Images from the book Fantastic Ornament

I am sharing today some beautiful illustrations from the book Fantastic Ornament 100 Designs and Motifs, by Michel Lienard. They are my screen shots from the preview, except the last one that I´ve downloaded from Google images. Enjoy!

From Vanishing London. 1894

Plates shared from Vanishing London: a series of drawings illustrating some of the old houses, etc., in London and Westminster (1894) A book by Paul Roland Wilmot. Here the link to read it in full:

http://archive.org/details/vanishinglondon00paulgoog

Dark Days, an urban-social documentary

Some months ago I´ve read The Manhattan Hunt Club (2001), a novel by American writer John Saul. The plot is really entertaining but most of all, I liked his description of the homeless living in the subterranean trains tunnels of New York.

Yesterday, I´ve watched Dark Days (2000), a documentary directed by Marc Singer, that shows the lives of those who dwell in an abandoned New York city railroad tunnel, and it seems to me that John Saul has been highly inspired by this film. Even, the great words that I supposed belonged to him ¨a houseless is not a homeless,¨  or similar, were stated by one of the dwellers, at the beginning.

There is also a woman, crying for her lost child, the cooking, the drugs, comradery, fights and explanations of ways of earning some money.

The film, that has won many festival awards, is sometimes criticized because of the blurry images and the sound, but after all it is a great testimony of the habitat and lives of underground inhabitants who feel they do have a home, a subject that is also present in Saul´s novel. 

Today, I´m sharing some screen shots I´ve taken from my computer. My recommended for architects and sociologists.

Kids´ books swap in the streets of Long Beach

I took these pictures in 2nd ST, Long Beach, CA, last weekend.

I´m happy to personally see this book swap, it´s my first time. I´ve read about the books interchange in bus stops, in Israel, Spain and also there are special days in Argentina (not everywhere, in Buenos Aires and some provinces) where you can find books in the streets, even on the sidewalk, you can take them but have the obligation to leave yours.

It is a great idea, isn´t it?

Here, an article about the subject in Israel, in Spanish (there´s a translator on the right side of the blog):

http://theclubofcompulsivereaders.blogspot.com/2011/08/books-at-bus-stops-in-israel-libros-en.html

The source, in English:

http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/08/bus-stop-libraries-israel/

From Secret Chambers and Hiding Places

ENTRANCE TO "PRIEST'S HOLE," HARVINGTON HALL

I came across with this interesting old book by Allan Flea, SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING-PLACES. HISTORIC, ROMANTIC, & LEGENDARY STORIES & TRADITIONS ABOUT HIDING-HOLES, SECRET CHAMBERS, ETC., published at Projectgutenberg.org.

Those who love secret places in old mansions and castles like me, will enjoy the tricks in construction works to hide people.

Here's an excerpt from the first chapter and the link to read the book in full:

HIDING-PLACE, UFTON COURT

During the deadly feuds which existed in the Middle Ages, when no man was secure from spies and traitors even within the walls of his own house, it is no matter of wonder that the castles and mansions of the powerful and wealthy were usually provided with some precaution in the event of a sudden surprise—viz. a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment's notice; but the majority of secret chambers and hiding-places in our ancient buildings owe their origin to religious persecution, particularly during the reign of Elizabeth, when the most stringent laws and oppressive burdens were inflicted upon all persons who professed the tenets of the Church of Rome.

In the first years of the virgin Queen's reign all who clung to the older forms of the Catholic faith were mercifully connived at, so long as they solemnised their own religious rites within their private dwelling-houses; but after the Roman Catholic rising in the north and numerous other Popish plots, the utmost severity of the law was enforced, particularly against seminarists, whose chief object was, as was generally believed, to stir up their disciples in England against the Protestant Queen. An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the Church of Rome from celebrating the rites of his religion on pain of forfeiture for the first offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment for life for the third.[1] All those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy were called "recusants" and were guilty of high treason. A law was also enacted which provided that if any Papist should convert a Protestant to the Church of Rome, both should suffer death, as for high treason.

[Footnote 1: In December, 1591, a priest was hanged before the door of a house in Gray's Inn Fields for having there said Mass the month previously.]

The sanguinary laws against seminary priests and "recusants" were enforced with the greatest severity after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. These were revived for a period in Charles II.'s reign, when Oates's plot worked up a fanatical hatred against all professors of the ancient faith. In the mansions of the old Roman Catholic families we often find an apartment in a secluded part of the house or garret in the roof named "the chapel," where religious rites could be performed with the utmost privacy, and close handy was usually an artfully contrived hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be put away at a moment's notice.

It appears from the writings of Father Tanner[1] that most of the hiding-places for priests, usually called "priests' holes," were invented and constructed by the Jesuit Nicholas Owen, a servant of Father Garnet, who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places in the principal Roman Catholic houses all over England.

[Footnote 1: Vita et Mors (1675), p. 75.]

"With incomparable skill," says an authority, "he knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were. Moreover, he kept these places so close a secret with himself that he would never disclose to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect and their builder, working at them with inexhaustible industry and labour, for generally the thickest walls had to be broken into and large stones excavated, requiring stronger arms than were attached to a body so diminutive as to give him the nickname of 'Little John,' and by this his skill many priests were preserved from the prey of persecutors. Nor is it easy to find anyone who had not often been indebted for his life to Owen's hiding-places."

How effectually "Little John's" peculiar ingenuity baffled the exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants," or priest-hunters, has been shown by contemporary accounts of the searches that took place frequently in suspected houses. Father Gerard, in his Autobiography, has handed down to us many curious details of the mode of procedure upon these occasions—how the search-party would bring with them skilled carpenters and masons and try every possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to bodily tearing down the panelling and pulling up the floors. It was not an uncommon thing for a rigid search to last a fortnight and for the "pursuivants" to go away empty handed, while perhaps the object of the search was hidden the whole time within a wall's thickness of his pursuers, half starved, cramped and sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe, lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where he lay immured.

After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, "Little John" and his master, Father Garnet, were arrested at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, from information given to the Government by Catesby's servant Bates. Cecil, who was well aware of Owen's skill in constructing hiding-places, wrote exultingly: "Great joy was caused all through the kingdom by the arrest of Owen, knowing his skill in constructing hiding-places, and the innumerable number of these dark holes which he had schemed for hiding priests throughout the kingdom." He hoped that "great booty of priests" might be taken in consequence of the secrets Owen would be made to reveal, and directed that first he should "be coaxed if he be willing to contract for his life," but that "the secret is to be wrung from him." The horrors of the rack, however, failed in its purpose. His terrible death is thus briefly recorded by the Governor of the Tower at that time: "The man is dead—he died in our hands"; and perhaps it is as well the ghastly details did not transpire in his report.

HIDING-PLACE, SALFORD PRIOR (SHEWING ENTRANCE)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm

Interview with Dr Krzysztof Nawratek, author of Holes in the Whole. Introduction to the urban revolutions.

Dr. Krzysztof Nawratek. Photo by Joanna Erbel

I am pleased to interview Dr Krzysztof Nawratek who is lecturer in architecture, Master of Architecture programme leader at the Plymouth University, UK, who would like to describe himself as an urban theorist or meta-urbanist rather than architect.

Today, we will focus on his book Holes in the Whole Introduction to the urban revolutions, a book on a new urban ontology, the alternative vision of future cities development that combines subjects as criticism, analysis, and helps us to reflect about the cities of today.

1000. Are you afraid that culture is not produced any more in cities? In other words, did we become very popular in our “cultural”  tastes?

K. N. Culture definitely is still produced in cities, my concern is that there is nothing else produced in European cities. Most European cities are post-industrial, but they are only 'post', because there is nothing industrial about them anymore. For last 30 years urbanists and policy makers tried to fill the gap after industry collapsed (empty factories and idle working class) with cultural industry and services. I am afraid they failed. The other problem is, that – obviously – culture increasingly could be (and is) produced out of the urban context. Therefore, in my opinion, contemporary city (let's say – European city) lost its reason to exist.

1000. Do you think that the last developments based on New Urbanism theories have also failed?

K.N. Yes, I think so. New Urbanism was an interesting attempt to fix some failures of Modern Movements, but to be honest, I have much more respect to Modernism than to New Urbanism. New Urbanism created towns, not cities. This movement is – in my opinion – just a naive and reactionary attempt to turn back time. Obviously, I agree that humanistic agenda of New Urbanism still has something to offer, something to be discussed, but New Urbanism is not able to give an answer to the crisis of contemporary cities.

1000. In your opinion, which is the best example of localities? Should we say “racial localities”?

K.N. I am very suspicious about localities, especially any kind of ethnic districts or – even more – lifestyle communities. I am a 'prophet' of a city as an universal narrative, city as a polyphonic but coherent story, therefore I am against fragmentation. However, I do respect the value of local identities, local narratives but they must be in a dialog with others. Ghetto – it doesn't matter if we have in mind ghetto of poor or rich people – it is always a tragedy for the city.

1000. I see localities, fragmentations, beginning at High School, as natural processes. Is there any way to avoid fragmentations in cities with immigrants from around the world?

K.N.I think we need to clearly define the difference between fragmentation and differentiation in cities. There is nothing wrong with fragments of the city having different identity, based on different values (ethnic, esthetic etc.). The problem starts when these fragments are clearly separated from other parts of the city. In my book I often talk about hybrid subject. I define it as an autonomous subject, but strongly conditioned by external factors. So we need to see localities as hybrid subjects – they have their own identity, but they are not separated from the rest of the city.

1000. What’s your own definition on Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid city?

K. N. My main concern is a diminishing of cities subjectivity – contemporary cities are mostly pools of labour, they are fields to be exploited by global corporations, they are not political subjects, they are not able to govern their own territory. There is an obvious conflict between fluidity of deterritorialised global capital and locally fixed cities. They can't go anywhere – people can migrate (however in many cases they don't want to) but buildings, roads, infrastructure - can't. It makes cities a potential frontier of anti-capitalist struggle.

Above: Dr Nawratek with students. Photos by Plymouth University.

1000. What’s the role of social networks in the liquid city?

K. N. It is a very interesting issue, because I see social networks (I mean social networks in much wider meaning than just facebook or any online community) in some kind of contrast to social capital. Social capital is based on traditional, strong social bonds, social networks are much more flexible. Being member of any church or trade union really strongly define who you are and with what kind of people you interact. Social capital is often very exclusive. Social networks are in general more inclusive and 'weaker'. But I think they provide a similar to social capital safety net in contemporary liquid city. I think it is too early to say, but maybe our future society will be much more flexible and fluid, based on weaker, more inclusive social connections. If so, we will need probably much stronger institutions to support this society – as we need facebook to support a particular set of social networks.

1000. Sometimes I feel that we, architects do not have enough freedom for our creativity, so restricted we are under the “design guidelines.”  How do you feel about it?

K. N. I do love restrictions! I do believe norms and guidelines could play extremely positive role. It is an illusion that guidelines are architects 'enemies'. Architects are first of all slaves of clients, very often of 'shark-developers'. Design guidelines could help architects to defend a fundamental quality of their design. Design guidelines or norms are also part of our modernism's legacy, they represent the belief in universalism. I am an universalist, so I like them.

1000. There are many cases where planners do not work with architects as a team. Should planners restrict architects’ criteria?

K. N. Yes and no. The tension between different actors during design process could be helpful, it  could make design stronger and better. But as I said, I would rather prefer universal guidelines over strong planners. Planners and architects should work together, as equal members of a team.

1000. Is it a real advantage for planners and architects to work with participative design?

K. N. Participative design is a very difficult and challenging way of work, but if we believe that democracy is better than authoritarian system, then we should work towards fully participative design model.

1000. And what is your solution to help in each other’s understanding in participative design?

K. N. In my book I introduce an idea of 'border/institution'. It is a special type of institution, defined solely by its function which is to – in the same moment – to protect and support a local subjectivity and to negotiate between different subjects, different interests, different needs. This type of institution has power and is absolutely powerless in the same time. I do trust people but I strongly believe that an institutional context must exist to support (sustain) mutual understanding needed in participative design.

1000. Can we isolate ourselves and have our own private space in the public space? I mean, in a psychological context?

K. N. In my book I challenge the idea of public (and also private) space. This idea is too strongly connected with the idea of ownership. Our existence in space is based on different principles – we are using a space, we are attached (also emotionally) to certain spaces. Ownership is not fundamental here. I prefer to talk about space or interaction and intimate space. When you sit in a park on a bench (public park and public bench) the space you occupy at this particular moment is your own intimate space. So where are you? In public or private space? Or if you in your own bedroom browsing an internet and breathing fresh air from the park nearby – are you really in absolute private space? I think this typology of private-public spaces is just useless to really understand contemporary urban condition.

1000. In this context, what’s the function of the body in the city?

K. N. Well... First of all we, as humans, exist in our bodies, therefore any city, as a material entity, must be designed to fulfill our bodies' needs. But there is something more about bodies in a context of knowledge based economy and city – I think that bodies produce and transfer knowledge. Production is obvious, but I think it is interesting to see human body as media  – like newspapers or internet – to transfer information. In a context of 'smart city' idea, I think it would be an interesting direction to investigate.

1000. You remind me of a Bradbury’s story, “ No particular night or morning,”  where the main character wanted too much space, nothing above, nothing on top, that’s why he travels to the outer space; for him, cities were not real if he couldn’t live in them, and when he thinks his body is the only proof of his existence, he decides he won’t exist anymore… So, do we need proof of our existences in the material cities? Or our memories and information are enough?

K. N. As long as we have bodies we need the material cities. In this story the main character is rejecting his body as he is rejecting cities, stars, other people. It is kind of solipsistic fixation, it is interesting and sometimes could be intellectually inspiring, but for urbanists it is rather useless or even dangerous. It doesn't mean of course, that our memories are not important – on the contrary, they are, but they are also, very often, connected with material artifacts, with other bodies... We are not angels, we need roads, buildings, sewage systems...

1000. Would you briefly explain the metaphor of “Holes in the Whole” ?

K.N. Firstly, it refers to the intuitive understanding of space without clearly defined purpose, a left-over space, an in-between space like belt of grass by the roadside, remnants of an unfinished investment, abandoned amusement park, bankrupt mall, etc. It also refers to potentiality of these spaces.

Secondly, it refers to the Emil Cioran's understanding of 'void' as a no-being interrupting the continuity of existence. For Cioran 'void' has rather functional than ontological significance – it is important what void does (it interferes, interrupts and blocks) rather than what it is.

Thirdly, 'hole' refers to the idea of 'void' within the meaning of Alain Badiou, as the Real beyond Representation.

Therefore the 'hole' is an excess, not an absence. Excess/surplus without a language to be described – included into any narrative. 'Hole in the whole' is then (partially) virtual space awaiting for its actualization. This 'hole' is a very real space, no one could call it the hole until the new language is able to include it into the urban narrative. However, we are not dealing with a passive waiting for the event, which we will be able to 'entrust', but rather with the challenge of 'creative freedom' – the language for which must be created. Excess/surplus of the 'hole in the whole' is therefore the task of finding a new narrative and the new application. One can imagine the 'hole' as a limited territory - a special economic (or social or political) zone, or maybe a city - as an experiment.

1000. Which are your best expectations for a “good city” ?

K. N. Good and full life for everybody! It should have elements of security (also economic security – I do believe in right to accommodation/house as a basic human right) and excitement, it must help people to be together but in the same time it must protect their privacy. It should be a territory where different subjects are in constant dialog, territory open for experimentation. Good city is a polyphonic universal narrative and all its inhabitants are part of it.

M. Thank you so much Dr. Nawratek, it’s been a pleasure.

From The Devil´s Dictionary: an excerpt dedicated to architects

The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical "reference" book written by Ambrose Bierce. The book offers reinterpretations of terms in the English language, lampooning cant and political doublespeak, as well as other aspects of human foolishness and frailty. It was originally published in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book before being retitled in 1911. Modern "unabridged" versions that include Bierce "definitions" that were for various reasons missed by earlier editions continue to be popular a century later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil's_Dictionary

ARCHITECT, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money. 

GARGOYLE, n. A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents. 

ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related as follows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J.

  One day a wag—what would the wretch be at?—
  Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT,
  And said it was a god's name!  Straight arose
  Fantastic priests and postulants (with shows,
  And mysteries, and mummeries, and hymns,
  And disputations dire that lamed their limbs)
  To serve his temple and maintain the fires,
  Expound the law, manipulate the wires.
  Amazed, the populace that rites attend,
  Believe whate'er they cannot comprehend,
  And, inly edified to learn that two
  Half-hairs joined so and so (as Art can do)
  Have sweeter values and a grace more fit
  Than Nature's hairs that never have been split,
  Bring cates and wines for sacrificial feasts,
  And sell their garments to support the priests.

BATH, n. A kind of mystic ceremony substituted for religious worship, with what spiritual efficacy has not been determined.

  The man who taketh a steam bath
  He loseth all the skin he hath,
  And, for he's boiled a brilliant red,
  Thinketh to cleanliness he's wed,
  Forgetting that his lungs he's soiling
  With dirty vapors of the boiling.

GEOGRAPHER, n. A chap who can tell you offhand the difference between the outside of the world and the inside. Habeam, geographer of wide reknown, Native of Abu-Keber's ancient town, In passing thence along the river Zam To the adjacent village of Xelam, Bewildered by the multitude of roads, Got lost, lived long on migratory toads, Then from exposure miserably died, And grateful travelers bewailed their guide. Henry Haukhorn 

HOUSE, n. A hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man, rat, mouse, beetle, cockroach, fly, mosquito, flea, bacillus and microbe. House of Correction, a place of reward for political and personal service, and for the detention of offenders and appropriations. House of God, a building with a steeple and a mortgage on it. House-dog, a pestilent beast kept on domestic premises to insult persons passing by and appal the hardy visitor. House-maid, a youngerly person of the opposing sex employed to be variously disagreeable and ingeniously unclean in the station in which it has pleased God to place her. 

HOUSELESS, adj. Having paid all taxes on household goods. 

LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience. 

OUT-OF-DOORS, n. That part of one's environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets.

 PAINTING, n. The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic. Formerly, painting and sculpture were combined in the same work: the ancients painted their statues. The only present alliance between the two arts is that the modern painter chisels his patrons. 

New York. Its commonest expression is heard in the words, "I beg your pardon," and it is not consistent with disregard of the rights of others.

Read the full book:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/972/972-h/972-h.htm

Changes of habitat in the XIX Century, in the words of Virginia Woolf

Storm clouds gather and lightning strikes over the Houses of Parliament

thetimes.co.uk

I ended 2012 reading Virgina Woolf´s Orlando, which I enjoyed, specially the beginning of chapter V, where she explains the evolution of the century through a climate change.

And as a consequence, the clothes, the houses, the interior design, the landscape, were changed, due to the damp that filled everything, including the hearts.
I think the following paragraphs are a beautiful way of explaining the European habitat (though she refers to England). Of course there are many great passages in the book, but these are my favorite ones:

THE GREAT CLOUD WHICH HUNG, not only over London, but over the whole of the British Isles on the first day of the nineteenth century stayed, or rather, did not stay, for it was buffeted about constantly by blustering gales, long enough to, have extraordinary consequences upon those who lived beneath its shadow. A change seemed to have come over the climate of England. Rain fell frequently, but only in fitful gusts, which were no sooner over than they began again. The sun shone, of course, but it was so girt about with clouds and the air was so saturated with water, that its beams were discoloured — and purples, oranges, and reds of a dull sort took the place of the more positive landscapes of the eighteenth century. 

 Under this bruised and sullen canopy the green of the cabbages was less intense, and the white of the snow was muddied. But what was worse, damp now began to make its way into every house — damp, which is the most insidious of all enemies, for while the sun can be shut out by blinds, and the frost roasted by a hot fire, damp steals in while we sleep; damp is silent, imperceptible, ubiquitous. 

Damp swells the wod, furs, the kettle, rusts the iron, rots the stone.  So gradual is the process, that it is not until we pick up some chest of drawers, or coal scuttle, and the whole thing drops to pieces in our hands, that we suspect even that the disease is at work. Thus, stealthily and imperceptibly, none marking the exact day or hour of the change, the constitution of England was altered and nobody knew it. Everywhere the effects were felt. The hardy country gentleman, who had sat down gladly to a meal of ale and beef in a room designed, perhaps by the brothers Adam, with classic dignity, now felt chilly. Rugs appeared; beards were grown; trousers were fastened tight under the instep. The chill which he felt in his legs the country gentleman soon transferred to his house; furniture was muffled; walls and tables were covered; nothing was left bare. 

Then a change of diet became essential. The muffin was invented and the crumpet. Coffee supplanted the after-dinner port, and, as coffee led to a drawing-room in which to drink it, and a drawing-room to glass cases, and glass cases to artificial flowers, and artificial flowers to mantelpieces, and mantelpieces to pianofortes, and pianofortes to drawing room ballads, and drawing-room ballads (skipping a stage or two) to innumerable little  dogs, mats, and china ornaments, the home — which had become extremely important- was completely altered.

Outside the house — it was another effect of the damp — ivy grew in unparalleled profusion. Houses that had been of bare stone were smothered in greenery. No garden, however formal its original design, lacked a shrubbery, a wilderness, a maze. What light penetrated to the bedrooms where children were born was naturally of an obfusc green, and what light penetrated to the drawing-rooms where grown men and women lived came through curtains of brown and purple plush. 

But the change did not stop at outward things. The damp struck within. Men felt the chill in their hearts; the damp in their minds. In a desperate effort to snuggle their feelings into some sort of warmth one subterfuge was tried after another. Love, birth, and death were all swaddled in a variety of fine phrases. The sexes drew further and further apart. No open conversation was tolerated.

Cities´ illustrations from the Nüremberg Chronicle

Nüremberg

The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated Biblical paraphrase and world history that follows the story of human history related in the Bible; it includes the histories of a number of important Western cities. Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German translation by Georg Alt, it appeared in 1493. It is one of the best-documented early printed books—an incunabulum —and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.

Latin scholars refer to it as Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles) as this phrase appears in the index introduction of the Latin edition. English speakers have long referred to it as the Nuremberg Chronicle after the city in which it was published. German speakers refer to it as Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World History) in honour of its author.

The illustrations in many copies were hand-coloured after printing.

Two Nuremberg merchants, Sebald Schreyer (1446-1503) and his son-in-law, Sebastian Kammermeister (1446-1520), commissioned the Latin version of the Chronicle. They also commissioned George Alt (1450 – 1510), a scribe at the Nuremberg treasury, to translate the work into German. Both Latin and German editions were printed by Anton Koberger, in Nuremberg. The contracts were recorded by scribes, bound into volumes, and deposited in the Nuremberg City Archives. The first contract, from December, 1491, established the relationship between the illustrators and the patrons. Wolgemut and Pleydendurff, the painters, were to provide the layout of the Chronicle, to oversee the production of the woodcuts, and to guard the designs against piracy. The patrons agreed to advance 1000 gulden for paper, printing costs, and the distribution and sale of the book. A second contract, between the patrons and the printer, was executed in March, 1492. It stipulated conditions for acquiring the paper and managing the printing. The blocks and the archetype were to be returned to the patrons once the printing was completed.

The author of the text, Hartmann Schedel, was a medical doctor, humanist and book collector. He earned a doctorate in medicine in Padua in 1466, then settled in Nuremberg to practice medicine and collect books. According to an inventory done in 1498, Schedel's personal library contained 370 manuscripts and 670 printed books. The author used passages from the classical and medieval works in this collection to compose the text of Chronicle. He borrowed most frequently from another humanist chronicle,Supplementum Chronicarum, by Jacob Philip Foresti of Bergamo. It has been estimated that about 90% of the text is pieced together from works on humanities, science, philosophy, and theology, while about 10% of the Chronicle is Schedel’s original composition.

The Chronicle was first published in Latin on 12 July 1493 in the city of Nuremberg. This was quickly followed by a German translation on 23 December 1493.

REFERENCE: Wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Chronicle

Reference for images:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Chronicle

Brujas

Constantinople

Florence

Krakow

Jerusalem

Mainz

Paris

Cologne

Praga

Viena

Constantinople

Roma

The world map

COUNTER TOURISM: An interview with Phil Smith

Phil Smith

Phil Smith is an academic, writer and performer, who lives in South Devon, UK. For twenty years he worked predominantly as a playwright in experimental, physical, community and music theatres, during which time over one hundred of his plays received professional productions. In 1997 his work took a sharp turn towards working in non-theatre sites and this led to his interest in walking as both an art in itself and as a means to making art and performance and everyday political interventions in public spaces.  

I have the pleasure to interview Phil Smith again, this time advancing on from his theory and practice of Mythogeography – the art of ‘walking sideways’ – as an opportunity to  learn about Counter Tourism, the subject of Phil’s new project that includes micro-movies, online presence, and two new publications: a pocketbook and a handbook for everyday tourists.

MM Which are the basic differences between Mythogeography’s walks and the ones for Counter Tourism?

PS They are inspired by the same ideas – those that come from the ‘drift’ or dérive – but where Mythogeography’s walks (or at least their intentions) are unbounded, Counter Tourism takes the boundings and prescriptions of heritage tourism as its object. Where Counter Tourism’s visits step to the side or go off at tangents, they do so in order to later loop back to the discourse of heritage tourism, in order to destabilize or re-frame or vivify that discourse.

MM If we don’t feel nostalgia is that a problem? How does Counter Tourism work in a country which we don’t know anything about?

PS In a way, such a visit, knowing nothing, is already Counter Touristic. For heritage sites are very often presented on the basis of invisible, unspoken but mutually understood narratives. For example, in English country houses the lives of the uniformed staff are often remembered and re-presented, but the non-uniformed staff  (labourers, gardeners) are not. The recognition of uniformed servants is regarded as a democratic innovation, but it contains its own discrimination. So, actually preserving one’s lack of knowledge or feeling might be a good tactic – you will very quickly begin to feel the meaning-making machines get to work on you and that sensation might illuminate the nature of the site and the nature of ideological production in it.

MM Considering the attendance of British people to the trips of Counter Tourism, what do you propose for a different culture, in other words is there a pattern to follow or you’d change the strategy in another country?

PS When as a member of Wrights & Sites I was part of publishing ‘An Exeter Mis-Guide’ we assumed that the book would be mostly used in the city it as written about, yet it has been used in many different countries – France, USA, India, Australia, and so on – as a tool for exploration. Rather than me trying to anticipate how Counter Tourism might be adapted for different countries I would rather leave that to people to discover in their own improvised visits. At one point I write “if the guards are armed” – there are no armed guards at UK heritage sites, so I am signaling my awareness that conditions for visits will vary from country to country and region to region.

MM Your research panel members come from a wide range of working backgrounds. What’s your experience working with both professional artists and also people with a background not related to arts and architecture?

PS Well, the whole basis of Mythogeography is the idea of multiplicity so it was a joy to have so many insights and perspectives. What the panel members brought were insights and attitudes that disrupted many of my assumptions. Sometimes they de-composed what I was thinking and doing, at other times their ideas and mine were synthesized or fell into mutual orbits. It worked differently with different people, but almost always adding to the multiplicity. 

MM Why do you include popular songs and some informal disguises, like hats? Is it a kind of postdramatic theatre?

PS There is an inspiration for Counter Tourism in postdramatic theatre – yes, definitely. The performance walks from which Counter Tourism developed might be characterized in the way that that Hans-Thies Lehmann characterizes the postdramatic: ‘disintegration, dismantling and deconstruction’ , ‘de-hierarchization of theatrical means’ , and an ‘experience of simultaneity’  sited on a plane of synchronicity and myth: ‘not a story read from... beginning to end, but a thing held full in-view the whole time... a landscape’. Songs and disguises are for using sparingly – there is a danger that Counter Touristic visits can flip over into showing off and exhibitionism. But in one of the films - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7FZkd1Qaw – I do sing, but I think I’m probably trying everybody’s patience with this moment of self-indulgence! So hats and songs maybe, but very sparingly!

MM Does everybody participate in the performances or maybe you found reluctant ones among professionals?

PS When a visit is explicitly a performance – like a mis-guided tour – then almost everyone will be prepared, if asked, to take some active role or part – modeling ghosts or holding a rope for me to ‘dangle’ from. I never set out to make people feel uncomfortable or self-conscious, I always aim to make people feel comfortable and secure and then challenge them to step a little way out of their comfort zone for the purposes of the collective event. Using the Counter Tourism tactics people can choose how performance-like or how discreet they want to be.

MM I was surprised to see that in GeoQuest video old people are participating, also kids and adults. Is there any different approach for the eldest?

PS Well, these were older people in ‘sheltered housing’ so the visit of the GeoQuest there had to be to them in their homes rather than taking them to the site – so we took rocks and sand to them rather than them visiting the cliffs and beaches. But no, apart from being sensitive to our impact – the arrival of three men in strange costumes could be disturbing for very elderly people if too noisy and boisterous – we treated older people in the same way and with the same intentions as everyone else.

MM You say there are variations and re assemblages of what tourists see based on their own experiences of life. Is it valid to manipulate them to find the multiplicity of points of view?

PS I hope that Counter Tourism is an offer rather than a manipulation. It requires the tourist to make a leap that only they can make – one can offer the different viewpoints, but if a visitor wants to stick to a homogenized narrative of the site then they will be able to ‘pull the shutters down’.

MM In GeoQuest video, people are making sound with stones, while the leader is playing a song related to geology, also in another scene, people are using pink glasses. Is it part of the exorcism of familiar forms of heritage?

PS Yes, I think “exorcism” is a very good word to use – heritage (in this case a geological one) is often seen as a view through “rosy coloured spectacles” (a nostalgic’ overly sunny view of the past that confirms our own prejudices) and using the glasses forefronts and challenges that tendency and then seeks to bend it to a new kind of impact. The fundamental tactical-principle of counter-tourism is to exorcize or hollow-out existing ways of visiting sites and then re-animate those ways in exorbitant and excessive ways (either as spectral versions or highly coloured, comic or emotional versions of themselves).

MM On the other hand you show the importance of signs on the monuments’ walls - what’s the purpose of it, wouldn’t it reinforce the idea of heritage?

PS I try to encourage people to ‘over-interpret’ the signs – rather than as simple narratives of the heritage we can (half-seriously) read them as esoteric crypto-messages or discover double meanings or you tell ourselves tales about how they unintentionally reveal the secrets of the site.

MM Is it allowed to take pictures, if they are a static representation of reality, not in the spirit of Counter Tourism?

PS O yes, even without a stills camera or a video camera we see through those lenses and frames all the time – just as many urban nineteenth century people might have seen the landscape as if framed like a painting. So I suggest that we use those internal frames knowingly – and photography can help – as well as being a means to disseminate counter-touristic ironies and opportunities to others.

MM Based on the film of ‘Mythogeography’ at the Royal William Victualling Yard, are mythogeography’s walks exclusively for students?

PS Not at all! I wanted to make a film of this walk and I wanted to take my students on the walk as part of their course – so I was ‘killing two birds with one stone’ – my walks are almost always open to the general public and I have no idea who will turn up – often my subject matter is adult but my means are playful, so children can often get involved in those means – for example, in my recent ‘Spaces’ walk in Weymouth I referenced the murders of a local serial killer and dragged around a bath (he drowned his victims) – the children loved the way that the water in the bath bounced around as I dragged it over the cobblestones (something I had drawn everyone’s attention to as a useful means – the break up and reforming of the site’s reflection - to re-interpreting the site).

MM In the overall context of Counter-Tourism, what was the significance of your “water walk?”

PS Water Walk was a mis-guided tour around an area of industrial heritage and former quayside in Exeter during which we tried out some innovative ideas for a tour that came to have a bearing on the devising of Counter Tourism – myself and the other guide began by explaining that we were going to relinquish most of the roles of guides, we told the audience all the history we were not going to tell them about on the tour, we enacted all the pointing we would not be doing and we took off our guides’ jackets – we then led the tour mostly in silence enacting various secular rituals using water (crucial to the former industrial processes of tanning, cloth manufacture, driving the water mills, and so on) – we ‘exorcised’ the tour and then resurrected its tactics in excessive ways. The responses of participants were qualitatively different from other tours – not only did they describe the multiple meanings of the sites appearing, but they became self-consciously aware of how they were constructing a multiplicitous heritage-consciousness while in the act of actually constructing it in their own minds - this quality I came to attribute to this tour’s accessing of ‘chorastic’ qualities in the site - a space somewhere between being and becoming, temporarily resistant to obligations of exchange and commerce, a temporary evasion of identities and hierarchy, a potential space of transformation, a transitory space that a particular kind of performance might be able to provoke and sustain for a while. From this walk I took the idea of the double movement (exorcism and excess) to which Counter Tourism subjects the ordinary tactics of a tourist visit, the idea that the guide should step back and let the participants be the driving force, and that the driving aim should be access to the ‘chora’ of a site rather than the performance intervention in it.

MM Is it helpful for your objectives to see the landscape indirectly, for example through the many reflections on the water, or through lenses, or to imagine the landscape through the sky?

PS Yes – frames and mirrors – I am always using them and advocate them – they allow us to become aware of the internalized frames, mirrors and representations that we use and make.

MM In Counter Tourism, can the human body have a direct approach to Nature? I was just imagining myself laying on the grass, listening to the sounds of Nature and in this way recreate the landscape….

PS Why not? Yes, sometimes there is a moment to drop all the clever tactics and go for a direct sensual immersion – but without any romantic illusions – there will be all the same ideological framings at play even in this sensual act as in, say, an intellectual inquiry.

MM This question was inspired by thinking of the movie directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, “Stalker” ; I suppose you find some relations between Stalker and Counter Tourism?

PS To some extent, yes, because ‘Stalker’ is about a kind of pilgrimage which is partly ordeal – and both those qualities can be introduced into the touristic visit with subversive or disruptive effects. And, of course, pilgrimage and tourism have always been close. I like to use anachronisms knowingly – to disrupt ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘modernity’.   

MM What do you suggest for those tourists in the shopping malls who are missing the “counter tourism” or even the conventional tourism?

PS I would say – do the counter tourism in the malls. One of my tactics    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGAQTJAKSAA  is to walk a mall or supermarket as a zombie, treating the mall as the museum of a post-apocalyptic society. In the Handbook I move on to discuss how all spaces are heritage spaces – but some have a gate and a ticket office and some do not.

MM Where is Counter Tourism going?

PS I hope that it will be seized upon as a pleasure by as many everyday tourists as possible – firstly as a means for enjoyment, but one that will change the nature of heritage from a looking backwards (whether serious and analytical or nostalgic and chauvinistic) to what others have called ‘anticipatory history’ – a use of the past for making the best futures.

MM Thank you so much Phil!

Above, three shots from the video Mythogeography at the Royal William Victualling Yard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGdBtWmbc4A&feature=player_embedded#!

To buy Phil Smith’s  books on Counter Tourism and Mythogeography go to: http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Counter-Tourism-Pocketbook.htm , http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Counter-Tourism-Handbook.htm 

and http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Mythogeography_Guide_to_Walking_Sideways.htm For more about Counter Tourism check out www.countertourism.net and for 31 micro films on counter-touristic tactics click on the links at 

http://countertourism.blogspot.co.uk/p/tactics.html