Damascus; Narratives on Place and the City

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Comment by INTERRUPTIONS on August 20, 2008 at 10:23pm

when an image is constructed, in between words; collaboratively knotted through perception, imagination and collective memory and experiences
place, then, takes other dimensions, unique to each individual and an artwork of his/her own making

how little we are satisfied by illustrated novels and how often we are disappointed when visiting places we’ve heard stories about from old grandma.

i haven’t brought back any picture from Istanbul because they simply said nothing, my written diaries said it all yet they are difficult to frame-

through our workshop, we aim to reconstruct images through narrative- experimenting with textual representation of place we aim to introduce such dimensions to the perception of place; by allowing narrator to reproduce the image by selecting his/her own perspective or approach to place- and providing the reader with the opportunity to construct the image back from text

while each narrative is uniquely a singular representation of place that is a result to the narrator’s chosen perspective, expression, method of reflection, imagination and ideological background
the reader also reloads images from these narratives different than any other reader as a result to his/her collective memory, experiences and imagination-

our three day workshop would allow participants to construct individual narratives of places specified in Damascus collaborating together into a whole narrative of the city on multiple dimensions and perspectives-

the paradox of place and text; presence and imaginative- is an event we pursue daily through our experience in the city, social and cultural communication.
we are constantly told stories and constructing images- but very rarely we get to reload images we already adopted and became so rigidly consistent.

This is what we are trying to experiment with through our little workshop hoping we could engage international participants by elaborating more on the issue of

Narrative+Place
Present+Imaginative
Imagination+Place