LOCKDOWN TRAVELS | Istanbul, Turkey | 2013

LOCKDOWN TRAVELS | Home to some astonishing sights, Istanbul is the only city in the world to straddle two continents; Europe and Asia.

The Hagia Sophia is an excellent example of different cultures pushing against eachother and fusing together. It began as a Christian cathedral 537AD when it was considered to be the largest building on earth. The subsequent 900 years saw it exchange hands between Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek orthodox, ending as an Ottoman Mosque in 1453. Now it's a museum welcoming people through its doors to see the architectural marvel in which you can clearly see the additions and adaptations each ruling religion.

Separated by a park and fountain, is the magnificent Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet Camii which was built a millennium after its neighbour, Hagia Sophia. This inspiring 17th century mosque and its minarets soar majestically high into the sky above Istanbul. Entering the mosque is one of those peaceful and profound experiences you remember. The intricately decorated interior of the dome is etched forever in my memory.

Down the hill sits the famous Grand Bazaar which is thought to be one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world. Walking over the threshold you are instantly confronted with a plethora of smells, sounds and the ability of buying anything you could ever want. Lanterns hang from the ceilings, spices are neatly piled up into little pyramids and the some 4,000 shop keepers haggle with the more than 250,000 customers who walk through the bazaar each day.

Crossing over the Golden Horn into the district of Karakoy, the Galata Bridge hosts numerous restaurants specialising in fish dishes and plays host to locals who cast their fishing lines into the river going to get a good catch. Karakoy is a slightly more modern part of the city. Climbing up a narrow street lined with restaurants you reach Galata tower. A 15th century tower with sublime views of Istanbul and the mighty Bosphorus which cuts through the land mass and divides Europe with Asia and linking the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea.

Istanbul can credit much of its success and power to its geographic location. Similar to Gibraltar, it sits at a highly strategic place and can control movement of ships between the greater Mediterranean region into the Black Sea, and vice versa which is seen by NATO partners as far more important as it is one of the few ways Russia gains access to the open seas. Further up the hill is a cosmopolitan area with bars, restaurants and many of the big shops. An area of the city which demonstrates the secularism and Eurasian culture of Turkey.

During my visit to the city, mass demonstrations were being held in the area around Taksim. They stemmed from the planned Urban development of nearby Gezi Park. Protesters who were against the plans undertook a peaceful sit-in until they were violently evicted by the authorities. The protests evolved into anti government demonstrations and continued for months and saw 22 people die and over 8,000 injured. Whilst visiting Istanbul, we witnessed the demonstrations first hand.

During the day, Taksim held a jubilant and determined atmosphere with people chanting, talking and shouting their demands. There was a police presence lined up to contain the protesters. As the light began to fade, the atmosphere changed. The tension built and nervousness was palpable. The police began moving and with increased pace they charged and began firing tear gas and pepper bullets into the crowd. Panic began to spread as the crowd were forced out of the square down two roads. I ended up running away down the smaller road. A stinging sensation radiated from my calf as a pepper bullet hit me and expelled it's contents into the air. People were coughing, tears were falling as the pepper reached the face. People were falling over and people were dragging them back to their feet to stop them from being trampled. I had long lost Adrian and Dean. The street began to open up and the density of people eased. We had been successfully expelled from Taksim. Not knowing where the other two were and in need to clear my eyes, I headed back to the hostel which we were staying in and were reunited largely unscathed from our experience.

I'm conflicted by this experience. Whilst we wanted to show our solidarity with the people, I'm no longer sure whether it was wise or right for us to be there.

Not all travel experiences are beautiful.

Istanbul is a wonderful city. I've had the pleasure of visiting the city twice. And Turkey three times in total. The people are warm, welcoming and friendly. I've made good friends during my time there and look forward to returning once again soon!

Beyond the Keys: exposing the unheard

Beyond the keys

The invention of the keyboard has given music a greater creative freedom,  but it has also locked it up in a rigid system. The keyboard has indeed reduced the immense and multiform universe of sound to the twelve notes of the Western scale.

Innovations in the 20th century often break loose from this system so as to enlarge artistic expression.

On recent touch keyboards an unheard of variety of sound modulations can be conjured up by tapping, sliding, swiping, pressing and releasing. 

The museum of musical instruments, Brussels.

It has been my focus over the past six months to look into the repression of alternatives and adversarial voices within society and politics.  I have argued for the requirement of an agonistic environment within educational settings which allows for the expression, discussion, and examination of alternative values and ideals. As I wandered through the magnificent exhibition of keyboard instrument evolution in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels, I was struck by the above quote as it exposes the confining rigidity of the twelve note system which is the compositional foundation of the vast majority of western music.  As we've been surrounded by music composed using an 8 tone major or minor scale our ears have been automatically tuned to this consonance and anything which falls outside of the pattern sounds dissonant. You don't need to be a trained musician to know if something sounds off. But what does off mean? Why does one note sound wrong where others are fine? When those musicians created the 12 note chromatic scale was it out of universal convenience or because the pitches between the twelve notes were indeed offensive to the ear?

Quite rightly, the quote attributes the keyboard with enabling creative freedom for composers and musicians. It's provided a logical method of notation which allows a piece of music to be reproduced by musicians across the globe without even having to have listened to it before. However, it is the reduction and limitation of this system which grabbed my attention as it is something I had never contemplated.  As with social and democratic political structures, we've been brought up with a certain style and consider that to be, more or less, the correct system and seldom question or legitimise alternative notions. We are led to believe these structures are the result of evolution and the largely consider them to be the best we can achieve in the present moment.  In my opinion, music has also followed that pattern and gone largely unquestioned. Of course, musical styles have developed and people have certainly questioned the musical quality of genres. For example, I'm sure we've all heard somebody described some music they're not keen on as 'noise'. Even though different genres of music have vastly different sounds, they continue to follow those rigid black and white keys on the keyboard. 

The technical innovations over the past century have enabled musicians to push the boundaries of music composition, creating new instruments, developing digital interfaces for existing instruments allowing them to increase the versatility of the instrument and the sounds it is able to create. Pitch modulators have been around for some time on electric instruments allowing the musician to expose those frequencies in between the black and white keys, even on traditional instruments, such as a guitar, musicians can bend the strings to reach those nameless notes. With no fingerboard or keys, the trombone is extremely well placed to play all pitches, yet the trombonist needs to stick to the positions or they would produce an ear wrenching dissonance with their accompanying performers. Other instruments are able to bend the pitch through manipulation of the embouchure (how the player's mouth is applied to a mouthpiece of a woodwind or brass instrument), or sliding the fingers from the finger holes. It's clear to me that musicians have long manipulated their instruments past their intended purposes but have been required to adhere largely to those twelve defined pitches.

There were two instruments which especially impressed me at the museum; the Continuum Fingerboard produced by Haken and Seaboard Rise made by Roli. Both of this instruments have retained the familiar keyboard feeling including the differentiation between the white and black keys, however, the individual keys are not there and the musician plays both horizontally and vertically and is able to manipulate the pitch and tone of the note opening up all of those alternative notes which were ignored on the traditional keyboard design.  The Continuum is a fretless interface which allows the performer to slide seamlessly between pitches.  The videos below are examples of what both instruments can do. 

The Haken Continuum Fingerboard.

The Roli Seaboard Rise