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Narrations

The narrations offered here are a genre of historical writing. They are short texts built on the same principles as the rest of the Beautiful Spaces site. That is, they are rooted in the elements that constitute the groundwork of the project. In fact, they are composed, mosaic-style, of fragments of text each of which constitutes an element, or building block, of its own.

The narrations aim to draw together disparate pieces of the historical record in meaningful, perhaps even provocative, ways. They transpose some of the findings of the various mappings into textual format; they pose questions that will inform the curation of new collections, the addition of new items, and the articulation of new relationships and taxonomies. They are meant to be generative rather than comprehensive or conclusive. In simplest terms, they are as much starting points as any item, annotation, or map.

An Antiquity of One's Own

Bloodlines

Dacha Geography

A Monumental Inscription


And coming soon...

The Fountain and the Coffeehouse

Location, Location, Mis-Location

Mapping Crimea, from Mercator to Mukhin

Spatial Grammar