Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Secular space'

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Art History, 2006.<br>Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0005. Adviser: Patrick McNaughton. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 22, 2007)."

This research project proposes to examine the role of religious/secular identities and spaces in processes of newcomer settlement. By focusing on how newcomer participants performed socio-spatially contingent religious/secular identities and experienced religious/secular spaces fluidly, I shed light on the importance of these negotiations of identity and space as settlement strategy. I examined these settlement strategies through participants’ navigation of religious organizations and other spatial contexts such as the workplace, school and home. Informed by their individual agency, participants were shown to perform identities and experience different spaces in such a way as to address a variety of structural constraints and settlement challenges. This thesis research was conducted using a feminist geography framework, drawing on qualitative research methods. I relied on a mixed-methods approach, using participant observation, individual semi-structured interviews and mental maps to collect data. My data collection took place in Ottawa, focusing on the settlement experiences of 11 newcomers to the National Capital Region of Canada.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Caetano Neto.pdf: 5965216 bytes, checksum: c4943a44b0fbf91c92b412aad919ca7b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-06<br>Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior<br>As the artistic movements, the act of story telling has changed considerably due to technical advances. Mobile devices have influenced the creation of unusual narratives that investigate, among other things, the relationship between space and individual. This essay intends to discuss the changes that this relationship has suffered due to the spread of pervasive computing, and how these changes enabled the emergence of new trends in aesthetic technology. Mobile devices of communication re-invent urban environments, such as multiplayer connected environments independent of the geographical position and physical presence, encouraging the emergence of hybrid spaces, which is defined by the disappearance of borders between physical and virtual and created by a constant mobility of users who use handsets. As theoretical support, the thinking is based on studies of André Lemos, Lúcia Santaella, Milton Santos, Pierre Lévy, and artists such as Jeremy Hight, the English Blast Theory. The essay intends to introduce a scenario of aesthetic technology based on mobile devices and the public spaces, and through an specific case show how is the relationship between narrative and technologies in hybrid spaces<br>Assim como os movimentos artísticos, o ato de narrar, de contar histórias, também se transformou consideravelmente com os avanços técnicos. Os dispositivos móveis têm influenciado criações narrativas inusitadas e que investigam, entre outras coisas, a relação entre espaço e indivíduo. A presente dissertação discute as transformações que essa relação tem sofrido devido à disseminação da computação pervasiva, e de que forma essas transformações propiciaram o surgimento de novas tendências da estética tecnológica. Os dispositivos móveis de comunicação re-inventam espaços urbanos como ambientes de multiusuários conectados independentemente da posição geográfica e presença física, favorecendo o surgimento de espaços híbridos, ou seja, definidos pelo desaparecimento das bordas entre físico e virtual e criados pela constante mobilidade dos usuários que utilizam aparelhos portáteis. Como referencial teórico, a reflexão se fundamenta nos estudos de André Lemos, Lúcia Santaella, Milton Santos, Pierre Lévy, e artistas como Jeremy Hight e o grupo inglês Blast Theory por ser uma pesquisa de caráter multidisciplinar. O recorte feito visa introduzir um cenário estético tecnológico com dispositivos móveis com foco em espaços públicos e através de um estudo de caso apresentar a relação entre criação narrativa em espaços híbridos

This dissertation focuses on the return and revitalization of traditional Christian themes in contemporary postmodern novels. It offers an examination of how these themes materialize in novels written by writers who are not explicitly religious, or in novels which do not have an overtly religious focus. Some contemporary novels generate a privileged space in which the return of the religious can take place. The sacred is back, not just as a re-enchantment, but manifests itself in fundamentally new and productive ways (Ward, 2001:xv). The first matter under consideration is the fact that the co-existence of belief and unbelief is apparent in all the novels under discussion. As such, the reader as active participant in the novel is bound to be affected by these mutually inter-dependent and inextricably inter-connected sides of a coin. The themes of providence, sacrifice and the miraculous become evident in John Irving‟s A prayer for Owen Meany while the themes of sin, guilt and redemption feature in Ian McEwan‟s Atonement. Secondly, the study compares two novels that deal with the same supernatural phenomena, namely visions, faith healing and stigmata. Jodi Picoult is a non-believer and is the author of Keeping Faith, while Ron Hansen is a devout Catholic who wrote Mariëtte in ecstasy. These works, on the one hand, create a space for supernatural phenomena even though fiction cannot prove the reality of their existence. Postmodern people seem to have a definite longing for the miraculous and these novels seem to satisfy that yearning. On the other hand, both novels portray disbelief in the miraculous while subtly allowing room for characters or readers in a liminal space between belief and disbelief. The theories of Jean François Lyotard and specifically his notion of “incredulity towards metanarratives” provide a framework to explore this matter. Lyotard proposes “petit recits” or many small stories instead of the grand narratives. He contends that there is no objective knowledge and that narrative and scientific knowledge are subject to legitimization. The Christian story therefore needs no scientific basis as justification, which means that it is being newly considered after the mistrust created during the Enlightenment period. Gianteresio Vattimo‟s ideas on the role of religion in contemporary life and the possible convergences of postmodernity and the Christian faith also come into play. He advocates weak thought as opposed to strong thought and sees caritas (charity or neighbourly love) as essential. This concept of weak thought allows for plurality and tolerance. Vattimo sees Christ‟s kenosis (self-emptying) as essentially linked to a secularization in which humankind needs to retrace the path to the original Biblical message of love. Emphasis is on a non-doctrinal, anti-dogmatic spirituality and this manifests in the novels discussed. This study employs diverse reader-response theories to gauge the reaction of the reader to texts containing Biblical themes and supernatural phenomena. Stanley Fish‟s interpretive communities and Wolfgang Iser‟s implied reader are helpful and Michael Edwards‟s pattern of sin, the fall and redemption is of particular interest to this dissertation. Edwards believes that most novels, whether written by religious or non-religious writers, follow this pattern. Readers find themselves either on the side of the believing or unbelieving camp in the novels discussed. However, many readers may hover in the liminal space between belief and unbelief. Interpretation depends on many factors that constitute the world view of the reader, hence the plurality of interpretations.<br>MA (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This [Temple] is an illegal construction, a typical case of land-grabbing. People do this to get power and earn money. This is not the right type of temple [...] 99% of the temples are constructed illegally [...]. The people don’t build houses but temples because they know that in this case no one can do anything against it and they can simultaneously earn money with it. Behind the shrine they can build their house in peace. All this happens because people are uneducated.'1 This statement by a top bureaucrat in the Bhopal administration summarises a widely felt sentiment among urban planners in India. For many bureaucrats, temples are nuisances, traffic obstructions, acts of landgrabbing, or means of political assertion that contribute to inter-religious tensions. By contrast, builders, trustees or worshippers defend temples as spaces of divine manifestation, as responding to religious needs and providing space for religious festivals and community activity. In this article, I use the case study of the establishment of a controversial goddess temple in Bhopal to shed light on a fundamental rift between two ideal-type approaches to the city – as a secular place and as religious territory. This is an abiding theme of my research on urban temples, which was undertaken in Bhopal, the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, over a total of twenty months between 1995 and 2001.2

In this Master of Interior Design practicum project I apply the choreographic principles of Stephanie Ballard’s “Landscape Dancing” projects to the design of a secular event space within the James Avenue Pumping Station site in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A landscape dancer’s relationship with their surroundings allows them to create meaning and event in quotidian environments; therefore the application of Ballard’s dance methodology to design can create interior design that affects the human spirit. The process of cultural analysis in conjunction with relevant theories related to the moving body and performance were studied to understand how landscape dancers transform the emotional qualities of an environment through gesture and positioning. This theoretical framework informs the adaptive reuse of an existing structure that reacts to the industrial interior and builds upon its inherent aesthetic to breathe new life into the environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate ritual in order to establish an intimacy between architecture and its users. The lithurgy of the Roman Catholic Church is used as a point of departure, but the study is especially concerned with personal secular ritual. The intervention will function as an urban retreat. It consists of a series of contemplative spaces that facilitate a spiritual journey. The Retreat is based on ideas surrounding the traditional Roman Catholic Convent, which informed the accommodation schedule to a great extend. The study recognizes the new approach of the Roman Catholic Religion, which entails a holistic ministry that plays an increasingly critical and social role. The Retreat will therefore function as a base for religious and social organizations to work from in the inner-city of Pretoria. The retreat will also offer limited social facilities such as counselling and seminar rooms. The site is situated in the inner-city of Pretoria, in the block directly north-east of Church Square. The site consists of two properties: the northern consists of the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), with the southern being a pan-handle erf that functions as a service courtyard for commercial ventures on Church Street. The Noordvaal thoroughfare runs parallel to the site on its western edge, linking Church and Vermeulen Streets. The site exists unnoticed by pedestrians using the arcade, because of a boundary wall. Of further importance is the 2,8 m slope of the site from south to north over a distance of 140 m. The project directly addresses urban issues as well as spatial and emotional ones. The intervention is seen as part of a process of architectural proliferation. It takes the existing fabric and current conditions and rather than replacing them, creates a synthesis of elements so as to evolve a new urban condition; i.e. how to grow a piece of city rather than how you build it. Design decisions were influenced by Pallasmaa's ideas on fragile architecture: it is concerned with real sensory interaction instead of conceptual manifestations. Problems and opportunities are identified on a small scale and the response is focussed on these: it is an architecture that grows and opens up.<br>Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2005.<br>Architecture<br>unrestricted