1950’den Günümüze Popüler Kültür Mekânları: James Bond Filmleri

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Tarih
2014-06-23
Yazarlar
Özemir, Mustafa Saltuk
Süreli Yayın başlığı
Süreli Yayın ISSN
Cilt Başlığı
Yayınevi
Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü
Institute of Science And Technology
Özet
1950’den günümüze değin, 20. Yüzyıl’a özgü teknolojik, ekonomik ve toplumsal dönüşümler dolayısıyla kültür(hars/ekin) ve de mimarlık alanında da daha önceki yüzyıllarda görünmemiş bir devinim ve çokseslilik görünmektedir. Bu etkenlerle birlikte, Soğuk Savaş ve sonrası siyasi iklimi de, yeri geldiğinde ticari ve sanat sergileri ile birlikte sinema gibi araçlarla da yapılan yaymacaların dışında,  toplum ruhbilimi açısından da bakıldığında, kaçınılmaz olarak mimarlık alanında yansımalarını bulmuştur.  Bu çalışmada kazıbilim alanında dönemini yansıtmakta oldukça önemli bir buluntu işlevi gören mimarlığın, geleneksel sınıflandırmaları dışında, 20. Yüzyılla birlikte, o yüzyıla özgü ortaya çıkan yaygın ekini yansıtma işlevini de yerine getirmeye başlamış olan yapısı da gözönüne alınmıştır. Döneminin gelecek algısı ve düşlemini de yansıtarak aslında biraz da bu tasavvurlardan oluşan çağının ruhunu da beyazperdeye yansıttığı görünen 20. Yüzyıl kazıbilim buluntularından olan sinemanın da dönem mimarlığının anlaşılabilmesinde oldukça yararlı olduğu düşünülmüştür. Böylelikle, bu çalışmada sürekliliğinden ve her dönem ‘çağdaş’ kalabilmesinden ötürü sözkonusu etmenler ışığında ve etkisinde yazılmış olan anlatılarının biçimlendirmiş olduğu James Bond film mekânları, dönemlerinin isimsiz mimarlıklarına da ışık tutabilecek birer kazıbilim buluntusu gibi ele alınmıştır.  Soğuk Savaş ve sonrası dünyası toplumlarında bireylerin düşlem ve gerçeklerden kaçış dünyalarını oluşturmalarına karşın, hâlihazırda kendisi de geleneksel sınıflandırmalara giren uygulamalara görece daha az ele alınmış olan popüler mimarlığın ticari alandaki uygulamalarından da görece az olan birey ve kimlik alanındaki çalışmalara da bir ek olabilecek bu çalışma ile bir katkı sağlanabilmesi hedeflenmektedir. Böyleece mimarî biçemlerin popüler kültürdeki yansımaları ile birlikte, bir meslek dalı olarak mimarlığın kendi tarihindeki bu çağa özgü dönüşümlerine de işaret edilebilmiş olduğu da düşünülebilecektir.
Since 1950s, a dynamism and a polyphony which were not seen in the previous centuries either in the culture or in the architecture areas could be observed thanks to technological, economical, and social transformations peculiar to the 20th century. Along with these factors, political climate belonging to the Cold War era and its aftermath have been reflected in the architecture not only through propaganda made by cultural means of world fairs, art exhibitions, and the cinema but also through the subconscious of the individual. Apart from traditional classifications of architecture, due to its function as an important artefact that reflects the zeitgeist of an era in archaeology, architecture’s another function, which started in the 20th century, that reflects the popular culture unique to the given century, has been taken into account in this study. It has been thought that, the cinema, which is one of the 20th century’s artefacts of the archaeology, by letting this unique era to be understood much better by reflecting its perception of the future and imagination - the concepts that partly forms its age’s spirit - may also be helpful in illuminating those parts of the 20th century architecture that were kept in the background. Thus, James Bonds movie locations which have been shaped by the narrative that has been written under the light and influence of the factors mentioned above have been treated as archaeological artefacts that could shed light on the no name/anonymous architecture of their era because of their sustainability and being always ‘new’ and contemporary at every age. Despite the fact that the individuals during the Cold War and its aftermath created their own phantasmagorical worlds of escape from harsh realities and anxieties, because the 20th century and consequently the individual in this century is a relatively new field of study in the history of architecture, in this study, it is also aimed to make a contribution as an addition to these relatively new studies covering the identity, the individual and the architecture issues. Moreover, it can be thought that along with reflections of architectural trends and styles on the popular culture, transformations of the architecture in its history as a profession peculiar to this age might be indicated. Therefore, in order to reveal the infrastructures, on top of which the architectural styles, and consequently the Bond Worlds/Universes, peculiar to their era have risen, from the second half of the 20th century till today, first of all, three concomitant factors, namely, changing political climates, technological advancements and the transformations in the economic system, were examined in Chapter 2. As mentioned above in the context of the Cold War, while always being a tool, reflecting identity and power, also revealing the concept and the perception of a future awaiting a particular society, the foundations of architecture, like those of ideologies, are always based in the future. This future is expressed always in the ‘present progressive tense’. Secondly, technology, the creator of the age of ideologies in the 19th century, and which is shaping our brave new world is also one of the main forces shaping the ‘futuristic’ Bondian architecture. While dealing with political, technological and economical determinants, also the trends and transformations in the field of popular psychology was to be dealt with, since this branch of science is not only definitive, but also, sometimes a determinant factor when it comes to the subject of understanding the society at a particular era, as to be seen in Chapter 2. Besides being a useful tool, when one is to describe an era, this field also is to shape the way we see ourselves. The other main determinant to be examined in the second chapter is the cybernetics. Systemics, replacing sciences, day by day is also thanks to the developments in the field of cybernetics, which has been shaping the Bondian architecture, since its beginning.  As to the architectural transformations from the 1950s to present, regarding the perception and the representation of those transformations in the popular culture, first a literature review, where the mainstream architectural styles in conjunction with their reflections and embodiments in the popular culture was conducted. Those findings are supported again with examples, mainly selected from the popular cultural spaces/places/locations in Chapter 3. In both chapters, apart from the historical and theoretical literature sources from architecture and other disciplines, the mainstream press sources like Time-Life and The Economist magazines’ and also a popular culture lifestyle magazine, with which both James Bond and his creator Ian Fleming has a special relationship, namely Playboy’s archives were searched. This was done because, while the other literature review subjects in this study, such as, the word politics shares the same etymological roots with the word polis (city) and the word economy (oikonomia) figuratively means ‘household management’, also the word magazine stems from Arabic word, makhzan, which means ‘a place for storing goods, especially military ammunition’. The word magazine’s meaning as we know it today dates from the publication of the first one, namely, “Gentleman’s Magazine” (1731) and the word ‘interior’ stands for its spatial meaning as a design discipline since 1807 (interior decoration). Therefore, besides the ‘special relationship’ between them, seeing the Bondian villain’s Disneyland-like bachelor pad or ‘penthouse’ like grottoes and futuristic spaceship-like interiors, a strong connection between the worlds of Bond and Playboy magazine, a lifestyle magazine, where, not only ‘the girls next door’ are represented in contemporary design interiors, but also the covers and pages can be experienced like the way imaginary interiors experienced, has been established. Furthermore, a utopian global tourist figure Bond, being a modern version St. George, fighting the dragon in mythology-like structured narratives, also goes to Disneyland-like ‘bachelor’s pad’ and ‘man cave’ grottos of the antagonists, who can be taken as anti-establishment figures. Due to similar reasons, this study also covered utopian unbuilt architectural projects like those of Archigram, which, despite being solely published, affected the architectural world immensely. Also, once-counterculture resources, like the Whole Earth Catalogue, where, from new age life style products, to psycho-cybernetics to computer DIY, and from Drop City and Archigram to Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World and World Game and from yurts and David Thoreau’s Walden to utopic projects like Arcosanti, were catalogued was part of this popular culture media and cinema archaeological research ‘site’.  As the ancient architectural relics and artefacts are to be fully comprehended only if the techne and poiesis and the socio-cultural base of the given civilisation is known, a superhero of the popular culture mythologies, James Bond, consequently Bondian architecture is a product of the superstructure of his age. After delving into the technological, political and socio-cultural ‘landslides’ of the ‘base’ in Chapter 1 and the inseparable transformations in the architectural ‘superstructure’ in Chapter 2, being of one mind with Walter Benjamin, to whom, neither the train station, nor the factory, but with their proto-cinematic phantasmagorical and surreal dream worlds, the arcade, a mass-consumption ‘machine’, was the most important building type and representation of its age, and in a Deleuzeian-Guattarian fashion, also seeing that ‘desiring-production’ has become the main productive force in our society, Bondian architecture was analysed in Chapter 4, in the light of all the those findings. Hence, it is thought that apart from merely being a product and representation of its ‘base’, figuratively and structurally cinematographic Bondian architecture may also be helpful in revealing the ‘real life’ veil of its age, as in the psychoanalysis of dreams.  In the Evaluation and Conclusions, in the light of a ‘consilience’ of inductions made from those separate findings derived from the previous chapters, a bigger picture, framing both the reflections and refractions of the architectural transformations since 1950s on the glossy surface of celluloid world of a ‘blunt instrument’ and a flaneur of exotic spaces, James Bond was described. In order to do that, a table, consisting of the architectural styles deployed in Bond films and the (English) Establishment and counter-establishment Bond characters were also used to illustrate those transformations. As to the findings, regarding the Establishment representations, it is seen that, the Establishment spaces, which had been in the Revivalist style, since the beginning of the series, underwent a radical transformation, due to the rise of ‘corporate culture’ and after the fall of the old order of the Cold War world. In its real life Postmodern location, alongside with and the cybernetic office principles, having gone through a ‘de-identification’ procedure, it became a Rationalist corporate space in a new world where, instead of traditional class divisions, cybernetic principles rule the business. Yet, in the last Bond movie, in a correlative relationship with the anti-establishment space, a revival of Revivalist M Space is witnessed. Apropos of the anti-establishment space, namely, the villain’s lair, it seems to be possible to talk about a gradual dematerialisation of this space, especially after the 1979 Bond movie Moonraker, which can be taken as the zenith of the futuristic and utopian Bond movies, and also the last movie, the production designer of which was the legendary Sir Ken Adam, an architect. His Expressionist style, with an added larger-than-life ‘theatrical realness’ value, reflecting not only the bachelor’s Disneyland-like phantasmagorical ‘man-cave’ utopias, but also the anxieties of Cold War, made the villain’s lair the main antagonist in the Bond’s mythological world. After that, while ‘Systemics’ replacing science, ‘super-Rationality’ of cybernetics replacing Rationalism, negative liberty replacing positive liberty, the global concepts replacing those of the universal, the image of the Merkwelt of Supermodernism replacing vision and while ‘Freud is Dead’, Brutalism and Revivalism gain weight gradually in this ‘other’s place, replacing Expressionism and Surrealism, while the mythological ‘other space’ is almost completely lost due to the reasons mentioned above. It is seen that, not only the grotto interior of the villain in his uniform, but also the architecture itself is almost dematerialised whereas ‘non-place’, ‘third space’ of the mass society at ‘home’ and at the relatively ‘other’s space took command in the commander Bonds’ narratives. As seen in the last Bond movie Skyfall, where a ready made ‘battle island’ took the place of the old haute couture Bondian villain architecture, and the modern St. George, Bond demolished his Father’s cottage house in a ‘Picturesque’ setting, both the autre protagonist and architect’s places are also replaced by the sublime of a new, man-made ‘Romantic’, Revivalist and Weltlandschaft/World Landscape in the end.
Açıklama
Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2014
Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2014
Anahtar kelimeler
mimarlık, içmimarlık, popüler kültür, sinema, kimlik, temsil, architecture, interior design, popular culture, cinema, identity, representation
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