Understanding Istanbul as a Lieu de Memoire through Omeka and Interactive Tools

Istanbul as a "Lieu de Memoire"

“A lieu de memoire is any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community.”

– Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire”

The ruins that both Pamuk and Gautier found beauty in their melancholy are integrated in the current city Istanbul.

 

Istanbul is a global city straddling many oppositions: It sits as gate between the east and west geographically and culturally. The current city has both modern elements and reminders of its great pasts (ruins). We examine Istanbul's history and the memory of that history through the concept of a "lieu de memoire." A “lieu de memoire” is described by Pierre Nora in his essay “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memorie” as an object that occupying the space between history and memory has national significance and has a symbolic meaning that changes throughout time, separate from the physical object. In my Omeka exhibit of the “Theodosian Walls: Mirror to Rise and Fall of Constantinople,” I explore how the significance of the wall reflects the rise and fall of the Constantinople Empire – initially, a symbol of strength, growth, and protection and then a reminder of the fallen empire, under attack of time. With this framework, not only was I able to learn about the history of a single site, but also think about the history its perception and how it changed over time - transforming the history of a built space into an changing experienced and symbolic space.

Omeka, Interactive Maps, and Timelines

The exhibits in Omeka like the blog format allowed further integration of multimedia sources. The exhibits in Omeka instead of creating one piece, created multiple items that were synthesized into an exhibit like a virtual museum. This format lends itself well to showcasing and closely analyzing one item at a time like one artifact in a museum. We as curators can additionally synthesize, design, and place pages in a way that best argues our thesis. I enjoyed the freedom and creativity that this tool encouraged. This format lent itself easily to showcase how a site like the Theodosian Walls and Gardens was a “lieu de memoire” – exploring each time period and each conception of the walls at a time. 

This interactive map created using Google Maps was shows the five sites I wrote about in my Moscow unit assignment and is imbedded into the Omeka website for the user to play with.

 

The Omeka assignments also allowed us to use interactive and novel representations of the city through scrollable maps and timelines. The map used in the Moscow unit assignment connects the sites geospatially and helps transport the audience to the physical layout of the city as if they were about to visit the city themselves. The timeline in the Istanbul assignment was my favorite tool as it connected text, pictures, story, and physically spaced out the events in time. The simple concept of a timeline is to visually and spatially represent the passage of time. The concept of time and looking back was a central element of our understanding of Istanbul and its citizens’ collective experience. Istanbul, in Orpan Pamuk’s book “Istanbul: Memories and the City,” is a city that is overshadowed by its past and a city that is physically reminded of its past as ruins are visible throughout the city. In Pamuk’s book, the tone of melancholy is integral to his experience of the city of and of his life. I observe and write about the life-affirming and destructive qualities of this emotion in Pamuk’s childhood experience in my Istanbul blog post.

References:

1. Pierre, Nora. Relams of Memory: Rethinking the French Past. (University of Chicago Press, 1998).
2. Pamuk, Orhan. “Istanbul: Memories and the City.” Istanbul, 2006.