Multi-Narrative Reconstructions
of Modern Egypt
Constructing The Parade of Phantoms
A Prototype for Drawing Hauntology
Jacques Derrida introduces us to the neologism “Hauntology” which consists of “Haunting” and “Ontology”. This idea refers to the persistence and return of hauntings from the past in the present. Many sites across Egypt possess histories of conflict and revolution that illustrate this idea. Talaat Harb Square is just one of the many sites that depict the hauntings of colonialism and modernization across a period of Egyptian history. These concepts around haunting have come into increasing prominence in cultural theory during recent decades. These ghosts draw attention to phenomena that flicker between absence and presence from particular discursive viewpoints (Naeff and Dibazar, 2018).
The Parade of Phantoms functions as a prototype for drawing the hidden colonial hauntings of modern Egypt. The following text and diagrams unpack the event construction through various tools of projection, drawing and cartography. It explains how this mode of representation depicts the hidden multiplicities embedded within space. The text and diagrams begin at the construction of Talaat Harb Square as a digital 3D model, and progress to how the drawings are generated and augmented into stereographic transformations allowing for the user to navigate and experience the different perspectives of the space.
Virtual Construction Model
Reconstructing Talaat Harb Square
The process of modelling the site in 3d software can occur in two ways according to Jentery Sayers. First, reality-based models use laser scanning and photogrammetry to capture the state of an object or site at a specific point in time, or the second which is the use of virtual reconstruction models which harness many types of information such as what exists in the present as well as what is hidden in the past (Sayers, 2017). This model uses the second approach of virtual construction by using multiple photographs and sources from different periods. Virtual reconstruction reveals gaps in the historical record by comparing various sources of information. These missing pieces become important in challenging our ability to recover and comprehend the past resulting in alternative reconstructions of the site (Sayers, 2017). These reconstructions are always biased, selective and interpretive. Models can never fully re-create a real “lived” moment in the past. Instead, reconstruction modelling centres on the production of “potential pasts”, hypothetical slices of what may have been that offer new potential for studying past environments (Sayers, 2017).
The site model is detailed across different scales(Fig 2). The amount of detail and work across these scales of the square becomes significant when generating the panoramic view as shown further into the process. The stereographic projection allows for the space to be experienced at many different scales. These varying scales of detail cause the digital construction to be conscientious of many existing relationships that are present between architectural elements. In the conventional architectural drawing, we use scale and different views to depict specific sets of information. The plan illustrates the relationship and programme of spaces while the section may show the construction and volumetric spatial experience. The scales play a role in determining the level of detail present in a drawing. A site plan at a much larger scale presents different information in comparison to a room layout at a much smaller scale. The construction of the panoramic drawing used in the Parade of Phantoms compels the author to work simultaneously across multiple scales and views because of the drawing’s ability to embed information which can be called forth and interacted with through navigation.
Fig 1. Digital Site Model of Talaat Harb Square
25% Zoom
50% Zoom
100% Zoom
200% Zoom
Fig 2. Detail at different zoom scales
Projection, Decalcomania & Digital Stitching
Generating Cartographic Drawings
The Panoramic images may be generated through specialized 360 cameras or the method of stitching images taken from a fixed point at different angles and rotations. The illustrated diagram below shows how the drawing is constructed by stitching six different perspectives with a 60º field of view. Decalcomania is a characteristic of a rhizome where tracings are transferrable onto different surfaces (Deleuze, Guattari & Massumi 1987). Through projection, the tracings of past hauntings transfer into the square. These projections begin merging with the drawing through the matched perspective view. These spectral elements are eminent in rendering the drawing as diachronic (Sayers, 2017). Synchronic and diachronic are both terms borrowed from linguistics that talk about the temporal nature of objects (Sayers, 2017). Synchronic refers to a specific moment in time similar to the reality-based model while the diachronic talks about more than one specific moment. The rhizomatic tactic of decalcomania layers the colonial hauntings into the square. The output is thus rendered diachronic containing elements from different periods and spaces. This tactic allows the embedding of multiple Spatio-temporal layers within the drawing.
Fig 3. Panoramic Drawing Construction
Cartographic Transformations
Augmenting Drawings into Digital Mediums
The resulting stitched drawing takes the form of an Equilateral Projection(Fig 4). This projection is quite similar in many ways to the Mercator projection used in GIS software. The Mercator projection is a method of flattening the 3d spherical nature of earth into a flat two-dimensional map. Similarly, here we have taken a 360 spherical view from the site model and translated it into a 2d representation. The resulting equilateral projection can transform itself using calculus into many other cartographic forms. Examples of these cartographic forms can be found by clicking on the “Spatial Manifolds”. All these cartographic transformations possess the ability to retain the same drawing information across all the various distortions. This retention means that the drawing can be unwrapped and experienced in many different forms altering our perception of the same embedded information. The different transformations serve different purposes in cartography. Some projections such as the Mercator focus on preserving angles used in navigation while others like the Stereographic are more concerned in maintaining the orientational relationship between objects. The stitched drawing is then wrapped into a sphere and augmented into Virtual Reality(VR) on screen(Fig 5). Augmented models represent a combined view of physical and virtual reality. Augmentation uses the analogue world as a canvas on which to overlay digital information, while panoramic environments use a digital world on which to overlay analogue information (Kee and Compeau, 2019). The Parade of Phantoms uses several cartographic transformations. It is designed mostly on the Stereographic and Mercator projections.
Fig 4.Equilateral Projection stitched from views
Fig 5. Transformation into Sphere
Stereographic Projection
Astronomy, Navigation & Mapping
The Stereographic projection dates back to antiquity and is said to be invented by Hipparchus (Abbasi and Sarma, 2014). The Stereographic projection also resulted in the creation of Astrolabes. Astrolabes were used by the Greeks, Egyptians and the Islamic world for astronomy and navigation. The astrolabe functioned as a two-dimensional representation of the celestial sphere. Astrolabes were considered the most important astronomical instrument in the mediaeval period (Abbasi and Sarma, 2014). This invention of antiquity contributed significantly to the rich history of conceptual thought concerning maps, art, science and cartography with its relation to ontology, epistemology, ideology, ethics, aesthetics and methodology shaping how maps are conceived, produced and used (Kitchin, Gleeson and Dodge, 2013).
Timothy Feeman explains that Stereographic projection is constructed by projecting points of the sphere onto a tangential plane from a light source located at the point on the sphere directly opposite from the point of Tangency (Feeman, 2001)(Fig 8). Stereographic projection results in a conformal map which preserves the intersecting relationship between different objects in the map. What this means is that the stereographic map is one of the few projections where the lines of latitude and longitude always intersect at 90º. This projection results in all circular shapes of all sizes appearing as perfect circles all across the map while also preserving object relationships and orientations. This characteristic is a useful mapping feature used in many fields such as astronomy, navigation, geology, mathematics and many others (Grant Sanderson, 2018).
Fig 6.Equilateral Projection mapped onto Sphere
Fig 7. Stereographic Projection mapped onto Sphere
Fig 8. Stereographic Projection Diagram (Howison, 2017)
Performative Cartographies
Navigation as Spatio-Temporal Distortion
Navigating the event through Stereographic projection allows for a different way of interacting with space. The zooming function allows the viewer to experience the drawing at different scales by foregrounding and foreshortening various architectural elements. The rotation of the sphere alters positionality creating many perspectives through orientation. Figure 9 & 10 below illustrates how these elements of navigation begin transforming and distorting the fabric of the drawing allowing it not only to be experienced as a three-dimensional space but also allowing it to stretch, contract and invert itself into a non-linear experience. The performative element of the drawing happens through navigation using these distortions to produce modes of encounter with past phantoms. These encounters would ordinarily not occur in the space, creating agency for the viewer to uncover previously unseen or unimagined perspectives (Leeker, Schipper and Beyes, 2017). The transforming drawings allow us to visualize beyond our usual limitations. What is considered "elsewhere" and "elsewhen" unfolds other places and times, through the engagement of performative cartography (Sœther and Bull, 2020). This mode of interaction allows the Parade of Phantoms to function as a dialogic and experiential form of interpretation (Sœther and Bull, 2020). This temporal layering manifests by projecting ghosts of the past and their uncanny co-existence in the present. This experience allows us to establish different relationships to the past through navigation and reflection (Sœther and Bull, 2020). This dialogic relationship between the observer and observed is explained by what Verhoef calls the “phenomenological perspective” that is defined by the shift in power from static visual viewing to dynamic visual engagement; from third-person storytelling about an object to a first-person/second-person exchange of positions (Sœther and Bull, 2020).