7 questions to you
Dobrinka Valkova, Dafina Ditcheva, Sue Mark
Dobrinka Valkova, Dafina Ditcheva, and Sue Mark have been working as collaborative team in Sofia Bulgaria since November 1999. The three of us have joined our efforts on the exploration of contemporary history in Sofia through its urban transformations. We have been integrating our investigstions in the 'public sphere' (though this is one of the terms that we are also researching)through interactive presentations. We have incorporated the visual and audio material for a web site (in progress) and also public discussions concerning the everyday life in the city of Sofia. We would like to have the prototype of our web site, which deals with the below questions and themes, as well as a short video (9 minutes) which is comprised of archival and contemporary photos of the city revealing its construction, destruction and reconstruction as part of our participation in the EuroVision/Cafe9 Project.
Dobrinka Valkova's current research subject is: Sofia City-Space: Power and Experiencing the Power. Her areas of interest include linguistics, sociology, social psychology and pyschoanalysis.
Dafina Ditcheva's current research subject is Experience the City-Space and Sense of History. Her areas of interest include contemporary history, identity, memory, urban design, literature, psychoanalysis in connection with culture and social life.
Sue Mark's current project in Sofia, Spoken Memory Maps, will be an audio mapping of the transformations of the city from World War II until today. The maps will be layers of conversations with the older people of the city mixed with contemporary sounds of the city. Her areas of interest include contemporary history, urban design, transformation of former eastern bloc countries, phenomenology, the boundaries (how to stretch them) of contemporary art.
We propose to provoke a dialogue with the participants and organizers of EuroVision before the actual meeting in Prague through this email list in order to create a virtual public space for discussion of urban transformation in the context of the contemporary process of globalization in connection with the presumed/assumed european identity.
- The main themes of our concerns are:
- The role of history and the places of history in cultural memory and social identity.
- The function of publicity as information dissemination and the politics of power in everyday life.
- The process of social dialogue.
We have compiled a list of questions that have evolved from our most recent work together: a type of public meeting to discuss the transformations in Sofia, the problems of the city, and desires for the furture development of the city. These are the questions that we would like to pose to the partipants. The concrete substance of our participation in Prague depends on this email discussion. Our signature of existence/participation depends on this email format because of the uncertainty of our joining the actual meeting in Prague.
1. What do we preserve and what do we destroy in the city and why?
2. Where is the center of the city and what is its meaning?
3. Where is the presence of history in everyday life and what is its necessity?
4. When/how does public space in the city transform into non-public space (which is different from private space)?
5. Who is responsible for the appearance of the city?
6. What can we do to feel more comfortable in the city?
7. What do we expect from the city and how does the way we live in the city impact/determine what will happen in the future?
