Cultural actors as agents of generating social co-presences within the place: Istanbul’s contemporary art scene

This paper builds on the designation of cultural actors’ actions as a decisive factor in the emergence of urban patterns of art-driven social co-presences in Istanbul. It contributes to the creative city debate from the perspective of community development by incorporating the contemporary arts into urban social space making efforts. Methodologically, the locations of art organizations in the contemporary arts scene of Istanbul are approached as an urban pattern of art driven social co-presences that resulted from the ‘collective action’ in which a multitude of cultural actors are involved. We find that the clusters of art organizations serve as multidimensional social interactions among artist communities. There are, however, inefficiencies in spreading this interactive networking throughout different social segments. Research findings conclude that the cultural actors as agents of generating social co-presences within the place, are not effectively contributing to the society’s social coherence, particularly in terms of creating links with disadvantageous neighbourhood residents.     

Participatory action in the age of green urbanism. How Futurefarmers leapfrogged the culture consumer?

This article looks at a shift in urban governance and policy-making from a culture-led approach towards a ‘green turn’ and an environmentally informed approach. The particular focus of this exploration is how public art practices participate in this ongoing reconfiguration. We are especially concerned with the parallel effort by public administration and the art community to activate citizens through nature-oriented, public spaces. Our main target of interest is the city of Oslo where we investigate the art group that goes by the name of Futurefarmers, whose engagement with land development relates to planning, cultural strategies, curatorial approaches and related art projects. Our findings indicate that while this work pursues a mission of its own, it also has the potential to advance its position in public space by representing green values in decision-making processes. We argue that through this ability to operate both within and outside the system, art practice can introduce interdisciplinary collaborations that can drive change in cultural policy.     

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger as a Philosopher of Time**

When Hans-Jörg Rheinberger proposed the concept of epistemic things, he drew inspiration from the art historian George Kubler, who had considered the aesthetic object as resulting from problem-solving processes in The Shape of Time (1962). Kubler also demonstrated that a sequence of objects could retrace the progress that led to a solution that was afterwards accepted as the most classical. Parallel to Kubler, Rheinberger demonstrates how temporally extended activities of experimentation are condensed in the object, revealing the moments of innovation that lead to it. In the history of science as well as in art history, various trajectories can thus be grasped in the materially given. Rheinberger conceives of an object as a network of heterogeneous time strings. However, these are manifold: they cannot be thought of as making up a homogeneous temporality encompassing all the others as a temporal container and synchronizing them within it. Since the discovery of the Anthropocene, we no longer separate natural from cultural time, and no hegemonic historical narrative can be taken as unifying all the others. Historical epistemology as proposed by Rheinberger will be read as a contribution to constructing new models of natural as well as of cultural time.     

Rock art survey in the ancient oasis of Salūt (northern Sultanate of Oman): a variegated iconographic record

The systematic survey of petroglyphs in the area of the ancient oasis of Salūt, in central Oman, highlighted a rich repertoire of representations that are here discussed against the background of Arabian rock art in general. The region displays an extremely rich number of engravings along the slopes of the Jabal Hammah, north of the main site of Salūt. The majority of the petroglyphs find abundant fitting comparisons in the region. The notable exception of the motif of the “man with halberd” is presented, as it appears to be significantly rare and underlines interpretative issues concerning the so-called T-shaped signs, ubiquitous in Arabian rock art. One of its occurrences was radiocarbon dated to before the mid-first millennium BCE. This and other, relative hints for reconstructing the chronological context of the petroglyphs are discussed, indicating that engravings can be broadly dated from the second millennium BCE onwards.