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skaldish · 3 years ago

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Foreword to Asa-Tors hammare, in English

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The thunder god Thor with his accurate hammer Mjölner, the one-eyed and spear-armed Odin on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, the erotically-minded gods Frey and Freya, the gentle and good Balder, the mischievous Loki, the belligerent and dangerous giants—our pre-Christian world of belief contains a wealth of imaginative characters. They have lived on in oral traditions passed from mouth to ear through many generations of our ancestors. In the early Middle Ages, a wealth of this oral poetry was recorded and turned into literature in Iceland and also possibly in Norway. But even in their written form, these tales have retained much of the freshness and immediacy of their original forms. By looking at ancient Icelandic literature, we can peer into the diverse traditions regarding the doings of gods and giants. For example, the battle between Thor and the giants is depicted with great drama—a battle which we can still hear echoes of in the stories of later rural society.

The world of the Norse gods has attracted well-deserved interest throughout the ages, but it has also been misused and misinterpreted like few other parts of our cultural legacy. It has been corrected for extreme political purposes, maligned and blackened by Christian propagandists, devalued in favor of Greek and Roman mythology, over-glorified and falsely gilded by romantics, and simplified beyond recognition by fast-producing article writers. But it’s also been the subject of intense research, both in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, and it has inspired outstanding works in the fields of fiction, visual arts, and music.

What’s most important in our history is always debatable. But in my opinion, it’s particularly important to try to understand how we’ve thought and believed, felt and dictated—that is, how our hearts and minds have functioned. This aspect is also the most difficult to get at.

Asatro can be seen as an interesting ancient attempt to put man’s existential condition into a broader context; to create a worldview that could satisfy his most pressing needs for security, meaning, and coherence in life. In our ancient myths, the visionary and poetic are combined with the sober realities of everyday life and paired with a great deal of humor and narrative pleasure. We encounter both appealing and repugnant aspects here like we do in other faiths.

What perhaps comes as a surprise to some is a lack of dictatorial elements. No god sets himself above another, not even Allfather Odin, and important decisions are made in council. There is a high degree of equality between male and female divinities, which may reflect the conditions of Viking society: By all accounts, women in the Nordic countries were in a stronger position than was common in the rest of Europe. We do find depictions of violence in the myths, but they pale in comparison to what the media can expose us to today. The Nordic faith, moreover, had a difficult rival in the Bible, a book that is packed with bloody tales of war and conflict. The pre-Christian Norsemen lived with a faith-tolerant—and apparently rather undogmatic—imagination, one that even permitted new gods to take their place alongside the old ones.

Old Icelandic poetry has renowned literary value. A common opinion amongst literary scholars is that the medieval Icelanders created a narrative artform unparalleled in contemporary Europe, both in terms of prose and poetry. One potential explanation for the high quality is due to the writers’ close proximity to the oral tradition, one that had been honed and refined over centuries within Nordic areas.

When I started studying ancient Icelandic texts more than four decades ago, it was a strange experience for me. The stories flowed in the same, straightforward, simple, and quick-footed way as those told by the old Bohuslän farmers of my childhood! This feeling of encountering something inherited and familiar keeps appearing whenever I tackle an old Icelandic text.

An important basis for understanding the Norse Viking world—where mythic poetry was very much alive—is to realize that it was far from primitive by the standards of its time and in a general sense. Craftsmanship was high, as was the production of tools and weapons. The fast-sailing, easy-going ships were probably the best in the world. The ability to organize and cooperate must have been very good, otherwise the Viking raids, the establishment of trading posts, and the colonization of new areas would have been impossible. And there was no lack of spiritual cultivation. The Norse may have had very little in the way of writing—runes were only used for short texts—but their oral culture was surprisingly developed. They also spoke a language that was overwhelmingly rich with nuance.

The concept of the Viking Age is well-known, even internationally, but it can easily lead people astray. Most people of the old Nordic population were by no means Vikings. Instead, they were farmers, craftsmen, traders, hunters, fishermen, and so on, in much the same way as they were before and after the so-called Viking Age—the likes of which lasted from the late 7th century to slightly after the mid-11th century. Obviously, the seafaring northerners didn’t only have warriors and robbers among them, but also groups who engaged in peaceful trade and friendly, relaxed contacts with people in different places.

With this book—which has a popular-scientific purpose, and is thus primarily aimed at an interested public—I hope to grant insight into how the pagan gods and giants are portrayed in older myths and in more recent legends. It provides a general overview, and therefore doesn’t go into detail about the many scholarly disputes found within this subject, although I will point out some of the more important problems. Since Thor has been the most-discussed god, I pay special attention to him.

What interests me most as a literary scholar and folklorist is the oral tradition, which is often an elusive but necessary component to assess if someone wants to get the right perspective on our ancient beliefs. That’s why I’ve tried as much as possible to consider the oral context of Asatro’s ancient Icelandic writings. With this approach, much of what would otherwise be unclear can fall into place in a rather obvious way. Naturally, I have studied both recent and older research in this field, but I’m primarily concerned with a close study of the sources.

The book is divided into two main sections. The first deals with the ancient world of belief, the second with the corresponding beliefs in later rural society, mainly from 1850-1950. The material I use in the second section mostly comes from Sweden, which also includes provinces that belonged to the old Danish-Norwegian empire for varying periods of time: Skåne, Blekinge, Halland, Bohuslän, Härjedalen, Jämtland, and Gotland. I also make comparisons with other Nordic countries to some extent.

The word “paganism” is often avoided in technical literature. Allegedly, this is because of the derogatory connotations given to it by Christians. The fact this has happened is obvious, but in my view it does not disqualify the term, which—in our secularized country—hardly has a negative connotation any more; quite the contrary. The word therefore appears in several places in my text as a synonym for “pre-Christian faith” or “Nordic religion.”

The translations from Old Norse are my own. My primary intention was to maintain as much consistency with the basic content of the texts as possible, not to cater to the subtleties of their formal language. If the names are available in English, those are used instead, otherwise the Icelandic forms are used.

And now a few notes on Icelandic pronunciation: In this book, “th” denotes a voiceless sound, as in English “thing,” while “ð” is the voiced equivalent, as in English “that.” The pronunciation is long if the vowel has an accent over it. Icelandic words always stress the first syllable.

- Ebbe Schön

#asa-tors hammare #asa tors hammare

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musicollage · 4 years ago

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Arve Henriksen. Towards Language, 2017. Rune Grammofon. ( Guitars, Electronics – Eivind Aarset ) ~ [ Album Review | 1) Pitchfork + 2) All About Jazz + 3) Headphone Commute ]

1) Arve Henriksen makes jazz for people who like ambient music. This might sound like an unintentional insult—the Norwegian trumpeter is well trained and celebrated in jazz circles, and he often performs among Scandinavia’s most prominent younger players, such as Christian Wallumrød—but it’s also hard to deny. Towards Language, Henriksen’s ninth album under his own name, begins with a slumbrous murmur of bass and an unfurling trumpet theme, and this mesmeric register never wavers throughout the album. The melancholy saunter of Henriksen’s lines is isolated and sculpted by glimmering, whirring atmospheres full of emptiness and portent. Testing different ways to contrast eloquent material and enigmatic medium, the record plays like some lost collaboration between Wynton Marsalis and Brian Eno circa Ambient 4: On Land.

Henriksen’s long association with free-improv supergroup Supersilent and its influential label, Rune Grammofon, were his gateways to esteem in circles beyond jazz. But he has earned his wider attention with a trumpet tone so communicative it’s almost psychic, which he has described as being modeled on the breathy, insinuating timbre of a wooden flute. *Towards Language *would be the perfect album title imaginable for Henriksen if he hadn’t already made one called Chiaroscuro. Sometimes augmented by his ethereal vocalizations, his instrument always seems on the verge of speaking, writing a smoky legato calligraphy on the air. If the language is obscure, the emotions are instantly legible—romantic seclusion, piercing beauty, and a steadfast determination.

Henriksen is joined by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré, two old friends who’ve appeared on some of his greatest albums (Chiaroscuro, Cartography, Places of Worship), as well as the ECM-affiliated jazz guitarist Eivind Aarset. Together they gin up brooding, minimalist chamber music in which the simplest melodies whisper of unfathomable depths of feeling. The outstanding “Groundswell” is a dusky jungle seething with hidden birds and snakes, slow trap claps, and lapping waves of mysterious tonality, before Henriksen fills it up with his leafy curlicues and looping vines. “Demarcation Line” is a showpiece for his signature physics, how he swoons from interval to interval and bends pitches so sweetly it almost cuts.

*Towards Language *is also infused with a deep sense of history, like an excavation standing open in layers. It’s both personal—the atmosphere of “Hibernal” is tuned by a rusty harbor-bell clank, a device heard as far back as 2007’s Strjon, which suits Henriksen’s noir-ish style so well—and cultural. Album closer “Paridae,” turns a traditional song in the Kven language of Henriksen’s ancestral northern Norway (sung by Anna Maria Friman of Trio Mediaeval) into a waterfall leading to another world. Henriksen creates the feeling of an opaque jazz album you can walk right into, all timbre and feel instead of time and modality, the edges and angles sublimated into aching curves. You don’t need to be able to identify a head melody or count off arcane rhythms, but only to know the way you feel when you see fog slowly seeping through a valley, or smoke curling off a cigarette in the lonesome glow of a streetlight.

2) Following hot on the heels of Rimur (ECM, 2017), Towards Language is Arve Henriksen's second album of 2017 and brings his tally of releases to ten in the past five years. One of the more remarkable things about Henriksen is that even though the quantity of releases increases, their quality remains as high as ever. All of the hallmarks that make his music distinctive are still in place, as good as ever—the haunting melodies, soaring falsetto vocals and exquisitely beautiful trumpet. His sound is as individual as a fingerprint, the true mark of a great player.

Studio-recorded over two days in August 2016, Towards Language consists of nine tracks, of which the longest runs for just seven-and-a-half minutes. Such concentrated, economical music has typified Henriksen's output on such classic albums as Places of Worship (Rune Grammofon, 2013) and Chiaroscuro (Rune Grammofon, 2004). Henriksen has always stressed the importance of his collaborators in the creative process and, as on those two albums, here he is again joined by the team of Jan Bang and Erik Honoré of Punkt, the presence of whom is practically a guarantee of success. As before, the pair display their knack of constructing uncluttered environments that perfectly frame Henriksen and allow him to be heard to best advantage. Guitarist and electronicist Eivind Aarset is also present on every track and was involved in writing each one; he adds subtle shading without in any way deflecting the limelight from Henriksen.

Anna Maria Friman of Trio Mediaeval (with whom Henriksen recorded Rimur) sings on the album's closing track, "Paridae," a traditional "kven" or ancient Nordic song, her voice and Henriksen's trumpet combining in a perfect blend. On other tracks, it is left to his own voice and trumpet to conjure up an ambiguous mix of emotions that include melancholy and wistfulness. The end result is yet another stunningly beautiful set from Henriksen.

3) So here is how it goes… In terms of extended control of a single solo instrument, we’ve got Nils Frahm on the piano, Hildur Guðnadóttir on the cello, Mario Batkovic on the accordion, Andrea Belfi on the drums, and Arve Henriksen on the trumpet. [Please don’t all at once jump on me and point out other artists that I’ve missed or misplaced – this was more of a compliment and recognition of the above, versus an offensive statement to the ones I have omitted. Deal?] If you’ve been following these pages, and listening to the music contributing towards the evolution of this Norwegian trumpet player, then, at least you should agree, that, when it comes to breathy brass works, where the instrument completely merges with the voice, Henrikson is unlike any other.

I last visited with Henrikson’s music, released once again by Rune Grammofon, back in 2014, with Places Of Worship which derived its inspiration from the literal places of worship, sharing ten tone poems set around holy places. On his ninth album, Towards Language, we find this “major representative of a golden generation of Norwegian jazz musicians” supported by his longtime collaborators, Jan Bang and Erik Erik Honoré, as well as the “ECM-associated guitarist extraordinaire“, Eivind Aarset, exploring the language of music through the partnership with others. Improvised music, and in particular jazz music, has always established its own set of musical words, phrases, and sentences, exchanging ideas between each performer through predefined queues. A great example of that, of course, is none other than Miles Davis, who often recorded his sessions (like the Bitches Brew in 1969) without much advance notice or direction to the musicians.

“To express something on your own can be quite challenging at times.” says Henrikson, “I have for years been in creative collaborations with musicians and producers that have encouraged and inspired me. With this help and inspiration to discover new sounds and music, I have struggled and made my way to gradually be able to create some sort of language and a way of telling stories with my trumpet and singing. They have all coloured and gradually transformed me through different artistic timezones that I have passed through. All the information, concerts, discussions and impressions have had a significant impact on the process of gradually coming closer towards the core of communication through music.”

It’s fair to admit that I fail to recognize whether or not some of the music on Towards Language is improvisational or not, but what I can clearly hear is a conversation between the instruments sharing the same story. This conversation, of course, can not happen without a predefined lingo, without question and answer, without the space set to say something and, in turn, the space left to listen. It’s probable, that as an active listener, conveyed through this musical account, I, too, become part of the language, interpreting tales, narration, and chronicles, as they fit into my own sound-colored world, where certain notes trigger a feeling, a memory, or a response deeply buried inside my own psyche. For this to succeed, the artist’s ability to properly communicate must be splendid. And as a listener, I’m part of the music, of course, because, without language, the message is lost.

#jazz #experimental music #electronic music #arve henriksen #eivind aarset #rune grammofon #jazz trumpet #2017 #2010s #2010s jazz #pitchfork #all about jazz #headphone commute #review

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outofthemundane · 4 years ago

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2 Proposal Ideas for Magazine

Option A: LGBTQ+ Fairy tales

1. The content of this magazine with be a series of short stories about LGBTQ+ individuals. There will be images that will be created and modified that will be spread out throughout the work. These images will show images of for example two kings together, or a different archetypes than the more common heteronormative fairy tales most of us have grown up with. My inspiration is related to my Portfolio project 1 where i will be creating a story about LGBTQ+ family dynamics.

2. The format of my magazine will be print based, as i prefer to read on paper in comparison to reading on a screen. This format will be effective because of the details of the work, the work will be converted to CMYK which is important for print. There will be a minimum of 300ppi resolution. The magazine will be 8 x 10.5 inches. There will be matte lamination and it will be printed double side. There will be a 14PT satin cover, the type of paper will be 100lb/200m Satin paper. The book will have allemade binding and the binding will be on the longer side. The approximate cost before taxes for two copies will be $116.10.

3. I was intrigued by the Intuitive, Relational and Conceptual layout strategy in the textbook “Making and Breaking the Grid” (Second Edition Updated and expanded: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara). What i appreciated about this layout format was that the writing was very clear and legible, and that is it a strategy that depend on chance for their outcome. What timothy Samara implies by this is that this layout is more instinctually and has a bit more room for the artist’s choice of the visual arrangements for their magazine. (pg 150)

Option B: Fitness Do’s and Dont’s

1. My magazine would be about the Do’s and Don’t of Fitness. My inspiration would be one of my all time favourite shows “Supersize vs Super-skinny”. This show is from the UK, therefore i watch the episodes on Youtube. When you watch something from outside of the usual “Canadian” television, it offers a different perspective on what is appropriate in their culture. In the show we follow british physician Dr Christian Jessen who makes opposite sides of the weight spectrum exchange diets. The aspect of the show i want to incorporate into my magazine, is the way that sizes are completely thrown out of proportion. There would be articles about training and dieting and images of food in portions that are astounding.

2. The format of this magazine would be online. I would use the web with the square dimensions of 8.5 by 8.5 inches. The techniques i will be using will be the colour effects on photoshop, I will either use Adobe illustrator to draw my foods, or draw then manually and use image trace. This method will be effective because the juxtaposition of the food in contrast to the background will make the work stand out. The unusual layout is what will either attract the viewer or confuse the viewer. In either situation, the viewer will feel something about the work, which is where i would consider it successful. The moment an emotion is felt about your work whether it be good or bad, that is when you know you have fulfilled your work as an artist.

3. For the layout for the fitness magazine, i was interest in possibly using Pictorialization and Metaphorical Allusion. This layout strategy was compelling to me because ultimately the layout becomes a type of illustration that is relevant to the text. The layout would amplify meaning to the text by guiding the viewer with a visual representation of the narrative. For example if i talk about the effects of over eating, it would make sense to have excess food, or a huge mouth. This technique basically uses imagery as a way to enhance the meaning of the text.(pg160)

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cloudscope · 6 years ago

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Alteration on Roles of the Architect in Contemporary Social Contexts

Abstract

The scope of this article is to interrogate ill-defined social paradox that resulting non-functioning built environment within the framework of cause-effect relationship, highlight the possible negative outcomes of given situation, pointing out discussions on the role of architects and performance or control mechanisms in order to be able to create better built environment.

Keywords

autonomy of architecture, altermodernity, architecture and politics, political dystopia, deprogression

INTRODUCTION

The anthropocentric point of view gradually became prevailing paradigm in the world by chain reaction initialized after period of Renaissance as a projection to this, especially since 19th Century role of architect gradually reshaped as rather than being servant to elite or authority they gained autonomy and identical significance at some extend as discourse of modernism promised to offer solutions for problems of contemporary world (e.g. overpopulation, technological improvements, wars, enormously grown cities, migration et cetera) and steer the new world society. Moreover as Kate Nesbitt points out paradigms in which postmodern discourse built upon, focused even more on fixation and rectification of social paradoxes and complications.

However in 21th Century it would not be wrong to say that is unable to follow traces of humanitarian aspects in contemporary cities. The touch of architect is concrete on buildings of prestige such as museums, airports, opera houses and skyscrapers; but rarely visible on residential areas, stations, schools and community zones. In other words, places of everyday life in which people spend most of their times are not receiving the necessary attention during the design process of built environment. As a result mass production occurring as copying which could be considered as failure in different aspects. On phenomenological perspective, Christian Norberg-Schulz pointed out “Genius Loci” as he states:

Man dwells when he can orientate himself within and identify himself within environment, or, in short, when he experiences the environment as a meaningful. Dwelling therefore implies something more than ‘shelter”. It implies that the spaces where life occurs are places, in the true sense of the word. A place is space which has a distinct character. Since ancient times the genius loci, or “spirit of place”, has been recognized as the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with in his daily life. Architecture means to visualize the genius loci, and the task of the architect is to create meaningful places, whereby he helps man to dwell. (Norberg-Schulz, 1979)

In this scrutiny, by pointing out Genius Loci, Norberg-Schulz criticizes the what discourse of modernism stripped off from built environments mostly caused by inappropriate application of mass production even if the intentions were opposite. Another aspect of failure unfolded by Kevin Lynch by this terms “imageability” and “wayfinding” as he states:

A distinctive and legible environment not only offers security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience. Although life is far from impossible in the visual chaos of the modern city, the same daily action could take on new meaning if carried out in a more vivid setting. (Lynch, 1960)

Being not able to provide necessary attention to design would also result to generation of non-distinctive places which will prevent people from orienting themselves in the city. As a result experiencing the city is not a valid notion anymore especially for Generation Z as it turned out something to afraid of, a subject of obscurity itself.

However shaping built environment that way is not the choice of architect. Whereas architecture is directly related with politics, production of built environment is affected by complex social paradox in which especially in non-developed countries the scope of production prioritize income rather than life that place has to provide. Additionally significance of urban design and autonomy of architecture is underestimated. Therefore, they are excluded from the production of built environment which they has to be autonomous at some extend. In fact even previously mentioned “prestige buildings” are not an exception for the situation. The main reason behind being point of interest is marginal advertising potential (i.e. Profit opportunities) which intended and designated by authoritative power of the capital. Therefore another intention of modernism turns out as failure as relation with authority does not changed but shifted it is figurative form to abstract phenomenon.

In this paper main scope is to interrogate ill-defined social paradox that resulting non-functioning built environment, identify negative qualitative outcomes of situation and pointing out discussions on role of architects and simulating performance or control mechanisms in order to be able to create better built environment.

CHANGING MEANING OF ARCHITECT

Meaning is an evolving phenomenon by time, culture and society. Additionally, the multidisciplinary nature of architecture makes the context of its meaning fragile. In different intervals of history, architecture partially overlapped by context of engineering, artistry and craftsmanship. However changes the zones of overlapping, architecture kept its genuine intersection zone and defined itself as autonomous discipline. Nonetheless, for further discussions it is beneficial to point out differing point between artist and architect as Le Corbusier states:

The engineer and the architect have to work with other people’s money. They must consider their clients and, like politicians,they cannot be too far ahead of their moment. The artist, on the other hand particularly the painter, may generally find it nearly impossible to live; but if he is able to establish one of those curious compromises by means of which he can carry on a lean existence, he is at least free (at times) to project himself on paper or canvas without necessary reference to anything or anybody; and to make experiment and research for its own sake. (Le Corbusier, 1927)

As Le Corbusier pointed the difference; the architect distinguish from the artist at point that former has only bounded freedom so content of architect’s work is cannot be discussed independent from social context.

Confusion of Meaning of Architect In the Society

The chain reaction of events started by enlightenment and followed by industrial revolution resulted the emergence new transitionary social class. Social structure changed by revolutions, demanded a built environment to serve life rather than given public space. In 19th century by the redefinition of modernity architects started to be in service of stated demand in general. On the other hand, by the scale and improvement of building technologies; professions once they were one under architecture are separated as individual disciplines. Civil engineering and city planning i.e. urban design could be given examples of this segregation. A common misunderstanding maybe because of these historical references, people has confusion about what should they expect from architect or what should be the responsibilities and competencies of the architect.

In another aspect, it is assumed that people has adequate perception when participating surveys. However surveys that their methodology bounded to declarations about life satisfaction or qualities of built environment are not always providing reliable results. For instance, the one could consider the non-functioning built environment as successful that he or she living in, by comparing with the worse only because of that being not capable to imagine qualitative superior which architect could provide. Therefore, it is important to educate people about the context of discipline of architecture in order to be able to foundate participatory production of built environment. By healthy feedbacks qualities of built environment could be improved ,by teaching the capabilities of design; demand and cultivation for urban aesthetics may be provided, welfare, life quality, hygiene, adaptability (in terms of flora and fauna) and flexibility standards could be expanded.

Role of Architect in the Contemporary World

It is not possible to fit perpetually evolving phenomenon in rigidly defined boundaries. However it is necessity to make a description in order to be able to comprehend the notion and articulate within the scope of objectivity, fit in the context of social integrity and jurisprudence. Therefore, to concretize by raw description in contemporary world, ideally, role of architecture could be summarized to serve society by creating creative, functioning, adaptive, flexible and pleasing built environment in the scale of autonomous structure complexes which also can speak multidimensional level and has a harmonious role within environment it belongs. Thereby it is important to incarnate the line between other roles involving the production of built environment. In order to point out contextual meaning of discipline of architecture Canan Seyhun states: “When regarded as a discipline, it is necessary to evaluate architecture with regard to its various interrelationships. The discipline of architecture has a multidimensional character, which assimilates with many theoretical and practical realities. It is possible to consider architecture as an art, a profession, a science, or as a discourse; and therefore, it is possible to evaluate an architectural work by means of its many levels; such as its conceptual, artistic, intellectual, and utilitarian levels. An architectural work could be evaluated as an art object; having its own aesthetic characteristics, or as a cultural product; reflecting the conditions of the society, or as a utilitarian apparatus; satisfying the necessities of intended functions. Not only the tectonic properties but also the theoretical origins of it could be assessed.” (Seyhun, 2004)

Thus, with accurate precision Seyhun identifies boundaries of discipline within the scope of completeness and correctness. In 21. Century on intellectual level architects actions evolving into being curators, activists and critics rather than being in active role of shaping built environment. Reasons of stated situation will be articulated in next chapter.

CRITIQUE OF SOCIAL PARADOXES OF PRESENT-DAY

In present-day production of built environment is outcome of complex social structure which previously mentioned as ill-defined paradox. According to Pava: “Social paradox is a pervasive, continuing dilemma between incompatible yet interdependent activities (i.e. between regulators and the regulated).” (Pava, 1981)

Present-day examples and outcomes will be discussed upon two exaggerated limit points by opposite perspectives. The former will articulate the absolute autonomy of architect, while the latter will mention bypassing the autonomy of architecture i.e. excluding the architect from its product.

Absolute Autonomy of Architect

As previously mentioned, since 19th century the architect gained its own autonomy; in fact with its expanded jurisdiction, arguably the architect itself turned into a figure of authority which could be explained by lack of control mechanism. Thus, practices of modernus began to behave in compulsive attitude rather than given promises of offering a new life, which also could be supported by bearing of the discourse of postmodernism. However, following interval did not progressed but shifted the situation. The birth of notion, the Starchitect could be an example. Maybe unconsciously but architecture turned out, or at least prioritized being an object of self-representation instead of the representation of authoritative power.

Individuals may choose not to interact with art objects, but this is not a valid case for architecture. Thus, unlike the artist who has absolute freedom, the architect cannot prioritize self-representation in its work. Architecture itself could become an art object; however, since it has to serve people or bear a social responsibility it has some constraints in which distinguishes it from an individual art object. In another fold, such attitude also disrupts perception of role about architect perceived by the society, as well as the image of architect for architects of future and blur the participatory production of built environment which discussed in previous chapter.

Excluding Architecture from Production of Built Environment

As opposed to former second extremum point could be given example as bypassing the autonomy of architecture. This condition is more tangible in non-developed countries, but also occurring developed countries as well. Hence at some extent especially in less-developed societies on intellectual level the role of architect or designer started to be seen as insignificant or easily be replaced, and some professionals claim for being that replacement. Changing state of autonomy stated by Michael Hays and Lauren Kogod:

When the issue of autonomy re-emerged in the 70s, architecture was in the peculiar situation of being eroded from within by having become a service industry completely determined by the building technology and programmatic demands of the time. On the other hand, it had been challenged from outside the discipline by behaviorism, sociology, pseudo-positivist history and pseudo-scientific discourses that tried to explain architecture away in terms of how people behaved, or what response they checked off on a questionnaire. Formal issues had given way to these statistical and operational analyses. Architecture found itself without cultural or disciplinary specificity… In contemporary vocabulary, we could say that architecture found itself deterritorialized. It lost its domain; it lost the cultural realm that it had controlled. It had to, therefore, re-territorialize itself by rediscovering, reasserting or reinventing its codes. (Hays, 2002)

It is possible to observe in everyday life spaces applications of insufficient or non-functioning built environment which lack the aspects of quality; especially in terms of intrinsic and intellectual values. Practically all of the cases has a common point of that excluding or not giving significant attention to role of architect and urban designer in production of built environment or even the built environment which has to be designed in order to satisfy its users needs actually prioritize the income for those who build it. Thereby, it turns out to a capital market rather than place to live. Besides if society does not have necessary perception to demand the architecture which described in previous chapter; our built environments cannot be developed, even deprogression could possibly observed as well as in the civilization itself. It could be summarized as “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us”. (Churchill, 1941)

The Capital as Authoritative Power

The Capital mentioned as decisive power in the production of built environment. However if, as a fact, the income is fundamental parameter of welfare; why is it should not be the authority to shape the built environment? Briefly, because of the difference of objectives and focus of short-term goals. Competency for the Olympics and resulted urban transformations could be an example for the case.

Even though the primary purpose of being a host city is to serve as the location for sporting events, there must be much more at stake than merely providing a venue for sport competitions. Much attention has been given to the economic impact and tourism impact of hosting the Olympics which stresses the role of the Games themselves. 'What has been neglected is how the Olympics are related to the long-term goals of the city. (Hiller, 1998)

Even if the Olympics provides reliable income and fulfill the expectations of the capital, if not planned adaptively; providing a venue for sport competitions will result derelict gaps within the urban texture. Therefore egocentric nature of capital economy does not prioritize life which idealistically, the built environment should provide.

Possible Negative Outcomes

In 21. Century by given reasons, it would be not wrong to say especially in less-developed countries everyday built environment is lacking intrinsic, intellectual, aesthetic and even fundamental functional requirements of place It could be said that there is a serious political and social problem exists in this situation and its negative outcomes could also be seen by quantitative measurements. Rigidity of built environment enforces society to fit in the boundaries of what defined as normal; suburbs as bleak strangling points of city, birth of exurbs, preference to live and socialize in virtual dimensions, solitary of people living in cities, obsession of safety, perception of city as a subject of fear, augmented perception issues, crime and rise on mental disorders could be given as examples. By all means non-functioning built environment may not be the only reason of those problems but should be pointed out as one of the major reasons.

AUTONOMY, PARTICIPATION AND CONTROL MECHANISMS

When Kaufmann family asked for a house from Frank Lloyd Wright; even if they had some expectancy in their mind, they probably did not expected that Wright will give them the opportunity of being able live with the waterfall. Designers of built environment should have their autonomy since they could decipher the multidimensional requirements of space and create a work that capable to embody the interdisciplinary values of architecture in singularity. However, when a system became too autonomous it may be blinded to see the whole or be tend to exclude features easily which are valuable to others. Thus, it is important to have control mechanisms to align and improve architectural work in order to be able to serve society and civilization. In that point participatory design process that Jon Lang argued could foundate the healthy built environment; but conditions could only provided by understanding the meaning of architecture and convey it through society.

CONCLUSION

Michel Foucault stunningly showed us even the most vicious practices of humanity was arguably better than today in terms of providing leaks for progression. Although we are rationalized, technologically advanced and consider ourselves as civilized; it would not be true to say that we are progressed in every aspect. Dystopia differs from the dark times by its completeness in which there is no more opportunity to change. On the assumption, we do not see and solve our problems in reality then even if we do not call it, we will start to live in the modern dystopia.

On the subject of the architecture of the 21. Century, it is crucial to point out, problems of built environment caused by social paradoxes rather interdisciplinary or other aspects in our reality. Since the built environment is shaped directly by politics social infrastructure has to be revealed for being able to diagnose this ill-shaped situation. Additionally, even if it is not the actual part of design process, since they have to bear social responsibility, architects should contribute as curators, educators, activists and critics in order to be able to shape our built environment in more idealistic way and advance our civilization.

REFERENCES

Berleant, Arnold & Carlson, Allen (Eds.) (2006). The Aesthetics of Human Environment. Broadview Press, Ontario, Plymouth.

Churchill, Winston (1943). Speech to the House of Commons (28 Oct 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb 10 May 1941). Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches, 2003. Hyperion, p. 358. ISBN 1401300561

Foucault, Michel (1965). Madness and Civilization: History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard from the French. Edited by Paul Rabinow. Random House, New York, pp. ix-13 Retrieved from (7 Jan 2019) https://monoskop.org/images/1/14/Foucault_Michel_Madness_and_Civilization_A_History_of_Insanity_in_the_Age_of_Reason.pdf

Foucault, Michel (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan from the French. Ransom House, New York. Retrieved from (8 Jan 2019) https://monoskop.org/images/4/43/Foucault_Michel_Discipline_and_Punish_The_Birth_of_the_Prison_1977_1995.pdf

Goto, Katsushi (2017). Autonomy of Architecture, Architecture of Autonomy. Paper Presented at UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress. Seoul. Retrieved From (7 Jan 2019) http://www.uia2017seoul.org/P/papers/Abstract/Paper/Poster/P-0725.pdf

Hays, Michael. K. & Kogod, Lauren (Eds.) (2002). Twenty Projects at the Boundaries of the Architectural Discipline Examined in Relation to the Historical and Contemporary Debates over Autonomy. Perspecta, Vol. 33, Mining Autonomy, 2002. pp. 55-57. doi: 10.2307/1567297. Retrieved from (09 Jan 2018) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1567297

Hiller, Harry H. (2007). Post-event Outcomes and the Post-modern Turn: The Olympics and Urban Transformations. The International Journal of the History of Sport Volume 25(14), 2008. doi:10.1080/16184740601154458

Kuhn. Thomas S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd Ed.). The University of Chicago Press, London. Retrieved From (4 Jan 2019) https://projektintegracija.pravo.hr/_download/repository/Kuhn_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions.pdf

Lang, Jon (1994). Urban Design the American Experience. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.

Le Corbusier, (1927). Towards a New Architecture. Translated by Frederick Etchells from the thirteenth French edition. Dover Publications, New York, 1986. Retrieved from (6 Jan 2019)

Lynch, Kevin (1960). The Image of the City. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Nesbitt, Kate (1996). Theorizing A New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995. Edited by Kate Nesbitt. Princeton Architectural Press,

New York.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian (1979). Genius Loci: Towards A Phenomenology of Architecture. Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1980.

Pava, Calvin. H. P. (1981). Towards a Concept of Normative Incrementalism: One Prospect for Purposeful Non-synoptic Change in Highly Fragmented Social Systems (Dissertation). University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

Seyhun, Canan (2004). The Role of the Architect and Autonomy of Architecture: An Inquiry into the Position of the Early Modern Architect and Architecture: Le Corbusier and Maison Curutchet (Master Dissertation). Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

Tyner, James A. (2012). Space Place and Violence: Violence and the Embodied Geographies of Race, Sex, and Gender. Routledge, London. pp. 18-24

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dorothydelgadillo · 6 years ago

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3 Lessons to Learn from the Slack Rebranding Controversy

“Dude, I ‘Slacked’ that to you earlier.”

Sound familiar? Unless you are still woefully morning the loss of AIM, you’re likely using Slack at work.

Having launched in 2013, Slack is a collaboration hub for work. Allowing people to work together more efficiently by keeping conversations, files, and to-do lists in a single app that operates across desktop and mobile.

We use it here at IMPACT, and quite frankly, our remote culture depends on it.

At the end of January, Slack introduced a major change. Gasp!

They decided to redesign their logo, and users around the globe were less than satisfied with the results.

I mean really, who actually likes change?

But, in most cases, the reactions went beyond not liking a little change.

There were the comparisons:

Clippy how you have changed. #slacklogo #slackbot #clippy pic.twitter.com/ra5vCQ5OOr

— Nate Schloesser (@nateschloesser) January 17, 2019

We all love ducks! 🐣🐥🦆 #slacklogo #slack pic.twitter.com/IhVlkyTg9a

— Dan (@Betraydan) January 17, 2019

wow, love the new slack logo pic.twitter.com/s0pf0AHsju

— Chris Warriner (@King_Darian) March 1, 2019

And then, the really bad comparisons:

... pic.twitter.com/cQAOH37RE7

— Christian Dakota (@codydohertyy) January 16, 2019

Yeah...that’s a little rough. But, as it goes with logo design, once you see it, you often can’t unsee it.

Finally, there were the unoriginal accusations:

Let’s play that fun new game: “Is it the new Slack logo or a random medical group?”#branding #slack #logo #design pic.twitter.com/a4RldEJRO1

— Christopher Grande (@chrisgrande) January 16, 2019

@SlackHQ #slacklogo Updated Again 🎉 But now it looks quite familiar 🙃 😄https://t.co/4SipOqCcLA pic.twitter.com/9GDXr8UBu5

— MiniCreo (@MiniCreo_Apps) March 1, 2019

I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Personally I love Slack’s fresh, unique, never-been-seen-before logo update… pic.twitter.com/tpFc9PuPGk

— Ryan (@thisisryanon) January 17, 2019

But, to their defense, Slack isn’t the only brand to ever find themselves at the wrong end of the Twittersphere.

Airbnb went through a similar social situation in 2014.

I can't get over @Airbnb's logo looking like a clinic for women's health. pic.twitter.com/fAFbrQ0dYx

— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) September 21, 2016

As did Uber in 2016.

Aww, Uber killed off its iconic butthole logo. RIP in peace little butt https://t.co/qFkFjWwRQD pic.twitter.com/LBdqacSCwR

— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) September 12, 2018

While some of these examples are pretty funny (come on, your 15-year-old self knows they are), others raise serious social and emotional concerns.

It proves the point that everyone can always relate a logo to something.

With that said, there are some key takeaways with Slack’s rebrand that we should all take into consideration next time we find ourselves in the same seat.

1. Have a Reason for the Redesign

This might seem obvious, but trust me when I say it’s not. Sometimes we see clients who are just bored of looking at their logo, and they want someone with creative inclinations to work their magic.

That’s never, ever a good idea.

Slack actually didn't do that. They had practical reasons behind their decision to redesign. In other words, they got this part very, very right.

Excessive Restrictions

Slack knew that their existing logo, though liked, was simply not doing the job they wanted it to.

Their first logo was created before the company launched. It was distinct, fun, and the octothorpe (a fancy name for pound sign or “hashtag”) mirrored the character users saw when creating a channel.

But, they quickly found that they made it too complicated.

The logo was 11 different colors (holy crap! Can you imagine trying to embroider that, or do any kind of offset printing?!?). Plus, if it was placed on any color other than white, it looked horrid, failing to contrast.

The logo also had a very specific 18º rotation.

Talk about a brand standards nightmare. I honestly don’t understand how they dealt with it for so many years.

To compensate for these difficulties, Slack developed multiple versions of the logo that worked for very different purposes.

But, this meant that every single version of their app button was different, and, each one was different from the actual foundational logo. What? Kind of defeats the point of having a logo in the first place.

With any type of brand cohesion out the window subsequent designs for the brand suffered. There wasn’t a single, recognizable style that represented Slack.

A redesign seemed like the only solution.

Having recognized and understood the visual mistakes their brand was making, Slack commissioned help from the team at Pentagram, who helped bring their new visual identity to life.

Now, I’m not saying if I endorse the new visual identity, but given the parameters listed above, Pentagram delivered.

Pentagram describes the process in a case study on their website:

“Derived from the original logo and built on a grid, the new octothorpe is comprised of two basic geometric shapes––a speech bubble and lozenge––that can be extracted and used as graphic elements. The speech bubble evokes communication and connectivity, and will form the basis of a system of customized icons, illustrations and motifs with rounded corners that echo the shapes of the logo. The new octothorpe can scale up or down to optimize legibility at various sizes.”

Visual problem = solved. That makes any designer’s heart happy.

The Brand & Company Is Evolving

Every brand goes through evolutions, sometimes those happen naturally as culture and core values progress with the changing environment. Sometimes, these evolutions happen at a specific crossroads.

For Slack, it’s the latter.

Slack is planning a direct IPO in 2019.

Visually, it’s time to stop messing around with 11 troublesome colors on an 18º rotation. It was time to get serious and step up to the plate with a recognizable logomark that can be taken seriously by investors.

When your company goes public, it enters a new tier. Your name becomes known even outside of your users and your logo has to age well.

Did Slack’s hashtag really have a 10-year shelf-life? Or maybe even longer?

Does the new mark have the potential for a 50-year heritage?

While that question has yet to be answered, it is clear that some sort of change was needed.

2. Consider Your Audience

Now, here’s where things start to get a little fuzzy. Slack’s redesign also teaches us a lot about considering your audience during a rebrand.

Yes, the new logo solves a lot of problems Slack was having with their visual identity and, it certainly helps mature the brand in the eyes of investors, but what about its users and prospects?

Here’s where they missed the mark.

Desktop & Mobile Experience

The response from Slack users was HUGE.

All of a sudden, on February 26, they had new icons across their desktops and mobile devices and it was hard to find.

We went from a very bright, argyle patterned app to one that primarily used aubergine with some small colored icons.

I used to have a desktop app that was clearly legible and distinct in my Mac’s dock. After the redesign, it became one that barely stands out unless I have a notification bubble sitting on top.

Even worse, just a few short weeks after the unveiling of the rebrand, Slack decided to switch up its look on mobile, making it difficult to differentiate from apps like Google Photos and iPhoto.

As an avid Slack mobile app user, it’s incredibly frustrating that a once distinctive app is getting lost in my “messengers” folder along with the likes of Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger.

As it currently stands, these extremely familiar app colors are almost lost on the aubergine background. It blends into the background of my dock, barely noticeable between my Creative Cloud apps. If it weren’t for the notification bubble, I might not even notice it was there.

The jury is out on whether these changes went through user testing groups, but they absolutely should have. At the very least, the implementation of the desktop app design could have better highlighted the new logo.

Unexpected Connotations

So, some of the tweets above were pretty harsh.

In fact, a number of people were downright offended by the imagery, suggesting that the white space of the new logo resembled a swastika.

Were they wrong? Absolutely not.

Colors and symbols have different meanings in different cultures and contexts and even if you personally do not see it that way, it does not stop others from doing it.

Again, I can’t confirm that Slack didn’t do their due diligence when it came to testing the new logo, but outcomes like this show the importance of doing so.

As a brand, you need to take into account how your symbolism can be perceived by everyone in your audience.

As a Designer & Brand, What Can You Do?

It’s 2019.

As a graphic designer placed in charge of visually representing a brand, you have to consider how every angle of your design is representing that brand, and what this imagery could mean in terms of backlash.

Misinformation and harassment are front and center. Gone are the days of keeping your opinions to yourself, tucked away in forums, or on a small personal website.

Slack’s logo launch endured all of it. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

Again, part of the strategy for any public facing brand needs to be considering how the imagery associated with that brand (as unintentional as it may be) could be misinterpreted. No matter how good your intentions, things today can be twisted into something hideous or hateful.

As a designer can you prepare for and control how each individual interprets your work?

Of course not, but you can take some steps to try and prevent it.

Think about submitting your imagery to test panels to essentially rip it apart.

If you want to know what the Twitterverse is going to do with a potentially unsavory mark, test it. At the very least, you can prepare your teams for the potential backlash and plan on how to address these types of opinions.

This test-first mentality can help you stand strong as Slack did, as opposed to a situation like Gap, where they pulled their rebrand in the first week.

3. Pay Attention to Competition & Differentiation

One of the key components of any redesign is the ability to bring originality to a brand.

A logo should be clean, replicable, identifiable, and like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.

At least, that’s the dream.

Unfortunately, reality is a bit more complicated. Hear me out.

One of the biggest areas of backlash Slack endured was their inability to be totally original.

The new logo was compared to medical groups, other tech startups, and some of the most familiar apps on our phones (Google Photos, iPhoto, etc.).

Differentiation is important, but, from a design perspective, the lack of it may have been very intentional.

People are largely attracted to what is familiar. That’s why UX on different websites, for instance, can start to look and feel eerily similar.

But, that’s actually a really good thing.

Users know exactly how to use a familiar site. It lowers friction and makes navigating easier.

Logo design trends in a similar direction.

For example, ever since Apple decided to ditch skeuomorphism for flat design around 2013, the majority of logo and app designs have followed.

In 2019, there is hardly a logo out there that hasn’t been strategically decluttered, simplified, and flattened. Consequently, everyone ends up looking the same, but still different.

I usually sort my app icons by color because it's easier to look at and remember but this is just getting confusing. 🙈🙈 pic.twitter.com/vQatzi9xJA

— Noukka 🐨 (@noukkasigne) February 27, 2019

Is Slack’s logo overly inventive and groundbreaking? You can certainly make the argument that it isn’t and perhaps there should have been more effort to help it be more distinct.

However, it is likely they’ve made the decision to be on trend with their industry.

This conscious decision to blend in might be a good look in terms of a risky investment (and their IPO status), but to users, it’s just as comfortable as the rest of their home screen.

Thinking About A Rebrand?

Do it for the right reasons.

You don’t want to take on a project like this simply because you’re tired of your logo. Make sure you have concrete reasoning for a redesign.

Make sure you are partnering with an agency that understands these reasons and owns them as if they were their own reasons for the project.

That agency should not only be well-versed in design, but aware of the competition and the community that surrounds your brand.

If they have the ability to expect certain backlash or be compared to certain brands, you can own the situation and respond with unflawed reasoning to be able to uphold your decision.

Keep these questions in mind when interviewing an agency for a rebrand:

Why do you want to work with my brand? This company is going to give your brand the biggest makeover it’s ever seen. Do you trust them with scissors and your Rapunzel-length hair? Make them prove it to you.

Can you walk me through your process? Logo design is a highly collaborative process embedded with brand messaging strategy and subjective emotions. Make sure your agency of choice understand how heavily each weighs on the desired outcome and test them on how they get there.

How will you contend for my brand against my competitors? Make sure your agency of choice recognizes your competition’s tactics and understands how to apply them to your goals.

Who will be on my team? For the same reasons as question two, make sure the team pitching you is the same team that will be delivering. You’ll need to be able to trust this team with your brand. Be sure you're comfortable from the start.

What does branding mean to you? This one is tricky. There is no “right” answer here, but instead, one that feels right to you. Hint: There is a wrong answer - a logo.

So, Do You Actually Like the New Slack Logo?

That’s a tough question that’s going to come with a tough answer.

I respect the new Slack logo. As I mentioned above, it solves a very specific set of problems for the brand. In my mind, that’s a really successful redesign.

From a totally subjective, “do I like it” emotional standpoint. Eh, it could have pushed a little further. There was an opportunity to set the trend as opposed to following it. It doesn’t exceed expectations for me -- but it certainly won’t stop me from slackin’.

All images (excluding tweets) via Slack.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/lessons-new-slack-logo-rebranding-controversy

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diasyrmus · 7 years ago

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Further notes on Vegas

From a letter to a friend:

What was really interesting was when I went to Vegas. Vegas is conservative middle America, and businessmen, it’s devoted to commodification and manipulation of desire. I’m going back to my notebook, where I started taking a few notes for a mail I was going to send you while I was out there but which I never got round to.

I thought I’d put down a few informal thoughts about my NAB time in Vegas. Partly to give you a sense of what it’s like, partly as process. Also partly because I feel the way to understand a thing is not to view it directly, but as Thomas Browne had it in his posthumously published Christian Morals (1716):

“Besides, many things are known, as some are seen, that is by parallaxis, or at some distance from their true and proper beings; the superficial regard of things having a different aspects from their true and central natures.”

Vegas is so strange. The elements are incredibly simple, almost abstract. There are two monads: the city of Vegas and the Mojave desert around it. The desert is a place of a fierce allegiance and antagonism between the sun - which burns very fiercely in the arid air - and the rock - that strata of organic matter, a result of the permian-triassic megadeath, a graveyard of 96% of all marine species laid down 252 million years ago in the shallow seabeds that covered the area, lithified and compressed by the winds and deep time.

JB Priestley said that as you travel southwest in the united states, you become more aware of geology than of human history. you can see the levels of geological time, and the contours and fluidity of the sierra, moving like waves through vast epochs (which is after all what they are doing).

The Paiute indians communed with the gods in the cosmos, and by the position of the stars, divined to know when the minimal sustenance the desert offered would be available: pine nuts from the pinyon tree, roots, and sagebrush. And in the centre of this harsh geometric plane, there is a central node, which is Las Vegas - The Meadows.

I stopped there, or rather my writing disintegrated into the usual mess of half-legible notes and arrows &c. that represents a diffusion of thought. But if i had continued more coherently, I would have pointed out that, imagining that plane of the Mojave Desert, with its vivid night sky and cosmic holism, in which is that single point of Las Vegas, which is formed by the intersection of four very basic vectors: money, energy (namely electricity), water, desire. The manipulation of these comprises the four causes of Vegas. There is one further coherent phrase in my notebook:

The single point of connection between these two monads is the Boulder Dam, now more commonly known as the Hoover Dam, across the Colorado River.

It may also be seen as the point of conversion - taking the cosmic system of the desert and canalising it into those four elements out of which Vegas was constructed and through which it is controlled or should i say through which it controls. This is as much the case in its efficient cause as it is in its material cause: The Meadows came into being as a consequence of the vast numbers of workers brought in to create the Boulder Dam. Out of the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal, was built this Fantasy Land, designed to part people from their hard-earned dollars as efficiently as possible. To my mind the Great Depression is still present in its working. It still designed to appeal more to middle America than any notion of the high roller - all the Middle Eastern gambling takes place in Macau, I think. But what is that appeal? Maybe some people think they will go to Vegas and make it rich, but the whole thing is clearly about fulfilling desire. As such it equally clearly in its commoditised, processed verions of desire-fulfilment it represents an emptiness. I don't mean to patronise - the obvious extent to which Vegas goes about its business with such pathological determination suggests the people who visit are, to a certain extent, happy with what it has to offer, that they recognise the facade, and that what it gives is a proxy for desire fulfilment in return for cash. It is America's theme park, to an extent I didn't really realise - Lauren and her husband live in Lubbock, Texas, and regularly fly to Vegas at the weekend. It astonishes me that anyone would want to do this at all regularly, but people still do. The US ability to enjoy, in all sincerity, the ersatz is impressive really, or at least very un-English. This is different from the ironic enjoyment or awareness of the kitsch in the ersatz. Having said all that, I'm sure you like me have encountered many Americans who have an equally strong desire to consume that dangerous commodity, so auctioned by Old Europe - authenticity. As for the material causes, the Boulder Dam generates the electricity (much of this is i believe sold to California, which then sells it back to Vegas O_o), and the water from Lake Mead. This water needs chlorinating because it needs constant recycling to irrigate the Meadows with its pleasure fountains and pools. The heavenly mirage of the oasis comes at a huge exertion of energy sucked out of nature. The infernal equivalent in the desert is the dust devil raised out of a compact of convecting desert heat and wind to raise a whirlwind of dust above the ground. As is well known, I believe, Las Vegas negates the organic diurnal rhythms into a perpetual neon, oxygenated twilight in order to keep people gambling. I'd walk through the casinos listening to DAMN., across the grimy soft carpets, taking in the smell and texture of chlorine, ionized fag smoke, the chill of the aircon, ceilings painted like skies. The same mechanisms Vegas pioneered have since long been used in supermarkets and in all sorts of areas designed to optimise the ability to extract cash. Now many of the physical mechanisms seem quaint, with newer, more sophisticated mechanisms and algorithms sinking into the structures behind society and manipulating desire in ways harder to perceive than the gaudy excess of Vegas. As I say it seems almost innocent. And there is always an advantage to crudely set out versions of the mechanisms that control our lives in more sophisticated and hidden ways. The architecture is of course, in rather raw sense of the word, incredible. It reminds me of a science-fiction short story, where a doomed planet was forced to emigrate to another, fresher planet, suitable for existence. First they sent the engineers, who perished on landing, in a crash, then they sent the anthropologists, to recreate the cultural landscape - they also perished, and so on. Finally they sent the blue-collar workers, who created a bizarre fantasy world that represented their image of the world they had come from. So Vegas, as you know. Excalibur has knights in armour, kilted Scottish lairds, maids in dirndles, Robin Hood, and Celtic trappings, Paris has the Eiffel Tower jammed in it and quaint 19th century facades, Venice is all hispanic gondaliers and chlorine. (It is interesting that the Trump Hotel is the only hotel where its theme is itself). Behind these frontages are those huge car parks, separate ones for staff and for patrons, themselves the true backdrop of US desire. They're beginning to have to charge for the use of car parks, one sign among many that Vegas is in decline. As far as I can tell one area it still continues to do well from is business conferences. I think it's the largest conference facility in the US. And of course the answer to the question 'Why Vegas?' is because business was always the domain of men and so basically it was the place they could go to booze, get laid and gamble. According to a colleague, even comparatively recently (like in the last 20 years) some clients still expected to be taken to brothels. In fact, I don't know why I'm so naive - I'm sure that still happens. I know I've gone on at length, but this is the backdrop for NAB. It is, to my mind, all non-trivially weird and calculating at the same time. There is, as I say, a nauseating pathology to it all, especially when it comes to the cynicism of the corporate side. The male gaze is totally legitimised there. Men are released from the daily bullshit of having to pretend, and exchange conspiratorial glances and innuendo. That almost tactile male atmosphere a friend mentioned in corporate offices becomes a disgustingly thick fug, and you are treated with bare contempt if you are not the sort of person to enter into it. I do not want to come across as a blowhard puritan, but there is something about the rotten core of male business that gets exposed here. What am I saying, it exposes itself. When you get to NAB on the first day it's all still being put up - the chipboard stands will, in 24 hours, be glittering with encrusted media technology. It is all as flimsy and gimcrack as hell of course, like everything else here, including people's egos. There was a passage that struck me with great but enigmatic force in Gerhard Scholem's account of his friendship with Walter Benjamin: Among the books he [Benjamin] read in connection with this seminar was Daniel Paul Schreber's Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken [Memoirs of a neuropath], which appealed to him far more than Freud's essay on it. He also induced me to read Schreber's book, which contained very impressive and pregnant formulations. From a salient passage in this book Benjamin derived the designation "flüchtig hingemachte Männer" [hastily put-up men]. Schreber, who at the height of his paranoia believed for a time that the world had been destroyed by "rays" hostile to him, gave this as an anaswer when it was pointed out to him that the doctors, patients, and employees of the insane asylum obviously existed. Flüchtig hingemachte Männer. I would like to know what Benjamin so designated by this phrase. It seems to me incredibly useful. So useful, that it's tempting to use it for every damn person you come across in the office or at an event like this. And yet it means more than just empty or fraudulent. There is of course the notion of a deception, not an individual deception, but structural, organised deception. But there is more than just the notion of the Potemkin Village, designed to assure anyone reviewing the event that all is well. It is a structural deception designed to undermine a sense of reality. It is a sort of power-structure gaslighting, which will imply insanity for anyone who doubts it. With the façades of Vegas, the temporary shanty town of media technology, the trouser-hoisting, proud droit-de-seigneur surveillance of the men, mutually assuring each other of their power and feeble, fragile virility, it was a phrase that continually ocurred to me, with a sort of haunting hypnosis. And DAMN. went from being something which seemed totally, socially rich and democratic to something that felt incredibly protective. I heard no Kendrick in Las Vegas. I'd put in my headphones and I'd find space to breathe. I remember listening to LUST on the monorail, with its line 'might as well overheat' and thinking yes, just let go, stop trying to control it, just overheat, let the pain overtake you, let it overcome you, stop trying to control it, allow it to annihilate you - it was also incredibly hot outside of course - and I just felt a sense of tranquility, and of distance from it all. At this point the entire album seemed to ward off the bad spirits of Vegas. It was private, and contained within it the world that I'd seen in San Francisco.

#lasvegas #kendrick #Walter Benjamin

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juliandmouton30 · 7 years ago

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"Architects are not just relaxed about cultural appropriation, we're experts"

A movement is growing against cultural appropriation, but could it spell the end for historical references in architecture? asks Phineas Harper.

Compared to other art forms, architecture gets an easy ride in the court of public opinion. Filmmakers, pop musicians and fashion designers know, one ill-judged move and they'll be hung out to dry by a swarm of social media warriors. Their reputation will be demolished in a tornado of online outrage. Condemnatory articles will follow in national newspapers. Managers and agents will hastily assemble apologetic press statements. Careers can falter, even derail. Public sensitivity, and the price of a miscalculation are high.

This form of vitriolic online criticism can be brutal, but it is a way of keeping contemporary culture aligned with rapidly evolving modern values. When a movie director's use of female nudity tips into gratuitous misogyny, for example, or a when a play's casting amounts to racial bias, are important lines to establish and regularly revise.

There are, of course, times when some condemnation seems purposefully overstated to generate a readership-boosting social-media furore. Outrage means clicks after all. Generally, however, the amateur commentariat are right to insist that artists become ever-more conscientious in making work.

Architects, however, have little to fear from the Twitterati. Some high-profile news stories drag designers into the melee of public scorn, but generally we can sleep easy knowing that our work will never be exposed to the same forensic cross-examination that each frame of Taylor Swift's next music video will be. Yet this could be about to change.

Google searches for the term cultural appropriation have risen approximately 10,000 per cent since 2010

James Anaya, dean of law at the University of Colorado is leading a coalition lobbying the UN to expand international intellectual property regulations. His proposals would restrict the use of cultural items, including designs, dances and words associated with certain ethnic groups.

Anaya's work is part of a growing movement against cultural appropriation – the adoption of elements from another culture. Google searches for the term have risen approximately 10,000 per cent since 2010, as incidents that might have seemed trivial a few years ago are now taken very seriously.

Fashion designer Tory Burch angered thousands in June when she marketed a newly launched coat as African-inspired, when its design was actually derived from Romanian garments. The Navajo nation sued retailed Urban Outfitters in 2012, after the company launched a line of products using the tribe's name. Author Anthony Horowitz was told by his editor it would be inappropriate for him as a white writer to include a black lead character in a forthcoming novel. Beyonce has been criticised for wearing a sari, Bieber for wearing dreadlocks.

Debates around cultural appropriation tend to focus on everyday items such as fashion and food, which everyone can relate to. Less discussed are technical or specialist instances of appropriation. But if Anaya's campaign is successful, it could have far-reaching consequences for designers, with new controls on the use of cultural material from music to architecture.

Critics of cultural appropriation rightly condemn tasteless fancy-dress costumes that promote disrespectful, even racist stereotypes. However the awkward reality is that great architecture not only features but relies on cultural appropriation. While most art practices are tightening the boundaries of who is entitled to create what, the best architects remain committed to skilfully mixing motifs, materials and typologies across cultural thresholds. We're not just relaxed about cultural appropriation, we're experts.

The awkward reality is that great architecture not only features but relies on cultural appropriation

Cowan Court, a new halls of residence for Churchill College in Cambridge by 6a Architects, is surely one of the most exquisite buildings of the last year. It also embodies an architectural tradition of cultural appropriation stretching back thousands of years.

The building is a three-storey timber courtyard block incorporating 68 bedrooms arranged around a quad. All the private spaces face outwards, so the continuous internal corridor becomes a communal cloister wrapping around the square garden.

Cloisters are a common feature of Cambridge associated with Medieval monastic architecture, but the early Christian design in fact derives from even older typologies. Cloisters are adaptations of Ancient Roman peristyles – private gardens surrounded by colonnades. The Roman Empire in turn imported much of its culture, including building types, from Ancient Greece.

Lucas Livingston of the University of Notre Dame has even argued that the Ionic Greek peristyle was influenced by older still Ancient Egyptian temple design. 6a's Cowan Court is, therefore, the most recent chapter in a several millennia-old story of cultural appropriation of North African design – and is brilliant for it.

6a Architects adds timber-clad halls to 1960s campus at University of Cambridge

From architecture school into professional life, we study and adapt precedents to infuse our own work with a sense of history, build upon good ideas of the past and create civic legibility. The worst contemporary architecture lands with blundering indifference to its context while the best enters into correspondence with its surroundings and wider cultural landscape.

Italian starchitect Renzo Piano fused cues from the indigenous Melanesian Kanak vernacular with European High-tech to create the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in New Caledonia – one of his finest projects. Even banal commercial developments are bursting with references appropriated from a broad architectural canon, as Pablo Bronstein's new book, Pseudo-Georgian London humorously illustrates.

We may start to see a growing movement calling out historical references in architecture

The old theory that idealised buildings could be stripped of contextual cultural symbolism and mass produced for any climate or society, which underpinned the 1930s International Style and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House, is now thoroughly discredited. Architects who build without adopting some concessions to local urban character are cast as anti-civic, disrespectful and even neocolonial.

Weirdly our architectural consensus is now the polar opposite of what is making headlines in other artistic disciplines. Where filmmakers, painters and writers are increasingly expected to avoid creating work which takes material from outside their own heritage, in architecture we celebrate designers who reach far beyond their cultural bubble.

It is generally said that architecture lags years behind wider trends. If this is true, we may start to see a growing movement calling out historical references in architecture, as the public become aware of the sheer volume of cultural appropriation that encrusts every street. Will the 6as of tomorrow be attacked with accusations of cultural appropriation? Or could architecture, for once, have something to teach wider society?

Phineas Harper is chief curator of the Oslo Triennale, with Interrobang, and deputy director of the Architecture Foundation. He is author of the Architecture Sketchbook (2015) and People's History of Woodcraft Folk (2016). In 2015 he co-created Turncoats, a design-based debating society, which now has chapters in four continents.

The post "Architects are not just relaxed about cultural appropriation, we're experts" appeared first on Dezeen.

from ifttt-furniture https://www.dezeen.com/2018/01/08/phineas-harper-opinion-comment-cultural-appropriation-architecture/

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amoss245-blog · 7 years ago

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The Influence of Manichaeaism

Before we dive into Manichaean art history and interpretation, I have linked some folk music from the geographical area in which these ruins are found. Enjoy.

This project will explore the recently discovered Manichean temple sites in Turfan; looking at the art, structure and artefacts in these temples. It will examine how closely these artefacts resemble adhere to ‘classic’ Manicheism as opposed to how they might have been influenced or have influenced the local cultures or the other religions of the Silk Road. The presence of these Manichean sites of worship in Turfan demonstrates a level of organized practice of Manichaeism, as well as Manichean’s significance and popularity along the silk road. These sites of worship are placed in the context of other temples and shrines, demonstrating the religious plurality of the Silk Road. Manichaeism was not isolated in this religious dialogue, and in fact was perhaps the epitome of ancient pluralism, accepting many different religious ideas and symbols.

Some believe that Manichaeism to be a sect of Zoroastrianism that sought to synthesize popular elements of other religions to achieve success (Johnson 3). However, Manichaeism cannot simply be called a strategic amalgamation of beliefs and cultures, nor a mere branch of another tradition. Mani’s religion held cultural and religious sway during the Silk Road period, and while it did make significant use of the symbols and structures of other belief systems, it provided something larger than the sum of its parts. This delve into Manichaean art and textual sources seeks to show how Manichaeism did adapt parts many different aspects of several larger traditions. While also developing something new out of this amalgamation and finding its own particular art and scriptural style that allows it to be identified today.

Contextualizing Manichaeism

Manichaeism was a world religion that survived into the fifteenth century and yet exists today in near obscurity. Manichaeism was founded in modern day Iran in the third century A.D. It eventually spread West to Western Asia and even gained footholds in Europe and the Mediterranean. Most important for our purposes, Manichaeism found a lot of success in modern day China, particularly the Xinjiang province and Turfan (Huashan 268). Mani made a deliberate effort to spread his scripture as efficiently as possible, ensuring it was widely translated and distributed to many different cultures. The prime mover of early Manichaean doctrine were the Sogdians, a people who had also aided in the spread of Buddhism and Christianity (Grenet 464). It was not just the chance of time and culture that Manichaeism has faded so suddenly, but instead the work of political powers. The swift popularity and spread of Manichaeism was a threat to other established religions. There was a harsh movement to remove the influence of Manichaeism and strong state-sponsored efforts to convert Manichaean worship spaces.

These fears of Manichaeaism were not unfounded, as Manichaeaism was designed to be appealing to the members of the largest religions at the time. Namely, Christianity, Buddhist, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. Mani claimed that these religions were not contradictory to his cosmology. He claimed the world was inherently dualist and was created of the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of the Profane. These were also known as the Kingdom of Spirit and Darkness, respectively. He claims that the religious leaders of the other popular religions at the time (namely Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus) were true prophets and were right to be worshipped. However, their teachings had been warped through time as none of these men had writings of their own. Instead, it was generations of disciples later who recorded their words, and Mani claimed that by that time, the oral tradition had already distorted the original meaning. His teachings were merely returning the words of these great prophets to their original glory, Mani claimed to be the next in the great line of these prophets.

Figure 1: From the Bezekilk Caves, an example of Manichaeaism’s focus on cross-culture teachings. Here we see an East Asian and North Asia Monk exchanging the word of Manichaeaism (Le Coq)

His campaign was successful and so the backlash was harsh and much Manichaean art and texts were destroyed, today “the majority of ancient Manichaean art remnants derives from a ruined City in Turfan, often referred to by its historical name, Kocho” (Mirecki 177). For our purposes, we will refer to the entire site and the artefacts recovered as ‘Turfan’, though there are three grotto complexes that house crucial Manichaean relics and art. They are Tuyok, Bezeklik and Sangim and each holds dozens of Manichaean grottoes. Though some have been degraded to near obscurity, much like the religion itself, many have retained structural integrity and even their art. (Huashan 269). These grottoes have provided researchers with immense insight to the beliefs of Manichaeism, but perhaps even more importantly, it has given them immense insight to how Manichaeism was practiced at the local level and how it interacted with other religions.

Common Manichaean Motifs

A staple of Manichaean art is depictions of the Tree of Life which is also known as the Tree of Good. This symbol of light and purity sometimes shown with its twin, the Tree of Death (Huashan 274). Manichaeism main doctrine centres around this duality of life and death, bad against good. Mani claimed to have a twin which bestowed upon him the knowledge that he was a prophet meant to bring people to salvation. We see in Figure 2 a drawing of a fresco discovered in the Bezeklik grottoes, kneeling and praying to the Tree of life. Much of Manichaean art and writing is centred around the Tree of Life. Mani’s teachings claim that in order to return to the Kingdom of Heaven, his followers must not only believe but take on more ‘traditional’ monastic values, such as “severing with fleshly desires and being unable to marry or to produce offspring” (Huashan 283). We see Manicheans worshipping the tree of life in this illustration, knelt around it at a respectful distance, a common motif in the frescos and art found in these caves.

Figure 2: A rough sketch of a fresco inside one of the Manichaean Bezeklik grottoes (Huashan).

The Manichaean tradition held writing as an art form quite highly. Mani was very focused on writing down his thoughts and dispersing them widely, as one of his main concerns was with the distortion of the word of the prophet. Mani wanted to secure that no writings should come to light in the future and allegedly be traced back to him” (Klimkeit 1). Most Manichaean writings today are identified through their being written in a Manichaean script, a very illustrative script that is used to allow for a unique identifier of Manichaean scripture and for communication between Manichaeans of different cultures. From artistic choice to overall doctrine, cross-cultural compatibility was a priority for Manichaeism. There are signs in all forms of Mani’s conscious effort to ensure that Manichaeism did not invalidate any major belief system, but instead seamlessly incorporated them. The Manichaean script was another way to more effectively spread the doctrine, while other religions, such as Islam, might be restricted by a language barrier.

In Figure 3, there is a Manichaean artefact, remarkably intact and still legible. Klimkeit has translated the lines of 5-10 of the right column, which is an extract from the Manichaean hymn, “The Song of Mani” (49). The majority of the texts recovered from the Turfan grottoes were written in Turkish and different of Iranian script, though this hymn was originally written in Syriac (Huashan 294). Manichaean hymns commonly contain “supplication through prayer and ascriptions of praise” (Johnson 127), but this particular hymn pictured is slightly different. The hymn provides some context into how Mani saw himself as a prophet, his calling in life to his relationship with his spiritual ‘twin’.

Figure 3: A remarkably intact page from a Manichaean hymn book, excavated from the Turfan sites. (Klimkeit)

Buddhism in Manichaeism

Most Manichaean hymns held references to the religious beliefs of Buddhism, Christianity or other religions within the same chant. Johnson’s translation of one of the Turfan textual fragments demonstrates a mixing of terminologies, such as the Christian ‘heaven’ and the Zoroastrian ‘Vahman’ without any apparent internal contradiction (132). This inbuilt hybridity is very common in Manichaeism, as the tradition often co-opted language from other religions, using metaphors, similes and worship language in their own texts; blending them all into something new. Such is the case for the Buddhist metaphor of ‘sea filled with monsters’, which is used as an image representative of the tumultuous turn of the wheel of samsara. This specific image is referred to in a Manichaean hymn that reads as follows; “Who will take me over the flood of the tossing sea. […] Who will lead me beyond rebirths […] May I be saved from the terror of the beasts who devour one another” (Grenet 476). The clear reference to ‘rebirth’ only reinforces this idea that is it a Buddhist image being appropriated. In the rest of this hymn, the narrator is referred to as only ‘The Great Aesthetic’, a title that could belong to the Buddha as easily as Mani. These influences were not only one way, Manichaean ideas of the Buddha influenced local Buddhist communities too, even if they were not formally converted. These similarities are sometimes even more apparent in visual art, not just textual remnants of this tradition.

Since so much of Manichaean art and scripture was lost over time, whether as intentional sabotage or the natural wear of centuries passing, our sources are limited. This project has so far focused on Manichaeism’s similarities to Buddhist because the Buddhist-Manichean blend is one of the key features of these Turfan grottoes. As part of the concentrated effort to disenfranchised Manichaeism mentioned earlier, many Manichaean temples in Turfan were closed and converted into Buddhist temples. While some were completely restructured, many were left as they were due to the striking similarities in art styles and content, several grottoes “remained untouched, undoubtedly because their content was so close to Buddhist beliefs” (Huashan 293). In Figure 3, we see one of these examples. To someone unfamiliar with the Manichaean tradition, it might appear like a simple depiction of the Buddha. Perhaps one specific to a local tradition, as several aspects are unconventional in Buddhist iconographies, such as the hair.

Figure 4:

Mani as the Buddha is a well-used motif, Grenet describes a painting in which Mani is drawn and captioned as the ‘Buddha of Light’ who is preaching is a group of Western Barbarians he has just converted (475). He is also shown preaching to figures wearing the robes and symbols of Taoist aesthetics, converting very different groups of people. As previously demonstrated, Manichaeism focused on bringing in many cultures and belief systems under their umbrella of belief.

Other Traditions in Manichaeism

As easily as he took on the title of ‘Mani-Buddha’, Mani adapted the prophetic names from other religions. Mani often referred to himself and the apostle of Jesus (Burkitt 38), claiming a direct lineage. Not biologically, but spiritually. However, it is not just Mani’s adoption of other religions’ terms where we see the blend of cultures. In some Zoroastrian work, small details in are found, which are often inexplicable. In larger Zoroastrian carvings, some details do not fit properly with what scholars know of Zoroastrian practices. With growing awareness of and study into Manichaeism, scholars are beginning to understand such things as Manichaean symbols (Grenet 474). Hinduism also makes an appearance in Manichaean art and in a significant way. Hindu gods are often given places of important, taking the important role of a ‘divine audience’, their presence giving cosmological legitimacy to the proceedings. In Figure 5, four Hindu deities are depicted with halos, observing a Manichaean conversion ceremony (Gulácsi 73). The surrounding text is the names of the donors and the King who is going through this conversion. The two figures to the left are thought to be heavenly beings from a local Buddhist tradition.

Figure 5: This half of one of the most famous Manichaean art pieces clear shows a line of Hindu Gods, watching over a conversion ceremony for what seems to be a local king (Gulácsi).

‘Traditional’ Manichaean Art

Herein lies the difficulty of identifying ‘Manichaean’ art or tradition, as it was designed to be used by local cultures, to blend into their specific cultural brand of religious belief. As demonstrated, signs of Manichaeism are found in small ways throughout many traditions and often bore so many similarities to other traditions, the art was re-coopted by those religions. This can present a significant problem for identification of these artefacts and raises difficult questions about where one religion begins and the other ends, if that line exists at all (Mirecki 177). The problem is then as follows: If so much of Manichaean is similar if not nearly indistinguishable from Buddhist or other religious motifs, how might scholars note the differences? There are some ways to identify Manichean art that is rarely found in other styles.

The first major sign is, of course, the text. Manichaean text is distinct from other scripts at the time, and is an easy identifier of whether an art piece is Manichaean. Within texts, Manichaeism uses some distinctive artistic flourishes in the margins or surrounding the text. This is slightly apparent at the top of Figure 3, the sweeping red ink visually marks is as a Manichean text fragment. In his studying of various Manichaean textual pieces, Mirecki discovered a pattern of “decorative designs within Manichaean texts that are found along the margins of and within texts” (191). Looking through collections of text Fragments from the Manichaean grottoes, there is certainly a distinctive style of embellishment that are found across the fragmentary remains of Manichaean books (Weber).

Some other signs in Manichaean artwork have been identified as near exclusive to the Manichaean traditions; at least in the Turfan region. It is especially the case in a religious as diverse as Manichaeism that “arts undoubtedly took on local peculiarities” (Klimkeit 2). One consistent Manichaean motif is the presence of flowers or other foliage being held by donors or figures of significance. There are other small signifiers to the original style of depicting the elite in Manichaean art, such as white garments or the red string around the head (Mirecki 210). Disk Motifs are also very common in Manichaean pieces, which are subtly different from the halos often used to surrounded figures of significance. They are more details, often layered and used as a kind of framing device to surround scenes and divide one moment from another (Mirecki 197). Figure 6 depicts a very Buddhist looking figure surrounded by these disks, which circle out from being a halo to being a decorative indicator of ‘aura’ of this figure.

Figure 6: A figure in a traditional Buddhist pose and showing the stretched earlobes and hair knot, both of which are signs of an enlightened figure, or a Buddha (Gulácsi). The gold and red disks mark it as a Manichaean adaptation of Buddhist motifs.

Mani was an intelligent man, living in a cultural epicentre of his time, he sought to create a religious movement that incorporated many belief systems. That rendered them compatible with a new system, while not tarnishing the symbols or iconography of these religions. Manichaeism is an intelligent blend of many different traditions, more than obvious in the remnants found in the Turfan grottoes. Manichaeism was a Salvation religion that spread far across the Silk Road and up into China. Despite the intentional destruction of texts and worship spaces by Buddhists and other religious communities, some traces of Manichaeism survive to this day. They reveal the complex, layered practice of this brief religious monolith but Manichaeism was not just a patchwork of other traditions. It developed its own strong culture, influenced the traditions around it and even found its own unique art style. Things like the disk motifs, the Manichaean script, and the plurality of its art, set Manichaeism apart from other religions of its time and location.

Bibliography

Burkitt, F C. Religion of the Manichees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925. Print.

Grenet, F. “Religious Diversity among Sogdian Merchants in Sixth-Century China: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Hinduism.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol.27, no. 2, Jan. 2007, pp. 461–476.

Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna. Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001. Print.

Huashan, Chao. “New Evidence of Manichaeism in Asia: A Description of Some Recently Discovered Manichaean Temples in Turfan.” Monumenta Serica, vol. 44, no. 1, 1996.

Jackson, A V. W. Researches in Manichaeism: With Special Reference to the Turfan Fragments. Ner York: AMS Press, 1965. Print.

Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. Manichaean Art and Calligraphy. Leiden: Brill, 1982. Print

Le, Coq A. Chotscho: Facsimile-wiedergaben Der Wichtigeren Funde Der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition Nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1979. Print.

Lieu, Samuel N. C., and Gunner B. Mikkelsen. Between Rome and China: history, religions and material culture of the Silk Road. Brepols, 2016.

Mirecki, Paul A, and Jason BeDuhn. Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources. Leiden: Brill, 1997. Print.

Weber, Dieter. Iranian Manichaean Turfan Texts in Publications Since 1934: Photo Edition. London: Published on behalf of Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum by School of Oriental and African Studies, 2000. Print.

#Final Project #RLG245

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tuthillscopes-blog · 8 years ago

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Your Brief And Far-Out Guide To Afrofuturism

check it out @ https://tuthillscopes.com/your-brief-and-far-out-guide-to-afrofuturism/

Your Brief And Far-Out Guide To Afrofuturism

“Time is that this really fluid factor. Now’s now, however the past has become and also the future too.”&nbsp

This is the way curator and anthropologist Niama Safia Sandy describes the main concept of Afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic mixing aspects of sci-fi, magical realism and African history.

The artistic, musical and literary movement is frequently tracked to jazz composer and cosmic philosopher Sun Ra, who, attending college within the 1930s, were built with a hallucinatory experience of that they was kidnapped, introduced to planet Saturn and proven a prophetic future.

“My entire body altered into another thing. I saw through myself. And That I increased … I wasn’t in human form … I arrived on the planet which i recognized as Saturn … they teleported i and me was lower on [a] stage together. They wanted to talk to me. They’d one little antenna on every ear. Just a little antenna over each eye. They spoken in my experience.Inch

However the actual term Afrofuturism was initially utilized by critic Mark Dery in the 1994 essay “Black towards the Future,”&nbspwhich examined why there have been so couple of black sci-fi authors at that time, because of the genre’s inextricable links to another and existence around the margins.

“Can a residential area whose past continues to be deliberately applied out, and whose powers have subsequently been consumed by the quest for legible traces of their history, imagine possible futures?” Dery asks within the text.&nbsp”In addition, isn&rsquot the unreal estate for the future already of the technocrats, futurologists, streamliners, and hang designers — white-colored to some man — who’ve engineered our collective fantasies?”

Underdog

Afrofuturism is frequently considered like a cultural genre or style, a re-imagining of African tradition that projects techno-advanced options. However for Sandy, the movement is greater than a literary genre — it’s real existence.&nbsp”It&rsquos not only an ideological factor, it&rsquos how people live,” Sandy described towards the Huffington Publish. “Magical realism can be used to speak about literature from the other, literature from virtually everywhere except free airline. However I want to isn&rsquot only a literary genre, it&rsquos the way we comprehend the earth&nbsp– an ambulatory cosmology, the way we undertake the planet.Inch

Sandy describes how — with the lens of Afrofuturism — certain myths, signs, colors and feelings have grown to be like literary symbols to become decoded. How background and nature have grown to be texts to become construed.&nbsp”Becoming an adult, when we walked outdoors also it was sunny and out of the blue it began raining, to my mother, that will mean something,” she states. “It&rsquos this imbued in everything that you simply do. That’s something that’s been passed lower to all of us through generations through our ancestors.”

Within the last 2 yrs, Sandy continues to be curating an exhibit known as “Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures,” featuring multidisciplinary visual artists in the African Diaspora. Photographers just like a. Delphine Fawundu deconstruct ideas for example black femininity, exploring its relationship to memory and history in her own photographs, a few of which were photographed around the plantation where Nat Turner’s Rebellion happened. “There’s lots of searching back and searching forward happening within this work,” Sandy stated. “Celebrating individuals journeys whether or not they are intentional or forced journeys.”

Beyond Fawundu, artist like Roger Bonair-Agard contributed video installations and poems, like&nbsp”How the World Was Made — a Super Crown.” Bonair-Agard’s poem involves the standard West African character Anansi&nbsp–&nbspa spider, a god, along with a figure utilized in children’s fables told all over the diaspora. “Within the poem, he’s Anansi, finding out how to move from as being a spider to as being a person,” Sandy stated. “It connects these ideas in the folklore and tales we have developed with.”

Delphine Fawundu, Mende Lady around the Nat Turner Plantation, South Hampton, Veterans administration #8, 2014. In the photographer’s Deconstructing SHE series / ODDKINCREATE, THINK AHEAD, 2013 MIXED MEDIA

Within an exhibition statement, Sandy summarizes the essence from the exhibition, an enchanting conjuring of past and offer forces: “Intersections of history, present and future grounded within the magic which was already within the soil, in mid-air, handed down by our ancestors through breath, bonds, bloodstream, ritual well as we discovered the Atlantic many of these many occasions. We feature it around wheresoever we go — this abundant color, rhythm, swagger … Due to this, we hear and see magic in everything across water, space and time.”&nbsp

Awaiting her “Black Magic” exhibition, Sandy shared a few of her favorite authors, artists and musicians adding towards the Afrofuturist vision. Continue reading for any far-out summary of the ruling makers of black magic.&nbsp

Octavia Butler,&nbspauthor

“Who shall we be held? I’m a forty-seven-year-old author who are able to remember as being a ten-year-old author and who expects at some point to become an 80-year-old author. I’m also easily asocial — a hermit … A pessimist if I am not careful, a feminist, a Black, an old Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.”

Books to see:&nbspKindred, Parable from the Sower, Fledgling

Malcolm Ali via Getty Images

American sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).

Ytasha Womack, author

“Mainstream feminism may need a feeling of balance that Afrofuturism has around expression. Afrofuturism is extremely nonconformist and often I feel like mainstream feminism wants women to convey their liberation in very specific methods to particularly counter damaging narratives produced by men. Afrofuturism doesn&rsquot create towards anything. Consequently, women Afrofuturists can do what they need and just how that turns up is distinctively individual …&nbspSelf-expression in Afrofuturism isn’t about making a statement, it’s about being.“

Book to see:&nbspAfrofuturism: The field of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture

Amazon . com

Steven Barnes, author

“His mate Lamiya lay sunning around the hardwood deck using their kids, Aliyah and Azinza. Lamiya herself was descended in the Afar people around the shore of Lake Abbe in Old Djibouti. Just one aged servant, Yohela, had supported her about this trip, yet her hair, braided and beaded in to the intricate patterns usual for the Afar, never bore exactly the same configuration 2 days consecutively. 4 years Kai’s senior, Lamiya is at both face and make up the most stylishly sensual lady Kai had seen, and that he had admired her since childhood.” -from Zulu Heart

Books to see: Lion’s Bloodstream, Zulu Heart

Amazon . com

Nnedi Okorafor, author

“I&rsquove always had difficulty covering space. I’m greatly an earthling. I don&rsquot see myself ever departing the earth as i am alive (I might become more adventurous once i die, heh). There’s a lot yet to uncover (and connect) on the planet, why look elsewhere? And my spiritual beliefs and also the systems of magic I&rsquom drawn to are earth-based, born and rooted deep within the soil. They aren’t within the ‘heavens.’ Also, after i talk about something, I must get and feel near to the subject. Irrrve never feel near to &ldquospace&rdquo, no matter how much research I do.“

Book to see:&nbspWho Fears Dying

Amazon . com

Maryse Cond&eacute, author&nbsp

“Paradise isn’t for me personally, I imagine an afterlife where we are able to express all of the feelings and needs we’ve needed to stifle during our lifetime: an afterlife where we’d be free finally to become ourselves. Since I had been little, I&rsquove wondered when the Christian religion isn’t a white-colored-folks religion designed for white-colored-folks, whether or not this&rsquos suitable for us who’ve African bloodstream within our veins.” -from&nbspWindward Heights&nbsp

Books to see:&nbspWindward Heights, Segu

Amazon . com

Ellen Gallagher, artist

“The main one area that is sensible to speak about race within my jobs are my concept of the subjective. Many people can stand before my work not getting any relationship into it, yet others can see the twelve signs, making cohesive readings according to either the formal or subjective characteristics they see. Whenever you make something, you permit yourself readings which are sometimes mistaken. Being an artist I&rsquom creating fiction on the top of the existing readability. It&rsquos that which you spoken about doing whenever you were a child with Colorforms or things i did like a kid, stapling layers of paper costumes onto my dolls, that improvisational layering, implying call and response. It&rsquos not about audience. There&rsquos a friction between your material made to be highjacked. It’s improvisational to create another readability through blindness, through a private act on hand with imagination.”

See much more of her work here.

Boston Globe via Getty Images

Artist Ellen Gallagher in the Institute Of Recent Art.

Underdog, artist

“My work is simply a method to recontextualize and stretch a persons eye.&nbspI flirt with images and produce them in to the ‘now chapter’ of reaffirming and envisioning ourselves.&nbspI would like to break peoples hearts and reassemble them in a single image.”

Underdog

Cyrus Kabiru, artist

“Becoming an artist, for me personally, was which i would be a digital rebel — I had been a little rude to everybody. I don&rsquot care. I don&rsquot follow what individuals want — I follow things i want. I don&rsquot enjoy people. I wish to go my very own way. And So I try everything the alternative to other people, plus they feel this person is a little a digital rebel. After I would be a young boy, grownups thought I had been a poor example. They accustomed to tell their children, ‘Work hard. Should you won&rsquot strive, you&rsquoll end up like Cyrus.’ I had been completely different. I had been forever in the house, doing art, painting and making sculptures, with no one understood things i was doing. I didn&rsquot study, I used shaggy clothes. For them it had been a little weird. I didn&rsquot know Sunday, I didn&rsquot know Monday, I didn&rsquot know.&nbspIn Africa, we live in a package.”

See much more of his work here.

Thanks to the artist and SMAC Gallery

Cyrus Kabiru

Lina Viktor, artist

“I&rsquove been obsessive about gold. I believe humanity in general happens to be obsessive about gold. It&rsquos been valued and revered and sacred. It&rsquos a kind of commerce now. I&rsquom some an astrophysics nerd I truly love stuff concerning the world and researching the foundation of metals. I understand that gold, for instance, is made of the dying of the star — a supernova. So essentially, all of the gold which has have you been found on the planet today are only able to easily fit in three Olympic-sized pools. It&rsquos really a percentage — it&rsquos a really scarce resource, hence why, I&rsquom sure, it’s a lot value. However I think there’s something a lot more implicit in the need for gold — if you notice gold, real gold, it features a kind of emotional quotient into it that you could&rsquot really get if you use fake gold. There’s an emotional reaction when people see real gold.“

See much more of her work here.

Ben Gabbe via Getty Images

Lina Viktor

Sun Ra, composer, poet, philosopher

&ldquoI&rsquom a fantasy, I&rsquom exactly like you. You don&rsquot appear in this society. Should you did, your people wouldn&rsquot be seeking equal legal rights.&nbspYou&rsquore a fantasy. Should you be, you&rsquod possess some status one of the nations around the globe. I don’t come your way like a reality, I come your way like a myth because that&rsquos what black individuals are: myths. I originate from an aspiration the black man imagined lengthy ago.&nbspI&rsquom really a name delivered to you against your ancestors.&rdquo -From&nbspSpace is where

Books to see:&nbspThe Earth Is Condemned

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Janelle Mon&aacutee, music performer

“I am a cybergirl with no face a heart or perhaps a mind /&nbsp(an item from the man, I am an item from the man) /&nbspI’m a saviour with no race (with no face).” -from “Purple Stars Happy Hunting“

Albums: “The ArchAndroid,” “The Electrical Lady”

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Ibeyi, musicians

“Carry away my dead leaves Allow me to baptize my soul with the aid of your waters Sink my pains and complains Allow the river bring them, river drown them My ego and my blame Allow me to baptize my soul with the aid of your waters Individuals old means, so ashamed Allow the river bring them, river drown them” -from “River”

Albums: “Ibeyi”

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Blitz The Ambassador, music performer

“I have always felt hip-hop like a culture has not really yet accepted its worldwide roots.&nbspThe more I traveled, the greater I recognized that you have a specific role that I have to be playing, which role is all about bridging gaps and expanding the culture that I have been so fortunate enough to take part in. That’s why I went with the Ambassador.“

Albums: “Soul Digital rebel,” “Diasporadical”

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“Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures,” curated by Niama Safia Sandy,&nbspruns from April 24 until May 22, 2016 at Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn, New You are able to.

Find out more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/04/15/your-far-out-guide-to-afrofuturism-and-black-magic_n_9771738.html

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