July: "Culture and my City – What goes up and what comes down?"
“Culture and my City – What goes up and what comes down?”While some cities perceive the arts and culture as their unique selling point and an important factor in the definition of quality of life, other cities and their inhabitants seem to largely neglect them. What is it that my city sees as its own culture and how do the urban dwellers participate?
Michaela Danelova in Prague tackles the culture topic with a set of five photographs. Letting the images speak for themselves, she adds little extra information except that "culture moments of your own desire could be found anywhere" in this city. While the photographs show a diverse range of locations and situations, they are composed beautifully in a joint colour scheme.
Singapore blogger Ben Siow criticises that his city's rich history and culture is largely neglected in the "bullet train ride that is modernisation". As Ben sees it, "million dollar shopping malls have taken the place of art and culture." Driving his point home with the crass contrast between dancing children and slaughtered meat, he states that "there is one culture event that everyone can participate in: Eating."
Audio blogger Jennifer Lush reflects on Sydney's cultural scene as she travels as a backpacker through Brazil, Argentina, and France. During her travels, she finds that in these countries, impromptu performances and exhibitions in public spaces such as parks and streets are more likely to happen than in the Australian city. Jennifer illustrates her reports fading in and out of beautiful sound snapshots.
As if taking the cue from Jennifer's observations during her travels, Charlotte Noblet explains that while Berlin is famous for its museums and galleries, it is also possible to witness culture outdoors. Within one minute, she manages to get her point across, advising visitors to "just walk down the street with your eyes wide open, or go to a park with some friends – as Berliners do".
Istanbul's Kristina Kamp says she regards "details glimpsing through this city's everyday life's practices" as more meaningful than culture in the narrow sense of 'art', or even 'fine art'. She then talks about various aspects of Turkish culture, including some interesting contrasts: For example, there is political patriotism, but there is also a long history of Ottoman multiculturalism. There is the dominating Islamic culture, but there are also religious minorities.
David Frogier de Ponlevoy tells us how Hanoi has considered itself Vietnam's cultural centre for hundreds of years. Having absorbed a lot cultural influences from outside, Hanoians were "true masters in absorbing cultural influences from outside, and making them their own", David adds. But in the opening lines of his text, David asks himself a question that several CityScapes bloggers have stumbled upon this month: "Culture – what is that, actually?"
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Please note that these six examples may serve to give you a rough idea of what is to be found in the CityScapes Blog, but bear in mind that all other entries are just as great, so definitely go and explore the blog as a whole!
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