Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
IAPS 14 Conference on Evolving Environmental Ideals: Changing Ways of Life, Values and Design Practices, Stockholm, İsveç, 30 Temmuz - 03 Ağustos 1996
REPRESENTATION OF TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURAL
SPACES ON POPULAR IMAGINATIONS
Assist. Prof.
Dr. Zeynep Uludag. (Architect, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture,
Department of Architecture.
Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Hale Kunucen. (Communication Sciences, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Communication Sciences.
Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Nur Caglar. (Architect, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture,
Department of Architecture.
ABSTRACT
All types of
narration signify a process of communication. The art of cinema, which finds
its verbal and visual expression in moving images, is definitely a narration.
The aim of such a narration in cinema or television is not a direct reflection
of the images but reflection of a new medium with these images. The reflected
reality in these images is both the reality of the object itself and also its
representation (model).
The vision
reflected on the screen is composed of several elements that create this
vision. The reflection of real images via a viewing camera is an objective
process and in this process the final vision can easily be far away from
objectivity. Because all images taken into a camera used by humans, they become
the reflection of a specific view, understanding and interpretation. In this sense, the objective reality faces a
process of interpretation. This is the
character of visions: to reflect both real images, pure reality and also to
reflect an interpreted, subjective reality at the same time.
According to
Roland Barthes, one of the most discussed concepts in semiotics is the concept
of the signified, which reflects the
relation of a concept with the real world and culture. The
signified has never been a copy of the real object but an abstract vision
of it. This research aims to make an
evaluation of the process of interpretation and the effects of perception
during the representation and visualization of architectural spaces in
media. In that sense, the visual
analysis of a popular TV program in Turkey will be discussed within the
conceptual framework of Barthes’ analyses that have involved a search for
emptiness and the absence of meaning and the visual construction of new
meanings.
The sights and
sounds of the urban scene – advertising, music, cinema, television, fashion,
magazines, video clips – exist in the rapid circuits of electronic
production/reproduction/distribution. (Chambers, 1986:185) In the rapid
interplay of these signs, the power of the languages of simulation creates
“secondary meanings”, “ secondary realities” or hyper-reality, to replace the
real. In this collage of sights and sounds we discover the immediate
co-ordinates of the present: where existing meanings and views, ideas and
opinions, are reproduced; where social practices are formed and experienced;
where both consensus and rebellion is voiced; where dogma and innovation,
prejudice and change, find expression. (Chambers, 1986:185). During this
process a popular semiotics daily mixes together real conditions and imaginary
material. The vivid languages of the cinema, television, pop music and
magazines are translated into personalized styles, manners, tastes and
pleasures: under given conditions, in particular situation, we take reality to
pieces in order to put it back together with a further gain in meaning. The
signs are inhabited, appropriated, domesticated. (Chambers, 1986:185)
The art of
cinema is apart of the illusion industry, which is particularly rooted in
capitalism. For in the face of an all-embracing, social meaning in which the
individual interest of all its members would be well looked after, capitalism
has nothing to offer except mere illusion. (Haug, 1986:122) Today’s postmodern
society also uses this “illusion industry” to create new meanings and new
commodity aesthetics to generate new “social illusions”. Social illusions of
course have the power to create collective activities to take place outside the
immediate ‘sphere of production’, in a very special ‘sphere of consumption’.
With special effects in films illusion industry populates the spaces emptied from their meaning and identity.
This TV program
“Asmali Konak” which means “Mansion with a grapevine” in English is one of the
most popular TV programs in Turkey. It narrates a story at the emotional center
of the “family life”. The scenario narrates the daily life a family living in
Ürgüp at the center of Anatolia. It is not exactly a traditional Turkish family
but also not a modern one. A historical mansion carrying significant aspects of
traditional Turkish architecture is used as the film set of the story. It is a
great mansion with several rooms surrounded around a courtyard, which is the
heart of the house. A big family with grand parents and children and grand
children are living together at different parts of this mansion. Of course
there is another family living at the same mansion as a housekeeper.
Besides the
architectural quality of the house the site has also a significant identity in
terms of its geographic qualities. Ürgüp is located on the skirts of a volcanic
mountain “Erciyes” in Anatolia.
Haug, Volfgang Fritz (1986). Critique of Commodity Aesthetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
Chambers, Iain
(1986) Popular Culture, London: Routledge.
REPRESENTATION OF TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURAL
SPACES ON POPULAR IMAGINATIONS
Assist. Prof.
Dr. Zeynep Uludag. (Architect, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture,
Department of Architecture.
Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Hale Kunucen. (Communication Sciences, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Communication Sciences.
Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Nur Caglar. (Architect, Ph.D)
Gazi University, Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture,
Department of Architecture.
All types of
narration signify a process of communication. The art of cinema, which finds
its verbal and visual expression in moving images, is definitely a narration.
The aim of such a narration in cinema or television is not a direct reflection
of the images but reflection of a new medium with these images. The reflected
reality in these images is both the reality of the object itself and also its
representation (model).
The vision
reflected on the screen is composed of several elements that create this
vision. The reflection of real images via a viewing camera is an objective
process and in this process the final vision can easily be far away from
objectivity. Because all images taken into a camera used by humans, they become
the reflection of a specific view, understanding and interpretation. In this sense, the objective reality faces a
process of interpretation. This is the
character of visions: to reflect both real images, pure reality and also to
reflect an interpreted, subjective reality at the same time.
According to
Roland Barthes, one of the most discussed concepts in semiotics is the concept
of the signified, which reflects the
relation of a concept with the real world and culture. The
signified has never been a copy of the real object but an abstract vision
of it. This research aims to make an
evaluation of the process of interpretation and the effects of perception
during the representation and visualization of architectural spaces in
media. In that sense, the visual
analysis of a popular TV program in Turkey will be discussed within the
conceptual framework of Barthes’ analyses that have involved a search for
emptiness and the absence of meaning and the visual construction of new
meanings.
The sights and
sounds of the urban scene – advertising, music, cinema, television, fashion,
magazines, video clips – exist in the rapid circuits of electronic
production/reproduction/distribution. (Chambers, 1986:185) In the rapid
interplay of these signs, the power of the languages of simulation creates
“secondary meanings”, “ secondary realities” or hyper-reality, to replace the
real. In this collage of sights and sounds we discover the immediate
co-ordinates of the present: where existing meanings and views, ideas and
opinions, are reproduced; where social practices are formed and experienced;
where both consensus and rebellion is voiced; where dogma and innovation,
prejudice and change, find expression. (Chambers, 1986:185). During this
process a popular semiotics daily mixes together real conditions and imaginary
material. The vivid languages of the cinema, television, pop music and
magazines are translated into personalized styles, manners, tastes and
pleasures: under given conditions, in particular situation, we take reality to
pieces in order to put it back together with a further gain in meaning. The
signs are inhabited, appropriated, domesticated. (Chambers, 1986:185)
The art of
cinema is apart of the illusion industry, which is particularly rooted in
capitalism. For in the face of an all-embracing, social meaning in which the
individual interest of all its members would be well looked after, capitalism
has nothing to offer except mere illusion. (Haug, 1986:122) Today’s postmodern
society also uses this “illusion industry” to create new meanings and new
commodity aesthetics to generate new “social illusions”. Social illusions of
course have the power to create collective activities to take place outside the
immediate ‘sphere of production’, in a very special ‘sphere of consumption’.
With special
effects in films illusion industry populates the spaces emptied from their
meaning and identity.
This TV program
“Asmali Konak” which means “Mansion with a grapevine” in English is one of the
most popular TV programs in Turkey. It narrates a story at the emotional center
of the “family life”. The scenario narrates the daily life a family living in
Ürgüp at the center of Anatolia. It is not exactly a traditional Turkish family
but also not a modern one. A historical mansion carrying significant aspects of
traditional Turkish architecture is used as the film set of the story. It is a
great mansion with several rooms surrounded around a courtyard, which is the
heart of the house. A big family with grand parents and children and grand
children are living together at different parts of this mansion. Of course
there is another family living at the same mansion as a housekeeper.
Besides the
architectural quality of the house the site has also a significant identity in
terms of its geographic qualities. Ürgüp is located on the skirts of a volcanic
mountain “Erciyes” in Anatolia.
REFERENCES
Haug, Volfgang Fritz (1986). Critique of Commodity Aesthetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
Chambers, Iain
(1986) Popular Culture, London: Routledge.