A STUDY ON THE SPATIAL INTERPRETATION STRATEGY OF CHANG'AN CITY SITE OF TANG DYNASTY: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURAL ROUTES INTERPRETATION

Chang'an is the starting point of "Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor", which was listed as World Heritage in 2014. Based on the practice and exploration of presentation of the Chang'an City Site of Tang Dynasty in Xi'an, this paper presents a discussion of how to combine the interpretation of cultural routes with the interpretation and presentation of the urban traces under a modern city. Under the pressure of urban development and renewal, it explores the interpretation strategies based on cultural routes, trying to solve the contradictions between the needs of potential heritage conservation and urban development. Moreover, the paper explores contradictions between meanings and values arising among approaches to heritage sites in relation to the urban role as a starting point of the Silk Road. Focusing on the need to actively integrate potential underground ruins into the development plan of the city, the paper extends the notion of "setting" to include the historic urban context and their structuring components. Integrating archaeological and literature materials and based on the heritage value of Chang'an City of Tang Dynasty in the cultural route, the paper attempts to sort out the relationship of inheritance and continuity between the underground city and the modern city patterns. It is argued that such kind of sorting is a key task for spatial interpretation. Furthermore, the spatial interpretation-based strategy for potential sites is recommended as the tool to explore the guiding principles of urban cultural heritage interpretation and land use co-development.

A sea of miracles: Reflections on narrative space in medieval Serbian hagiography

The broad purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how scholarly readings of medieval hagiography might benefit from a theoretical-methodological shift towards space as the principal focal point of analysis. More specifically, it aims to put forward a new, spatial interpretation of two well-known miracle episodes from the Lives of St Sava of Serbia, both of which are said to have transpired on the high seas.

Digital Spatial Models in Technology as a Development Tool of the Intellectual Creative Aspect within Education

This is a conceptual approach to knowledge acquisition at technical universities. The emphasis is on the consistent possession of knowledge: the acquisition of new and preservation of the existing ones. At the same time, the grapho-geometric component in technical education is one of the most important elements of fundamental (general engineering) education. It is carried out at the initial stage in the process of studying technical disciplines included in the relevant curricula. Applied geometry plays an important role in this process, and it includes such directions as descriptive geometry, analytic geometry, engineering graphics, and computer graphics that provide spatial interpretation of geometric objects and display them on a plane. This combination of subjects studied significantly enriches the geometric development within student's intellectual world.

Visual Indeterminacy in GAN Art

This paper explores visual indeterminacy as a description for artwork created with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Visual indeterminacy describes images that appear to depict real scenes, but on closer examination, defy coherent spatial interpretation. GAN models seem to be predisposed to producing indeterminate images, and indeterminacy is a key feature of much modern representational art, as well as most GAN art. The author hypothesizes that indeterminacy is a consequence of a powerful-but-imperfect image synthesis model that must combine general classes of objects, scenes and textures.

Fort Napier

The main internment camp in South Africa was Fort Napier, a former British garrison fort in Pietermaritzburg. The camp housed approximately 2,500 prisoners throughout the war. This included artisans, merchants, hotel employees and hairdressers, seamen, farmers, miners, engineers, teachers, missionaries, and doctors. The chapter argues that vibrant cultural activities convey a positive impression on the surface but, in fact, were a mere distraction from the suffering that occurred. Written testimony shows that the civilians perceived their captivity as double emasculation, neither being able to support their families nor to fight on the front. German nationalism was displayed and led to a process of re-ethnicization among some inmates. The chapter provides a spatial interpretation of the camp, outlining its impact on the immediate environment and economy of Pietermaritzburg. Prisoner release only occurred from April 1919, with half of the inmates being deported to Germany. The camp was closed in August 1919.