This practice-based research focuses on the function of urban palimpsest and investigates new ways of “reading” and “interpreting” cities. Historically the word “palimpsest” was used to describe certain artefacts - manuscript pages from which the text has been scrapped and which can be used again. Later on the trace of the erased text reappeared through the centuries as iron in the remaining ink reacted with oxygen. Starting from the 19th century palimpsest was widely used in a metaphorical sense (particularly in psychoanalysis, literary criticism and postcolonial studies).
Urban palimpsests have been a continuous subject matter for a whole generation of artists and designers including Jacques Villegle, Raymond Hains, Rauschenberg, Doğançay, Brassai and Herbert Spencer. What distinguishes this research is the analysis of how different ideological texts struggle with each other for the dominance over the urban environment. The research suggests looking at the city as a text that is constantly writing and rewriting itself, with the objective of revealing new meanings. The metaphor of palimpsest is treated here as a tool of deconstruction that will allow the unpacking new unexpected meanings and revealing past through present. In addition, research will examine relationships with ideology and memory, and observing and analysing the urban practice of remembering and forgetting.
“City as palimpsest” is meant as an inter-disciplinary (photography, fine art, urban studies, cultural geography, psychoanalysis) research project, combining written thesis and studio work. Theory (written thesis) and practise (studio work) will go as parallel processes, with one activity pulling into focus ideas brought to light by the other. Visual work will consist from photography, art prints and installations investigating the boundaries of memory. It will also question viewers what and why we choose to remember or forget as individuals as well as society.
Urban palimpsests have been a continuous subject matter for a whole generation of artists and designers including Jacques Villegle, Raymond Hains, Rauschenberg, Doğançay, Brassai and Herbert Spencer. What distinguishes this research is the analysis of how different ideological texts struggle with each other for the dominance over the urban environment. The research suggests looking at the city as a text that is constantly writing and rewriting itself, with the objective of revealing new meanings. The metaphor of palimpsest is treated here as a tool of deconstruction that will allow the unpacking new unexpected meanings and revealing past through present. In addition, research will examine relationships with ideology and memory, and observing and analysing the urban practice of remembering and forgetting.
“City as palimpsest” is meant as an inter-disciplinary (photography, fine art, urban studies, cultural geography, psychoanalysis) research project, combining written thesis and studio work. Theory (written thesis) and practise (studio work) will go as parallel processes, with one activity pulling into focus ideas brought to light by the other. Visual work will consist from photography, art prints and installations investigating the boundaries of memory. It will also question viewers what and why we choose to remember or forget as individuals as well as society.
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, the palimpsest dated by the early 5th century. The manuscript received its name as a codex in which Greek translations of Ephraem the Syrian's treatises were written over ("rescriptus") a former text that had been washed off its vellum pages, thus forming a palimpset
The right writing was probably done by institution and it says: :Object is guarded. Video cameras are working.
The Russian transcription of the street has been painted out
The writing says in Latvian and Russian : "Your postcode is ..." Actual postcode has been painted out.
The writing on the wall says: "Who you will be, when you die?"
