Books in Semiotics of Space & Culture by Manar HAMMAD
Lire l'espace, étendre le domaine sémiotique, 2021
In a book form, this collection of papers puts in a semantic order twelve essays interpreting mea... more In a book form, this collection of papers puts in a semantic order twelve essays interpreting meaning in space. Scale in space (from room size to continental geography, through urban size) is considered for its interpretive capacity. Physical space is put in relation with social space. Special attention is invested in dynamic transformations and their traces. Archaeology, Heritage, Land tenure, Irrigation, Destruction and Reconstruction are some of the domains explored.
Ordered in progressive complexity, eight papers are assembled to make this volume entitled Sémiot... more Ordered in progressive complexity, eight papers are assembled to make this volume entitled Sémiotiser l'espace, continuing a scientific project begun in a former volume entitled Lire l'espace, comprendre l'architecture. These two books aim to deploy concrete semiotic analyses of various places, chosen for their interest and/or their complexity, accompanied by methodological an epistemological discussions of the main issues encountered in the process of recognition-identification-construction of meaning embedded in real world spaces. In the first volume, case studies take the reader to sixteenth century Japan & Italy, andalucian gardens, Le Corbusier's convent in La Tourette, Bel's sanctuary in Palmyra (Syria), Makka's sanctuary in Arabia, and Ampère's modeling of electromagnetism. This second volume returns to japanese houses for their semantic structure, to Palmyra for an analysis of city space and time structure, to Roma where antique sculptures are presented in an electric plant, and to the University of Vilnius (Lituania) for a combined analysis of drawings and buildings. The variety of places and functions prove the general character of the semiotic approach developped. The novelty of the results prove its efficiency.
This BOOK groups together a number of papers published over a period of thirty years. They are pu... more This BOOK groups together a number of papers published over a period of thirty years. They are put into a logical order, with a progressive introduction of concepts and complexity. The general purpose is demonstrate, by the analysis of existing cases (chosen in Japan, France, Syria, Arabia), the pertinence of the semiotics approach for architectural studies. More specifically, it is the discursive approach of semiotics, built upon syntactic transformations, that is promoted. The analyses demonstrate the cultural investment of semantic values into empty portions of space, orientation, geometric patterns, assembling and cutting operations.
English Translation of French. See on academis.edu
La Privatisation de l'Espace
Systematic anal... more English Translation of French. See on academis.edu
La Privatisation de l'Espace
Systematic analysis of the procedures by which everyday space is characterized as "private". A set of experiments, led in the convent of La Tourette (Architect: Le Corbusier), serves as starting point, complemented by anthropological observations in Japan. Semioitc concepts are used in order to extract logical relations. The analysis leads to consider human relations as expressed through spatial means.
Sémantique des institutions arabes, 2018
After their conquest of large tracts of the byzantine empire and the entire sassanide territory, ... more After their conquest of large tracts of the byzantine empire and the entire sassanide territory, the Arabs used the monies found in the said lands. Almost thirty years later, they started minting coins, either overcharging a previously existing model, or adopting a derived design.
Then, more than sixty years after the initial victories, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan issued new gold and silver coins that made a stark change to monetary models that had been thirteen centuries in the making. The new coins bore no figures, neither of governors nor of divinities. They were purely epigraphic : texts occupied both faces, in the center and on the periphery.
Semantic analysis of the numismatic text leads to make a distinction between the coranic extracts inscribed on the coins and the enunciative elements that had been deleted. While the text content is religious, its discursive peculiarities can only be explained by the fiscal function (Zakat) the monies were supposed to fulfill.
The change was radical. No continuous transition is liable to describe its operation. Semantics deliver a key for the interpretation of a reform that was to perdure another thirteen centuries.
Book comprising two hundred twenty short papers exploring the cultural heritage of the Middle Eas... more Book comprising two hundred twenty short papers exploring the cultural heritage of the Middle East from a comparative point of view. Verbal manifestations (Arabic, often compared to Aramean, Greek and Latin) and non-verbal manifestations (social interactions, food, cities, architecture) are analyzed from diachronic and synchronic points of view. Physical space, religious space and social space are explored.
Semantic analysis of the arabic vocabulary pertaining to the domains of religious belief and poli... more Semantic analysis of the arabic vocabulary pertaining to the domains of religious belief and political power. Reference is made to the use of terms in the Quran. The various declinations of a given radical serve to identify semantic components. Historical events are analyzed in order to clarify the meaning o some terms
SEMIOTIKA Nbr 10, Jul 1, 2014
Semiotic analysis of Vilnius University, developed in two parts: the object of study, the method... more Semiotic analysis of Vilnius University, developed in two parts: the object of study, the method used. The object depends upon the method used, and the method has been adapted in order to consider the specific characters of the object.
The University of Vilnius has been considered from a spatial and semiotic point of view. If the present state of the buildings is directly accessible, a number of former states of evolution are described by plans kept within the archives of the Lituanian Ministry of Culture. The National Library of France keeps a collection of projects drawn in the XVI th and XVII th centuries for Vilnius University within the Society of Jesus. The semiotic analysis of such a syncretic corpus (buildings, technical plans, projects) imposes the consideration of social actors (teachers, students, technicians) and environmental actors (cold, fire, weather, age) whose interactions with space produce meaning.
The consecution of drawings allows the identification of spatial transformations. The arrangement of courtyards, their concatenation, their degrees of openness, produce successive meaning effects. The addition of porticoes during the XVII th century, their implantation mode, and their organization modify space, in its visual appearance and in its pragmatic use. The substitution of vaults to ceilings modifies the interior aspect of rooms, while it insures a better resistance to eventual fires, whose repetitive occurrence is registered in the archives.
Transformations point to spatial enunciative acts, because every constructive action can be interpreted as an enunciative act. What makes a considerable place for enunciative meanings in the analysis, at the expense of enuncive meanings.
Books in Archaeology & Semiotics by Manar HAMMAD
The recent destruction of Bel temple in Palmyra motivates the publication, in french and italian ... more The recent destruction of Bel temple in Palmyra motivates the publication, in french and italian languages, of two analytical studies (by Manar HAMMAD) seeking to explicit the meaning imbedded in architecture and the incidence of the temple building on the city itself.
A foreword considers the period during which the temple precinct protected the entire town, while a mosque was active in the temple itself. The semantic analysis is extended to the destructive act performed by a warring group on what is considered a world heritage treasure by international experts.
A preface by Paolo Fabbri examines further heritage values.
"This book describes the evolution of Palmyra (Syria) through time, in relation with the morpholo... more "This book describes the evolution of Palmyra (Syria) through time, in relation with the morphology of its environment. Special attention is paid to water works: in an arid environment, the city could not grow without tapping water resources found at a distance.
Functional and semantic analysis allows the identification of an ideological change expressed into building. The caravanoport (area where caravans downloaded or uploaded their charges, equipped with defended warehouses) is identified, in relation with the city configuration, its defensive walls, and the caravan trails skirting its forms.
A comparison with epigraphic data confirms the morphologic analysis by historic and political conclusions."
Papers in Semiotics of Space & Culture by Manar HAMMAD
يسلّط هذا المقال منظوراً سيميائياً على مجموعة من أساليب الإضاءة المستخدمة في منطقة تمتد من القسطن... more يسلّط هذا المقال منظوراً سيميائياً على مجموعة من أساليب الإضاءة المستخدمة في منطقة تمتد من القسطنطينية إلى فاس طوال ألف سنة. سادت في تلك الفترة تقنية واحدة إعتمدت على أوعية زجاجية تُحرق الزيت بواسطة فتيل، ومعلَّقة في الهواء. يصف التحليل أشكال مجموعات حيّزية لنشر المصابيح، نطلق عليها إسم أساليب النشر، موزعة في الحيّز لتتوافق مع العمارات المضاءة. تضفي بعض وجهات النظر التفسيرية معان على تلك الأساليب، بينما يتيح المنظور التركيبي تنسيقها أو دمجها بين بعضها. نحصل بذلك على تركيبات في أدوار الأداء مشحونة في مصادر ضوئية أولية وثانوية وثلاثية، تؤدي أدوار الفاعل المُفوَّض، أو الغرض الموجّه أو الغرض المقيّم النهائي. يشبه تداخلُ عناصر الإضاءة التداخلَ الاجتماعي. بعد تطوّر الأضواء الاحتفالية على مدّ الزمن، يوضح أسلوبُ عملها دورَها بمثابة الغرض الإحتفالي بحد ذاته لا لخدمة غرض آخر.
Reading memory sites through signs: hiding into landscape, 2023
The absence of written chronicles in Scandinavia during the period in which Islamic silver dirham... more The absence of written chronicles in Scandinavia during the period in which Islamic silver dirhams were brought from afar and hoarded in pits, necessitates the interpretation of non-verbal data (caches, emission dates of coins, cache distribution in space) and the restitution of actions (maritime and river travel, economic exchange) that produced such results. The interpretation process also needs the consideration of other caches containing precious objects and written sources from the East and the West. The data give us back the of a Scandinavian society in transformation. This chapter presents this study in three phases: physical space (from the Baltic to Baghdad and Tashkent), economic space (predation and/or exchange) and social space (differentiation of society according to collective actors defined by action).
Lire l'espace, étendre le domaine sémiotique, 2021
500000 silver dirhams have been found in caches buried in Scandinavia and along rivers between th... more 500000 silver dirhams have been found in caches buried in Scandinavia and along rivers between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Spatial analysis of caches, and of their distribution in space, delivers a partial interpretation of the dynamics of accumulation, and its interruption. The key for interpretation lies in social dynamics in Scandinavia, as retraced through archaeological remains (caches, burials, fortifications…).
Acta Semiotica 4, 2022
The brevity of this essay obeys the rules for its genre. Its object is to take a bearing for the ... more The brevity of this essay obeys the rules for its genre. Its object is to take a bearing for the author’s research in semiotics of space. Building upon the text produced in 2013 on the Semiotisation of space, the present bearing retraces, starting from today’s situation, three research paths whose dependency is not obvious. These are the paths of the topos, of embedded scales, and of delegated configurations. Taken together, these three paths and their provisional endpoints provide a good idea of the explored extension, with the provision that we all know that the elaboration of space semiotics is far from being over.
Actes Sémiotiques n°116, Jun 28, 2013
This paper puts into a coherent perspective the various works I have published in the innovative ... more This paper puts into a coherent perspective the various works I have published in the innovative field of Space Semiotics during a period of forty years. The material, methods and concepts introduced are re-ordered in a logical way with the objective of explicitly unfolding some formerly implicit relationships. The analysis is oriented towards researchers working in the field of meaning expressed in space, with interest in methodology and epistemology.
Scene del Consumo: dallo shopping al museo, Jul 2006
Semiotic analysis of amuseum in Rome (via Ostiense). Antique marble sculptures are presented in a... more Semiotic analysis of amuseum in Rome (via Ostiense). Antique marble sculptures are presented in an electric plant, where some generators and burners are still present.
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Books in Semiotics of Space & Culture by Manar HAMMAD
La Privatisation de l'Espace
Systematic analysis of the procedures by which everyday space is characterized as "private". A set of experiments, led in the convent of La Tourette (Architect: Le Corbusier), serves as starting point, complemented by anthropological observations in Japan. Semioitc concepts are used in order to extract logical relations. The analysis leads to consider human relations as expressed through spatial means.
Then, more than sixty years after the initial victories, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan issued new gold and silver coins that made a stark change to monetary models that had been thirteen centuries in the making. The new coins bore no figures, neither of governors nor of divinities. They were purely epigraphic : texts occupied both faces, in the center and on the periphery.
Semantic analysis of the numismatic text leads to make a distinction between the coranic extracts inscribed on the coins and the enunciative elements that had been deleted. While the text content is religious, its discursive peculiarities can only be explained by the fiscal function (Zakat) the monies were supposed to fulfill.
The change was radical. No continuous transition is liable to describe its operation. Semantics deliver a key for the interpretation of a reform that was to perdure another thirteen centuries.
The University of Vilnius has been considered from a spatial and semiotic point of view. If the present state of the buildings is directly accessible, a number of former states of evolution are described by plans kept within the archives of the Lituanian Ministry of Culture. The National Library of France keeps a collection of projects drawn in the XVI th and XVII th centuries for Vilnius University within the Society of Jesus. The semiotic analysis of such a syncretic corpus (buildings, technical plans, projects) imposes the consideration of social actors (teachers, students, technicians) and environmental actors (cold, fire, weather, age) whose interactions with space produce meaning.
The consecution of drawings allows the identification of spatial transformations. The arrangement of courtyards, their concatenation, their degrees of openness, produce successive meaning effects. The addition of porticoes during the XVII th century, their implantation mode, and their organization modify space, in its visual appearance and in its pragmatic use. The substitution of vaults to ceilings modifies the interior aspect of rooms, while it insures a better resistance to eventual fires, whose repetitive occurrence is registered in the archives.
Transformations point to spatial enunciative acts, because every constructive action can be interpreted as an enunciative act. What makes a considerable place for enunciative meanings in the analysis, at the expense of enuncive meanings.
Books in Archaeology & Semiotics by Manar HAMMAD
A foreword considers the period during which the temple precinct protected the entire town, while a mosque was active in the temple itself. The semantic analysis is extended to the destructive act performed by a warring group on what is considered a world heritage treasure by international experts.
A preface by Paolo Fabbri examines further heritage values.
Functional and semantic analysis allows the identification of an ideological change expressed into building. The caravanoport (area where caravans downloaded or uploaded their charges, equipped with defended warehouses) is identified, in relation with the city configuration, its defensive walls, and the caravan trails skirting its forms.
A comparison with epigraphic data confirms the morphologic analysis by historic and political conclusions."
Papers in Semiotics of Space & Culture by Manar HAMMAD
La Privatisation de l'Espace
Systematic analysis of the procedures by which everyday space is characterized as "private". A set of experiments, led in the convent of La Tourette (Architect: Le Corbusier), serves as starting point, complemented by anthropological observations in Japan. Semioitc concepts are used in order to extract logical relations. The analysis leads to consider human relations as expressed through spatial means.
Then, more than sixty years after the initial victories, Abd al-Malik bin Marwan issued new gold and silver coins that made a stark change to monetary models that had been thirteen centuries in the making. The new coins bore no figures, neither of governors nor of divinities. They were purely epigraphic : texts occupied both faces, in the center and on the periphery.
Semantic analysis of the numismatic text leads to make a distinction between the coranic extracts inscribed on the coins and the enunciative elements that had been deleted. While the text content is religious, its discursive peculiarities can only be explained by the fiscal function (Zakat) the monies were supposed to fulfill.
The change was radical. No continuous transition is liable to describe its operation. Semantics deliver a key for the interpretation of a reform that was to perdure another thirteen centuries.
The University of Vilnius has been considered from a spatial and semiotic point of view. If the present state of the buildings is directly accessible, a number of former states of evolution are described by plans kept within the archives of the Lituanian Ministry of Culture. The National Library of France keeps a collection of projects drawn in the XVI th and XVII th centuries for Vilnius University within the Society of Jesus. The semiotic analysis of such a syncretic corpus (buildings, technical plans, projects) imposes the consideration of social actors (teachers, students, technicians) and environmental actors (cold, fire, weather, age) whose interactions with space produce meaning.
The consecution of drawings allows the identification of spatial transformations. The arrangement of courtyards, their concatenation, their degrees of openness, produce successive meaning effects. The addition of porticoes during the XVII th century, their implantation mode, and their organization modify space, in its visual appearance and in its pragmatic use. The substitution of vaults to ceilings modifies the interior aspect of rooms, while it insures a better resistance to eventual fires, whose repetitive occurrence is registered in the archives.
Transformations point to spatial enunciative acts, because every constructive action can be interpreted as an enunciative act. What makes a considerable place for enunciative meanings in the analysis, at the expense of enuncive meanings.
A foreword considers the period during which the temple precinct protected the entire town, while a mosque was active in the temple itself. The semantic analysis is extended to the destructive act performed by a warring group on what is considered a world heritage treasure by international experts.
A preface by Paolo Fabbri examines further heritage values.
Functional and semantic analysis allows the identification of an ideological change expressed into building. The caravanoport (area where caravans downloaded or uploaded their charges, equipped with defended warehouses) is identified, in relation with the city configuration, its defensive walls, and the caravan trails skirting its forms.
A comparison with epigraphic data confirms the morphologic analysis by historic and political conclusions."
The same method can be used for the analysis of other architectural arrangements, whereby they appear to be loaded with modalities governing action.
This paper explores the semantic value of the use of glass in architecture, especially in museums. It develops a syntactic analyses of the non-verbal means used when people or objects are seen through a glass sheet (or glass window).
The same method can be used for the analysis of other architectural arrangements, whereby they appear to be loaded with modalities governing action.
A team of archaeologists proposed to recognize traces of Property in the sealing clay clumps found at Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria). We examine the said objects and the process of their use, in order to check if that satisfies the syntactic definition of Property as we recognize it in archaeological practice. The answer is partially positive: we have at Tell Sabi Abyad the non verbal beginnings of an expression of Property.
Peut-on repérer l'apparition de la propriété des objets ? En français, le terme propriété est utilisé de deux manières différentes. D'une part, il désigne « un caractère propre, spécifique » reconnu à une chose. D'autre part, il désigne « une chose possédée, un droit de possession » 1. En ce deuxième usage qui nous occupe ici, la propriété n'est pas une qualité naturelle des choses, elle est un effet de sens qui caractérise un mode de circulation des objets parmi les hommes. Autrement dit, propriété est un sémème 2 projeté sur une catégorie d'objets 3 , ce qui pose deux questions : i) l'articulation sémantique de la notion de propriété à un moment donné, ii) l'élaboration historique de cette notion, marquant un changement des manières de faire et de penser, entre un avant supposé sans propriété, et un après où la propriété est mise en place. Nous avons posé ailleurs la question de la propriété de l'espace 4 à l'époque néolithique. L'analyse syntaxique met en évidence une symétrie entre le contrôle de la circulation des hommes dans l'espace physique, dit privatisation de l'espace 5 ,
A second study, in preparation, shall detail the arcanes of the transformation of land status.
Le Sanctuaire de Bel à Tadmor-Palmyre.
Semiotic analysis of a religious complex dating to the first century BC/first century AD. The city of Palmyra undewent a radical transformation at that period, in which the temple of Bel plays a major part. Semantic analysis of god names and religious rituals is confronted to the morphology of the building, yielding interesting results that were not attained by conventional archaeological studies."
Architecture, urban studies, archaeology, epigraphy, religious studies and political studies find a common ground in semantics.
The conclusion is that there was an amphitheater in Palmyra (Syria).
Its remains are buried under the sands; olive trees grow on them today.
Original text in French published in: De Kêmi à Birit Nari 3, Geuthner, Paris, 2008
Keywords: Palmyra, steppe, geomorphology, urban environment, caravan tracks
Examples are taken in recent Syria events, but the background is larger.
The analysis of verbal expressions in french and arabic languages extolls the notions of two successive subjects and a transmitted object, while greek language focuses on the notions of partaking and law. The examination of non verbal processes exacts a syntactic model that makes the difference between an anterior subject and an ulterior subject, concatenated into linear chains by genealogic discourse that rearticulates the world between the dead and the living. Through funerary practices, the ulteriors transform materially and symbolically the anteriors, obtaining a change of these after their death, placing them into the position of state subjects, not of action subjects.
Four narrative programs have been recognized, succession being the result of their combination. The social Destinator determins lineage and family, as he determins what is devolved and the forms of partaking. The anterior subject is subject only because he has been in conjunction with the inheritance as valued object: before he became an anterior subject, he has been an ulterior subject. Inheritance, as a valued object, transits between an anterior subject and an ulterior subject. Transit forms reveal the conditional and modal character of the transiting object. The ulterior subject is an actant that decomposes into various actors, the transmission places him first into a contractual position, to which succeeds a polemical situation resulting from the partitive character of the inheriting actant.
Cette exposition les fait connaître, avec un texte qui les replace dans leur contexte historique.
At the end of the twelve century, and the beginning of the thirteenth century, Aleppo has led the way for stone architecture development in the Near East. The recent desctructions have altered these monuments, and completely destroyed one of them. This document testifies to the glory of Aleppo's architectural school.
Les questions qui se posent sont géométriques en premier lieu: comment concevoir ces volumes complexes, en préparer les éléments, et les assembler dans l'espace? Les difficultés techniques liées aux matériaux, au découpage, à l'assemblage et à l'équilibre sont loin d'être triviales. Mais tout nous ramène à des questions de géométrie: définition des volumes, intersection des surfaces, pavage de l'espace…
En l'absence de documents écrits ayant fixé les manières de penser et de procéder des anciens constructeurs, serait-il possible de reconstituer leurs manières de faire? Ne pas s'arrêter à l'émerveillement et à l'aporie du regard qui passe sans fin d'une facette à l'autre. Remonter à la logique des formes. Retrouver les mécanismes de la pensée et de l'exécution.
Cette exposition consacrée aux muqarnasat est ma quatrième. Elle pose un jalon dans ma quête, menée par les moyens de la photographie et de l'analyse formelle. Par la distinction des aires géographiques et des périodes historiques, il est peut-être possible de mettre en évidence des processus de transformation qui pourraient constituer des indices menant vers les mécanismes sous-jacents. Cela reste à faire.
Manar HAMMAD
Research report delivered to the Direction Générale de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique.
Written in Arabic and French for bilingual education of children.
Original Drawings by Boutros al-MAARI.
Texts by Boutros al-MAARI and Manar HAMMAD.
32 p
Text in Arabic and French, intended for bilingual children.