Simultaneity in The Urban Scene: Istanbul Suadiye Metro Graffiti

Kent Sahnesinde Eşzamanlılık

Abstract

The changes and transformations that develop simultaneously in everyday life with the globalization of cities are conceptualized as the “aestheticization of everyday life”. In public spaces, the signs formed by the experiences of simultaneity turn into representation spaces/urban scenes. These narratives, which develop simultaneously and formally, are reflected in the “constructed”, “aestheticized”, and “exhibited” images/art representations of ordinary objects used in everyday life. Cities shaped by a new aesthetic understanding transform public spaces into theatrical stages. In this stage, simultaneous artistic and/or non-artistic encounters are experienced in a new layered and relational structure with the overlapping of the original form of the city and its aestheticized form. These encounters, which include the experience of the megacity and the body, constitute the sphere of influence of concepts such as movement, rhythm, comprehension, perception, etc. Artworks shaped on the diachronic axis in public spaces are defined by two different realities: moving and static. The daily life practices of the city dweller, who is the viewer in the actor position, emerging with the phenomenon of vision and experience, constitute the rhythm of urban life. The images/images we encounter simultaneously in public spaces appear in front of the urbanite to be experienced as an urban stage. Public spaces are of great importance in terms of simultaneous experience as the place where the impressions of the urbanites are realized. The static and mobile position of the dweller is the same as the static and mobile position of the art object.
In this study, space is considered as the positioning of simultaneous artistic encounters in the public sphere on the urban stage with the aphorism that time, space, and forms of movement are not independent of each other through Einstein’s “Special Theory of Relativity”. The transformation of the images of three urban scenes where time and space are experienced simultaneously into a simulative perception appears as a layered aesthetic fiction that overlaps on the urbanite/viewer. It is aimed to gain a new perspective on public art with the concept of simultaneity by determining the points/distances where the city dweller/viewer is moving and stationary in and around Istanbul Suadiye Marmaray Station and its surroundings, which are handled within the scope of the study with the approach that transforms art into simultaneous and multidimensional expressive narratives with Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” and by obtaining numerous image/image combinations that emerge one after another at simultaneous intervals. The images/images in which the simultaneous perspective is tried to be obtained are defined as the urban scene in the study area as follows (Scene I)- The simultaneous relationship between the urbanite/viewer in a stationary position in the moving carriage and the station image (Viewer in the carriage stationary - Station carriage moving), (Scene II)- The simultaneous relationship of the urbanite/viewer in motion at the Marmaray station with the moving carriage (Station platform viewer moving - Station carriage moving), (Scene III)- The simultaneous relationship of the urbanite/viewer in the Suadiye Marmaray. The data universe of the study consists of simultaneous images of graffiti art with the urban scene: neutral, heterogeneous, and objective ways of looking and seeing were evaluated. The frames, which are handled with a neutral point of view, turn into an art image/image that the city dweller/viewer can instantly experience in the urban scene.
As the art productions/activities we encounter in public spaces develop/transform the perspective of the city dweller, the spatial effect created by the idea of art in a public space creates a “place” forming effect with the context of a silent discourse space. The simultaneous interaction of the city dweller/viewer with the public artworks on the city stage enables them to create new meanings. Public art, which is witnessed simultaneously in the aestheticization of cities by the contemporary culture brought about by globalization, is recreated by the urbanite/viewer with image/image strings. These aesthetic paradigms created simultaneously by time and space construct collective memory through a semiotic discourse/meaning transfer. The layered structure that supports simultaneity contributes to the formation of cultural memory by creating impressions that are fluid, temporary and lose their form from time to time. For the simultaneous approaches/actions of public art experienced on the urban stage, the simultaneous images/images obtained with the moving and stationary state/position of the “place” and the urbanite/viewer have the potential to be a critical/descriptive/exploratory base.