No description available.

This thesis is an investigation of architectural elements and lighting conditions that reinforce a journey. From the initial encounter to the presence of the sanctuary, a Presbyterian church has been constructed in downtown Blacksburg to instrumentally govern an interaction between congregation and form. / Master of Architecture

This thesis analyses ethnographic data gathered during participant observation within two vernacular town carnivals in East Devon and Dorset during 2012 and within the professional Cartwheelin’ and Battle for the Winds street performances which were staged as part of the Maritime Mix programme of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad at Weymouth. The thesis presents qualitative perspectives with regard to the cultural performance of carnival in the fieldwork area, in order to analyse the ‘performativity’ of carnival in these contexts: how it enacts and embodies a range of instrumentalities with regard to notions of community, culture and place. The thesis serves to unpack the ‘performance efficacy’ of carnival within the wider political and cultural landscape of the UK in the early 21st century, revealing the increasing influence of institutional policy on its aesthetics and cultural performance. By way of contrast, the thesis also asserts the value of vernacular carnivalesque street performance as a contestation of hegemonic notions of ‘art’, ‘place’ and ‘culture’. The ethnographies of both vernacular and professional carnival practice presented in the thesis show how the instrumentalities of carnival are employed as cultural performances and as symbolic constructions of place, power and policy. These ethnographies reveal the contradictory ‘efficacy’ of carnival: how it functions both as a symbolic expression of a progressive, rhizomatic sense of place and also as a normative performance of vertical symbolic power and place-identity. The thesis offers a cultural geography of carnival as praxis in the south west UK, locating it within specific geographical, historical and socio-cultural contexts which have developed since the late 19th century. The thesis also offers a productive contribution to the emerging dialogue between cultural geography and performance studies through its analysis of the performativities of participants’ affective, carnivalesque experience: an analysis which articulates how people ritualise and perform the multiple boundaries between individual and community identities through carnival. Further, the thesis considers the means by which people present and enact particular symbolic representations of place and identity through their carnival performances, both in professional and non-professional contexts. In its conclusion and recommendations, the thesis seeks to frame these ethnographies within a critique of carnival practice which is considered through the contested geographies of the ‘creative economy’. It seeks to demonstrate how culture-led processes of policy enactment are increasingly critical influences within carnival and arts development in rural and small-town contexts and within place-based strategies of public engagement. Further, the thesis seeks to consider the effects that this hegemony has on ‘vernacular’ practices of carnival. The thesis adds a further voice to those cultural geographers who warn about the diminishing public space which is now available to people for spontaneous, ‘non-productive’ carnival festivity in the context of globalised late capitalism and ‘applied’ culture. Finally, the thesis offers a proposed remedy: a re-imagination of progressive structures of public engagement through culture; structures which support ‘vernacular’ practice alongside the instrumentalities of arts-development and public policies of place, in tune with a growing alternative discourse which seeks to ‘rethink the cultural economy.

In the past, going to the movies was an event. The grand lit marquee made a statement, ushering you inside. The elaborately decorated lobby transported you to a place in your dreams where riches and opulence abound. The curtained screen marked the start of a true storied spectacle as you sat close to your friends and neighbors dressed in their Sunday best. There was no denying that the cinema was the place to see, be seen and to socialize. In contrast, today’s movie-going can be classified as more of a singular experience. You wait in long, solemn cattle lines to enter a cluttered lobby with loud video games, tacky candy machines and tunnel-like hallways. You sit in plush recliners in a sea of strangers and rush out of the theater before even the lights come up. In response to this cultural shift, my proposed design solution will challenge the isolation of today’s cinema by recreating the procession associated with neighborhood movie-going of the early 1900s. I will reinvent a cinema built in 1937, the Bellevue Theater, and develop a design that is contemporary, incorporating both modern technology and interests of today. The design will explore the spatial connections between one and many, fostering both the individual and group experience associated with the big screen – the cinema procession of the past.

Die 2009 in Zürich angenommene archäologische Dissertation über Heilige Straßen wartet mit einer spannenden These zur großen Frage der Polisentstehung auf und setzt diese anhand der als Maßnahme für den inneren Zusammenhalt aufgefassten Prozessionsstraßen erst im 6.Jh. v.Chr. an. Für das Argument der sehr konzis geschriebenen Arbeit geht man am besten rückwärts vor. Im Hauptteil (S.40–74) werden Verlauf, Ausstattung und Datierung sogenannter Heiliger Straßen in Samos, Ephesos, Milet sowie von Athen nach Eleusis und der Panathenäenweg beschrieben. Die detailreichen Ausführungen, welche Grabungsbefunde mit Gefäßmalerei und späteren Schriftzeugnissen kenntnisreich ergänzen, sind durch Landkarten, Grundrisse, Stadtpläne und Rekonstruktionen gut nachzuvollziehen (Tafeln 1–17). Von großem Interesse ist dann die Datierung der Heiligen Straßen, wobei M. darunter für Prozessionen nutzbare und stellenweise neu angelegte Wege versteht, die meist von der Agora, entlang an kleineren Heiligtümern und Grabstädten, hinaus aus der Stadt zu einem größeren Tempel führten.

Feste wie das kultische Opferfest wurden häufig im antiken Griechenland veranstaltet: sie trugen als Rituale grundlegend zur Organisation und Konstruktion der sozialen Gemeinschaft bei. Trotz dieser immensen Bedeutung des Festgeschehens gibt es noch immer Lücken in der altertumswissenschaftlichen Forschung, besonders vom musiksoziologischen Ansatz. Die Betrachtung der musikalischen Elemente im griechischen Kult wie Instrumentalspiel, Gesang einzelner und in Chören, wie auch der Tanz soll einen interdisziplinären Beitrag dazu liefern, die soziale Organisation der antiken griechischen Gesellschaft aus dem Blickwinkel der Musikarchäologie und -soziologie zu verstehen. Die Musik in antiken griechischen Opferritualen ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil dieses kultischen Ereignisses. Eigens dazu ausgebildete Musiker aber auch Laien musizierten zu den unterschiedlichen Phasen des Ritualkomplexes: während der Prozession, vor und nach der Opferung der Tiere oder der Darbringung anderer Gaben am Altar und zum festlichen Mahl. Diese Arbeit betrachtet die musikalische Begleitung speziell in den kultischen Prozessionen, untersucht mögliche Funktionen und Anwendungen der Musik, betrachtet den sozialen Status der Musiker und zeigt Zusammenhänge zwischen Musik und Kulthandlung. Dabei werden Vasenbilder vom 8. bis zum 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. analysiert und verglichen mit Aussagen antiker Texte zu Prozessionsmusik und Musikern. / Festivals, such as the cultic sacrifice feast, were often conducted in ancient Greece. These rituals contributed fundamentally to the organization and construction of Greek society. In spite of the important meaning of cultic festivals there are still gaps in classical and ancient knowlege on the subject, notably the music sociological aspects. The treatment of musical elements in Greek cult, such as instrumental playing, soloistic or choir singing, and even dancing will add an interdisciplinary component from the music archaeological and music sociological point of view. This will better inform us of the social organization of Greek communities. Music was an essential element of Greek sacrifice rituals. Both professional educated musicians and amateurs made music during the different parts of the ritual complex: during the procession, before and after the sacrifice ritual—which could constitute the slaughtering of animals or the offering of gifts--and during the festive meal. My thesis analyses the musical role in the ritual, especially in cultic processions. It explores possible functions and applications of music, examines the social status of the musicians, and reveals relations between music and the ritual act. My sources primarily comprise vase depictions from the 8th to the 5th century B.C., which are analysed and compared to the written texts on processional music and musicians.