paris :: (com)pression

paris exhibits straight, large scale avenues that are organized with focal points. how do we experience these in time and space? below is an attempt to demonstrate parallax in a single image.

rabat :: (com)pression

rabat is now the capital of morocco, but it was only chosen by the french in the 20th century to be a strategic city, setting up a delicate integration of the old medina with the new french city. rabat has a very special layout with physical and visual connections - the casbah is connected to the medina and the medina is connected to the new town. moreover, a strong visual connection exists between rabat and its neighbor city, salé.

outside the old wall

medina (blvd mohammed V)

ville nouvelle (blvd mohammed V)

fez :: self-trace

Self-traced paths through the medina begin to reveal the urban structure. There are two main streets climbing the hill (to the left). At the bottom of the hill the great mosque (to the right).

Fez looks so manageable. The map I made of Fez el Bali (old Fez) shows only streets that connect to another street on both ends. There are THOUSANDS of dead-end streets not shown here. 

fez :: medina breakdown

pedestrians and animals only
fes el-bali (fez old town) remains preserved due to its status as a world heritage site and to the fact that fez new town was made on the other side of the hill. it is the largest car-free area in the world. "medina" means "town" in arabic; but also refers to the old town of current islamic cities. here are some of its the major elements.

the wall

the dar (house) + the riadh (private courtyard)

an elongated dar in marrakech with riadh off to the side

(more like 4m)

the bab (gate)


the sqaq (street) + the derb (dead-end alley)

fractal nature of the streets of fes 4.0/1.5 = 2.7 (e) 

the mosque

the souk (covered market)

the fondouk (pension)

the madrasa (islamic college)

the factory

the hammam (spa)

fez :: (im)pression

"My friend! You want to get high? Really, no? Okay okay, I don't push like Bush".

fez medina is labyrinthine and intense. the call to prayer here is haunting and arresting - the whole medina from hill to valley fills with a ghostly but commanding wail. i've been offered hash, beer, massage about 200 times in three days. i can't take a walk without attracting a "guide" that follows me home, sometimes helps me through the maze, sometimes seeming to want to get me more confused to possibly pick my pockets, but there are usually just enough "eyes on the street" to spot this and call it out. the scams are infinite, but so far harmless and even amusing.

roofscapes [fez el-bali]

cityscape [fez el-bali]

roofscape [marrakech]

Q1 :: daylight conditions

sky

horizon

face

Q1 :: (com)pression

these images are taken every thirty paces with the same focal length and horizon line, then overlaid. the idea is challenge traditional opticality by compressing both time and space, highlighting rhythms and flows unique to a place. comparing these montages across different cultural and physical latitudes would hopefully reveal more about the respective cultures of space.

barcelona (spain) | florence (italy)