KADK THESIS PROGRAM

Page 1

Thesis Program Submission

Drawing the Veil Delineating an Asymmetrical Dialectic Boundary Condition by Testing Representation Through Production within the Gendered Context of Istanbul, Turkey

The Royal Danish Academy of Arts School of Architecture Department 2 EK Urban Architectures of Persistent Transform Tutor: Niels GrønbÌk

Julie Ann Cormie t +45 26 20 83 87 e julieanncormie@gmail.com w julieanncormie.com

Table of Contents

3

Program Abstract

5

Definitions

9

Objectives

15

Context

19

Proposal

29

Methodology

33

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

39

Perspectival Optics

49

The Gaze - Angles of Expression

53

Gender/Custom/Costume

59

Synthesis

67

Appendix

75

Bibliography

77

CV

79

5

Abstract

Abstract

7

This project will aim to address the dialectics between the gendered body, building and city, in the context of current day Istanbul, Turkey. The dialogue between the existing program of the ‘state regulated brothel’ and a newly introduced program of ‘fashion atelier’ will be articulated through a gradual process of conversion, and a continual negotiation of the boundary between the two. Turkey and particularly Istanbul, is considered an emerging global producer and market. It currently finds itself in a tenuous position of self-reflection regarding the line it straddles between a ‘modern’ secular state and a more traditional, conservative and predominantly Islamic state. Thus, it is an appropriate context in which to test these questions of dialectics. The project will revolve around a process of delineating a new veil of perception and a physical veil of concealing and revealing. This will involve the material and spatial testing of the articulation, creating contrasting sides thus negotiating the boundaries between the two programs throughout the site. Through this speculative process, new modes of representation will be employed and tested at different scales relating to the body, the existing context and the city which surrounds the site.

9

Definitions

Definitions

di路a路lec路tic noun in philosophy

a method of examining and discussing opposing ideas in order to find the truth any systematic reasoning, exposition, or argument that juxtaposes opposed or contradictory ideas and usually seeks to resolve their conflict an intellectual exchange of ideas the tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements

11

oth er noun in philosophy

one that remains of two or more a thing opposite to or excluded by something else a different or additional one one (as another person) that is psychologically differentiated from the self often capitalized : one considered by members of a dominant group as alien, exotic, threatening, or inferior (as because of different racial, sexual, or cultural characteristics)

Definitions

veil noun

a length of cloth worn by women over the head, shoulders, and often the face. a length of netting attached to a woman’s hat or habit, worn for decoration or to protect the head and face. the part of a nun’s headdress that frames the face and falls over the shoulders. the life or vows of a nun. a piece of light fabric hung to separate or conceal what is behind it; a curtain. something that conceals, separates, or screens like a curtain: a veil of secrecy.

13

15

Objectives

<

<

<

Prostitutes in storefront like windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam

Woman wearing a Niqab in Istanbul

<

Advertisement and woman passing in Istanbul

Partition between the women’s prayer space and the men’s in the Blue Mosque, Istanbul, and example of physical partition between the genders.

Objectives

17

This proposal has emerged from an ongoing study of the issue of the body relative to an evolving spatial understanding throughout history.

What role does architecture play in the mediation of the body and the city? What are the spatial and bodily implications regarding the revealing and concealing of the body?

This project aims to use these questions to manifest ideas in an architecture that will insist of the user to question the conventions which are in place and may prevent them from seeing, being seen, or experiencing things in any other way. If there is a scalar correlation and discreet connection between the body and the city, what role does architecture play as the material and spatial mediator between? The deconstruction of the notion of ideal symmetry, asymmetry or any duality or existing binary opposition will be undertaken, and the notion of space being conceived and represented from a single static viewpoint will be challenged. How these new dynamic viewpoints will be considered, represented and experienced, is the problematic this proposal is concerned with. The project will consist of a process-based design investigation and the intervention will be based on a fluid, multi-scalar, and temporal positioning in the realms of perspectival, gender and cultural considerations.

19

Context

“I am a fashion designer by profession. I was always a businesswoman. How I love business! Even before I was married I had my own fashion house making and designing clothes for Istanbul’s richest ladies” -Matild Manukyan (1914-2001)

Matild Manukyan, the infamous brothel ‘Madame’ as a young woman.

<

<

Site in Context of 41.024437, 28.975431 Karaköy Istanbul, Turkey

Context

21

The government regulated brothel district in Karaköy commonly known as Zurafa Sokak or Giraffe street, lies just south of the Galata Tower down a steep cobblestone street found on the boundary between the Galata and Karaköy districts. Several of these brothel houses were once owned by Matild Manukyan, once known as the ‘Madame’ of the brothel industry in Istanbul. Manukyan was born into an aristocratic Armenian family in 1914, in what was then Constantinople, near the end of the Ottoman Empire. Manukyan opened and operated a ‘haute couture fashion atelier’ for the elite socialites of the time, and later also managed the estate of her father who owned several buildings in the red light district of Karaköy. It is rumored that she became directly involved in the brothel business when a client who couldn’t pay off their debt, offered her the title and ownership of one of the brothels in the district instead. In the following years she came own 14 different brothels and became extremely wealthy. In 1997 Manukyan‘s empire was estimated to be worth over $200 million, and she was the highesr paying tax payer for several years in the 1990s. Manukyan claimed to have had “the best looking and best behaved girls in the industry,”1 and although she tended to keep a distance from the operations of the houses, controversy arose as she was accused of employing underage prostitutes. Subsequently she was seriously injured in a car bombing attack after the publicity of this scandal and never fully recovered from her injuries. According to the limited information available about the interior and the configuration of the buildings, there were at one time 42 houses operating on the street, but only 11 of them are still active today. There is an ongoing controversy with the current more conservative government2 which is slowly succeeding in shutting down the remaining houses. According to one source there are plans to demolish the buildings and creating a park for children instead.

1. from “Call me Madame” article in The New Republic 2. Justice and Development Party or AKP

<

Images of the 2013 protests to keep Zurafa Street open for business

Context

23

After Manukyan died in 2001, her son, as her sole heir, closed her brothels and they have remained that way since. Despite the rumors of plans to demolish and convert the area into a park, there is a continued controversy involving the prostitutes protesting publicly to keep them open. Rather than forcing sex workers out onto the streets it is understood that the brothels are a relative safe haven to work in. According to the workers interviewed in the past year, the authorities have been closing down these establishments arbitrarily because of alleged violation of existing rules and regulations. Despite this, a spokesperson for the provincial government’s department in charge of licensing brothels in Istanbul, said that they weren’t aware of any policy to close down the brothels.

<

There are other red-light districts with illegal brothels and it is also common for prostitutes to work on the streets in Istanbul; one of the arguments for keeping the industry government regulated is that those working in a controlled brothel are safer: the regulations provide a healthier environment for both the customers and the workers. Another argument in support of leaving Zurafa Street open for business is that having the licensed brothels might help to prevent the workers from being victims of illegal sex-trafficking, which is a major problem in Turkey.2

Three stills taken from an undercover youtube video shot on Zurafa Sokak

1. From article “Turkey Cracks down on Legal Brothels in the New York Times, January 23 2013. 2. UN Office on Drugs and Crime Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2012

Context

Images of men outside the gate on Alageyik Sokak

Image of the dilapidated brothel buildings from the outside

<

<

25

Context

Galata Tower

27

Saint Benoit Fransız Lisesi High School Main Entrance and Security Gate Church Ruin Alageyik Sokak Armenian Catholic Church Synagogue Kemeralti Caddesi Blocked Passage Zurafa Caddesi Blocked Passage Sabanci University Bankalar Caddesi

Karaköy Fish Market <

Significant context Karaköy Surp Pırgiç Armenian Catholic Church Catholic Armenians of the Ottoman Empire built their first church in Galata in 1831. This church, was opened on January 13, 1834 and is still in service today.

<

The Golden Horn

<

Galata Bridge

Müeyyedzade Mh. Sinagogue Bankalar Caddesi

< Site drawing

29

Proposal

Proposal

31

The program of the fashion atelier and of textile design and manufacturing facilities will be reintroduced into the site. This is a multi-scalar proposal and will engage with contextual issues. They will range from the processes and products of the new ateliers, to the engagement within and between the new private and public spaces, between the coexisting program of the brothel, and will deal with the engagement with the surrounding city. The empty brothels will be treated as initial site and spatial context for the fashion atelier. These existing buildings will provide the framework for storefront, office and smaller scale manufacturing possibilities. These design ateliers will consist of onsite measuring/ drawing/design shops, while storefronts could potentially have related manufacturing facilities and raw material farming above or offsite and could address even a larger scale in the urban and suburban context in Istanbul. The newly inserted program and the brothel program will coexist as the border condition, and the spaces negotiated between the programs will be continuously redefined. The rooms of production, change rooms, waiting rooms and public space for events and runway shows and the more private spaces like change rooms and staging areas will be interwoven and dissolved between the two realms of the programs. Rather than engaging with the typical contemporary approach of demolishing a “problem” and building anew, this proposal will address the desire for something new, yet also relate strongly to the past allowing for a consideration of the historical significance and cultural role of the site - both of the brothels and in reference to Maukyan’s controversial role in the community. This project will not only mitigate and question the asymmetrical divide between the body and the gaze, but will also address the issue of “the Other”. Through the reassignment of the privileged view, the notions of concealing, interiority and of the boundary between the two conditions will be tested.

33

Methodology

“To be outside allows one a fresh perspective on the inside� -Elizabeth Grosz

Methodology

35

Operating within the following methodological and theoretical framework, this proposal will slide between scales from the body to the city including the design of the devices/clothes for the body, the means and modes of production - both of the clothes and of the representations of the architectural proposition. This design process and its representations will be negotiated by the veil of perception itself, which could be imagined as the fabric of the clothing and the first layer of a haptic architecture. The program of the fashion atelier/exchange is one of progressive suggestion and imagining, in a place that seems to be caught between two realities. The asymmetry and dissonance between the two programs will act as generator of production and perception, and also will propose a future situation which questions the role of the body. As an outsider to Istanbul, I have an external viewpoint to this situation. It seems that as I learn more about the site and context, my position shifts and changes, unlike perhaps someone considered an insider, who has set themselves in a particular position and might intend on staying there. But it seems somehow appropriate for an ‘Other’ to be trying to situate a viewpoint, in a project seemingly obsessed about gaze and about position. Also, since women are prohibited from entering the brothel (unless they possess a permit to be a prostitute), my viewpoint is distinctly placed outside. I situated myself in the project by implicating my own body as site, as a scalar base point on which to measure the city, the intent and considerations of the project and the intended products of the design.

The overall structure for the project will operate within and between three scales, and will produce work in and between them. The project will exist in the 1:1 scale of the clothing directly relating to the body and at the scale of the manufacturing, and this will correlate with the notion of the viewing device which will also operate at a 1:1, yet the representations it produces or induces will be of a variety of representational scales. The proposal will operate in and between the:

Scale of the Body

Scale of the building

Scale of the city

Representation will be in the appropriate corresponding scales which may include the following:

1:200

1:20

1:1

1:10

1:2000

1:1000

1:100 1:50

1:500

<

The following sections of this document will outline the theortical and methodological frames as they currently stand in relation to the proposal. These frames are not considered static or unchangeable from this point on, but they will be flexible and likely change, expand or contract based on the demands of the process.

Methodology

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality Perspectival Optics The Gaze - Angles of Expression Gender/Custom/Costume

37

39

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

Methodology

Vitruvius called the body the measure of architecture and pionerred ideas of proportion.1 According to Hermann Weyl, the word symmetry carries two meanings in our current language, “In one sense, ‘symmetric’ means something like well-proportioned, wellbalanced, and symmetry denotes that sort of concordance of several parts by which they integrate into a whole.”2 He goes on to say that “beauty is bound up with symmetry.” Weyl explains in a great deal of depth and complexity, the intricacies involved in bilateral, radial and fractal symmetries, and as a mathematician he is bound to see this perfection as beauty. There is an obvious and a strong historical affinity for symmetry in architecture, starting from the basis in geometry, symmetry and proportion. It manifests itself throughout, from the seminal treatises of Vitruvius, Alberti, and through to the modern oeuvre, an example being Mies Van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavillion.3 Immanuel Kant commented in the late 18th century on how“[a]ll stiff regularity (such as borders on mathematical regularity) is inherently repugnant to taste, in that the contemplation of it affords us no lasting entertainment ... and we get heartily tired of it.”4 Since the argument for symmetry being the most important element for beauty seems rational and strong, yet this begs that there is something appealing and convincing about the beauty of asymmetry as well, almost as if the rules of symmetry are being set up for them then to be broken.5

1. This concept is the subject in Book 3 Chapter 1 in Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture 2. H. Weyl (1952) Symmetry (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). 3. Explained in “Paradoxical Symmetries” by Robin Evans, in Translations, pp. 233-277 4. McManus, I. C. (2005) Symmetry and asymmetry in aesthetics and the arts 5. ibid

Image of Heteroscopic Ossification - the congenital disease which manifests as the fusing of bones together

<

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. “The measure of architecture”

41

An x-ray showing the structure of a corset and the human bone structure being affected within the human body

<

<

<

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

Drawing showing the damage to the human skeleton after being corseted for many years - The human body beings to depend on the extra structure and actually lose it structural integrity on its own

Methodology

<

Section traces of a 3D scanned woman, laid out from left to right 5mm distance between cuts - showing the overall exterior limit of symmetry found in the body

<

Sections through a human body reflected on the center axis to amplify the inherent asymmetry

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

43

The tracing of exterior verses the imaging of the interior, the tension between the notion of asymmetrical interior versus a symmetrical exterior

Methodology

While symmetry might suggest a sense of balance and stasis, asymmetry suggests movement. According to E. H. Gombrich in his essay The Image and the Eye, further studies the psychology of pictorial representation. He demonstrated the notion of symmetry (and perhaps any binary relationship) as a metaphor, which can and has been applied to many relationships. “Symmetry and asymmetry are an essential dialectic for both science and aesthetics.”1 The images show the same boat in two different frames, where the asymmetry results in a sense of movement indicated an importance both its placement in the frame and the lack of symmetry found in the overall frame of the drawing. If asymmetry implies movement (inherently a temporal construct), this would suggest a sort of evolution which could operate on many different scales within and perhaps of the frame of the picture plane. It would be much more simple to accept all relationships as dualities. It could be argued that the datum which separates and divides is in itself another entity, thus instantly dissolves the illusion of only two, which begins in the conversation of deconstruction, and of postmodern thought. Michael Foucault presented the notion of a mirror (which could be a surface which reflects a virtual perfect symmetry) as a perfect heterotopian space in his text Of Other Spaces in the respect that it is a space that can never be entered.2 I am suggesting an imperfect mirror be a physical and conceptual notion to test and question the potential and limits of the representation of the material or heterotopian boundary between symmetry and asymmetry. Perhaps if a perfect mirror did exist, it could be the datum which separates the world into discreet dualities, but because it doesn’t, it seems that the reality of temporality and an asymmetrical evolution prevail, and so in and around the context of a continual process (such as a body/or a city), architecture should exist.3 1. McManus, I. C.(2005) Symmetry and asymmetry in aesthetics and the arts p. 177 2. Foucault, M. (1984) Of Other Spaces, p. 3 3. I should say that the notion of Heterotopia has spread in its relevance to this project, not only dealing with the idea of mirror, symmetry, but the explicit heterotopic nature of the brothel on this site; as in the inpenetrable nature of its boundary condition.

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

45

Rest Binding Order Law Formal rigidity Constraint Boredom Stillness Monotony Fixity Stasis Simplicity

Motion Loosening Arbitrariness Accident Life, play Freedom Interest Chaos Surprise Detachment Flux Complexity

<

Asymmetry

McManus’s re-creation of Gombrich’s illustration of comparing symmetry and asymmetry

<

Symmetry

Table demonstrating the summary of the psychological and aesthetic properties of symmetry and asymmetry according to art historians and philosophers.

<

Examples of Slit scan photography capturing the temporal scan through a passageway

<

Methodology

Early work of Nat Chard relating the body to the city in a temporal realm of representation

Body/Asymmetry/Temporality

<

Examples of modified stereoscopes and pseudoscopes used to test and record temporal stereopsis in relation to the movement of the body

47

49

Perspectival Optics

Methodology

The development of perspectival theory according to the seminal book by Lars Marcussen Architecture of Space, Space of Architecture can be a process which situates the human body in relation to the understating and ability to represent itself in space is important for understanding how we relate to our current understanding of space. He explains that there are analogies between how a child learns to understand space represent it, and how humans over history learned and evolved to represent and see space. The stages of the two progressions create a dialogue as they present two very different but very human time scales. Perspectival theory as we understand and use it today in drawing is still a construction of single geometric viewpoint the of space, although we have two eyes, which constantly move, blink and refocus. The human brain understands space through our two eyes which produce binocular vision. There are three interesting attributes of binocular vision that, (in addition to the perceptual cues provided to each individual eye during monocular vision (like texture, object size, perspective, overlay, motion parallax etc)) provide depth cues and understanding. They are: rivalry, convergence and disparity. Disparity is the reason for stereopsis, a phenomenon which discovered by Charles Wheatstone in 1833. The Stereoscope is a device developed to simulate the phenomenon of depth in the perception of two images into a singular perception in the brain.

<

A pseudoscope is a similar device to a stereoscope, but instead of simulating depth, Lars Marcussen’s progressive stages of human’s representation of perspectival development - From the Architecture of Space, The Space of Architecture

Perspectival Optics

51

it switches the location of the two eyes thus inverting the depth perception and itc basically tricks the brain into misinterpreting the images it receives, for example seeing a void where a volume should be. This is particularly interesting when observing a three dimensional space or object, rather than a pictorial two-dimensional representation of it.

Albrecht Durer’s woodcut of a draftsperson using a perspectival veil to draw a nude 1538

<

A diagram speculating about binocular vision from the Traite de Passions of Rene Decartes Diagram of a type of stereoscope. Diagram explaining how a pseudoscope works

A Stereogram by Marcel Duchamp, an artist fascinated by the notion of stereoscopy

<

< <

<

Imagining this picture plane as a perception altering membrane would be redefining the perspectival veil as perhaps a moving or 3D object that could alter what and how we see.

53

The Gaze - Angles of Expression

Methodology

The artist Marcel Duchamp has most recently been described by Penelope Haralambidou in her article titled “The Stereoscopic Veil” as “a Cartesian with a twist: he was tempted to question or subvert it.” Duchamp challenges the notion of the flat intersecting picture plane that defines perspectival theory. He uses the metaphor of the veil in his work in two senses of the word, as the female garment and also netting. The French word he uses is Voile, and according to Haralambidou, “[it] links different works by him, [and] indicates communication or exchange of information, and persistently merges both meanings.” Most specifically, between the Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even... (1915-1923) and in the Étant Donne (Given): 1st the waterfall, 2nd the illuminating gas (1946-1966). Both of the pieces are representing and questioning the situated gaze in relation to a body in space and dealing with the notion of desire. The process of revealing/concealing and how it relates to the veil of perspective which is implied in the construction of the pieces.

<

This method of precise representation of the questioning of perception, vision and of the picture plane in relation to both the viewer and the subject is relevant to my proposed problematic.

A diagram explaining the configuration of Étant Donneé

The Gaze - Angles of Expression

<

<

The diagram explaining Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped The exterior of the door with two holes to look into Bare by Her Bachelors Even (The Large Glass) and an < The interior view of Duchamp’s Étant Donneé image of it on the right.

55

Methodology

If the body becomes both the subject and the object, depth perception plays a crucial part in both how we understand space, and also how the expression of the subject’s body is understood and how we relate to it. The differences between the veil and the mask are the potential for expressiveness, while both aim at concealing the subject’s face, the mask becomes active beyond that. The structure of a mask enables different expressions, where as the veil provides only concealment and the subsequent potential for revealing. The mask affects the impression of the viewer by changing the body expression of the wearer, but also challenges the viewer on both sides. This idea is best illustrated by the following two examples: The mask in the top image is an example of a Noh Japanese theatre mask. It is shown here from three different camera angles, making it seem like three different expressions that can be made by the same form. Not only the positioning of the viewer is important, but also the way that the mask is worn and expressed changes its meaning. The middle image illustrates the optical illusion of a Charlie Chaplin mask which rotates in place. When the concave side of the mask is facing the viewer, it is almost impossible to see the mask as a concave surface. The face seems to pop out at the viewer. Our brains are wired to override the lighting cues and the other depth information we are given and see the interior of the mask as an exterior face-like structure. The photo (at right) by Doisneau is part of a series capturing the reactions of people viewing antiques in a store window when they discover a female nude painting hung off to the side. This image illustrates the idea that the gaze differs from men to women, and the notion that the gaze is often mono-directional. Throughout art’s history, the subject of the female body being objectified has been a topic of debate. The concept of the gendered gaze becomes relevant to the project, in that both the realm of fashion and the world of brothels.

<

The Gaze - Angles of Expression

< <

57

A single Noh Japanese mask photographed from three different positions/angles. These four views of a Charlie Chaplin mask show the illusion as one looks into the concave side of the mask Robert Doisneau’s photograph from the series un regard oblique from 1948

59

Gender/Custom/Costume

Methodology

The relationship between the gendered body, its cultural roles and the changing ideal silhouette has been a fluid one throughout history. Costume is traditionally used as an indicator of gender. It starts even with babies; with specifically coloured baby blankets that then evolve into the a child being dressed in appropriate fashions of the era. Our identity seems to be wrapped up with the clothing we are forced and then choose ourselves to wear. People choose to partake in the culture of fashion because it empoweres them to be part of something, or to resist and remain outside of the mainstream.1 More specifically, the dramatic change in Western female dress customs in the last three centuries illustrates changing ideals of enhancement and concealment. These values reflect changes and evolution in both the political and economic spheres. This presents an interesting counterpoint to the heritage and seemingly slower evolution of Asian/Middle-Eastern dress culture, parts of which can be found found in Turkey today. Clothing can significantly affect how a body operates in space, and also how others relate to and perceive it. Fashion is a sign system where signs act as mediators between modes of production and ideological institutions.2 Considering both signification but also its significance is a way to understand that clothing and fashion could be a two directional language. The relationship between the drawn pattern and the final three dimensional construction provides an interesting analogy to the potentials of representation, along with material interactions and assemblies.

1. This notion of counterculture influencing and pushing the cultural norms and changing the ideal style is quite interesting. 2. Califato, P. (1997) Fashion and Worldiness: Language and Imagery of the Clothed Body. Fashion Theory: the Journal of Dress, Body & Culture Vol 1 Iss 1

Gender/Custom/Costume

<

The changing axes of symmetry of the idealized female form

<

Multi-sized pattern drawing for cutting pattern pieces for a dress Adjustable sewing mannequin

<

<

An extreme example of how costume can affect how others relate to the body

61

Methodology

Gender/Custom/Costume

63

<

Drawing showing the idealized traces and patterns related to the female human body clothing tradition - on the right the simple pattern for a draped niqab, and on the left the silhouette of significantly more complex and structural corset pattern

Methodology

The veil in the context of this project will not only be understood as a religious article of clothing. The etymology of the word veil and the usage of it today indicated that it plays a spatial role, with or without a body present. Although it does carry with it a historicized meaning in relation to body, it can be used in to mean to cover, protect, or separate and screen either a space or object, often in a sacred context, but not necessarily. The sociocultural effects of veils have not been studied extensively, but as a religious item it is understood that the veil’s purpose is to show honour to a space or object. Similarly, as an article of clothing its role is to create or maintain social distance, communicate social status and cultural identity.1 The veil has been associated with religious practices throughout history, but perhaps first became popular for practical reasons, such as protecting the face from blowing sand/dirt and sun/wind exposure. In Judaism, Christian and Islamic religious tradition the veil is significant. In Islam, the veil has become ingrained into the everyday dress custom of women, while it tends to only remain in wedding and other significant ceremonies in both Judaism and Christian tradition. In some of the more traditional sects and as well in modern secular society, hats with attached veils for special ceremonies still remain common practice. Another example of the religious veil would be Catholic nuns of and other conservative sects who continue to wear the veil at some or all times. In Islamic society different forms of the veil were adopted from the Arab cultures from which Islam emerged. One of the current western views of the Islamic veil is that is highlights the prohibition by the male, perhaps ignoring the fact that this primarily considers and highlights the male’s gaze. There is also controversy within Islamic circles, where the controversy revolves 1.Murphy, R.F. (1964). Social Distance and the Veil. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 66, No. 6, Part 1, pp. 1257–1274

Gender/Custom/Costume

65

around interpretation of Islamic doctrine and if there is in fact a basis for the veiling of women prescribed by the prophet Muhammad. The international debate is concerning the place for veiling of women in modern secular and free society. It is especially interesting that the veil was technically outlawed in Turkey’s civil institutions including universities and courtrooms since the 1980s, but the root of the law dates back to the founding of Atatürk’s secular Turkish Republic. In 2013 this law was partially repealed and it is now permitted for civil servants to wear the veil if they choose to, although the ban remains in place for judges, prosecutors, police and military personnel. “One side sees the ways in which the veil might objectify and disenfranchise the woman, whereas from the other side it is the woman who, in prohibiting the gaze of the other, defies objectification and thus creates a space for her own subjectivity and autonomy.”2 The veil seems to locate both fear and a sense of desire, and thus can be seen as a manifestation of both the danger and the mystery of sexuality.3 “Nothing encapsulates the divide between the two sides better than the debate over headscarves. Many of the ruling party's women supporters - including the prime minister's wife, Emine Erdogan - wear them, yet they remain banned from official buildings under Turkey's strictly secular constitution.”4

<

image of different veil typologies in Islam 2. Hilsdon, A.-M. and Rozario, S. (2006). Special Issue on Islam, Gender and Human Rights. Women’s from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/ Studies International Forum 29, pp. 331–338. | Article | spl/hi/pop_ups/05/europe_muslim_veils/ 3. Charles, M. (2008) The Masquerade, The Veil, and The Phallic Mask. Psychoanalysis, Culture & html/1.stm Society 13, 24-34 p1 4. Chamberlain, G. (2014) Turkey’s ‘Creeping Islamisation Devides Nation” The Telegraph

67

Synthesis

These diagrams show the beginning synthesis of the ideas within and between the frames of methodology and the relational nature they will operate within. This scalar shifting offers potentials in the realm of representation - a notion that these drawings and diagrams of the devices begin to reference. The body will be implicated in the site through the different modes of representation at different scales.

<

Synthesis

The site model is imagined with two moveable cameras which can place the two eyes in different locations along the pathways marked. The pseudoscopic nature of the devices could present an inverted depth field condition.

69

rd

<

brothel

The two sides of the passage way in Istanbul as unfolded through time of passage. The visual entry points are unfolded into the inaccessible brothel space are seen in an ‘a-temporal’ projection of plan

Synthesis

<

The development of a new way of seeing/drawing both sides at once - The two sided passage way is imagined and attempted to be reconciled and represented here over different mirrored planes of symmetry, following the center of the passage or over a true horizontal axis

71

<

Psuedoscopic Corset Device - This device was intended to connect the visual world with the bodily world. Creating a relationship between the site - through the represented model presented in stereo on the two ipad screens, and thus implicating the body through the device itself.

Synthesis

left eye field of view

73

right eye field of view

right retina

left retina

optic nerve

optic tract

lateral geniculate nucelus

LEFT BRAIN

RIGHT BRAIN

RIGHT VISUAL FEILD CROSSING TO LEFT BRAIN

LEFT VISUAL FIELD CROSSING TO RIGHT BRAIN

<

Drawing of the pseudoscope component of the device and the areas of the brain implicated by the two visual fields being disrupted

75

Appendix

Bibliography

77

CV

79

EDUCATION Master of Architecture

09.2012 - 06.2014

Royal Danish Academy of Art School of Architecture EK Program Department 2

Bachelor of Environmental Design

09.2008 - 05.2010

University of Manitoba Architecture Major

Department of English and Fine Arts

09.2005 - 05.2008

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Outtatown Program South Africa

09.2003 - 04.2004

Canadian Mennonite University Conflict Resolution Studies Diploma obtained

Westgate Mennonite Collegiate

09.1998 - 06.2003

High School Diploma [earned with honors] Winnipeg, Canada

WORK EXPERIENCE White Arkitekter

05.2013 - 08.2013

[Copenhagen, Denmark]

Student Model Builder

Schmidt Hammer Lassen

03.2013 - 06.2013

[Copenhagen, Denmark]

Student Model Builder

Peretti & Peretti Architekten

02.2012 - 06.2012

[Vienna, Austria]

4 month work internship, member of competition development team

RAW: Gallery of Architecture & Design

04.2010 - 08.2011

[Winnipeg, Canada]

Founding Member & Director of Graphics/Promotion/Gallery Coordinator

DeJong Construction Inc.

04.2010 - 04.2011

[Winnipeg, Canada]

Assistant to a general contractor in all stages of small scale construction processes from demolishing, plumbing, electrical, carpentry

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.