nature as space
Transkript
nature as space
NATURE AS SPACE (re)UNDERSTANDING NATURE AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS Edited by Güven Arif Sargın Contributors Mark Bassin Emel Aközer Rana Nergis Öğüt Güven Arif Sargın Jale Erzen Ayşen Savaş Raffaele Milani f m y METU Faculty of Architecture 2000 To My Beloved Comrades CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTE INTRODUCTION: SOME THOUGHTS ON HOW TO READ THE NATURAL AND THE SOCIAL Mark Bassin Section I: Re-conceptualizing Nature and the Natural NATURE FROM WITHIN AND FROM WITHOUT Emel Aközer SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE CONCEPTION OF NATURE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT Rana Nergis Öğüt Section II: The Politics of Nature and the Nature of Environmental Politics NATURE OF RESISTANCE AND COUNTER-HEGEMONY IN POSTSTRUCTURAL SOCIETY Güven Arif Sargın Section III: The Dichotomy of Nature: Cultural Paradigms of Nature in Art NATURE, ITS AESTHETIC KNOWLEDGE AND ART Jale Erzen AGAINST NATURE: ATHROPY AND THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Ayşen Savaş THE BIRTH OF THE AESTHETICS OF LANDSCAPE Raffaele Milani Section IV: The Nature of Urban and the Natural Rural CONCLUDING NOTES Güven Arif Sargın ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS Editor’s Note Despite recent scholarly endeavors to (re)understand nature and natural environments, there remain a number of historically abandoned issues and thus, a wide spectrum of politico-ideological positions to overcome. In part, viewed from perspectives of critical social theory, both the form and the content of contemporary exertions deviate, as they tend to problematize their concerns within frameworks of nature-culture dichotomy. What is peculiar about these frameworks are the modes of questions that no longer solely address the exclusion of nature and natural environments from intellectual surveillance, but that reveal the procedure of social construction of nature with special reference to different academic domains, such as history, art, culture, politics, and others. Parallel with these developments are such areas of interest that are also now growing in design circles as powerful realms contributing discursive linkages, both theoretical and spatial, between natural and built environments. Schools of design have underestimated, intentionally or otherwise, and sometimes even ignored proponents of nature and/or natural environments in their curricula based on a common rationale which asserts that the design production is a distinctive process with which nature has limited if any impact. This clear-cut distinction between built and natural environments has subjected itself to serious criticisms, and there are now increasing intentions and efforts to unite nature and the design artifact under one roof. This book, in this sense, is a sincere attempt to open new paths and to reconsider nature and natural environments not as separate milieus but as dimensions that are integral to design discourses and practices. The editor wish to express his gratitude to Prof. Dr. Mark Bassin of University College London for his review and introductory contribution, Dr. Gül Sosay of TUSİAD, and Dr. Can Bayraktar of Yeditepe University in İstanbul for their final reviews. Thanks also to Fatih C. Öz for his cover design. Finally, we are also grateful to the Faculty of Architecture at METU for their support in publication of this book. Güven Arif Sargın, Ankara 2000 Section I: Re-conceptualizing Nature and the Natural Tormented by environmental catastrophe, the forms and the content of such conceptions as nature, natural, landscape, earth, ecology, green, and sustainability have been incorporated into new discursive modes through which they in turn produce new literary means of explaining social and cultural coding. This section is thus devoted to a redefinition of these concepts in light of contemporary findings as an attempt to provide better understandings of how, for what reason, and to what extent they are produced, consumed, reproduced, and made available to the public through institutions and the forces of high and popular cultures, respectively. Contributors Emel Aközer Nature from Within and from Without Rana Nergis Öğüt Some Reflections on the Conception of Nature within the Framework of the Dialectic of Enlightenment Section II: The Politics of Nature and the Nature of Environmental Politics Recent attempts to construct contextual histories of natural/cultural environments have re-focused attention on the theories and the proponents of social and cultural studies in design disciplines and related fields. Such endeavors primarily derive their momentum from their understandings of political forces that constantly engage in shaping, and/or transforming natural environments into cultural ones, or vice versa. This section includes the analyses of some of the forces in the processes of production and/or re-production of natural/cultural environments for identity, control, discipline, struggle and power. In other words, the objective is to reveal elements in the political syntax of those acts oriented towards physical and philosophical changes in nature and built environments. Contributor Güven Arif Sargın Nature of Resistance and CounterHegemony in PostStructural Society Section III: The Dichotomy of Nature: Cultural Paradigms of Nature in Art Despite the resourcefulness of literature concerned with discourses of nature and natural environments, it often remains inadequate in defining the actors, ideas and modes of operations it seeks to address; thus scholarly debates revolve around fabricated and distracting dichotomies, in particular, with respect to art and aesthetics. We observe such metaphoric polarization in topics concerning, for example, tamed vs. untamed, local vs. trans-national, beautiful vs. sublime, and so on. This section, therefore, aims to challenge these socially constructed dichotomies—binary oppositions with special reference to topos, civilized, uncivilized artizanal, artistic, placeless, constricted, boundless, time-confined, timeless… Contributors Jale Erzen Nature, Its Aesthetic Knowledge and Art Ayşen Savaş Against Nature: Atrophy and the Museum of Natural History Raffaele Milani The Birth of the Aesthetics of Landscape Section IV: The Nature of Urban and the Natural Rural In many respects, distinctions between urban and rural are clear, yet what is common to both ethos is the fact that they each define particular landscapes in terms of their distinctive, natural/essential characters. The physical interactions between the two not only dictate peculiar transformations in spatial terms but also reveal socio-cultural transformations, or, more precisely, transgressions with respect to politics. This section seeks to both remind and broadly question conceptualizations of urban and rural surroundings as being the unconstrained habitats of nature and natural environments. Contributor Güven Arif Sargın Concluding Remarks ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS (In alphabetical order) EMEL AKÖZER is Associate Professor of Architecture. Graduated from METU in 1979 and received her Ph.D. in 1989 at the same institution. Currently teaches Architectural Design and Theory. She is recently conducting a research on the Architecture of Palliative Care in Turkey. MARK BASSIN is Reader in Cultural and Political Geography at University College London. Had visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Copenhagen University, and Pau University in France. His book, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865 (Cambridge University Press) was published in 1999. JALE NEJDET ERZEN, painter (Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles-1973) and art historian, is Professor of Art History and Aesthetics at METU. Founded and edited the BOYUT Journal of Fine Arts (19801985), and is one of the founders and president of SANART Association, holding international symposia on art since 1992. Exhibiting in Turkey and abroad since 1973, and writes on Aesthetics, Ottoman Architecture and Modern Art. RAFFAELE MILANI teaches History of Aesthetics at the Philosophy Department of the University of Bologna. His books include the Italian translation of Etienne Souriau’s La corrispondance des arts (Alinea, Firenze 1988), Categorie estetiche (Pratiche, Parma 1991), Il Pittoresco (awarded by the Hanbury Botanical Gardens International Price). His latest book, Il fascino della paura. L’invenzione del Gotico dal Rococo al Trash (Guerini, Milano 1998) will be published in June 2000. RANA NERGİS ÖĞÜT graduated from METU in 1979 and received her Ms. in Architecture in 1985. Completed her Ph.D. in 1995, entitled The Autonomy of Art and the Problem of Aestheticism in Architecture. Currently teaches Architectural Design and Architectural Critical Theory and Sociological Context of Architectural Aesthetics at the same institution. AYŞEN SAVAŞ is Assistant Professor of Architecture at METU. Received her Ph.D. in History, Theory, and Criticism at MIT in 1994. Currently coordinates the Graduate Program at METU, Department of Architecture, and teaches Architectural Design and graduate level courses on Representation. And the editor, GÜVEN ARİF SARGIN is Assistant Professor of Architecture at METU. Received his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies at University of WisconsinMadison in 1996. He writes on Politics in Space and Environmental Discourse, and currently teaches Architectural Design and graduate level courses on Social Theory and Cultural Studies in Urban Architecture.