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.