Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gözde Severoğlu, Indy Johar, Haluk Gerçek and Mimi Zeiger contributed with letters to NCR-05.

Les racines sont profondes et ne meurent jamais ( Edouard Glissant)
Tout soudain, dans le tourbillon du Tout Monde (Edouard Glissant)
EVER Istanbul
Istanbul is the answer…what is the question?
The future is…Istanbul

Hans Ulrich Obrist July 2012

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World-renowned author Orhan Pamuk’s letter titled “When the Bosphorus Dries Up” for the fifth issue of New City Reader.

When the Bosphorus Dries Up

“Nothing can ever be as shocking as life. Except writing.” Ibn Zerhani

Did you know that the Bosphorus is drying up? I don’t think so. Naturally, we’re all preoccupied with this frenzied killing spree going on in our streets, and since we seem to enjoy it as much as fireworks, who has time to read or to find out what’s going on in the world? It’s hard even to keep abreast of our columnists – we read them as we struggle across our mangled ferry landings, as we huddle together at our overcrowded bus stops, as we sit yawning in those dolmuş seats that make every letter tremble. I found this story in a French geological journal.

The Black Sea, we are told, is getting warmer, the Mediterranean colder. As their waters continue to empty into the great caves whose gaping holes lie in wait under the seabed, the same tectonic movements have caused Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and the Bosphorus to rise. After one of the last remaining Bosphorus fishermen told me how his boat had run aground in a place he had once had to throw in an anchor on a chain as long as a minaret, he asked, Isn’t our prime minister at all interested in knowing why?
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Guest edited by Beatrice Galilee and Tom Keeley the fifth issue of the New City Reader titled “Mektuplar/Letters” features stories and letters by 18 world-renowned figures such as the author Orhan Pamuk, author Joseph Kannon, architectural historian Charles Jencks, curator, critic and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist and architect Alejandro Zaero-Polo, depicting Istanbul from various different perspectives.

World-renowned author Orhan Pamuk, in his article titled “When the Bosphorus Dries Up” shares a futuristic scenario for Istanbul. Author Joseph Kannon’s letter, compares contemporary Istanbul to the Istanbul of 1945. Architectural historian Charles Jencks questions the implications of urbanization in a city like Istanbul which is home to structures that are thousands of years old. Curator, critic and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist quotes verses by author and poet Edouard Glissant to declare that the future is, in fact, Istanbul. Architect Alejandro Zaero-Polo touches upon the past and the future of Hagia Sophia in a a letter addressed to Isidore of Miletus, the architect of the Museum of Hagia Sophia.

Read the rest of the article for the full list of issue contributers and NCR locations.

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NCR-04 (Horoscope), a text by Korhan Gümüş: This Transient World May Collapse in Only a Day

In his criticism of historicism, Quatremère de Quincy says that even though their forms are identical, “type” and “model” – which is based on type – are exact opposites of each other. Whilst the first one, “Type” is based on centreless reproduction, the latter, “model” is based on the repetition of a sample copy. This statement is closely related to the fundamental problematic of modernity: When the designer talks about something – even though it stands right before our eyes – he is in actual fact talking about something else. Thus that which is “represented” is reversed to become that which is “not represented”. The object talked about by the designer, or a likeness of it, is a thing that replaces it. Thus the representation is not a thing that stands inside the space along with other things, it is a substituted thing. When we look at it, in our minds, we are not seeing “it”, but the thing. This illusion establishes an invisible hierarchy among the things. Therefore the thing has to abandon the space, in other words not be seen where it is viewed. In this way, the thing that is talked about gains a maleability that can be given form by one’s hands.

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NCR-04 (Horoscope), a text by architectural historian and critic Uğur Tanyeli: Perfection, Imperfection, Reperfection

Tokyo – Uğur Tanyeli

Although it provides this biennial with a main concept and a motto, the tension between perfection and imperfection does not only define Istanbul, but the whole modern architecture and urban planning history. On the one hand, there is a possibility for freedom, which flourished along with the dissolution of the premodern episteme, and on the other hand, there are fears and paranoias produced by the same transformation. The first aspect of the world-historical scene was characterized by the premodern condition that trew every divergent beyond the limits of legitimacy, the second one is the modern epistemical system, which gives, at least potentially, every divergency a chance of survival. However, a modern approach, almost the mainstream of modernity, does not accept this emancipatory transformation as a positivity. It discusses every social reality including architecture with a fear of loss. What is believed as being lost is a world, once meaningful and orderly, that could create aesthetical and social consensuses, full of possibilities to produce harmonies; ie. a perfect social and physical environment. Beginning with the first theoreticians in the early 19th century, who tried to return to a world of architectural orderliness, which was organized according to a sequence of styles, the modern world was diagnosed as being in a condition of imperfection waiting to be cured. They intended to produce reperfection. Even when they left their obsession of regaining the world of architectural styles, they did not change their search for perfection. They are still working to found new regimes of aesthetical consistency. The modern man and woman are still unaware of his/her modernity. They do not believe in that the modern world is just a historical condition of constant and ordinary imperfection.

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NCR-04 Horoscope; Murat Güvenç puts forward a proposition to create a “Choreoscope” that foretells the spaces of the future.

Should this newspaper with the city as its main agenda also include a horoscope section? If your answer is affirmative, then how should the content be created? If you are saying “no”, then how would you justify this attitude? I was puzzled at the editor’s questions for this issue. Because as its very name implies, in a “horoscope” which orientates itself with the perception and apprehension of time, there are very few indications of place and instead many chronological references such as “in two measures of time”, “before winter arrives” or “on a summer day” etc. Despite its irrationality, as the well-known proposition about Time – which has successfully defied the storms and tribulations of the Modernity project – swallowing Place suggests, when the attributes of Time are laid down, everything becomes much clearer. We can actually do without Place. This approach is not entirely unjustified when we consider the unequal development of these two concepts, Time and Place. When Time has proven very efficient, through its use of fairy tales, stories, super-narratives and utopias, in transcending local limitations, namely Place, and transporting society and sociology to a placeless wonderland, spatial imagination (excepting such examples as “doors were locked and the place wept…”) has been full of shallow, obvious, dry and infertile tongue-twisters and rhymes. Consequently, whilst horoscopes foretelling the future were created, noone thought of producing a (C)horeoscope indicating places of the future. So I thought that the editor’s question should have been about a choreoscope as opposed to a horoscope. The problem regarding places of the future and the future of places brought me to the period when we used models of attraction. We used these models with the purpose of estimating and testing the distribution of population and employment in cities. When we reached the expected population figures through calibration, we considered our work accomplished. The question of whether the results were respectful of the local values or their fairness or the legitimacy of the technical solution would not be a concern of the final evaluation. Professional practice may sometimes neglect humanistic concerns, overshadowing alternatives and imagination. I remembered the times when we prepared data for such exploratory projects and how we amused ourselves with the phonetic similarity between the verbs “discard” (atmak) and “assign” (atamak) in the third person singular in Turkish.

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A fabl by Levent Şentürk for NCR-04 “Horoscope”

İllustration: Hakan Keleş

“Imagine a bright summer day, very much like today, in the middle of June in Istanbul.
imagine a day smelling of honeysuckles, roses and oleasters.
It is on a day like this, at the hour of noon, that the sky will darken and the air will thicken. When daylight and human breath freeze up in the air, that’s when I’ll come. Me, the crab. And not a single soul will be left unaware of my arrival.
Even before I appear, my eyes of pure gold, in the middle of Marmara,
two great whirlpools, each one the size of a neighbourhood,
will announce my arrival, sighing and groaning and singing my ballad to Istanbullites.
The sea will stand upright, first greeting the city with two huge cylinders and then introducing me – namely Crab – to you.
The ascension of my golden eyes to the surface will be like a twin sunrise,
followed by my shield-like silvery body, rising amidst a flood of gigantic waves,
creating terrible rainbows wandering the horizon, even though this may be impossible on a dark sky.
Then you will see the emergence of my two bronze clamps and their colour will be a deep,
blinding black, shining in such brilliance never before encountered on the face of the earth.
As I will have my back against Kadıköy, when my right legs burn up in flames,
those in Üsküdar will catch fire with the hot and dry air instantly hitting Çamlıca.
When my left legs ice over, the coastline of Bakırköy will freeze in a great rumbling noise
which will be normal as my toes will be over there.
I will introduce you to the dexterity of my clamps,
then in the same manner I have appeared, I will also disappear
and even though my disappearance lasts a decade,
it will be etched in your memory as a mere instant.”

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Musibet: a text by Emre Arolat from the pages of NCR04 “Horoscope”.

Oh beautiful Istanbul! You incorrigible, you rich-hearted city…

Not that it has ever been seen to sit still and behave, but it is once again teeming with life these days. All bouncy and bubbly, doing cartwheels, hopping and skipping. With its spine contracting and stretching; its face darkening one minute and lightening up the next, yet nevertheless becoming increasingly foggy and obscure. This time, the progress is much faster than ever.

Daydreams of great transformation, a kind of hyperactivity, or simply delirium. Any given moment, another bright idea, any given day, another new project… It may be crazy, it may be absurd, who cares! Quickly drawn up drafts, hastily organized tenders based on these drafts. Clumsy interventions, desperately implemented city-scale decisions. Instead of specificity, the spirit of searching, understanding, participation, and social agreement, here we find a self-styled state of autos-kratos. Ridiculing all attempts to pursue subtlety and grace. Refusing to go deeper, unable to go deeper, unwilling to go deeper, preferring to sweep the surface. Just like the mild, slippery, hedonistic surfing movement of virtual reality. Swaying aimlessly about and just as it seems to be holding on to something, suddenly changing colour. Surrendering itself to the fresh and provocative winds of the world of entertainment.

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New City Reader’s latest issue titled “Yıldız Falı / Horoscope” is guest edited by Emre Arolat, one of the curators of Istanbul Design Biennial. The issue features articles by the architect and writer Levent Şentürk, urban sociologist Murat Güvenç, architectural historian and critic Uğur Tanyeli and urban activist Korhan Gümüş and offers a deeper insight into the future of urbanization and metropolization through concepts such as “musibet / calamity, choreoscope, perfection and imperfection”.

Game Rules
There is only one rule: all play must be to keep the puzzle in play.
…That being said, these are some general guidelines:

How long does it take to play?
As little as 3 minutes; an hour; a whole day; an entire month…In fact, it lasts as long as you can last.

How many players?
Any number of people can play. The minimum is one person who makes a piece and leaves it for others to play with, or to come back at a later time to play.

Okay. So what’s the idea?
TI is a collectively-created jigsaw puzzle. It can be played any time and anywhere. Even these “rules” themselves are open to hacking. Anyone can participate simply by contributing a piece, or moving existing pieces to “solve the puzzle”. The Scenarios section explores a number of example games, and everyone is invited to invent more.

At the most basic, the TI process is the following:
Take the New City Reader’s map or use your own city’s map, a blank paper, or any index card. The map provided with this newspaper can be colored, filled or outlined with the traces of a personal memory of a space, a desire, or an exterior romp through the urban realm. Use conventional cartographic techniques, icons, or other kinds of unconventional notations and draw them on the map. You can also cut the puzzle piece out in the shape suggested by your drawing, much like a jigsaw puzzle. Using the New City Reader’s map, you can use the grid lines to derive an outline.
There is no limit to how many puzzle pieces you can contribute. either drawn, or pasted. Icons can also be cut and pasted into the pieces if so desired. These are the basic blocks for different games. Then, using simple rules that players should agree on, the puzzle pieces can connect to others spatially or begin to define a new region. Get inspired and move further.

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