Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Inernational Symposium on Urbanization and Environmental Problems, Transition / Transformation / Authenticity (Uluslararası Kentleşme ve Çevre Sorunları Sempozyumu, Değişim / Dönüşüm / Özgünlük, Eskişehir, Türkiye, 28 - 30 Haziran 2018, ss.391-399
The Effects of Cultural Imagery and Human- Nature Relationship on the
Space Setup in Miyazaki Cinema
ABSTRACT
Architectural spaces have social values, cultures and associations
within ordinary but meaningful relationships of everyday life and enable them
to be transmitted to future generations. For this reason, it is possible to find the formation logic of space in
social life, cultural values and geography. Because architecture is influenced by changing cultural and social
processes over time, it constantly changes the language of communication. It
transmits not only the period and the story of place that it belongs to but
also the history and the value of that society and culture. So, space is not
only an area that defines a void in space borne, but a place that can be
explained by social interaction and action, and its content can be
conceptualized, which is the cultural and physical dimension. In this case, architectural space is a tool for social and cultural
change, transformation and originality. The concept of space, which is shown as
the most original and distinctive feature of architecture, is multidimensional
for this reason. This carries it to a ground of interdisciplinary. In this work, this power of architecture will be handled with in
relation to a different discipline. Today we live in an urban environment shaped by productions that treat
the authenticity of space, its historical / cultural value and its meaning as a
consumption object, often without questioning it. The space which is cut off from its context and lose your originality
can not host continuities of the culture and tradition. In this case, the created ordinary architectural environments have a strong
relationship with technology but, cultural ties and social values are ignored. Yet culture is an instrument for the individual to
establish communication with the environment and nature. This instrument is losing its influence day by day due to the pollution
of the nature and the environment that become the object of consumption today.
Cengiz Bektaş summarizes our situation with these sentences: "Once the
culture is polluted, everything is following each other. To say directly, as
culture is polluted, the water gets dirty, the air gets dirty. Soil is polluted...Can we regard the cultures
of armed countries as immaculate? Even if their water, air, soil are clean..." (citated by Keleş from Bektaş, 2005, p.1). Napier (2008: 21) indicated that animation setting with the rapid change
in narration and the continuous transforming of imagery has effects not only on
Japan society but also on industrialized countries. It has a superior advantage
about reflecting of change atmosphere. In connection with this, it is resulted that the animations can be
instrumentalized in order to analyze the changing society, culture and
architecture. In addition, architecture as an interdisciplinary area ensures
this research. The aim of this study is to show how the cultural and social experiences
of the space are handled and represented in other disciplines such as the
anime.
In this work, Animations of Miyazaki which deal with
problematic issues such as cultural degeneration, identity loss, human-nature
relation and breakdown of this relation, deterioration of ecological balance,
technological based nature destruction will be examined. Additionally, the
contents associated with the subjects that he worked in his animations,
Miyazaki reflects directly or indirectly the culture-based imagery to the
settings that he created. In short,
Miyazaki has developed a unique cinematic narrative form by analyzing the
cultural and social structure that determines the visual and auditory codes. Although this form can be seen as local due to the fact that it is fed
from Japanese culture, it is universal with the narrative serviced and the
message given.
In this work, conceptually
discussed topics are examined according to animator Miyazaki's works rather
than works seen concrete in the field of architecture. The aim of this work with the examined films is to analyze the
representations of Miyazaki's culture in the tidal way he created between his
imaginative world and reality, and how these reflects the theme and the spatial
situation in the space. Scope of the study includes movies of Nausicaa
of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), My
Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and
Spirited Away (2001). These movies are chosen as the sample films since
they have a unique narrative language and the most critical perspective seen on
the environmental problems. The method that is followed in the formation of the
text is the determination of the subject, the source and literature review,
examination of image-architecture-culture relation through Hayao Miyazaki
films, analyzing the theoretical structure of the subject through films and
discussion of the result.
The study consists of two parts that are theoretical patterns and
evaluation of these theoretical patterns with examples. In the theoretical
section, concepts of culture, image and space are examined, while in the second
section these concepts are analyzed through Miyazaki films. Findings related to the space comes to the mental dimension visually
with animations will be tried to understand by means of the images. Critical
interpretation that is missing today is thought to be found through animations
due to the animations are the interpretation of the architecture by the spatial
representations. In addition, the animations are not just representational
objects; but also they transform spatial fiction both a mental fact with the
interplay of real and the fictional space. As a result, animations use architectural elements such as chateaus,
castles, temples, baths, urban squares, as an instrument to create the
narrative, and bring these spatial elements to the mental dimension by means of
images.
The misleading architectural environment that is
forced to perceive everything through the visuals that are brought closer to
the reality affects one’s perception of the space negatively. This study shows that spatial perception can be understood by means of
different tools. It is thought that the animations that reach the mental dimension
of the space through the visuals through the visuals can be proposed as one of
these tools. It is also thought that animations will help change the point of
view thanks to the created consciousness with their messages by showing what
they might be, even if they do not provide solutions to the problems in the
environment of architecture that is meaningless, transfigured and disconnected.
As a result, what we have achieved with this work is that we can question in
what Miyazaki tried to convey through his films, "what has been lost and
what might have been in the past" in architecture.
Keywords: Hayao Miyazaki, representation, image, culture, architectural space