Jeremy Foster | Cornell University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jeremy Foster
cultural geographies, 2017
Originally planned as a collaboration, Wim Wenders’ 2011 film about the choreographer Pina Bausch... more Originally planned as a collaboration, Wim Wenders’ 2011 film about the choreographer Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal was made by Wenders alone, working with members of Bausch’s company after her unexpected early death. More than a documentary, Pina combines clips of staged productions, interviews with dancers, and sequences of them performing in selected settings in and around the city of Wuppertal. Combining Kracauer’s theories about film and dance with contemporary cultural geographical theory, this article unpacks how these landscape performances reflect Wenders and Bausch’s shared preoccupation with performance and temporality, and mediate a post-historical relationality between culture and nature. These performances occur in variety of overlooked places, in a region known to both Wenders and Bausch, and recently the subject of a renowned post-industrial regional regeneration project. This region’s material and ecological history, and the experimental approach adopted...
Jola Journal on Landscape Architecture, 2012
The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic... more The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic today, when many citizens' sense of place is shaped by mobility and imagery, and the design of new urban places needs to reconcile contradictory imaginary geographies and avoid narrowly place-bound forms of memory. Tensions between the representation of solidarity and difference in the urban landscape are explored through analysis of a
Safundi, 2009
... Following Jonathan Hale's argument that understanding the rules by which a ... more ... Following Jonathan Hale's argument that understanding the rules by which a system has developed provides a much more useful means of understanding the rules by which to subvert it,65 65 Hale, Cognitive Mapping, 42. ...
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2003
... 61–77; M. Häyrynen, 'National Landscapes and Their Making in Finland', Topos 8 (199... more ... 61–77; M. Häyrynen, 'National Landscapes and Their Making in Finland', Topos 8 (1996 ... African overseas mail service, forestry,19 road haulage,20 broadcasting, electrification, manufacturing, film ... in Britain by organisations such as the Victoria League to popularise their visions ...
Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2012
The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic... more The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic today, when many citizens' sense of place is shaped by mobility and imagery, and the design of new urban places needs to reconcile contradictory imaginary geographies and avoid narrowly place-bound forms of memory. Tensions between the representation of solidarity and difference in the urban landscape are explored through analysis of a
Geographical Journal, 2009
Cultural Geographies, 1995
Sparked by the various responses to Benedict Anderson’s recent book, Imagined communities, the co... more Sparked by the various responses to Benedict Anderson’s recent book, Imagined communities, the conference which York’s History Department intends as the first of many strove to include as many different approaches to cultural production as possible. The diversity and calibre of the speakers the organizers managed to attract is perhaps the best reflection of how urgently a forum on national identity was needed. As well as a majority of historians, those who attended came from departments of
Ecumene, 1998
The creation and use of landscapes... always emerges from biographical and place-specific histori... more The creation and use of landscapes... always emerges from biographical and place-specific historical and social contexts, at the same time that it contributes towards the uninterrupted becoming of biography and place.1 The thing is correlative to my body and, in more general terms, to my existence, of which my body is merely the stabilized structure.2
African Studies, 1996
Abstract This paper employs a phenomenological approach to examine the cultural appropriation of ... more Abstract This paper employs a phenomenological approach to examine the cultural appropriation of the physical landscape of Parktown Ridge immediately after the Anglo-Boer War. It argues that the geographical circumstances of the Ridge in the early 1900s, when understood ...
African Affairs, 2012
JAE 68: 2 unexpectedly, the role that back rooms played aided the influx of Africans into white a... more JAE 68: 2 unexpectedly, the role that back rooms played aided the influx of Africans into white areas, rendering the ambitions of Apartheid separation almost impossible to realize. Love thwarted Apartheid? At all times I was struck by the way in which the personal testimonies of those interviewed cut through the text with a stark and often times disturbing realism: “the money she [the white madam] spends on dog food, cat food, and the other things she needs for the animals—is more than she pays me” (p. 75). This book is an engaging and challenging read. Yet, unfortunately, problems also emerge from the chosen narrative style. The text often fluctuates between the particularities of individual histories and broader social commentary. Generalizations are sometime made without the support of adequate evidence, which at times lends to a sense of incredulity. For instance the author states that white “children as a rule played no role in the preparation of dinner or, indeed, any household chores” (p. 86). The context of this statement leads one to wonder if this is supposed to apply to all white households throughout the fortysix years of Apartheid rule, or if it is supposed to be qualified by the “main period” of study that is stated in the introduction—this being the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg over the years 1960–1970. In any case, inadequate evidence is provided for this assertion. Johannesburg is a city of foreigners, a place of tremendous diversity. Culturally speaking, the northern suburbs were (and still are) far from homogeneous. This was also true of Apartheid discourses.2 This and other assertions do not correspond to my own childhood experiences of growing up in Johannesburg. More importantly, I feel that some awareness of the narrative structure of the study, and how one might approach it, should have been considered at the introduction to the book—histories are, after all, the construal of narrative.3 That said, I must add that when contrasted with the high quality of primary research that underpins this study, my quibble is, perhaps, a minor concern. I should think this elegantly written and well-researched book should enjoy a wide appeal among architectural historians, sociologists, and urban anthropologists alike and indeed for anyone interested in the intersections that occur between the categories of gender, race, space and class. In fact, the importance of this topic surely warrants a follow-up study on the nature of domestic work in contemporary South Africa. In an economic environment plagued by high levels of unemployment, domestic work provides an important employment sector in present-day South Africa. Many middleto upper-class households— black and white owned alike—are serviced by black female workers. A study of this contemporary scene would surely make for an enlightening comparison with this remarkable study by Rebecca Ginsburg.
Cultural Geographies, 2004
Like other Dominion First World War memorials, the South African National Memorial at Delville Wo... more Like other Dominion First World War memorials, the South African National Memorial at Delville Wood was a landscape in which nostalgic anti-modernism was tempered by the desire to posit a new kind of identity. Using the iconographic ‘invented memory’ of New Imperialism, it was designed to project a bifocal ‘colonial nationalism’ at a time when white identity and South African citizenship were at their most fluid. Delville Wood has both failed and transcended this goal. Over the last eight decades, while becoming one of the most popular destinations on the Western Front tourist circuit today, the site has mediated the ongoing evolution of South African nationhood as an imaginative dialogue between ‘Europe’ and ‘Africa’. Comparing Delville Wood to other Dominion memorials, the paper proposes that the site’s durable but mutable resonance has been sustained by echoes of decisions taken in the 1920s about landscape materiality and making which are sequentially revealed by the visitor’s j...
Gender, Place & Culture, 2011
... by presence…in a specified location (and makes use of) contiguity, context, comparison, contr... more ... by presence…in a specified location (and makes use of) contiguity, context, comparison, contrast,juxtaposition, and the post modern strategies of collage and bricolage. ... The literature exploring the overlaps and differences between beur cinema and the film de banlieue is ...
cultural geographies, 2017
Originally planned as a collaboration, Wim Wenders’ 2011 film about the choreographer Pina Bausch... more Originally planned as a collaboration, Wim Wenders’ 2011 film about the choreographer Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal was made by Wenders alone, working with members of Bausch’s company after her unexpected early death. More than a documentary, Pina combines clips of staged productions, interviews with dancers, and sequences of them performing in selected settings in and around the city of Wuppertal. Combining Kracauer’s theories about film and dance with contemporary cultural geographical theory, this article unpacks how these landscape performances reflect Wenders and Bausch’s shared preoccupation with performance and temporality, and mediate a post-historical relationality between culture and nature. These performances occur in variety of overlooked places, in a region known to both Wenders and Bausch, and recently the subject of a renowned post-industrial regional regeneration project. This region’s material and ecological history, and the experimental approach adopted...
Jola Journal on Landscape Architecture, 2012
The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic... more The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic today, when many citizens' sense of place is shaped by mobility and imagery, and the design of new urban places needs to reconcile contradictory imaginary geographies and avoid narrowly place-bound forms of memory. Tensions between the representation of solidarity and difference in the urban landscape are explored through analysis of a
Safundi, 2009
... Following Jonathan Hale's argument that understanding the rules by which a ... more ... Following Jonathan Hale's argument that understanding the rules by which a system has developed provides a much more useful means of understanding the rules by which to subvert it,65 65 Hale, Cognitive Mapping, 42. ...
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2003
... 61–77; M. Häyrynen, 'National Landscapes and Their Making in Finland', Topos 8 (199... more ... 61–77; M. Häyrynen, 'National Landscapes and Their Making in Finland', Topos 8 (1996 ... African overseas mail service, forestry,19 road haulage,20 broadcasting, electrification, manufacturing, film ... in Britain by organisations such as the Victoria League to popularise their visions ...
Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2012
The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic... more The cityscape's ability to cultivate intersubjective understanding is problematic today, when many citizens' sense of place is shaped by mobility and imagery, and the design of new urban places needs to reconcile contradictory imaginary geographies and avoid narrowly place-bound forms of memory. Tensions between the representation of solidarity and difference in the urban landscape are explored through analysis of a
Geographical Journal, 2009
Cultural Geographies, 1995
Sparked by the various responses to Benedict Anderson’s recent book, Imagined communities, the co... more Sparked by the various responses to Benedict Anderson’s recent book, Imagined communities, the conference which York’s History Department intends as the first of many strove to include as many different approaches to cultural production as possible. The diversity and calibre of the speakers the organizers managed to attract is perhaps the best reflection of how urgently a forum on national identity was needed. As well as a majority of historians, those who attended came from departments of
Ecumene, 1998
The creation and use of landscapes... always emerges from biographical and place-specific histori... more The creation and use of landscapes... always emerges from biographical and place-specific historical and social contexts, at the same time that it contributes towards the uninterrupted becoming of biography and place.1 The thing is correlative to my body and, in more general terms, to my existence, of which my body is merely the stabilized structure.2
African Studies, 1996
Abstract This paper employs a phenomenological approach to examine the cultural appropriation of ... more Abstract This paper employs a phenomenological approach to examine the cultural appropriation of the physical landscape of Parktown Ridge immediately after the Anglo-Boer War. It argues that the geographical circumstances of the Ridge in the early 1900s, when understood ...
African Affairs, 2012
JAE 68: 2 unexpectedly, the role that back rooms played aided the influx of Africans into white a... more JAE 68: 2 unexpectedly, the role that back rooms played aided the influx of Africans into white areas, rendering the ambitions of Apartheid separation almost impossible to realize. Love thwarted Apartheid? At all times I was struck by the way in which the personal testimonies of those interviewed cut through the text with a stark and often times disturbing realism: “the money she [the white madam] spends on dog food, cat food, and the other things she needs for the animals—is more than she pays me” (p. 75). This book is an engaging and challenging read. Yet, unfortunately, problems also emerge from the chosen narrative style. The text often fluctuates between the particularities of individual histories and broader social commentary. Generalizations are sometime made without the support of adequate evidence, which at times lends to a sense of incredulity. For instance the author states that white “children as a rule played no role in the preparation of dinner or, indeed, any household chores” (p. 86). The context of this statement leads one to wonder if this is supposed to apply to all white households throughout the fortysix years of Apartheid rule, or if it is supposed to be qualified by the “main period” of study that is stated in the introduction—this being the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg over the years 1960–1970. In any case, inadequate evidence is provided for this assertion. Johannesburg is a city of foreigners, a place of tremendous diversity. Culturally speaking, the northern suburbs were (and still are) far from homogeneous. This was also true of Apartheid discourses.2 This and other assertions do not correspond to my own childhood experiences of growing up in Johannesburg. More importantly, I feel that some awareness of the narrative structure of the study, and how one might approach it, should have been considered at the introduction to the book—histories are, after all, the construal of narrative.3 That said, I must add that when contrasted with the high quality of primary research that underpins this study, my quibble is, perhaps, a minor concern. I should think this elegantly written and well-researched book should enjoy a wide appeal among architectural historians, sociologists, and urban anthropologists alike and indeed for anyone interested in the intersections that occur between the categories of gender, race, space and class. In fact, the importance of this topic surely warrants a follow-up study on the nature of domestic work in contemporary South Africa. In an economic environment plagued by high levels of unemployment, domestic work provides an important employment sector in present-day South Africa. Many middleto upper-class households— black and white owned alike—are serviced by black female workers. A study of this contemporary scene would surely make for an enlightening comparison with this remarkable study by Rebecca Ginsburg.
Cultural Geographies, 2004
Like other Dominion First World War memorials, the South African National Memorial at Delville Wo... more Like other Dominion First World War memorials, the South African National Memorial at Delville Wood was a landscape in which nostalgic anti-modernism was tempered by the desire to posit a new kind of identity. Using the iconographic ‘invented memory’ of New Imperialism, it was designed to project a bifocal ‘colonial nationalism’ at a time when white identity and South African citizenship were at their most fluid. Delville Wood has both failed and transcended this goal. Over the last eight decades, while becoming one of the most popular destinations on the Western Front tourist circuit today, the site has mediated the ongoing evolution of South African nationhood as an imaginative dialogue between ‘Europe’ and ‘Africa’. Comparing Delville Wood to other Dominion memorials, the paper proposes that the site’s durable but mutable resonance has been sustained by echoes of decisions taken in the 1920s about landscape materiality and making which are sequentially revealed by the visitor’s j...
Gender, Place & Culture, 2011
... by presence…in a specified location (and makes use of) contiguity, context, comparison, contr... more ... by presence…in a specified location (and makes use of) contiguity, context, comparison, contrast,juxtaposition, and the post modern strategies of collage and bricolage. ... The literature exploring the overlaps and differences between beur cinema and the film de banlieue is ...