Universal Sanctum: For Anyone from any Religion seeking Spiritual Realisation through Interior Architecture

<p>In the realm of religion, when rituals and prayers become a routine or a default reaction, often prescribed by elders, they lose value and meaning. In the modern era, we have distanced ourselves from the past ideals of religion. Nevertheless, we continue to seek meaning in life beyond material objects. The connection to the inner-self establishes this meaning and purpose. From this understanding, I realised that all religions, despite their subtle differences lead to spirituality and enlightenment. The idea that architecture can provide a universal middle ground between people and which they truly seek, is the context from which my thesis proposal derives from. My thesis question: How can the design of a Universal space of spiritual devotion be realised through exploration and manipulation of spatial qualities within sacred architecture, in a contemporary inner-city context? Thus, this thesis will look into the architectural genre of Sacred Space in a contemporary setting. The objective will be to investigate the significance of sacred architecture and the common qualities between the various religions and their respective places of worship. The focus will be to propose an interior space which can be deemed sacred by any one from any religion seeking spiritual upliftment. In doing so, the space will intend to unify people from different religious and cultural backgrounds, and lead them towards the common goal of connecting with the inner self. The key theory investigated in this research looks at the case of religion for today’s society, interpretation of spirituality in the east and the west, defining sacred architecture and all that it entails, and the need for this typology in the contemporary world. The contextual basis of this thesis will focus on New Zealand and the predominantly contemporary and diverse culture of the country. The rise in various ethnicities and technological advances means that the presence of a universal space of spiritual reflection and gathering is necessary now more than ever. In my observation, there is a noticeable lack of contemporary sacred architecture, in New Zealand. Perhaps this is the result of our predominantly Secular society. My proposal will aspire to see through this absence and attend to the need of spatial experience to mediate between people and which they spiritually seek.</p>

Universal Sanctum: For Anyone from any Religion seeking Spiritual Realisation through Interior Architecture

<p>In the realm of religion, when rituals and prayers become a routine or a default reaction, often prescribed by elders, they lose value and meaning. In the modern era, we have distanced ourselves from the past ideals of religion. Nevertheless, we continue to seek meaning in life beyond material objects. The connection to the inner-self establishes this meaning and purpose. From this understanding, I realised that all religions, despite their subtle differences lead to spirituality and enlightenment. The idea that architecture can provide a universal middle ground between people and which they truly seek, is the context from which my thesis proposal derives from. My thesis question: How can the design of a Universal space of spiritual devotion be realised through exploration and manipulation of spatial qualities within sacred architecture, in a contemporary inner-city context? Thus, this thesis will look into the architectural genre of Sacred Space in a contemporary setting. The objective will be to investigate the significance of sacred architecture and the common qualities between the various religions and their respective places of worship. The focus will be to propose an interior space which can be deemed sacred by any one from any religion seeking spiritual upliftment. In doing so, the space will intend to unify people from different religious and cultural backgrounds, and lead them towards the common goal of connecting with the inner self. The key theory investigated in this research looks at the case of religion for today’s society, interpretation of spirituality in the east and the west, defining sacred architecture and all that it entails, and the need for this typology in the contemporary world. The contextual basis of this thesis will focus on New Zealand and the predominantly contemporary and diverse culture of the country. The rise in various ethnicities and technological advances means that the presence of a universal space of spiritual reflection and gathering is necessary now more than ever. In my observation, there is a noticeable lack of contemporary sacred architecture, in New Zealand. Perhaps this is the result of our predominantly Secular society. My proposal will aspire to see through this absence and attend to the need of spatial experience to mediate between people and which they spiritually seek.</p>

Ethical infrastructure: Halal and the ecology of askesis in Muslim Russia

This article explores the ecology of late-modern askesis through the concept of ‘ethical infrastructure’: the array of goods, locales, technologies, procedures, and sundry pieces of equipment upon which the possibility of ethicists’ striving is premised. By looking at the ethnographic case of halal living among Muslim pietists in post-Soviet Tatarstan (Russia), I advance a framework that highlights the ‘profane’, often unassuming or religiously unmarked, yet essential material scaffolding constituting the ‘material conditions of possibility’ for pious life in the lifeworld of late modernity. Halalness is conceptualised not as an inherent quality of a clearly defined set of things, but as a (sometimes complicated) relationship between humans, ethical intentionality, and infrastructurally organised habitats. Pointing beyond the case of halal, this article syncretises theories of self-cultivation, material religion, ethical consumption, and infrastructure to address current lacunas and explore fresh theoretical and methodological ground. This ‘ethical infrastructure’ framework enables us to conceptualise the embeddedness of contemporary ethicists in complex environments and the process by which processes of inner self-fashioning change and are changed by material worlds.

Human governance a pathway to integrity in counteracting corruption

Purpose Corruption is a global phenomenon. The 2016 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Report and the 2019 Malaysia National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) Report stated that the government sector most prone to corruption is procurement. The purpose of this study is to explore what drives the government procurement practitioners to commit corruption or uphold integrity. The novelty of this research is it focusses on the human aspect based on a human model which comprises both the physical and non-physical dimensions. It incorporated four theories which are the virtue theory, transaction cost theory (TCT), human governance (HG) philosophy and Al-Ghazali theory of the soul to design the research framework. Design/methodology/approach This approach to counteract corruption is through the inner “Self” (spirituality) and is not limited or bound to processes, procedures, rules, regulations, systems and structures. Findings The findings obtained through the phenomenological method suggest that the Inciting Soul is the driver behind corruption. This happens when intellect (‘Aql) becomes submissive to appetition (Shahwa) and self-assertion (Ghadab) resulting in vice characters. In upholding integrity, Soul-at-Peace is the driver where intellect dominates appetition and self-assertion leading to virtue characters. The HG philosophy is what encapsulates the taxonomy of virtue character. Research limitations/implications This research concentrates only on understanding why corruption happens among those with authority. Nevertheless, this research did not delve into the inculcation of HG. Therefore, the authors would suggest for future research is to explore techniques to inculcate the ability of an individual to exercise all the necessary inner “Self” functions (to curb corruption) without having intervention from an external authority. Practical implications Corruption is a global phenomenon. The 2016 OECD Report and the 2019 Malaysia NACP Report found that procurement is the government sector most prone to corruption. Originality/value The novelty of this research is its focus on the human aspect based on the model of a human comprising both the physical and non-physical dimensions. The theoretical framework integrates the virtue theory, TCT, HG philosophy and Al-Ghazali theory of the Soul.

Byron’s Spanish Afterlives: Emilio Castelar’s Vida de Lord Byron

This article examines Emilio Castelar’s Vida de Lord Byron (1873), the first Spanish biography of Byron. Borrowing most information from Moore’s and, especially, Lescure’s biographies of the poet, Castelar provides an apologetic and over-romantic portrait of Byron, in which he tries to reconstruct his private life and inner self, depicting him as a tragic hero who, despite his excesses, should be recognised as a universal genius. Castelar’s biography, which became an immediate success, illustrates the keen interest that Byron still aroused in Spain in the late nineteenth century and it deserves to be considered in the study of Spanish Byronism, a cultural phenomenon that includes but should not be limited to the literary reception of his poetry.

Thinking with the world – to explore the becoming of phenomena

This article discusses how it is possible to think with the world in educational research. How can this thinking with the world generate knowledge about the becoming of phenomena? To answer this question this paper undertakes a diffractive reading of selected texts from Niels Bohr, Karen Barad, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Donna Haraway, and Michel Serres. This diffractive reading reveals that the world becomes with itself contributing to an internal principle or an inner self-differentiation. This means that all phenomena can be understood as related to the world in one way or another. This paper contends that the researcher body is important to investigations of the becoming of phenomena with the world, therefore a haptic sensorium is developed as a means to visualize bodily affects and to recognize limit values to the world, for example, background noise. The article concludes with a discussion about creating knowledge of this process as a rhizome. The article attempts to illustrate that thinking with the world can generate new knowledge to understand the becoming of phenomena, which can contribute to the development of educational research.

SELF-CONFIDENCE IN ANTHONY McCARTEN’S MOVIE SCRIPT BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

This research was aimed at conducting analysis on self-confidence in Anthony McCarten’s movie script, Bohemian Rhapsody. The self-confidence was analysed by using the theory proposed by Lindenfield (1994) who states that self-confidence consists of self-confidence born and inner self-confidence. Self-confidence born allows someone to show confidence in what he will do. This confidence can make someone believe in himself to achieve what he wants. In confidence born, he claims that a person must develop skills such as communication, assertiveness and feeling control. Inner self-confidence is self-confidence that gives to the individual’s feelings and suppositions that the individual is in good condition. There are three main characteristics that are distinctive to people who have a healthy inner self-confidence. The three characteristics are self-love, self-understanding, and positive thinking. This research used descriptive qualitative method because the discussion was descriptively accomplished. The descriptive qualitative method was applied to explain the self-confidence to get success from the quotations in the movie script. The result result shows that self-confidence born and inner self-confidence vividly played important role to make the protagonist’s success come true.

Several Stories from Sergei Prokofiev's Correspondence

Прокофьевская переписка громадна, ее населяет неисчислимая персоналия. В контактах с непохожими друг на друга корреспондентами оттачивалось богатство проявлений собственного «я» композитора, структурировалась коммуникативная многогранность, вырабатывался баланс между упражнениями в дипломатичности и соблазнами тиранства. На страницах его корреспонденции живут люди знаменитые и никому не известные. Новый материал создает смысловые акценты разной природы: выделяются некоторые черты личности Прокофьева, появляются неожиданные сведения фактологического характера, в непривычном свете предстают факторы творческие. Каждодневная жизнь концертирующего музыканта, гастроли и непременные трудности, сопровождающие их, - главная тема многих прокофьевских писем. Корреспонденты Прокофьева в этой подборке: директор Российского музыкального издательства, в котором публиковались сочинения композитора, Гавриил Григорьевич Пайчадзе; замечательный художник, нарисовавший непривычного Прокофьева, Яков Наумович Милькин; выдающийся пианист и дирижер Александр Ильич Зилоти; знаменитая арфистка Ксения Александровна Эрдели; офицер Белой армии и агент НКВД Сергей Яковлевич Эфрон; невестка Льва Николаевича Толстого Софья Николаевна; именитый советский художник Пётр Петрович Кончаловский. Цель работы - осветить неизвестные страницы прокофьевской жизни в Европе, США и СССР в 1920-е - первой половине 1930-х годов. Prokofiev's correspondence is enormous; it is inhabited by innumerabLe personaLities. The muLtifaceted nature of inner-seLf of composer was reveaLed in his Letters, which dispLay a great diversity in styLe, to different peopLe wherein he strove to baLance between dipLomacy and tendency to tyranny. PeopLe famous and unknown are present on the pages of Prokofiev's correspondence. A new materiaL gives new accents of different nature, varied perspectives in his Letters: unknown information emerge, unwonted human characteristics are discovered, even new artisticaL principLes and some creative aspects become known in unaccustomed ways. Everyday Life of the musician, his concert trips and many troubLes which accompany such trips, are the centraL topic of many among the Prokofiev's Letters. Prokofiev's correspondents in this compiLation are director of the Russian MusicaL Edition where his works had been pubLished - GavriiL Grigorievich Paichadze; outstanding painter made one of the most unusuaL Prokofiev's portraits Yakov Naumovich MiLkin; great pianist and conductor ALexander IL'ich ZiLoti; famous harpist Ksenia ALeksandrovna ErdeLi; Sergey YakovLevich Efron - white army officer, NKVD agent; Lev Nikolaevich ToLstoy's ex'daughter-in-Law Sofia NikoLaevna; famous Soviet painter Piotr Petrovich KonchaLovsky. The main goaL of this work is to highLight some previousLy unknown passages of Prokofiev's Life. AdditionaLLy, unpubLished Letters offer new information about the cuLturaL and artistic processes in Europe, the USA and the USSR in the 1920s and earLy 1930s.

The Interiority of Sleep & Power

<p>This thesis explores interior immensity through the framework that targets the human being’s most inner self: the time human beings spend sleeping. The in-between state of sleep is left overlooked in architecture and leaves room for novel exploration. While spending time in a semi-conscious state, we can delve into the realms of the unknown. The primary goal is to challenge the conventional interior space of backpackers in New Zealand by inhabiting the beautiful ugliness of an industrial site. The boundary between the individual and mechanical piece of architecture is explored through a whimsical intimacy. A hydroelectric power station is the chosen apparatus. The power station allows a duality between operation and narration, between thematic qualities and program. The abnormalities hype the super-imagination of the client, somewhat like experiencing a dream state, the most active and often fantastic aspect within the threshold of consciousness.The thesis is grounded in three sections. I firstly explore the pragmatic site anomalies, the thematic qualities and their opportunities. I then move into conceptual exploration of the interior imagination while concluding with a fully functioning yet evocative design of sleep narration. The components of this thesis are largely visual.</p>