Methodology

This project brings together methodological tools and analytical concepts from the fields of cultural history, archaeology, urban studies, ethnomusicology and anthropology, a multidisciplinary model that interacts with the current trends in the broader field of digital humanities both on a local and international level.

Highlighting the perception of social space though the senses of hearing, smelling, touch and particularly through their interrelation contrasts the conventional ocular-centric approaches towards the histories of Ottoman urban space, thus contributing to the broadening of historical perception. The implementation of this approach serves the need for a competent analytical tool to tackle the challenges that the study of transition as a dynamic political and social process poses to researchers.

Focusing on particular case studies (such as the Vouleftiko, the Ottoman mosque transformed to the first Greek Parliament building, Nafplion; the Acropolis Mosque and Ottoman fortress, Athens), we constitute the archives of Ottoman urban spatial units based on diverse primary material (documents, images, archaeological findings etc.) that document the process of transition. The individual components of these archives are read on an intersensorial manner, establishing those links among them that foreground the field of everyday experience of the subjects of transition. Once the sensorial archives of Ottoman monuments are restored, they will then contribute to the public discussion on their current state.