2007-09-04

Reinscribing Spaces

In Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre proposes that spaces are produced by the application of specific representations set upon them. The codification of space is a form of semiotics, wherein one can study the signs that birth, order, and contain spaces.

A basic form of codified space is the pattern of white paint upon black asphalt to denote permittable crossings of an intersection. However, if we step away from actual street signage and attempt to discover a space without representation, it becomes more tricky. As Lefebvre correctly points out, the human mind can not help but generate and create space. It is similar to the phenomenon of judgement Merleau-Ponty describes, in which consciousness formulates a reading, despite sometimes faulty or lacking perceptions.

We can analyse space as a medium with the objects within it being representational texts. Our engagement in space is a direct result of what potentials are offered by this text.

The authorship of spaces are strictly regulated by both social and legal code. Robert Moses, the grand architect of modern New York, had special priveledges which enabled him the ability erase neighborhoods and build a freeway through New York City. For most, the authorship of space is possible only over their own property. Although some spaces might be technically public, an individual of the public is not allowed authorship.

Locative technologies, such as GPS enabled mobile phones, connect us with the ability to associate information to particular coordinates in space. The potential of this is to provide layered and alternate texts to a space.

In Storyscape, we were faced with the challenge of Freedom Park, a space whose objects did little to convey the deep history of the area. By using their phones to leave and share stories about specific areas of the park, people created a narrative fabric, which provided a new text in the space.

There is a problem with locative media, in that it often requires technology to engage in it. People will priveledge the reading of the space that they consider REAL, the space they embody, over a virtual layering on that space. However, locative media is an interesting form of reinscribing the medium of space. For now it is a patchwork, replacing particular senses. However, we can imagine some cybernetic future, the one being strived for in laboratories, where eyepieces overlay the crosswalk onto the road. In this near possibility, we can gleam that spaces may have multiple co-existing texts.