Jale Erzen
Middle East Technical University, Architecture, Faculty Member
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This essay attempts to illustrate the vital dialogue there is between architecture and theatre, not only in the sense that the former resembles a worldly stage but also in the way it intentionally designates spaces for events to be seen... more
This essay attempts to illustrate the vital dialogue there is between architecture and theatre, not only in the sense that the former resembles a worldly stage but also in the way it intentionally designates spaces for events to be seen and experienced. The origins of architecture go back to the erection of spaces to facilitate the dialogue between humans and gods. The stage is the embodiment and objectification of the flow of life. It makes it possible to contemplate both the present and the past thereby creating narratives. Architecture is also a mediator for us to observe our own actions. The theatrical quality of space in relation to the movements of the body and the bodily perceptions of spatial elements, leads to an active participation in the unfolding of meanings. The city has not only been defined as theatre by many urbanists; it has also throughout history been designed and formed as a natural stage. Baroque Rome, the impressionists’ paintings of Paris, or Byzantine Constantinople with its many spectacles illustrate well this dimension of the city.
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In his long and productive life Joseph Margolis approached many subjects that had been the concern of philosophy all through history. However, when his texts are read carefully it is clear that his main interest was to understand humanity... more
In his long and productive life Joseph Margolis approached many subjects that had been the concern of philosophy all through history. However, when his texts are read carefully it is clear that his main interest was to understand humanity and its cultural values. In my text I will first introduce Margolis philosophy in general and the underlying premises that he defended throughout his work, moving on to specific claims and arguments. I will pursue my analysis through several of Margolis’ texts concerning his main philosophical arguments, such as the definition of the human, relativity, ethics and aesthetics. Margolis was a prolific writer who developed his philosophy in consecutive phases, arriving in his later years to arguments that became more pointed as well as far reaching in scope. Margolis’ reasoning and argumentation proceeds in three steps: defining the problem at hand, understanding the reasonings applicable to his claim and to opposing views, reaching a solution suitable and appropriate according to the context.
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Every architectural structure is a landscape and each promotes an educational or paedeumatic relationship between the spirit and the environment
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Although there is little literature on the subject, Ottoman gardens constituted an important aspect of everyday culture as well as constituting the major content of Ottoman poetry. Because of Western influences which affected lifestyles... more
Although there is little literature on the subject, Ottoman gardens constituted an important aspect of everyday culture as well as constituting the major content of Ottoman poetry. Because of Western influences which affected lifestyles and design after the eighteenth century, gardens in the Ottoman style have not survived to our day. However an important architect of the early twentieth century had made studies reconstituting Ottoman gardens of Istanbul; Gulru Necipoglu has written on the Topkapi Palace and other Ottoman gardens from studies of travelers' drawings and maps. Scott Redford has made studies on Seljukid gardens on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, showing that garden culture in Anatolia showed a continuation from the Roman through the Byzantine, Seljukid and Ottoman cultures. My essay intends to show how the Ottoman gardens of Istanbul had a free design and were also always in visual and physical relation to the sea and that they were designs of gardeners rather than of architects. The Sultan and other high bureaucrats had their private gardens to which they retreated in their boats after a day's work. The entertainment and recreation in these gardens were important rituals for which special poetry was produced. Therefore Ottoman gardens constituted a core element in the culture of the Ottoman elite in terms of their relation to music, poetry, conversation, and landscape. Considering that almost all Ottoman visual art in the form of miniatures, wall decorations and tiles always in some way refer to gardens and flora, it would not be farfetched to claim that gardens and the joy they offered were a major element in Ottoman culture.
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In The Death of Tragedy (1961) George Steiner observed that tragedy as a form of drama was “distinctive of Western tradition.” Today, critics and scholars are understandably impatient with this position. Indeed, Andrew Gerstle points to... more
In The Death of Tragedy (1961) George Steiner observed that tragedy as a form of drama was “distinctive of Western tradition.” Today, critics and scholars are understandably impatient with this position. Indeed, Andrew Gerstle points to Japanese traditional theater to challenge the idea that there can only be one norm of the concept of the tragic. Yet both Steiner and Gerstle absolutize formalistically the power of tragic art to reveal an unalterable human condition, thereby disconnecting great literary achievements from the perception of contemporary society. The argument of this essay is inspired by Raymond William’s notion of “modern tragedy,” which considers tragedy as a representation of our experience of the permanent contradictions in the process of modernization. From this perspective I critically examine the reception of traditional and modern Japanese literature in an attempt to establish through multicultural dialogue a truly inclusive framework for the interpretation of ...
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In his long and productive life Joseph Margolis approached many subjects that had been the concern of philosophy all through history. However, when his texts are read carefully it is clear that his main interest was to understand humanity... more
In his long and productive life Joseph Margolis approached many subjects that had been the concern of philosophy all through history. However, when his texts are read carefully it is clear that his main interest was to understand humanity and its cultural values. In my text I will first introduce Margolis philosophy in general and the underlying premises that he defended throughout his work, moving on to specific claims and arguments. I will pursue my analysis through several of Margolis’ texts concerning his main philosophical arguments, such as the definition of the human, relativity, ethics and aesthetics. Margolis was a prolific writer who developed his philosophy in consecutive phases, arriving in his later years to arguments that became more pointed as well as far reaching in scope. Margolis’ reasoning and argumentation proceeds in three steps: defining the problem at hand, understanding the reasonings applicable to his claim and to opposing views, reaching a solution suitable...
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... I remember as a child, walking with my grandfather on Beyoğlu, Pera, v he had his house on Eski Çiçekçi Sokak (which is still standing), he would; to ... Beyoğlu underwent a peric abandonment and decay, until populist culture invaded... more
... I remember as a child, walking with my grandfather on Beyoğlu, Pera, v he had his house on Eski Çiçekçi Sokak (which is still standing), he would; to ... Beyoğlu underwent a peric abandonment and decay, until populist culture invaded every corner with p goods and kebab smoke ...
Research Interests: Visual Arts and Routledge
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Although there is little literature on the subject, Ottoman gardens constituted an important aspect of everyday culture as well as constituting the major content of Ottoman poetry. Because of Western influences which affected lifestyles... more
Although there is little literature on the subject, Ottoman gardens constituted an important aspect of everyday culture as well as constituting the major content of Ottoman poetry. Because of Western influences which affected lifestyles and design after the eighteenth century, gardens in the Ottoman style have not survived to our day. However an important architect of the early twentieth century had made studies reconstituting Ottoman gardens of Istanbul; Gulru Necipoglu has written on the Topkapi Palace and other Ottoman gardens from studies of travelers' drawings and maps. Scott Redford has made studies on Seljukid gardens on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, showing that garden culture in Anatolia showed a continuation from the Roman through the Byzantine, Seljukid and Ottoman cultures. My essay intends to show how the Ottoman gardens of Istanbul had a free design and were also always in visual and physical relation to the sea and that they were designs of gardeners rather t...
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Istanbul im 16. Jahrhundert — das Werk Sinans Wie läßt eine alte Stadt sich in eine Hauptstadt verwandeln ? Mit einem Ensemble von Bauten hat Sinan eine Gesamtsicht der Stadt entwickelt, die sich um die Religion zentriert, die Hierarchie... more
Istanbul im 16. Jahrhundert — das Werk Sinans Wie läßt eine alte Stadt sich in eine Hauptstadt verwandeln ? Mit einem Ensemble von Bauten hat Sinan eine Gesamtsicht der Stadt entwickelt, die sich um die Religion zentriert, die Hierarchie der Räumlichkeiten organisiert, den bebauten Raum in die Landschaft und die natürliche Umgebung einbezieht.
Research Interests: Humanities and Art
Research Interests: Aesthetics and Art
Art curricula are often linked to the notion of an end product and a prevailing definition and concept of art. These are usually limited by cultural attitudes. This article proposes that a course in environmental aesthetics that gave... more
Art curricula are often linked to the notion of an end product and a prevailing definition and concept of art. These are usually limited by cultural attitudes. This article proposes that a course in environmental aesthetics that gave priority to experiential methods without ignoring theoretical work on relations between aesthetics, culture and nature would prepare students with the necessary sensitivity and awareness towards perceptual, sensory qualities. The author's claims that students' creativity and imagination have to be activated through sensory perception before any traditional art techniques or theories can be educationally effective are based on 30 years of teaching such methods.
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Research Interests: Aesthetics, Perception, Landscape, Identity, Ma, and 5 moreSkin, Frontier, Periphery, Limit, and Environment
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Starting with a critical view of the general architectural and urban structures of today my paper will present buildings comparable to the body, thus their expression and the meanings they invoke will be presented as a language of form... more
Starting with a critical view of the general architectural and urban structures of today my paper will present buildings comparable to the body, thus their expression and the meanings they invoke will be presented as a language of form that affect the behavior and psychology of urban residents. Referring to the architectural criticisms of George Bataille, it is argued that the physicality of buildings are valuable insofar as they transcend materiality and lead to symbols and spirituality. Buildings are viewed as presenting different characteristics and attitudes depending on their form. Architecture is also viewed as the product of labour and thus a communal creation that has its roots in the origins of human culture. Each different institution has evolved historically from different senses becoming cultural articulations and resulting in architectures that connect people in enjoyment of shared interests. It is further argued that urban and spatial forms that are confusing as to the...
I. Oturum: Sanat ve Bilim, II. Oturum: Sanat-Bilim-Teknoloji: Mimarlik, III. Oturum: Estetik ve Teknoloji, IV. Oturum: Sanat-Bilim-Teknoloji, V. Oturum: Sanata ve Sanatciya Bilimsel Bakislar, VI. Oturum: Yeni Sanatta Bilimsellik, VII.... more
I. Oturum: Sanat ve Bilim, II. Oturum: Sanat-Bilim-Teknoloji: Mimarlik, III. Oturum: Estetik ve Teknoloji, IV. Oturum: Sanat-Bilim-Teknoloji, V. Oturum: Sanata ve Sanatciya Bilimsel Bakislar, VI. Oturum: Yeni Sanatta Bilimsellik, VII. Oturum: Tarih ve Kulturler Icinde Sanat ve Bilim, VIII. Oturum: Yeni Gorsellikler
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... Istamboul au XVI siècle: L'oeuvre de Sinan. Autores: Jale Erzen; Localización: Annales de la recherche urbaine, ISSN 0180-930X, Nº. 42, 1989 , págs. 11-18. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios... more
... Istamboul au XVI siècle: L'oeuvre de Sinan. Autores: Jale Erzen; Localización: Annales de la recherche urbaine, ISSN 0180-930X, Nº. 42, 1989 , págs. 11-18. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. Acceso de usuarios registrados Usuario. Contraseña. Entrar. ...
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The following conclusions on the stylistic evolution of Ottoman mosque facades were derived from the study of 25 mosques, dating from 1540—1585, most of Received on March 13, 1985 them belonging to Architect Sinan. These examples were... more
The following conclusions on the stylistic evolution of Ottoman mosque facades were derived from the study of 25 mosques, dating from 1540—1585, most of Received on March 13, 1985 them belonging to Architect Sinan. These examples were chosen from Istanbul and its vicinity, because, although Sinan's era was a period of great building activity throughout the Ottoman provinces, stylistic coherence can be more easily detected around the copital which was less subject to diverse local influences.
All sixteenth-century Ottoman architecture is com-monly called "classical," but the term is applied with particular emphasis to the half-century from around 1537 to 1585 when Sinan was chief architect of state under the sultans... more
All sixteenth-century Ottoman architecture is com-monly called "classical," but the term is applied with particular emphasis to the half-century from around 1537 to 1585 when Sinan was chief architect of state under the sultans Siileyman I, Selim II, and Murat III. In those years he ...
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In the Sufi Way, the experience of the world and its perception is aesthetic in an ecstatic fashion. The awareness of the overpowering beauty of the world fills the heart with love and opens the mind to cosmic relations. The integration... more
In the Sufi Way, the experience of the world and its perception is aesthetic in an ecstatic fashion. The awareness of the overpowering beauty of the world fills the heart with love and opens the mind to cosmic relations. The integration of reason, form-making, and imagining, along with yielding the body and mind to the powers of the earth, is a total aesthetic in Sufism. In the Islamic world, humans' movement, the way they understand the process of time and space, depends on nature and parallels the cosmic order and the basic underlying forms that are found in nature. They are not only circular, which means they revolve and repeat, but rather spiral. They grow and expand in a way that radiates from the center out. Many forms of city order, architectural arrangement and movement pattern, including the basic orders of music and the representation of space in miniatures, comply with such an understanding of space and time. The Dervish Dance is in complete harmony with this understa...
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Airiti Library華藝線上圖書館.
On 4 March 2022 Arnold Berleant celebrates his 90th anniversary. Anniversaries are ideal occasions to take a breath and look back and forward, to revisit memories and make plans for the future. Yet celebrations imply more, namely, to... more
On 4 March 2022 Arnold Berleant celebrates his 90th anniversary. Anniversaries are ideal occasions
to take a breath and look back and forward, to revisit memories and make plans for the future. Yet
celebrations imply more, namely, to gather around the celebrated one in a festive atmosphere and
breath in the feeling of togetherness. One looks around for friends and this “lateral view” – to borrow
an expression by Maurice Merleau-Ponty – is what conveys depth or meaning to life. On his anniversary, Arnold Berleant neither has to seek for the traces he has left behind nor look around for
friends. They are already here: his pathways, ineffaceable and deeply ground-in in the field of aesthetics, his friends, innumerable. This mesh of Berleant’s biographical and theoretical trails as seen
by friends and colleagues makes the object of the present liber amicarum et amicorum.
We are grateful to all those who, despite the tight deadline, could respond to our invitation
to celebrate Arnold Berleant’s anniversary. Others would have gladly joined us yet were finally impeded by health reasons. The present contributions build like sonorous and silent sequences the
rhapsodic structure of this volume. The articles, authored by scholars worldwide and belonging to
different generations, demonstrate how Berleant’s wide vision of the aesthetic and lifelong effort of
coagulating communities has strongly shaped the scope, methods and goals of aesthetic theory, as
well as impacted other disciplines. Arnold Berleant himself honored this Festschrift with a paper. In
it, he surprises us once more by reverting the common interpretation of (past) art from the perspective of (contemporary) philosophy and using an “enigmatic” artist of the 20th century in order to raise
doubts on the argumentative “evidence” of an equally famous historical philosopher.
This Festschrift includes articles, memories and birthday wishes. Some texts provide clearly
new knowledge and/or in-depth studies of Arnold Berleant’s work, some work on reflections more
or less based on his lifework, but together they show the richness of Arnold Berleant’s impact, which
ranges from research to establishing Contemporary Aesthetics and functioning as a mentor figure
for many younger scholars. We hope that the issue that we have edited could function as a start for
Arnold Berleant studies. During the process we realized that although we have read a lot of his work,
his publishing resume (included here, too) is more extensive than what we have so far realized. Luckily many authors touched upon issues that have been less discussed, but all and all, the lifework of
Arnold Berleant can support many further studies. This issue, we think, shows it.
to take a breath and look back and forward, to revisit memories and make plans for the future. Yet
celebrations imply more, namely, to gather around the celebrated one in a festive atmosphere and
breath in the feeling of togetherness. One looks around for friends and this “lateral view” – to borrow
an expression by Maurice Merleau-Ponty – is what conveys depth or meaning to life. On his anniversary, Arnold Berleant neither has to seek for the traces he has left behind nor look around for
friends. They are already here: his pathways, ineffaceable and deeply ground-in in the field of aesthetics, his friends, innumerable. This mesh of Berleant’s biographical and theoretical trails as seen
by friends and colleagues makes the object of the present liber amicarum et amicorum.
We are grateful to all those who, despite the tight deadline, could respond to our invitation
to celebrate Arnold Berleant’s anniversary. Others would have gladly joined us yet were finally impeded by health reasons. The present contributions build like sonorous and silent sequences the
rhapsodic structure of this volume. The articles, authored by scholars worldwide and belonging to
different generations, demonstrate how Berleant’s wide vision of the aesthetic and lifelong effort of
coagulating communities has strongly shaped the scope, methods and goals of aesthetic theory, as
well as impacted other disciplines. Arnold Berleant himself honored this Festschrift with a paper. In
it, he surprises us once more by reverting the common interpretation of (past) art from the perspective of (contemporary) philosophy and using an “enigmatic” artist of the 20th century in order to raise
doubts on the argumentative “evidence” of an equally famous historical philosopher.
This Festschrift includes articles, memories and birthday wishes. Some texts provide clearly
new knowledge and/or in-depth studies of Arnold Berleant’s work, some work on reflections more
or less based on his lifework, but together they show the richness of Arnold Berleant’s impact, which
ranges from research to establishing Contemporary Aesthetics and functioning as a mentor figure
for many younger scholars. We hope that the issue that we have edited could function as a start for
Arnold Berleant studies. During the process we realized that although we have read a lot of his work,
his publishing resume (included here, too) is more extensive than what we have so far realized. Luckily many authors touched upon issues that have been less discussed, but all and all, the lifework of
Arnold Berleant can support many further studies. This issue, we think, shows it.