CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Space and Culture
Organiser: Justine Lloyd
Briganti Chiara and Mezei, Kathy (Simon
Fraser University, Canada) THE SPATIAL TURN IN THE INTERWAR YEARS
In this paper we discuss how the "spatial turn", with its attendant
reclamation of the everyday as a subject of study, enables us to reassess
notions of literary status and cultural and aesthetic value. Within the
framework of the historical and symbiotic relationship between houses and novels
and the simulacra of domestic and vernacular architecture, we will examine the
importance and evolution of domestic space in the domestic novel of the
inter-war years and this genre's negotiation both in technique and subject
matter, between the scorn for the domestic as exemplified in Le Corbusier's
critique of the 'cult of the house' and government sponsored, market driven
propaganda for a postwar 'cult of domesticity' Though domestic novelists can be
scathing in critiquing the oppressiveness of the space of the house in the
construction of feminine subjectivity, they also remind us of the importance of
discovering 'more about the place of home in the woman' (Light 1991). By paying
attention to the place of home and domestic ritual in the woman in domestic
novels, and examining the relationship between the domestic space and the space
of the novel we gain a method for a critical reappraisal of a large corpus of
fiction that has long languished on library shelves.
Hodges, Benjamin (University of Texas at
Austin, USA) RENDERING THE REAL: CGI AND THE TRADE IN TECHNIQUES
This paper is a study of Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI) and its implications
for the practice of Cultural Studies. The text is structured around the problems
and problem-solving techniques that comprise this industry and science. These
include the technical struggles involved in the creation of photo-realistic
imagery and the distribution of this know-how to a community of users in the
form of online tutorials, discussion forums, and conferences. Examples are
culled from the users of a freeware three-dimensional design program called
Blender, major graphics conferences, and popular broadcast and film uses of CGI.
Some of the lines of inquiry that result from this combination of Cultural
Studies and CGI include such questions as; how do imaging technologies influence
the production of scientific truth, what place is there for ethnographic and
anthropological approaches to digital aesthetics, and what might such an
anthropology of aesthetics look like.
Hynynen, Ari (Tampere University of
Technology, Finland) MULTICULTURAL URBANISM NEAR THE RUSSIAN BORDER
Since 1990 has 30000 Russian speaking remigrants settled down in Finland.
Finnish immigration officials try to implement active integration policy, but
the norms and agendas lack the spatial dimension. In my case study in the city
of Joensuu I am striving to discover the interdependence between the spatial
everyday life of immigrants and the urban space. Since these are both culturally
bound, I assume they contribute mutually to acculturation processes. However,
strong spatial determinism seems unlikely. On the contrary, the ethnic-cultural
minorities in Joensuu appear willing and capable to appropriate urban space.
They tend to apply different tactics, which produce either relieving
invisibility or arenas to present their strengths. The use of tactics gradually
produces rhizomatic multicultural > city, which ought to be recognized by
urban planning, in order to enable active multiculturalism in urban policies.
Reynaud, Ana (Universidade do Rio de
Janeiro - UniRio, Brazil) RE-IMAGINING SPACE: IMMIGRANT FESTIVITIES IN RIO DE
JANEIRO
My paper centers around a series of interviews with European and Asian
immigrants - French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, Polish and Japanese - and
their descendants who live in Rio de Janeiro. The great majority arrived in
Brazil in the first-half of the twentieth century largely in response to events
of the two world wars. I explore the choices these immigrants make in how they
have re-constituted and celebrated/performed their old world traditions in a
carioca (Rio) setting through music, dance, dress, props, and cuisine. I am
particularly interested in which elements of pre-migrant culture and experience
are re-created in Rio and which are left out. Specifically, what needs,
strategies and politics shape these adaptations of ethnic, national, and
religious traditions? In my paper, I pay close attention to the notion of urban
"space." I examine how do these physical structures conform to Rio's
urban texture, notably the city's architectural and social configuration. In
focusing on immigrant strategies of adaptation and preservation through
festivities in Rio, ultimately, I hope to explore the invisible city - the
symbolic city which people experiment with their memories and affections and
which is inscribed in the visible spatiality.
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