students to reflect on changes and permanencies in the use of urban space. These mediations were embodied through a series of publications made by students on social networks. Keywords Praça VX, Interdisciplinarity, Racial ethnic education, Rio landscap.

Urban water supply infrastructure in Grudziądz (northern Poland): from the Middle Ages to the pre-modern times

This article presents the history of the water supply system in Grudziądz (Poland) over the centuries, from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century. The location of Grudziądz on the high escarpment of the Vistula River made it difficult to supply water to the town. The innovative technical facilities, such as a water-work and water supply tower had to be constructed because the gravitational waterworks could not be applied. The basis for the research was the analysis of historical sources. In this study, non-invasive methods were used (aerial prospection, LiDAR scanning and geophysical surveys with Ground Penetrating Radar), since the hydrotechnical objects are located in a functioning urban space and no excavations could be carried out. The research included: (i) the measurements, exploration and preparation of photo-documentation of the water tower, (ii) providing a digital model of the tower, (iii) finding the tunnel inside the tower, and (iv) attempting to locate the tunnel's course outside the tower.

Oxen trade from the fifteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century and its relations with the environment and space – case study of Greater Poland

The paper focuses on the interrelations between the environment, urban space, and oxen trade. On the basis of sources from the region of Greater Poland, it discusses particular conditions of trade in livestock (routes, pace of driving the animals, the need to feed and give water to the oxen). It also points to thus far ignored issues connected with indispensable adaptation of the urban space to the needs of the large-scale oxen trade which flourished during fairs taking place in various towns and emphasises the necessity to carry out further research in this regard.

Spatial Pattern of Functional Urban Land Conversion and Expansion under Rapid Urbanization: A Case Study of Changchun, China

As populations continue to be concentrated in cities, the world will become entirely urbanized, and urban space is undergoing a drastic evolution. Understanding the spatial pattern of conversion and expansion of functional urban land, in the context of rapid urbanization, helps us to grasp the trajectories of urban spatial evolution in greater depth from a theoretical and practical level. Using the ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 software platform, methods, such as overlay analysis, transition matrix, and kernel density estimation, were used in order to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of different types of functional urban land conversion and expansion in the central city of Changchun. The results show that different types of functional urban land were often expanded and replaced, and the urban spatial structure was constantly evolving. The conversion and expansion of functional urban land show similar characteristics to concentric zone and sector modes and show dynamic changes in different concentric circles and directions at different periods. Our method can accurately identify the different types of functional urban land, and also explore the evolutionary trajectory of urban spatial structure. This study will help to coordinate the development of different functional urban spaces and to optimize the urban spatial structure in the future.

Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them—Has the Pandemic Changed People’s Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?

Public green and open spaces fulfil various social, ecological, economic, and aesthetic roles, which complement each another, but can also compete with one another. COVID-19 pandemic catalysed multiple societal changes, including citizens’ perception, needs and expectations posed towards urban green spaces. This article discusses the extent to which the temporally and geographically changed patterns of experiencing these natural spaces also influenced users’ perception and behaviour as well as their appreciation of the conservation areas. The study is based upon two surveys carried out in the greater metropolitan region of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. A quantitative survey (representative online panel) among Viennese population (n=1012), as well as qualitive interviews with experts responsible for conservation areas, administrators of federal parks, along with NGOs representatives were carried out in spring and summer 2021. Our study shows the changed use of urban and suburban large green spaces and conservation areas: first, from the perspective of those responsible for the areas as well as the visitors. Both perspectives supplement one another. They highlight also changed perception of urban citizens towards green spaces during COVID-19 pandemic. An increased importance of time spent in nature (68%) and possibility to visit large green areas (67%) was reported by Viennese citizens. Also, higher recognition of green spaces located close to home was observed among 69% of the respondents. Thus, the presented study contributes to the ongoing international discussion on the transition of societal needs and its effects on urban green spaces induced by the pandemic. Presented results deliver solid arguments highlighting the need of urgent transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient and healthy urban space.

Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) as an Effective Method of Research into Social Preferences in Urban Space Planning

The appearance of urban space is most often determined by planners, urbanists, and officials who fail to consider social preferences in the planning process. According to recent scientific research, spatial design should take into account people’s preferences with regard to its shape, as it is they who are the target audience. Moreover, legal regulations in many countries require the public’s inclusion into the space planning process. This paper outlines the legal status of the issue of social participation in spatial planning and provides an overview of the methods and techniques applied in the research into preferences. The aim of the article is to determine the strength of the relationship between the features adopted for the study using the grey system theory and to investigate the model’s behaviour for varied input data. It also presents the results of a study into the effect of geospatial features on the perception of the sense of security within urban space. The features were extracted using a heuristic method for solving research problems (i.e., brainstorming) and the survey was conducted by the point-scoring method. The survey results were processed by the grey system method according to the grey system theory (GST) of the grey relational analysis (GRA) type to yield a sequence of the strength of dependence between the analysed features. The study was conducted five times, with the order of entering the survey results being changed. The conducted analyses indicated that a change in the order of data from particular surveys applied for calculations resulted in the order of the epsilon coefficients in the significance sequences being changed. The analysis process was modified in order to obtain a stable significance sequence irrespective of the order of entering survey results in the analysis process. The analysis results in the form of a geospatial feature significance sequence provide information as to which of them have the greatest impact on the phenomenon under consideration. The research method can be applied to solve practical problems related to social participation.

Examination of the Use of Sculpture in the Open-Green Areas of Selçuk University Alaeddin Keykubat Campus

The sculpture, which is the expression of beliefs and fears in prehistoric times, has taken on different roles as an urban reinforcement element in all cultures with numerous themes. In the Middle Ages, it became an organic part of the architectural structure, teaching the truth about religious beliefs. With the Renaissance movement, it became independent by breaking away from the architectural structure and moved to the urban space. In the twenty-first century, its dimensions have grown to be equivalent to architecture, it has created its own space and established new aesthetic and functional relations with the audience. In this study, the relationship of some sculptures on the Alaeddin Keykubat campus of Selcuk University with the landscape elements was examined in terms of design elements and basic design principles. In the light of the data obtained, suggestions have been developed in order to increase the life and aesthetic quality of the campus.