Tim Cresswell’s ‘Place an Introduction’- Chapter 5

‘An important part of the creation of a sense of place is a focus on particular and selective aspects of history.’ I found this part about ‘Place and Memory’ to be largely reflective of our individual projects this semester. Initially I thought since we were sharing buildings that our media pieces would be similar or have the same feel and tone to them. But through hearing other people’s ideas and areas of focus, I found that they all reflect something quite different, and that the way we represented space was more reflective of our areas of focus, rather than the place as a whole. We each remembered the spaces a different way and took something different from them, and that is reflected in how we constructed our representations of the place.

Cresswell goes on to discuss what it means to represent place in a way where it can ‘contribute to the production and reproduction of memory,’ by bringing the past to the present. Again, I thought about how we used our research to inform our pieces, and how we reflected on a certain memory of history and tried to represent that. This was challenging as it required careful planning so I could capture the tone I wanted, and to make sure it was accurate to the space. Interestingly, our representations of the same place may be vastly different, as we researched different things and have different memories of the space which we represented. Cresswell states that ‘places have many memories and the question of which memories are promoted and which cease to be memories at all is a political question.’ It depends on our own experiences and memories formed though what we find important. As our own memories of the place make up our representations, our memories are what gets passed on to the viewers. Those who experience the space second-hand through media have the memory we present them with. This can also be connected to the idea of research, where our understanding of the space was largely based off of what resources were available to us and on record. I now understand how difficult it is to accurately represent a space without giving it an automatic bias toward a certain aspect or memory. In order to do this as accurately as possible, you need to spend a lot of time in the space across different days and times, and continually revisit it as you research the space. I found going to the building was even more engaging once I had an understanding of what it is I was experiencing.

Cresswell then talks about the role architecture has in creating place, noting that an architect has to be able to read an ‘accumulation of things to produce a good architecture that fits into the genus loci of a particular place.’ In this way, so much of the sense of place is informed by the architecture. As my piece was about the accumulation of architecture, I find this very relevant. The sense of space and history that I found in the building was largely due to the architecture, as that was what remained of the place’s memory. The term ‘romantic nostalgia’ is an interesting one, as it is idea of creating something nostalgic just because it is romanticised. Similar to the recent production of remastered vinyl, some architects attempt to create new buildings using traditional architecture. This is nostalgic and pretty, but the architecture doesn’t inform the place, and it loses its sense of place as the context is not accurately reflected in the architecture. It is disjointed. This is also a struggle when creating media about the subject, as it is easy to capture a space on film, but to capture the accurate feel of such historical places is more challenging. To transport audiences to a certain historical memory or place through a contemporary medium requires planning. Throughout my own process, I spent a long time considering what the most effective way to illustrate my view of the space was, and organised elements such as sound, colour, imagery etc. to do this effectively. This was difficult to do, even for an abstract 3 minute film; for a more comprehensive representation of a space, it would be much more consuming and detailed.

This contrast between the spaces we were working with and the medium used is also discussed in the Cresswell reading. The ‘boundary that separates online and offline worlds.’ Though both spaces are very defined and online space has its own sense of place, it is difficult to represent the architectural space through the online medium accurately. They are immersive in different ways, physically or mentally, and it is not always easy to communicate the place well through crossovers. The virtual tour of the building would feel distant if it was just a series of photos (our individual works should remedy this.) Something I have found through the semester, however, is that online space is just as real as offline space, and it is completely unique and different. The crossover between these worlds is challenging, and requires a lot of careful planning in order to create an effective piece utilising them both (a website and online video illustrating a historical space). But my understanding of space changed as I no longer view online space as a subspecies of offline space; where we can imitate things from ‘the real world.’ It is instead very defined and unique and needs to be catered to in a specific way. The ability to represent a space accurately needs to be approached very differently depending on the space the representation will occupy. Despite this, I found it highly engaging working through these issues for our own pieces, and have found there are so many vastly different ways to represent the same place through media. Online media allows us to explore new possibilities for representation and creativity.