1,721,011 research outputs found
Legacy Trees in Sicily. A Heritage of Stories.
No full textTrees are tall plants that can live a long time. They mutely attend events of humans for many years, even centuries, and millennia. A forest or a single tree can survive many human generations. When they get old, they can perform the social role as a monument, reminding the value of time and the environment. The present paper is dedicated to the Monumental and Legacy Trees in Sicily. It aims at showing the nexus between the necessary care of veteran trees and the cultural values that the entire society can achieve through their conservation for the present and the future. After the definition of Monumental Trees, the paper deals with the multiple meanings that even a singular tree has in religion, mystics, education, environment, heritage, and also in tourism. The paper gives geographical knowledge on the principal Sicilian Monumental Trees, deepening the fascinating stories of some of the more typical of them. The olive tree is a millennial symbol of the Mediterranean landscape; the almond tree remembers the eternal springtime of Sicily with its very early blossoming in February; oak trees, holm oak, cork oak, and chestnuts are gigantic monuments of the holiness and boldness of Sicilian mountains. The author argues that future life of old trees depends on policies regarding both environment and cultural tourism
The making of space, music, and soundscapes through digital art tools
No full textStarting from a grounded case, the purpose of this chapter is to examine
how research on/with artists who frequently use the internet and ICT might shed new light on traditional geographical concerns such as space/time and place/identity. Internet and ICT enable the formation of groups of people influenced by new characteristics, creating a highly intriguing geographical discourse. Contemporary artists tend to use digital tools in combination with traditional ones. They also make extensive use of social media to communicate, share experiences, and promote their art. Digital technology provides inescapable support to any artistic creativity and determines different forms of aggregation. The knowledge generated by musical sounds is more abstract, intuitive, and unconscious than the disembodied knowledge produced by words and images. The Internet would produce a new digital generation, more complete and aware than predecessors, happy to unite in collaborative networks of independent peers. Individual consciousness would transcend the human body's limits and would finally be free to explore spaces of creative and spiritual sharing. The chapter reports the research experience on the 2019 paint exhibition Raging Babies, dubbed by two digital musicians. The outcomes of in-depth discussions (as focused conversations) with three artists regarding the formation of collaborative networks utilizing ICT and the Internet are reported. The effects on geographical research performed by the author are also explained and commented
Human Migrations: Climate Change and Other Not-So-Simple Motives. A “Clumsy” Governance Is Necessary
No full textClimate change induced migrations is a highly controversial issue, which diverges popular opinions from academic positions. Scientific and popular positions and related global policies are divergent also on the more general issue of human migrations. In this sense, the issue is a “wicked problem” (Rittel, 1972; Buchanan, 1992), probably resolved only by means of “clumsy solutions” (Verwej et al., 2006). After delineating general features of human migrations, the paper suggests the possibility to adopt a sort of “clumsy” governance, at the global and regional level, more shaped on findings of Cultural Theory, initially developed by anthropologists, political scientists and then implemented by geographers. The suggestion is that to avoid shortcuts in policy making, and accept more fatiguing tools capable of involving people in producing accepted and thus more effective policies for governing human migrations
Cultivating our Commons, Melding Two Complex Ideas
Full text linkThe purpose of studying jointly Commons and Cultivation is per se a challenging goal and it poses the necessity of dealing with different themes that appear to be close even though their vicinity is blurred by a certain ambiguity. This appears to be intrinsic, and not only because very diverse academic disciplines, based on different methodolo- gies, are involved. Both the terms have a practical use, namely in real life, but both of them open problems of theoretical interpretations and do strongly challenge scholars to distinguish the concept of complexity from that of complicatedness, especially when re- ferring to social and even natural systems. In a complicated system, individual elements can be isolated and studied as such, not finding any relational link among each other. In a complex system, the elements are more or less interrelated, and the core problem is properly that a singular element is intimately relational, and should be correctly studied considering this characteristic. In living and social systems, complexity does increase over time, yet not being fixed. It is also very clear that complexity and culture face reciprocally in a complex manner. In cultivating a commons, humans often produce a complex system of relations, involving private and public decisions, even up to originat- ing the discussion about power and democracy
Comics, Words and Images, from Buffalmacco to Magritte a Problem of Transition
No full textComics became a topic for interdisciplinary academic studies besides the specialist field of non-scholar experts. Anthropology, sociology, and geography dedicated increasing attention to comics as an intriguing and dense of meaning issue. The topic is that of transition between concepts and images, namely the issue of representation, dense with epistemological difficulties. A mighty issue addressed in Michel Foucault’s Les Mots et Les Choses. The paper aims at illustrating the disrespected possible origin of an art that combines words and images. Yet comics became a genuine form of art and an occasion for a critical modern artistic discourse. For this purpose, the paper deals with the thinking of very different artists, the painters Buonamico di Martino (about 1290-1340), nicknamed Buffalmacco, and surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967). Buffalmacco made harsh fun suggesting a friend, a lesser painter, to add words to his inexpressive paintings. Magritte opened the mind to a free combination of words and images as an aware representation of the relation mind/world. Meanwhile, the world of comics did its cultural work
Lili Marlene: una canzone rubata al nemico divenuta ballata popolare contro la guerra
Full text linkOgnuna delle versioni di Lili Marlene nelle quasi cinquanta lingue in cui è stata tradotta testimonia la progressiva appropriazione della canzone da parte della cultura popolare. Ma sono soprattutto le parodie che dimostrano la vera mutazione da canzone di successo in ballata popolare. L’umanità in guerra scopriva di essere stata divisa da indottrinamenti propagandistici che promettevano un futuro migliore, del tutto smentito dall’esperienza quotidiana della trincea. La dimensione mondiale dei teatri bellici è troppo grande per un solo soldato, che desidera solo ritornare e riposare in cerca di pace tra le braccia della sua Lili Marlene. La Geopolitik risultò presto un’etichetta infamante per l’ideologia nazista, nonostante l’indottrina- mento di massa serrato e razzista, condotto prima e durante il conflitto da Goebbels sia verso il fronte occidentale, popolato da ricchi debosciati, ubriachi e grassi, sia verso quello orientale, dove ebrei e bolscevichi sarebbero stati spazzati via facilmente perché esseri subumani, intellettualmente, militarmente e geneticamente inferiori. Una canzone può essere molto più forte di un ministro della propaganda, specialmente se oltre al sostegno di una diva come Marlene Dietrich, nata a Berlino ma cittadina americana, dietro a testo e musica si adombrano i sentimenti di milioni di persone in cerca di libertà e giustizia invece che di libertà e vittoria, i semplici concetti che Hitler raccomandava di ripetere ossessivamente
The European Landscape Convention and the Case of Italy after Twenty Years
No full textGeographers have long debated on the topic of landscape, confronting the ideas of other disciplines and policymakers, always contributing to a positive discussion even for juridical purposes, but never forgetting the necessity to behold critically. The term landscape possesses a double meaning (the thing and its representation), indeed suggesting the considerable complexity of the topic. The real intrinsic risk of the 2000 European Landscape Convention is the demand of transforming what has an unavoidable perceptive-aesthetic nature (landscape), in an object that has a political status (territory). But the difference between the political and the aesthetic is crucial and threatens to undermine the very possibility of the existence of landscape policies. Policies do operate by stating rules and norms, all contained in written laws. On the contrary, the aesthetic field is not reducible, by nature, to any rule or norm, except in the case of dictatorial regimes. In Italy, the actual risk appears to be the latest occasion to produce as many landscape policies as the number of Regions, namely twenty
The Sicilian Francigene Pilgrimage Routes
No full textThe article focuses on the medieval pilgrimage routes known as Sicilian Vie Francigene. The goal is to understand their cultural and touristic role within the current interest in slow itineraries, particularly relevant to Southern Italy and Sicily. A complex set of land, river, sea and air routes still connects all Europe, making it possible to consider traveling an existing road – or planning a new one – as a form of cultural integration. The expression ‘via Francigena’ in the Middle Ages referred to the road, or more specifically, the network of roads that connected all the regions of Europe to Rome, the Seat of the Pope. Because of the constant influx of pilgrims, the Francigena became synonymous with religious pilgrimage routes. ‘Via Francigena’ meant a pilgrimage route also in Norman Sicily, which was very sensitive to the practice. The massive Norman migration to southern Italy and Sicily is exemplary in its significance. They started their trip like pilgrims and eventually made a territorial conquest. It is possible to believe that the Sicilian Vie Francigene are part of the ancient trazzere network, the country roads used for herd movement, which connected directly the main towns in Sicily. The article includes maps of medieval itineraries as well as modern tourist routes
The Ecomuseum of George Henri Rivière
No full textGeorges Henri Rivière and Hugues de Varine coined the term ecomuseum in 1971. The original idea museums without walls is of Rivière, who had a multifaceted talent. He was a talented jazz pianist, voyager, ethologist, and museologist. He lived in Paris when revolutionary cultural political movements shook the entire society. Rivière was a collaborator of many journals that treated various topics, mixing art and science, philosophy and anthropology, surrealism and ethnography. The paper argues that the idea of making ecomuseums derived from Rivière’s passion for magazines, warehouse, music, and museums. This innovative vision did originate in the Parisian cultural milieu within which both Surrealism and Ethnography were borne, before distinguishing and separating in very different directions. Following his innovative ideas, French Museology grew, and even a New Museology could open the wings and make decisive cultural and scientific enhancements
Il Nano Morgante e il ritratto bifronte di Agnolo Bronzino
Full text linkIntorno alla metà del ’500 Agnolo di Cosimo Allori, detto il Bronzino (1503-1572), dipinse un ritratto bifronte del Nano Morgante, buffone alla corte di Cosimo I de’ Medici. L’opera completava la risposta, avviata per iscritto con una lettera, che Bronzino dava all’inchiesta che Benedetto Varchi aveva lanciato nel 1547 su quale arte fosse “maggiore” tra pittura e scultura. Risposero otto artisti e vinse facilmente la pittura, con conseguenze estetico-politiche che hanno influenzato la cultura fino ai giorni nostri, stabilendo il primato della vista sugli altri sensi, per esempio il tatto, come mezzo di conoscenza della realtà.
L’occhio vede un mondo che non esiste, lo percepisce secondo la prospettiva lineare e, siccome questa è solo negli occhi di chi guarda, produce un modello razionale ma irreale delle distanze, cioè dello spazio. Per trattare razionalmente l’irrealtà serve una buona dose di ironia, attitudine molto seria ma non distribuita equamente tra gli esseri umani. Il Bronzino oltre che pittore era un fecondo poeta burlesco e, certamente seguendo il suo istinto poetico, ha intriso il ritratto del Nano Morgante di una profonda e sottilissima ironia, alludendo a contenuti ulteriori rispetto a quello immediatamente ritrattistico. La prospettiva stessa, inventata un secolo prima da Filippo Brunelleschi, noto orchestratore di beffe anche molto feroci, è un’azione ironica giacché beffa il nostro senso del tatto a favore della vista. Un grande estimatore di buffonerie era anche il Duca Cosimo I de’ Medici che aveva dotato la propria corte, come tutte quelle europee, di buffoni nani come segno distintivo di classe e di potere politico-culturale. I nani confermavano coi loro motti arguti la notoria sagacia del Signore Mediceo
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