Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge, Istanbul (c. 1560s)
EMPIRE LINES9 Syys 2021

Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge, Istanbul (c. 1560s)

Dr. Deniz Karakaş follows the flows of water pipeline politics in the Ottoman Empire, through Mimar Sinan's 16th century Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge.

On the outskirts of Istanbul, the ruins of the Uzun Kemer Aqueduct symbolise the superhuman strength of modern Ottoman engineering. Yet, constructed on the foundations of old Constantinople, with methods drawn from the Roman and Byzantine Empires, these grand architectures really make visible the everyday actors of empire. Drawn from Serbia, Albania, Greece, and Armenia, the hired hands of suyolcu (water conduit experts) and lağımcı (diggers) were crucial in the transfer of knowledge, their skills often redirected for the imperial mines or military. Beyond the shallows, the pipeline politics of water supply reveals how power flowed within empires, exposing the Ottomans on - or under - the ground.

PRESENTER: Dr. Deniz Karakaş, visiting scholar in the Newcomb Art Department at Tulane University.

ART: Uzun Kemer Ottoman Aqueduct Bridge, Mimar Sinan (c. 1560s).

IMAGE: ‘The Aqueduct of Uzun Kemer near Belgrade Forest'.

SOUNDS: Daniel Birch.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.


Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936

Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines


For the construction history of the Canal du Midi, see Chandra Mukerji, Impossible Engineering: Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Jaksot(163)

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Composer and artist Raven Chacon amplifies the Catholic Church’s complicity in the suppression of Indigenous people in the Americas, through their composition for organ, Voiceless Mass (2021).Raven Ch...

6 Marras 202518min

The Trembling Museum, Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis (2023-2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at PEACE FREQUENCIES, The Hunterian)

The Trembling Museum, Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis (2023-2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at PEACE FREQUENCIES, The Hunterian)

In this special episode, filmmaker, cultural theorist, and curator Manthia Diawara joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss Édouard Glissant’s relations with natural environmental disasters, connecting the...

23 Loka 202519min

Burial, Emilija Škarnulytė (2022) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025, Tate St Ives)

Burial, Emilija Škarnulytė (2022) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025, Tate St Ives)

Contemporary artist Emilija Škarnulytė snakes from the decaying control rooms of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania, to Dungeness on the English Channel, exploring time and geology through ...

2 Loka 202516min

If They Survive, They are Refugees, Duong Thuy Nguyen (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at SLQS Gallery)

If They Survive, They are Refugees, Duong Thuy Nguyen (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at SLQS Gallery)

In this special episode, contemporary artists Hoa Dung Clerget and Duong Thuy Nguyen, and gallerist Sarah Le Quang Sang, join EMPIRE LINES live, exploring the legacies of French and British colonialis...

18 Syys 202543min

Introducing: BUZZWORDS: Care with Jasmina Cibic

Introducing: BUZZWORDS: Care with Jasmina Cibic

BUZZWORDS is a new pilot podcast from Open City, produced in collaboration with the arts and culture podcast EMPIRE LINES. The podcast unpacks words and phrases often overused in the fields of art and...

4 Syys 202529min

It Should Not Be Forgotten, Elsa James (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Firstsite Colchester)

It Should Not Be Forgotten, Elsa James (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Firstsite Colchester)

In this special episode, contemporary artist Elsa James joins EMPIRE LINES live, navigating how the slave ship marks and haunts Black lives in Britain today, in their interdisciplinary exhibition, It ...

21 Elo 20251h 2min

Love (Warbler Remix), Hanna Tuulikki (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025)

Love (Warbler Remix), Hanna Tuulikki (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025)

Artist Hanna Tuulikki traces the migration route of the Marsh Warbler, a bird that mimics and remixes the songs of European and Afrotropical species it meets, across the English Channel to Kent.Throug...

7 Elo 202516min

The Dhaba, Alia Syed (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at CCA Glasgow)

The Dhaba, Alia Syed (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at CCA Glasgow)

In this special episode, filmmaker and contemporary artist Alia Syed joins EMPIRE LINES live, to weave together their works in moving image, photography, and oral history, and reflect on personal expe...

24 Heinä 202558min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
i-dont-like-mondays
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
uutiscast
joku-tietaa-jotain-2
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
kolme-kaannekohtaa
sita
aikalisa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
rss-murhan-anatomia
mamma-mia
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-nikotellen
lahko
rss-napy