Selected papers presented at international conferences since 2005.
Magna Graeca/Tarantella
This paper starts from a premise that within public assemblies and gatherings, in the territories under influences of classical Greek civilization, processions, blessings, rituals, performances and dance took place. This paper explores dances of healing and release traditionally danced by women.
We present an overview of the literature, with a series of tentative hypotheses and open questions, about possible relationships...
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Art/Science
Possible procedural similarities between abstract problems mathematically expressed, engineering problems mechanically resolved, collective tensions and yearning expressed as significant poetic, acoustic or visual manifestations in art will be explored through a series of open questions and reflections. We begin with a short analysis and comparison of the methodologies of Nicola Tesla and Leonardo da Vinci, and explore issues raised by examples of imagination...
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Scenography and Genius Loci
The traditional concept of genius loci, spirit of place, has a number of meanings ranging from the special atmosphere of a place, through human cultural responses to a place, to notions of the guardian spirit of a place. In the theater, this expresses itself in thousands of ways, from Giselle appearing in the forest clearing to Beckett’s characters buried in the sand.
Additionally, this paper will discuss some theoretical, dramaturgical, and visual issues raised...
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More Than One Kind
Reflection, probing and open ended speculations about social plurality and culture making based on examples from number of large scale community projects cared by Artship Foundation in the last twenty years. This paper is not an attempt to idealize a practice or come with any universal answers but to share the successes and straggles of number of project tackling diversity, immigrant experience and integration...
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Transmigration of Music
Troubadours are the paper's central example. Broader issues of social currents in Mediterranean cultures will be touched upon through looking at Troubadours and, by reflection, Trouveres, as well as other itinerant musicians' collaborations with Alfonso X, The Wise, emperor-musician.
The paper will touch upon possible influences on Troubadours and Trouveres by the Albigensian culture of southern France...
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Domain, Land, Memory
Starting with a brief revue of models of territorial identity in Southern Europe, we reflect on the position of religious and ethnic diversity in the Ottoman Empire and the existence of regional religious authorities in the eastern Balkan regions since Byzantine Christianization...
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Mediterranean Worlds
From the standpoint of the History of Ideas, some recurrent Mediterranean themes will be approached with open questions and critical reflections. The attempt in this paper is not to prove any hypothesis, but to point to some instances of cultural similarities at different Mediterranean locations...
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Shepherds and Farmers
A reflection on methods of husbandry and agriculture from the point of the History of Culture and Ideas, this paper is an exploratory conceptual framework for a possible interdisciplinary research project comparing archeological findings, artifacts, documented ethnographic, anthropological records of the Eurasian Caucasus....
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River of Images
The elusive relationship between external cultural experiences and internal voluntary and involuntary image making is a starting point of this paper. Based on a number of contemporary projects and historic examples, open questions are asked about the imaginative function...
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