[Bilimsel Haber] Thresholds at MIT

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Thresholds at MIT: call for submissions

Submissions due: 28 February 2006

Thresholds 32 aspires to shed light on an interdisciplinary range of
interpretations and meanings associated with the theme of access.

Restricted access to certain architectural spaces is a phenomenon found 
in all
cultures at all times, transcending limitations of genre, period, belief 
system,
and nationality. Does the notion of access have any impact on the 
definition of
architecture and more specifically on the theorization of certain 
architectural
styles? How might an artwork or architectural space allow or prevent 
access? As
globalization and technology give us greater “virtual” 
access, we
are becoming arguably more restricted in a physical sense. Why do we still
question what is accessible in our world of globalization and
“virtual” nomadic wandering?


Call for Papers

For the Spring '06 issue of thresholds, we seek submissions from graduate
students and scholars in a wide range of fields, including media and visual
arts, architecture, and art history. We are interested in diverse inquiries
related to the concept of accessibility, from purely theoretical and 
historical
analyses to actual works of art and architecture.

To whom is access to a given space granted? Is it offered based on 
criteria that
are economic, psychological, physical, geographical, political, or conferred
according to national affinity, identity, religious orientation, ethnic
background, and so on? Many minority communities in different societies have
been denied access to places outside of their neighborhoods, whether these
neighborhoods are actual ghettos or not. How do such physical restrictions
interact with the related concepts of history, memory, nostalgia, 
nationality,
politics, and power?

Similar restrictions extend also into the academic realm. Art and 
architectural
history relies partially on archival evidence. How do we evaluate the
historiography of art and architecture with regard to the accessibility of
archives? In Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (1995), Derrida reminds us
how, through turning Freud’s house in Vienna into a museum, the 
secretive
became public. How does the accessibility of such sources affect our 
perceptions
of the past? Moreover, there is a distinction between actual archives 
(official
places for the retention of records, with systems of storage, organization,
cataloging) and those that are often accessed through memory. How can a
historian access memory, in a collective sense?

Historically, it has been possible to gain access to a restricted place 
through
masquerade and transvestite disguise. Mikhail Bakhtin describes how in the
medieval carnival there was a leveling of performer and spectator, a 
reversal of
hierarchy, where boundaries were eliminated and the distances between people
were suspended. Throughout the centuries, homosocial spaces gained ground in
many Islamic societies due to the inaccessibility of the harem to 
outside men,
and to the forbidden nature of public spaces to most women. Indeed, these
processes are strategic rather than incidental. What particular role do
politicians, architects, or even the police play in allowing or preventing
access?

Submissions may address the above issues, but need not be limited to them.

Submissions due: 28 February 2006
Please send all submissions to thresh@mit.edu

or send your file on a CD or a disk to the following address :

Pamela Karimi, Editor
thresholds
MIT Department of Architecture
Room 7-337
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

submission guidelines

Thresholds invites submissions, including but not limited to scholarly 
works,
from all fields. thresholds attempts to print only original material.

Manuscripts for review should be no more than 2,500 words. Text must be
formatted in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style. Spelling 
should follow
American convention and quotations must be translated into English. All
submissions must be submitted electronically, on a CD or disk, 
accompanied by
hard copies of text and images. Text should be saved as Microsoft Word 
or RTF
format, while any accompanying images should be sent as TIFF files with a
resolution of at least 300 dpi at 8" x 9" print size. Figures should be 
numbered
clearly in the text. Image captions and credits must be included with
submissions. It is the responsibility of the author to secure 
permissions for
image use and pay any reproduction fees. A brief author bio must 
accompany the
text.


thresh@mit.edu
thresholds
MIT Department of Architecture
Room 7-337
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Email: pamelak@mit.edu

Visit the website at http://architecture.mit.edu/thresholds/