(Un)Mapping Diocletian’s Palace. Research methods in the understanding of the experience and meaning of place

Workshop of architecture students from the University of Split, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Sociology

Organisation and mentoring team:

Hrvoje Bartulović (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy = FGAG), Saša Begović (3LHD, FGAG), Ivo Čović (Politecnico di Milano), Damir Gamulin, di.di., Ivan Jurić (FGAG), Anči Leburić, (Department of Sociology), Iva Raič Stojanović (Institute of Art History), Nelija Rudolfi (Manufaktura, Society of Psychologists, Split), Ana Šverko (Institute of Art History – Centre Cvito Fisković, FGAG)

Research and design:

Damir Gamulin, di.di.

Research and materials production:

Pino Gamulin, media artist; Anita Karaman, MArch, Mirko Menegelo, MArch

Participants:

Graduate students of architecture: Bruno Bartulović, Marin Bodrožić, Maria Britvić, Paola Franić, Ana Mikulić, Edo Murtić, Ana Mustapić, Ivana Pamuković, Nikolina Prolić

Graduate students of sociology: Antonija Bitunjac, Gorana Bulović, Arijana Glibić, Tea Gutović, Christy Koor, Teuta Stipišić

 

During the 18th and 19th century, European architects, writers and painters, during the Grand Tour, a practice aimed at making the direct acquaintance of other cultures, which represented the foundation of classical education and the formation of artistic stances and expressions, left verbal and pictorial records of their visits to Diocletian’s Palace in Split. Diocletian’s Palace was a must-see of the Grand Tour on the eastern shores of the Adriatic.

Through an analysis of the drawings and texts, the key points that the travel writers of the time selected to define Diocletian’s Palace and of which they left a lasting record in their art works have been defined. They did not record just the physical condition of the monuments, but also the life within the palace, and rendered their personal impressions and feelings during their sojourns in this very specific space.

Does everything that represented, over a period of 200 years, the key places for a qualitative mapping of Diocletian’s Palace, still have such a powerful meaning? To what extent does the medium in which a space is registered have an effect on our perception of place? Have some of these defining points in the meantime become worthwhile un-mapping as formative elements of the current image of the place. Have they been in the meantime replaced by some other points, or is it necessary or possible to ratchet up their importance once again?

The workshop should primarily be useful for students as spur to the development of research methodology, of  a format for the qualitative presentation of space via different media. Accordingly, to quantitative research methods, new methods of researching and mapping would be added, their goal being to evaluate the space and to contribute to the detection of problems in the space.

The results of this workshop would serve to define the tasks of an international workshop to be held in 2017.

What is involved in the workshop can be seen here in Croatian and in English.