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Ömür Harmansah

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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

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Search Brown

 

 

After my latest visit to the site (and witnessing graffiti in the making!), I realized that the site is a very important public space, even though it is technically not public. Some of my favorite indicators are the half-hearted attempts to block off the space: the single chain-link gate at the end of the parking lot, the trampled barbed-wire fence at the bridge's entrance. It seems like the space has gained significance precisely through a sort of reaction to the "state". The space's restrictiveness (a heterotopic quality) fosters its appeal to a broad public. On my visit, there were also graffiti artists and a lone explorer, proof of a vibrancy of sorts.

I want to explore how this heterotopic space is an unlikely, though important, collective space. I want to consider how this is possible. Some early ideas include the collective sense of secrecy, forbiddenness that create this.

Annie

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Hi Annie

This sounds great. What you summarized below is excellent, actually touching the heart of the issue that I would like to see us exploring more and more. This is a space that is officially dis-acknowledged (or dis-knowledged? denied) as public space by the state/city government, even attempted to be closed off. However the intensity of the use of this space by people undermines effectively the city government's classification of this space as "closed-off" "off-limits" or "non-public". The relationship between how the state manages public space, and how people's own everyday practices challenges it, is one way to go. One of the books I listed in my previous e-mail, The architecture of everyday might be helpful in this regard. When the state closes off parts of public space while the citizens continue to inhabit it, what happens is that this marginalized urban space become heterotopic, and the activities that you carry out there start to be transgressive in character. The interesting discussion on questions of threshold/boundary and marginal acts/performances in public space is really interesting.

Let's continue to discuss.

Omur

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