From social critic to social representation jeudi, 18 octobre 12 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

οὐτόπος

From social critic to social representation

References

• Agamben, Giorgio. “What Is An Apparatus? [Che Cose Un Dispoitivo?].” In What Is an

Apparatus? and Other Essays, translated by David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella, xii–26. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.

• Duveau, George. Sociologie de l’utopie et autres “essais”. 1st ed. Bibliothèque de sociologie
• contemporaine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1961.
• Gargiani, Roberto. Archizoom Associati 1966-1974. De la vague pop à la surface neutre. 1st ed.

Milano: Mondadori Electa, 2007.

• de Moncan. Villes utopiques, villes rêvées. La ville retrouvée. Paris: Editions du Mécène, 2003.
• More, Thomas. L

’Utopie. Librio Philosophie 317. Paris: Librio, 2003.

• More, Thomas. The Utopia of Sir Thomas More. Translated by Ralph Robinson. 2nd ed. London:

Macmillan and co., 1909.

• Paquot, Thierry. Les faiseurs de villes. 1st ed. Archigraphy. Paris: InFolio, 2010.
• Paquot, Thierry, and Michel Lussault. “Utopie, Utopia, Utopie.” Edited by Jacques Lévy and Michel
• Lussault. Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés. Paris: Belin, 2003.

Presentation structure

• From moral to social revolutions.

Utopias as political apparatus

• A very brief history of utopias

Utopias

from moral to social revolutions

Lorenzetti, Ambrogio. Allegoria Del Buon Governo. Fresco, 1339.

Lorenzetti, Ambrogio. Allegoria Del Cattivo Governo. Fresco, 1339.

(Re)definitions – socio-spatial conditions

• Territory of harmonious living
• Ideal and revolutionary project and/or model
• Impossible or unattainable condition (neg.)
• Perfectly organized city/territory
• Perfectly governed and acting society
• Reality offering greatest happiness

Questioning utopias

Can utopias inform us their context of production and of analysis?

Questioning utopias

How to differentiate utopias from urban projects?

Questioning utopias

Where is the utopia?

New Definitions – a pragmatic approach

Process using

• narrative frame,
• socio-spatial references,
• multi-media platforms, and
• communication & diffusion strategies

as a political dispositive

Presents similar conditions to Myths, Representations, Tales, etc.

New Definitions – Analysis scheme

Social Reality > Socio-spatial reading > Formal Reality > Ethical Critic > Formal Reality’ > Socio-spatial writing > Social Reality’ > Communication Strategy > Public > Language > Diffusion channels > Format Analysis Project Diffusion

Utopias, a very brief history

Ortelius, Abraham. Island of Utopia. Engraving. 1595

Utopias, a very brief history

• The etymology: Saint Thomas More’s ‘οὐτόπος’
• Defining variable geometries
• Questioning utopias
• The project of the city
• Reading the context of production
• Utopia, dystopia, heterotopia, etc.

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• Written by Sir Thomas More
• ‘De optimo rei publicae statv, deque noua

insula Vtopia, libellus eure aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festiuus’

• 1516 – published in Latin in Leuven (Seventeen Provinces)
• 1551 – translated in English by Ralph Robinson

Engraving representing the Island of Utopia. First Edition.1516

• Holbein. Ambrosius. Island of Utopia. Woodcut. 1518.

Ortelius, Abraham. Island of Utopia. Engraving. 1595

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

οὐτόπος οὐ / τόπος – ou / topos – non-place

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

Holbein, Hans (the younger). Portrait of Sir Thomas More. Oil on oak panel. 1527.

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

Holbein, Hans (the younger). Portrait of Sir Thomas More. Oil on oak panel. 1527.

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• Ward. Edward Matthew. Sir Thomas More’s Farewell to His Daughter. Oil on canva. 1841.

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

“More est plutot petit ; démarche incertaine, empêtrée. Il porte une robe chiffonée, mal ajustée ; l’épaule droite est plus haute que la gauche. Les yeux gris, petits, mais beaux, jettent des regards lourds et tendres. More souffre de l’estomac, se nourrit seulement de légumes. Il boit de l’eau, quelquefois, de la petite bière, jamais du vin. Même lorsqu’il exerce de hautes fonctions, il mène une existence discrète.

• Duveau. Georges. ‘Le père de l’utopie, Thomas More’. in Sociologie de l’utopie, et autres essais . Paris : PUF. 1961. p. 73

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• 1478 birth of Thomas More, son of John More, judge in Royal court
• 1492 More (who is 14 of age) is sent in Oxford
• 1492 Columbus discovers the New World
• 1509 Henri VIII becomes King of England / Erasmus stays at More’s
• 1518 Entry to the King’s Private Council under Henri VIII
• 1520 Luther’s Reformation results in the schism with the Pope’s authority
• 1529 succeed to Wolsey as Lord Chancellor of England
• 1534 The Act of Supremacy & Treasons Act
• 1535 More is beheaded for treason against the King
• 1551 Raph Robinson, son-in-law of More, translated ‘Utopia’ in English
• 1886 Beatified by Pope Leo XIII – 1935 Canonized by Pope Pius XI

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• 1455–1485 War of the Roses and succession of Edward IV by Richard III
• Context of 15th and 16th centuries proto-humanism
• Emergence of “Enclosure” and the substitution of fields by prairies

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• 1509 Erasmus writes The Praise of Folly in More’s estate in Bucklersbury
• 1515 More participated to a diplomatic mission to represent the King of

England at Emperor Charles Quint’s court in Flanders

• Meet with Pierre Gilles in Antwerp

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• More criticizes war, massacres and brutal judiciary sanctions
• He also criticizes the military presence of England in Italy (v. France)
• Strong Catholic orthodoxy and use of cilice on fridays and days of fast
• Lectures in church on Saint-Augustin’s City of God
• Greatly influenced by Plato’s Republic and Atlantis & quest of harmony
• 1482 Latin translation of Euclide
• 1484 Marsile FIcin’s Plato
• 1485 Publication of Alberti’s De re aedeficatoria
• 1486 First edition of Sulpicius’ Vitruvius

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the

Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island of Utopia

• Portrait of a government that would put England away for the cupidity of

its lords (de Moncan 2003 pp. 30-31)

• He hope the new King to be “a father for the people, not a master of

slaves” (ibid.)

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• Narrative style
• Science-fiction like story
• Integrate historic figures such as Amerigo Vespucci
• Published in Latin with Greek “u-topos / eu-topos”
• Publishes in Leuven (Seventeen Provinces)

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• Book I
• Book II
• Of Their Towns, Particularly of Amaurot
• Of Their Magistrates
• Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life
• Of Their Traffic
• Of the Traveling of the Utopians
• Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
• Of Their Military Discipline
• Of the Religion of the Utopians

The etymology: Saint Thomas More’ Utopos

• Government and Wealth
• The Island of Utopia (geograph.)
• Amaurote, one of fifty-four cities
• Internal / external exchanges
• Work, agriculture and labor
• Length of workload
• Richness and property
• Beauty
• Marital unions
• Cloths
• Markets, hospitals & hygiene
• Slavery
• Beast killing
• Raising the kids

de Moncan. ‘L’Utopie de Thomas More’ in Villes utopiques, villes rêvées. La ville retrouvée. Paris: Editions du Mécène, 2003.

Utopias: Defining variable geometries

• Atlantis (in Republic and Critias) – Plato
• Heavenly Jerusalem (in Bible and other sources)
• The city of God – Saint-Augustin

Utopias: Defining variable geometries - Humanist Utopias

• 1602 – City of the Sun. Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) (clergy)
• 1619 – Christianopolis. Johann Valentin Andreae (theologian)
• 1627 – The New Atlantis. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (statesman)
• 1632 – Freudnenstadt, or the “City of Joy”. Heinrich Schickhardt (arch.)
• 177

1 – L’an 2440. Louis-Sébastien Mercier (writer)

• 1773 – Les Salines de Chaux. Nicolas Ledoux (architect)
• 1824 – New Harmony. Robert Owen (businessman)
• 1800’ – Count Henri de Saint-Simon & Saint-Simonnians (aristocrat)
• 1849 – Phalanstery. Charles Fourier & Victor Considérant (philosopher)
• 1859 – Familistery. Jean-Baptiste Godin (businessman)
• 1839 – Icara. Etienne Cabet (lawyer)

Utopias: Defining variable geometries - Modern Utopias

• Hussmannian Paris – Napoleon III
• Garden City – Richardson, Morris, Howard, France
• The Industrial City – Tony Garnier, Emile Zola
• The City of the Future – Eugène Hénard
• La Ville Radieuse – Le Corbusier

Utopias: Defining variable geometries - Post-modern Utopias

• Instant City & Cities Moving – Archigram
• New Babylon – Constant
• Broad-acre City – Frank Lloyd Wright
• Helix City Plan – Kisho Kurokawa
• Plug-in City – Archigram
• Ville flotante – Paul Maymont
• Il Monumento Continuo – Superstudio
• No-Stop City – Superstudio
• Generic City – OMA/AMO Rem Koolhaas

Utopias: Defining variable geometries - Utopias’ new media

Utopias: Defining variable geometries - Utopias’ new media

Utopias: Defining variable geometries

• Has not been fully realized, only principles applied
• Isolation (spatial & social)
• Flat-land (except garden-city movement)
• Urban form based on gridiron or on perspective
• Dominated by order, proportions, equilibrium, hierarchy, structures
• Promote segregation of functions and uses
• System aimed a promoting happiness
• Promote religious and philosophical tolerance (promote cospatiality)
• Promote new form of governance and/or political system
• Devalues individual property, notably land property

de Moncan. Villes utopiques, villes rêvées. La ville retrouvée. Paris: Editions du Mécène, 2003. pp. 7-19

Utopias: Defining variable geometries

Imaginary territory, perfectly organized, where inhabitants live in harmony. By extension, revolutionary, ideal and audacious model and/or project.**

** (Original)“Territoire imaginaire, parfaitement organisé, où règne la concorde entre les habitants. Par extension, modèle et/ou projet révolutionnaire, audacieux, et idéal.” (1) (1) Paquot, Thierry, and Michel Lussault. “Utopie, Utopia, Utopie.” Edited by Jacques Lévy and Michel

• Lussault. Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés. Paris: Belin, 2003.

New Definitions – a pragmatic approach

Process using

• narrative frame,
• socio-spatial references,
• multi-media platforms, and
• communication & diffusion strategies

as a political dispositive

Presents similar conditions to Myths, Representations, Tales, etc.