Tag Archives: place

Just Go

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I’ve noticed a difference between the way in which my parents choose a place to visit, and the way in which I do. While my parents might say “let’s drive to Healesville and have a look around”, I would say “I heard there’s a new cafe that’s meant to be really good in Healesville, we should go”.

I find it very hard to go somewhere new, or in fact just ‘go’, without first researching that somewhere online. If I have to be somewhere for a job interview, I will find out where the good cafes are nearby before I leave. If I have a spare Sunday afternoon, I will check Broadsheet before I decide to leave the house. My parents, on the other hand, will happily just get in the car and drive until they see a cafe that ‘looks alright’. They still aren’t quite used to having hundreds of reviews at the fingertips, and so they don’t rely on the internet to pick a destination.

I wonder if we are too pre-occupied with what we find online about a place. I have a romantic idea of driving off with a tent in my boot and just following the road north like my parents did 30 years ago. But I don’t think I’d be able to. I’d feel unsafe and unsure. My terrible sense of direction would get me lost and I would panic. I’d probably spend half my time wondering if something better was nearby.

The way we view places, and Places, has changed in the last 30 years. Probably for the better overall, but I think I will always hold on that vision of just being able to explore without the need to check urbanspoon first.

New Perspective

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Reading through A Skilled Hand and Cultivated Mind (Edquist, 2012), I started to realise that I’ve never really looked at the RMIT campus. For just over a year, I’ve been coming to RMIT for classes, arriving just on time and leaving as soon as I can. Apart from the occasional trip to the library or walk through the Alumni Courtyard, I’ve never really explored RMIT outside of the classrooms to which I am assigned.

RMIT’s location in the heart of the CBD is unique, and it’s ties to the old judicial precinct and Old Melbourne Gaol should have been enough to spike my interest in the buildings of the university. But like most people, I’ve never really taken the time to explore the places that I visit so frequently.

Edquist’s book has made me realise I need to take a closer look at what is around me. The fig tree has me especially interested, since I’d never even realised such an odd tree was on campus.

This act of noticing is described by John Mason in The Discipline of Noticing. In the introductory chapter, Mason talks of how even though we spend out days noticing things, we do not mark them. He also mentions that there are vast amounts of things we simply just do to notice. By making an effort to notice certain things, say the way the buildings look at RMIT, we can become more reflective about these things. So, from here on I will notice the way buildings are designed at RMIT. Hopefully this will help me reflect on place throughout this semester.

People and Places

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We were asked in class this week to name our favourite place. For most people, the place they chose was strongly influenced by the people they associate with that place. For myself however, my favourite place (Central Park in New York) is a place that I visited mostly alone, occasionally with a friend.

I wondered if I was the outlier, if everyone else’s connection to places because of people was normal, and I was abnormal. I had thought that my love of Central Park stemmed from it’s peacefulness, the lack of humanity in a city of 8 million people. But then I realised that my favourite places within the park were the ones where I could people watch. The Bethesda Fountain, the Wollman Rink, the paths at the southern end that are buzzing with tourists. These were the places where I spent the most time, sitting and watching as other people did whatever it was that they were doing. So while my connection to Central Park was not tied to any people I know, it is tied to people.

And while Central Park may top my list of favourite places, those coming in second, third, tenth, are all places where I have spent time with family or friends. So now I wonder, do place and people always have to be tied together, or is it possible to separate the two? Maybe I’ll find out this semester.