Pleasure Gardens & Popular Recreation

Readings

 * 1) Schenker

Types of Spaces

 * 1) Imperial Gardens (Sadabad)
 * 2) Gardens for the Public (Kagithane)
 * 3) Landscape Gardens (Stourhead, rich moneyed people)
 * 4) Commercial Public Gardens (Vauxhall)
 * 5) Contemporary Theme Parks


 * Artificiality -> Question of nature, naturalism, construction in these park spaces
 * Miniaturization -> Compression of space, reconsideration of scale to dial down
 * Question of natural(?) -> Style, Ideal of nature, usually the quotes present a projected idea of the nature
 * Also attempts to obscure the signs of the labor involved in production
 * Illusions -> Not only the highly designed and construction of spaces
 * But also in the use of fireworks, paintings, performances
 * But also in the use of fireworks, paintings, performances


 * Question of the New England Common
 * Is it authentic -> dangerous wording
 * Historic -> Preserved for Nostalgia


 * Nostalgia -> This is how things were(?)
 * Situation of municipal center -> Town Hall, Library, Church
 * Multi-Use Spaces -> Baseball, Fourth of July,
 * Does incorporation into public, quotidien life excuse them? Defend them?
 * I think its perpetual re-purposing (once for cows, now for baseball, fireworks, rallies) and therefore more "authentic" than the a theme park or the gardens discussed.


 * Ottoman Gardens vs. British Gardens
 * Ottomans want to maintain moral order
 * Ottoman Gardens suggest a space for relieving social pressure
 * And enacting re-socialization of the Empire's citizens -> modeling appropriate lifestyle & behavior
 * British regent was a 'bad-boy' and endorsed the bad behavior frequent there
 * Vauxhall Gardens was a 'private' 'capitalistic' space used for popular performances and performances of national pride

Disneyland

 * Was Disney meant for children ? (Good Critique)
 * Of course, the Children of Snow White (1932) and the Disney Culture extended are finally 'adults' in time for the construction of Disneyland (Opens in 1955, in time for a kid who saw Snow White at 4 to be 27)
 * They are sized/scaled for children, but sell you symbols that are embedded in your consciousness as an American
 * Disneyland is for 'the family' as a whole consumptive unit.
 * American adults have become more child-like as well.

Culture Industry Critique

 * Seminal Essay


 * Is the "Culture Industry" a fitting critique for this discussion?
 * Do Adorno & Hockhemer's class have something to say on this front?
 * REHASH: One directional mass media (photography, radio, cinema) situate their audiences in a passive state.
 * Weakening of the individual in favor of the mass/mob
 * Stupefying effect of the media
 * Allows for the masses to be called to Fascism/Totalitarianism

'''What are the ways we can go beyond the Culture Industry criticism? Can we negate/esacpe this idea of popular culture?'''

Responding the Critique

 * The rational for Disneyland/Theme Park experiences can be differentiated
 * Motivations to visit vary


 * THE HOLY INTELLECTUAL CRITIQUE
 * How can academics both argue for the end of stratified intellectual culture (we are all victims of mass culture society? and be perpetually floating above it?)
 * Umberto Eco visits Disneyland, but is not a part of it. He is not a tourist there. He is an intellectual. Seperated. Divine.

History

 * Mehmed II conquers Constantinople in 1452
 * Mehmed orders construction of TOPKAPI (Cannon Gate) at site of former Acropolis
 * Flat, high ground. Good strategic position
 * Its high visibility suggests a connection between power and sight
 * The ability to be able to 'see' the palace, and for the palace to 'see' you.
 * Tower of Justice identified with the Emperor, and his power

Topkapi Palace

 * The Palace had architecture that overly suggested power,
 * Utilized a progression of spaces, as a discourse of tasks and ideas of the Ottoman Sovereignty
 * You never saw the sultan, you only 'felt' him
 * You always feel the emperor's presence, as a figure of observation from an interior (Panopticon?)
 * Gate of Greeting, suggests a fortress in its design, unnecessary for military purpose suggests invincible sovereignty
 * The subsequent gate of felicity
 * The Tower of Justice, had an interior window in on the counsel/divan called the "Golden Window"

New Palace (Dolmabache Palace)

 * Constructed/Inhabited starting in 1853
 * Represents a big change.
 * Mediated/Suggested/Inspired by growing merchant class and their bourgeoisie homes.

Kagithane Gardens (Sadabad Palace)

 * Palace built in early 1700
 * Escape from main palace to the banks of a small stream.
 * Built over
 * Now attempting reinvention.
 * Small Shacks area
 * Jeered Field Construction
 * Proposal for rebuilding the Palace as a Public Pool.

= The imaginary life of real places =