I’ve been thinking a lot about how space can become place after reading Cresswell’s “Place: An Introduction”. It’s particularly relevant to me at the moment as I’m moving into a new house in five days with my partner and another friend. When we move in, the house will (hopefully) be entirely empty; an unadulterated space. Only after we begin to move our belongings in will it start to become our space, and eventually our place.
I have lived in the same house for over fifteen years now and have come to know it as my home. Even though I know that another family lived in the same space before us, it feels as if it has always been ours. Obviously I was too young to remember how it initially felt moving into this house as I was only five years old. I wonder if it felt completely unfamiliar and austere at the time. It will be interesting to take note of these feelings when I move into my new house next Tuesday.
This is where some theory from Mason’s reading can be put into practice. He distinguishes between ordinary-noticing and marking: “ordinary-noticing…in which sufficient memory is established accessibly to be jogged and reconstructed by what someone else says, and marking, in which not only do you notice but you are able to initiate mention of what you have noticed.” (p. 6). Furthermore, the third level of intensity in noticing is recording. When I move into the house, I want to better understand the time-frame in which an unfamiliar space can become a place. To do this, I plan to notice, mark, and record my thoughts and feelings on certain days. Hopefully, as time passes, I will notice myself settling in and becoming more comfortable with my surroundings, and by recording all of these changes I should come to a better understanding of place.
