A Plumb Level in The Pera Museum, Istanbul

Life History – Narrated by Bengi Atun – September 29^th 2013

Ask a mother what it takes to have children and she will tell you all the hardship involved during pregnancy, childbirth and the raising of her children, not to mention the constant concern she carries for them long after they become independent.  I also have a life history full of hard labor. Thanks to Bengi Atun, an architect who was attracted by my triangular shape and intricate decoration when she saw me stuck on a wall in the Pera Museum in Istanbul last week, I now have a voice too and want to tell you my life history.  It’s really her voice, not mine, but at this point in my life I am grateful for any voice at all because I have been silenced by the passage of time and my replacement with new tools that do the same job I used to do 200 years ago. 

The life of objects like me can be much longer than humans because I am made out of a metal alloy which is durable and under the right conditions I can survive for thousands of years.  However, no one has any use for me anymore and I might as well be dead.  Like an old person whom nobody depends on or calls upon any more I too feel useless.  I don’t think those who look at me in this museum know much about me and even though I am better protected from deteriotion, if I don’t mean anything to anybody I don’t really think I am alive anymore. 

I come from the depths of the earth on which you walk and I am made out of materials which took millions of years to form.  In fact, I am a combination of different metal ores which were mined from different parts of the earth and separated from its impurities through a laborious process.  I was then molded by some artisan into the beautiful form that I have today.  In fact, during the time when I was mined from the earth not as much attention was paid to the safety and health of the miners in the Ottoman Empire and it is quite possible that some of them even died just so that I could be taken out of the earth and made into what I am now: A PLUMB LEVEL.

During the prime of my life when I was truly alive and kicking, I used to spend most of my time outdoors, on various construction sites of the Ottoman Empire, as a tool respected and relied upon by architects and engineers.  I used to be hung on a tight rope which spanned two poles placed at opposite ends of a piece of land that needed leveling.  It was only when the string tied to the mid-point of one of my edges passed exactly through its opposite corner, that the leveling of the land was confirmed.  I come from a long tradition of plumb levels and my ancestors are said to have been used by the famous architect Sinan in the 16th century, in the construction of very long aqueducts to ensure a 1% incline required for the proper flow of water.  The proper functioning of those aqueducts is testimony to our sophistication as a tool. 

I know that I have become absolute as an architectural tool but I want to have meaning for people again.  Given all the hard work involved in my making and the age old materials from which I was made, I feel that it is a shame to simply hang me on this wall in a museum where I have no meaning for and relevance to people.  They don’t even explain to people what I am, let alone who made me and to whom I used to belong.  Please make me relevant to people’s lives again.  If you do, I assure you that I will act as a time machine for those who want to travel to the past.  Only then, will you have respected and paid homage to the many “mothers” who contributed to my making and preservation during my 200 year lifespan.

Sources Consulted for General Background Information:

·         Acar M. Şinası, Osmanlı’da Günlük Yaşam Nesneleri, Yem Yayın 2011

·         Alp Suat, Balkanlar’da Osmanlı Maden Sanatı: XV.-XVIII. Yüzyıllar Arasında Faaliyet Gösteren Gümüş İşi Atölyeleri, Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi Cilt 25 Sayı 2 Aralık 2008.

·         Cramb W. Alan, A Short History of Metals, retreived September 26 2013 from http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/cramb/Processing/history.html

·         Danışman Günhan, Ottoman Mining and Metal Working in the Balkans: Its Impact on Fire-Arms Technology of Southeast Europe (15th-17th centuries), Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization May 2007.

·         Özkan Keskin, Osmanlı Devleti’nde Maden Hukukunun Tekamülü (1861-1906), OTAM, 29 Bahar 2011.