Migrations and Visual Art
Shelleen Greene
Due 5-14-2010
Idealism in Globalization
There are many debates surrounding the birth of globalization. While some say it has been an ongoing occurrence throughout history with new phases developing along with humanity, others claim it is a new phenomenon brought about by industrialization and only a few hundred years old. Overall, when globalization is discussed, the focus is primarily on the negative aspects. Cultural identities merge and transform, losing many old traditions and customs. Large corporations overtake foreign countries and influence the cuisine of their population. However, while these factors cannot be denied, globalization also has many positive effects.
With events such as immigration, colonization, decolonization, imperialism, and cultural hybridity, some aspects of culture can be forgotten and abandoned. However, new cultures and identities are constantly formed, often including aspects of many different cultures. These new identities are unique and wonderful. One simply has to decide whether or not they are worth the occasional loss of the old.
An excellent example of this occurrence is Gurinder Chadha’s film I’m British But… (1990). This documentary interviews people living in England who are of South Asian descent and explores the pluralism of their identities. Interviewees identify as being British, Welsh, Scottish-Pakistani, Indian, and Asian among others. Their heritage was important to them but England is their home and the place they relate to most. The film explores the emergence of bhangra music which is a mixture of Western pop influences and traditional South Asian folk music and lyric poems. There is a growing subculture among the English-Indian youth centered around bhangra.
Sabita Banerji’s article “Ghazals to Bhangra in Great Britain” explains the roots of bhangra music and some of the effects it has had on Indian and British people.
The cultural identity of the Indian subcontinent has survived countless onslaughts and displacements often by simply absorbing and Indianising alien elements. The many hybrids in lifestyle, language, food and religion spawned of Britain and India’s long, love-hate relationship are a testament to this. And now the process is repeating itself in the new generation of South Asians born and educated in Britain. It is a unique generation, its acceptance or rejection of and by white British society will probably set the pattern for generations to come and the mutual fusion which voices their cultural duality tends towards mutual acceptance (Banerji 207).
Chadha’s film also touched on the survival of Indian customs in the way they overtake foreign elements. One of the interviewees in the film explained how Indian fashion is now seen in more and more in Western culture. In this instance, Western trends are evolving instead of merely influencing Indian trends.
Another artist that responds to the possibilities globalization creates is Yona Friedman. Friedman’s work transcends ideas of conventional architecture. His work is constantly attempting to fulfill the ever-changing needs of humanity. In reaction to World War II, Friedman became inspired by housing shortages and issues of reconstruction to build in ways other than mainstream architecture. His ideas strive to solve problems of economics, space, comfort, practicality, and convenience. His work redefines space and idealizes architecture, making buildings and spaces more adaptive and efficient for inhabitants. Friedman’s concepts of space break rules of orthodoxy. He plans into the sky, over water, and utilizes other previously unthought of spaces for building sites. Most importantly, his work strives to create citizen participation in planning the buildings or locations they will use and inhabit. Another huge aspect of Friedman’s work is his consideration of global political issues. Friedman creates plans for many cities and countries all over the world. In this way, Friedman works with globalization to create solutions to the problems it sometimes creates and to use its technologies and effects as inspiration in his designs.
Friedman’s work has been called “ethereal” and utopian” (Lebesque and van Vlissingen 9). His intention has always been to create a better society and environment. He created designs for many ways this could be achieved in some way.
All his work is pervaded with a strong yearning for social transformation, for a society in which the single individual rather than the average human being becomes the focus in a habitable world respectful of the environment
(Lebesque and van Vlissingen 9).
Friedman uses ideas based on current events and needs to transform spaces. He is concerned with the flexibility of structures and environments, and creating serviceability for their inhabitants.
Yona Friedman feels that there are always alternatives to traditional city planning. He sees the importance of citizen participation in their environment over structures built without taking the inhabitant into consideration. He says “In order to satisfy the people who live in a building you built, you have to let them conceive the building” (Friedman, Intelligence 22). In Friedman’s opinion, elasticity is an important component in control in decision making to the user. Friedman acknowledges the uncertainty and changeability of humanity and the need for practicality in architecture that reflects those factors and has the ability to adapt to fit new needs as they develop. “A town has to be adapted to the behaviour of its inhabitants” (Friedman, It is Your Town 12). A town and its inhabitants are undeniably and inarguably related. As citizens’ needs change, the town must accommodate them just as when a town changes, the citizens will be affected and change with it.
Friedman created a manual for the Council of Europe in order to present the problems of historical architecture, help people to understand these problems, and also as a way to provide some solutions. The introduction of his manual states Friedman’s reasons for its creation:
Understanding the urban structure and the interaction of its elements is the first step towards the active participation of the citizen in decisions affecting the future of his town, towards self-planning (Friedman, It is Your Town 2).
Throughout the manual, Friedman investigates the town of Whatborough. He observes citizen itineraries and how they change drastically with the adaptation of different buildings. According to Friedman, an entire city can be affected by one small change such as what a specific building is used for.
We cannot improve the actual situation (social and environmental) by technological progress alone. Such progress, at best, only leads us back to some situation which existed before and which could be implemented as well without technological progress. We cannot improve our society and our environment except under the condition that all improvements are decided on by all of us (Friedman, Scientific Architecture 169).
According to Friedman, community activity is the most plausible solution to the problems he sees in mainstream architecture and traditional city planning.
While Friedman’s ideas are often applied to the city but can easily be used to create solutions on a global scale. An example is the Peace Bridge (1990). Friedman’s plan was designed to give the countries in the Middle East more territory as a way to ease the political conflicts. He proposed that the city of Tel Aviv be expanded and constructed over the sea.
There are many other artists that deal with the globalization and its endless positive possibilities. Many others critique these possibilities and see them as negative and worth avoiding. Yona Friedman and Gurinder Chadha are just two artists that explore the potential that globalization and communication present to the world. Cultural hybridity and spacial transformation are just two small parts of that potential. Besides the emergence of new music and spaces, many wonderful things could happen if others were more willing to quit their attempts to halt globalization.
Sources Cited
Banerji, Sabita. “Ghazals to Bhangra in Great Britain”.
Friedman, Yona. “Intelligence Starts with Improvisation”.
Friedman, Yona. It is Your Town: Know How to Protect it, Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe, 1975.
Friedman, Yona. Toward a Scientific Architecture. Trans. Cynthia Lang. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1975
Lebesque, Sabine and Helene Fentener van Vlissingen. “A Kaleidoscopic Mind”.
