Spatial analysis in utopias-A method of text visualisation on Campanella example

The purpose of this study is to develop a method of data (text) visualization that quantitatively reveals findings accompanying a qualitative examining of how spatial setup serves the general fiction of utopia and how these spatial elements in all scales functions socially. This work, originally set out as a qualitative examination of the space within utopias but later turned into a search for the possibility of examining utopia beyond the interpretations of the theoretical bases of a qualitative background. For this reason, the development of a quantitative method of spatial analysis came into question and the axis of the work shifted towards this direction. The subject is examined in terms of space-time dialectics and the meanings that space carries in a utopian society. For this reason, it is aimed to reveal the relationship between utopia, space, ideology and mode of production. First of all, in the context of literature review under the heading of "Scope" in Chapter 1, the progress of utopia in history is discussed in detail through a number of examples. For this, a number of utopias in history have been examined and a historical timeline is created. The changes in the utopian thought in history are discussed through this timeline. Basic features of utopias are also shown on this timeline in scope of the references which could be accessed, ranging from Ancient Greek to present day. Besides general world history, the utopias written in Turkey are also included in the timeline. The discussion also gives a detailed explanation of why the specific utopia sample is chosen to test the method claimed to be developped in this thesis. Tomasso Campanella's The City of the Sun utopia was chosen since it is the most cause celebre utopia after Thomas More's text in the mentioned era. Despite the fact that there are many subtypes of utopias (dystopia, ecotopia, technotopia, etc.), the analysis is carried out on the basis of the basic utopia form. Then in Chapter 2, the sociological, philosophical, psychological, literary structural and contextual features of utopia are examined together. For understanding sociological perspective on utopia Karl Mannheim's Ideology and Utopia, for philosophical and psychological background Ernst Bloch's Principle of Hope and for literary structural and contextual properties Fredric Jameson's Archeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions were used as references. In scope of Mannheim, historical stages of utopian consciousness are examined in relation to each other. In Bloch, the dicussion on notions like Novum, rationally "possible" and utopic function are given with the analysis of day dream which is related to human nature as a part of utopian thought and impulse. Bloch also tackles utopia in the context of hope theme in a framework of its future oriented character. After Bloch, Jameson explains the transformation of utopian impulse which emerges from Bloch's work to utopian program. In scope of this transformation, the structural features of utopia are also discussed. According to this, three basic structural features of utopia emerges as follows: raw materials, closure and narrative (satire). In Jameson, ideological theme and mode of production setups in utopias are also examined in More's text. Finally, historical time and utopia relationship, situatedness and accordingly the inevitability of ideology are also considered in this chapter. In the literature research for this study, perspectives of these three thinkers seemed to be complementary to each other, thus resulting in the apparent structure of the theoretical framework. Basically Chapter 2 reveals the relation of the utopian to the social (and therefore temporal). Chapter 3 was created as a chapter in which the space was studied to follow the utopian society-space dilemma. First of all in this section which is basically based on Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space theory and David Harvey's spatiotemporal utopianism, how space emerges as a product during social process will be examined. In this sense, physical space, mental space and social space concepts are discussed and Lefebvre's social space as the projection of the mode of production of a given society on the field thesis will be explained. Moving forward, the description of the phases or moments that space undergoes in its production process will also be explained. Accordingly, the three stages in the space production process, spatial practice, representation of space and representational space concepts will be discussed. Spatial practice as mentioned, also seems to qualify as social practice and it is explained in terms of the spatial dynamics of relations of production. Accordingly, representational space appears as designed space and space of representation appears as lived or experienced space. Following Lefebvre, in French utopian group Utopie the place of architectural practice in social space –and even more in particular urban space- is examined. With the article Architecture as a Theoretical Problem that adopts Lefebvre's thesis for architectural practice in particular, the questions of where architecture is located in the production of space process and its relationship with superstructure and relations of production in society are discussed. Therefore, how the architect takes place in this production process and its effectiveness is analysed. As a result of the analysis in the context of the relationship between modern architecture practice, superstructure and relations of production in capitalist mode of production, a concept of class architecture emerges. With the explanation of the concept of class architecture, a distinction between working class architecture and an architecture which appeals to bourgeoisie becomes visible. This leads to the category of bourgeois utopias within the context of the utopianism of the present. Suburban settlements that Harvey assesses in degenerate utopia category as the utopianism of the present which is considered as the utopianism that has lost its critical essence will be discussed as well. Then, all temporal and spatial dimensions of these theoretical concepts will be presented in Harvey's temporal process utopias and spatial form utopias concepts. According to this, the temporal process seems to be related to ideology, while the spatial form utopia appears to approximate to the basic utopian form (More's text). Finally, the proposal that Harvey describes as spatiotemporal utopianism will be examined and the relation of the spatiotemporal with reality will be discussed. At the end of Chapter 3, all concepts discussed in this chapter will be discussed in a subdivision called the theoretical synthesis, and this synthesis will be created as a visual diagram showing the production of the social space. Then, with the help of the concepts of the utopian theory examined in Chapter 2, it will be schematized how the utopian space was created as an opposite of the existing social space during production of utopia. Transformation of the social space (regarded as the raw material in Jameson) to the space of utopia by the function of closure is also shown on this diagram. This conceptual scheme will also serve as a template for the coding process of the quantitative inspection method to be carried out later. The theoretical synthesis scheme prepared by the qualitative content in which spatial practice (social practice) is located at the center, shows its interactions with four moments named representation of space, representational space, ideology and mode of production. In addition, while the spatial practice takes place in the center on Harvey's spatiotemporal dialectical axis, representation space and ideology are located on temporal side, while representation of space and mode of production are located on the spatial. Therefore, the theoretical synthesis scheme while showing the four moments of space, also makes the temporal and spatial dimensions visible. Subsequently, this theoretical synthesis scheme will be used as a template for coding. Thus, all the spatial elements in Campanella's text will receive a quad code according to the template within the context and meaning they have been used. After coding all the spatial texts one by one, a table will be created by taking into account how many times the elements have been used in the text. The table will sum up temporal and spatial values as well as the sum of representations of space, representational space, mode of production, and ideological values of spatial elements. At the beginning of Chapter 4, first of all the quantitative analysis method which is related to the theoretical synthesis will be explained in detail. With the aid of the generated table according to their temporal and spatial values, spatial elements receive an X (temporal) and a Y (spatial) value respectively. Therefore, spatial elements can get coordinates as points on the coordinate plane which is one of visualization techniques of the quantitative inspection method. In addition, on which side of the spatiotemporal axis (which is represented as an x=y function on the coordinate plane) they are located and their approximation to it is measured and evaluated. Spatial items are also evaluated within five scale categories from smallest to biggest in this study. These are; structural elements scale, building scale, urban scale, global scale and a universal scale respectively. All coordinate planes will be arranged according to their individual scales and afterwards a graph will also be created in which all the scales are shown together. As a second method of visualization, a linear graph of oscilation named as seismograph is given. While this graph shows all the scales of spatial elements side by side, it also shows the quantitative values that these elements get in process (time) and form (space). By this graph, it can be seen which of the scale group's elements are causing the greatest oscillations. Therefore, the dominant spatial scale can be determined. In addition to these graphs, the spatial elements that stand out in the seismograph will also be expressed by radar graphs which are related to the four moments (representation of space, mode of production, representational space and ideology). Then at first, in order to see the process of the examined utopia's creator's experience with the help of the concepts in Chapter 2, the analysis will begin with Campanella's life story. Then, the new ideological theme and the new mode of production created in the utopia will be examined. Subsequently, the results of the quantitative method will be given in the chapter. Finally, in Chapter 5, the functionality of the method will be assessed by comparing all the data from the quantitative analysis and the qualitative evaluation as a whole. A detailed evaluation of the The City of the Sun will be made within the conceptual and theoretical references included in the structure of the thesis. An evaluation of the whole and the parts of contemporary space and modern architecture practice in the context of the created theoretical synthesis and the method for spatial analysis will be assessed and new questions that arise from this work will also be discussed.