Göçmen belleğinin mekânı kurgulama ve yeniden üretme biçimleri: Kolaj, montaj ve çeviri
How the migrant constructs and reproduces space through memory: Collage, montage and translation
Yazar: GAMZE OKUMUŞ
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. FUNDA UZ
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Mimarlık Ana Bilim Dalı / Mimari Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2017
Konu: Mimarlık = Architecture
Dizin: Mekansal bellek = Spatial memory ; Mimari mekan = Architectural space ; Otobiyografik bellek = Autobiographical memory ; Uluslararası göç = International migration ; İş gücü göçü = Labour migration

Özet:
Göç deneyimi, göçmenin iki farklı yer arasında deneyimlediği hareket ile birlikte kendi
yerini aradığı, hiçbir zaman sonlanmayan bir süreçtir. Kişi bir kez yerinden koptu mu,
yaşamı boyunca aidiyet, kimlik, yabancı ve tanıdık gibi kavramlarla baş etmek
durumunda kalır. Artık ne çıkış alanında, ne de varış alanında tam olarak kabul
görmemektedir. Bir gün geri dönme kararı alsa bile, bu durumu tersine çevirmesi
mümkün değildir: Çünkü geri dönen hiçbir zaman, giden ile aynı kişi değildir.
Ait olduğu yerin arayışında olan göçmen, aralarında salındığı bu iki yere de var
gücüyle tutunmaya çalışır. Belleğinde taşıdığı mekânlar, bu arayışla eş zamanlı olarak
sürekli yeniden kurgulanmakta ve yeniden üretilmektedir. Bellek bir depo, arşiv veya
dolap gibi statik bir yapıda değildir. Göçmenin belleği, mekân ile kurduğu bağlamlar
çerçevesinde şekillenen dinamik bir süreci içerisinde barındırır: Bellek canlıdır.
Göçmenin belleğinde mekânların nasıl kurgulandığı ve yeniden üretildiği sorusunun
peşine düşen bu tezin giriş bölümünde, problem tanımıyla birlikte çalışmanın amacı
ve yöntemi belirlenmektedir.
İkinci bölümde ise, bellek kavramının göç kapsamında mekân ile ilişkisi çizilmiştir.
Bu ilişkinin aidiyet, kimlik, tanıdık, yabancı, yersizleşme, yeniden yer edinme ve
hibridite gibi bağlamları tartışmaya açılarak; göç belleğinin mikro ölçekten makro
ölçeğe doğru şekillenen yapısının tarifi yapılmıştır.
Üçüncü bölümde göç belleğinin kurguları; göçmenlerin sanat, edebiyat ve sinema
alanlarında gerçekleştirdikleri üretimler üzerinden okunmuştur. Bu bölümde belleğin
parçalanma ve ölçek kayması, karşıtlıkları bir araya getirme, taşırken dönüştürme gibi
kurguları, bağlamsal çerçeveleri ve ölçekleri üzerinden ele alınmıştır.
Bu kurguların benzeştikleri ve ayrıştıkları noktalar dördüncü bölümde belirlenerek;
kolaj, montaj ve çeviri kavramları çerçevesinde yeni bir kavramsallaştırma
önerilmiştir. Bu kavramsallaştırmalar, bir ailenin göç hikâyesinin fragmanları
üzerinden tartışmaya açılmıştır. Çünkü tek bir ailenin hikâyesi, aslında tüm
göçmenlerin ortak deneyimine işaret etmektedir. Göç belleğinin mekânsal
yansımaları; mikro ölçekte kolaj-bellek, mezzo ölçekte montaj bellek, makro ölçekte
ise çeviri-bellek kavramsallaştırmaları üzerinden okunmaktadır.
Sonuç bölümünde ise, belleğin mekân ile ilgili yeniden üretimleri kurguları
doğrultusunda tekrar ele alınmış ve göçmenin tüm bu süreç içerisindeki konumu
tartışılmıştır.

Abstract:
The experience of migration is an ever lasting process, where the migrant searches his
own place by lurching between two places. When a person gets drifted away from his
place, he has to deal with concepts like belonging, identity and outsiderness his whole
life. Neither the people in his origin, nor the ones in his destination area will accept
him anymore. Even if he decides to return one day, it is not possible to reverse this
situation. Because the one who returns, is never the same as the one who was gone.
The migrant, who is in search of the place he belongs to, tries to hold on to both of the
places he is lurching between. The spaces he carries in his memory, are constantly
being constructed and reproduced simultaneously with this search. Memory is not a
static structure such as a warehouse, archive, or cabinet. The memory of the immigrant
contains a dynamic process in relation with the contexts of space: Memory is a living
thing.
In the introductory part of this thesis, which follows the question of how spaces are
constructed and reproduced in the memory of the migrant, the purpose and method
have been determined with the description of the problem.
A lot of people think that migrants belong to nowhere, but a lot of migrants are stating
that they feel like they are at two places at the same time. What is the source of this
feeling? Is it memory? If it is, how are spaces stored in the memory of the migrant?
Does the migrant reproduce the spaces in his past through his memory? How does this
reproduction occur? Is reproduction a sufficient description for this process? Which
path should be followed to evaluate and make sense of these reproductions?
In the second part, the relationship of the concept of memory to space has been
described within the scope of migration. This relationship has been discussed with
contexts such as belonging, identity, familiarity, alienation, relocation and hibridity.
The structure of the migrants memory, which constructs itself from the micro scale to
the macro scale has been identified.
The concept of memory can have many different meanings depending on the research
area. That is why it is important to define the concept of memory in relation to this
research. When the point in question is the memory of the migrant and its spatial
relationships, there are two facts to consider: Context and scale. Both of these facts are
important when it comes to the transformation of foreign areas to place for the migrant
and the reproduction of spaces in his memory. Studies in this area are being carried on
certain contexts which are mentioned in the previous paragraph. The cause of this is
the physical seperation which the migrants experience and the relationship they
develope with the new space over time. 
The scale as a second phenomenon, confronts us in different ways when the topic is
migration. The migrants can carry just a few posessions with them when they begin
their journey, but they actually transport more than just some objects: The carry with
them their homes, villages or cities, too. Migration can occur in the same country or
overseas in different distances, but a migrant can move from a village to a city or from
a city to a village, too.
On the other hand, the process to make place for the migrant who departed with just a
few posessions occurs from the micro scale to the macro scale. First, there are some
objects he carried, after he creates a home and finally the process reaches on to
buildings and the city.
In the third chapter, the construction methods of the migrants memory have been
examined through the productions of migrants in art, literature and cinema. In this
chapter, the construction methods of the memory like fragmentation and scale shift,
combining of contradictions and transformation while being transported have been
examined through their contextual frameworks and scales.
In the memory of the migrant, these methods take shape depending on the contexts of
migration and its scale. While some of them interfere in micro scale, others are related
to mezzo or macro scale. The first intervention in micro scale is fragmentation and the
change of context. We remember past spaces as fragments taken apart from each other
and these fragments gain new contexts in relation to present conditions.
The second one is the shift of scales and the transmission betweent the part and the
whole. We can remember a space from our childhood bigger as it is in reality or we
can remember it smaller when it evokes claustrophobic feelings. But this construction
has an impact not just on the micro scale, but also on the mezzo scale.
The discontinuity in time and space on the other hand can be observed in the mezzo
scale. Real life is continous in terms of time and space, but memory is not. We can
remember places with great distances just next to each other or a memory from our
childhoond an one from our adulthood can meld.
The combining of contradictions, which is also the reflection of the migrants identity
which consists of two different places, has an impact on mezzo and macro scale. On
the other side, transformation while being transported affects the macro scale only.
Migrants transport and transform cultures, languages and places with themselves. The
migrants remove borders while they carry and transform these traces and experience a
transformation of themselves, too.
The areas where this construction methods resemble and differenciate from each other
have been determined in the fourth chapter. Then, a new conceptualization has been
proposed within the framework of collage, montage and translation concepts.
Conceptualization creates the possibility of communication between different
disciplines. But it is important to eliminate uncertainty, and this is just possible when
the resemblances and differences are defined carefully.
Spatial reflections of the migrants memory have been examined with the
conceptualization collage-memory in the micro scale, with montage-memory in the
mezzo scale and with translation-memory in the macro scale. These conceptualizations
have been opened up to discussion with fragments of the story of a migrant family.
Because the story of a single family actually points to the common experience of all
migrants. 
The collage-memory conceptualization concentrates on migrant homes and the
posessions in it. The objects which the migrants carries with them, contain actually
meanings in different scales. But the meaning or the context changes over time. Placed
in a whole different place with different objects and creating a new home gives the
posessions new meanings. After that, they start to have three different meanings: One
is the meaning related to its root, one is the new one gained and the third one is the
meaning in the new configuration – just like a collage. Observing migrant homes as a
collage, makes it possible to trace all the meanings.
The montage-memory conceptualization is about buildings which are reproduced in
different ways by the migrants memory. Different fragments from the root of the
migrant and his destination are are being gathered together. This is a consequence of
the discontinuity of time and space. The past and the future, the root and the destination
are being assembled together just like a montage. This montage results in a whole new
meaning, apart from the old ones. Because the montage of two scenes results not in an
addition, but in a multiplication. Montage can change the past, present and future.
The translation-memory conceptualization on the other hand, refers to the city and
reproductions of it. Migrants transform cities, but they change also the form of it: They
write texts or novels about them or they use images of cities to reflect their identity
which is partly constructed through the actual space. This is a translation of the city.
But while doing this, the migrant has to choose what to carry and to the new form and
what to leave behind.
In the conclusion part, the spatial reproductions of memory have been reconsidered in
relation of their construction methods and the position of the migrant in the whole
process has been discussed. Every conceptualization has its own traces how the
migrant searches his home and where he finds it.