Place Identity

Fig.1 Pen drawing of everyday objects

The theme of the everyday is very broad and can have a multitude of meanings. In order to tackle this huge area I decided to focus on everyday spaces and daily experiences, like urban space, living space, working spaces and non spaces (like motorways, petrol stations). This decision was influenced from my research on the aforementioned theorists that sparked ideas.

Fig.2 Book Cover

The concept of ‘Place-identity’ in The People, Place, and Space Reader  was of particular interest in terms of how the everyday is experienced. This text is situated in the field of environmental psychology. It argues that identities are formed in relation to the environment and consist of knowledge and feelings developed through everyday experiences of physical spaces. This concept is called ‘place identity’ and it is argued, is an essential part of a person’s self-identity.

The ideas discussed in this collection of essays build on previous cultural theorist that I have encountered in my research, like Pierre Bourdieu. He argues that space can have no meaning apart from practice; the system of generative and structuring dispositions, or habitus, constitutes and is constituted by actors’ movement through space (1984). Social practice activates spatial meanings, they are not fixed, but invoked by actors who bring their own knowledge, culture and intentions (p. 145).

The People, Place, and Space Reader brings together the excerpted writings of scholars, designers, and activists from a variety of fields upon which we draw in our teaching and research to make sense of the makings and meanings of the world we inhabit. They help us to understand the relationships between people and the environment at all scales, and to consider the active roles individuals, groups, and social structures play in creating the environments in which people live, work, and play.

Similarities can be made with Relph, E. (1976) Place and Placelessness, it states that different groups are distinguished by place identity. However this paper develops the enquiry by stating that physical environments can change rapidly and no longer correspond to place identity (p.79).

‘ …every individual must deal with a changing society, with unexpected events, with advanced in technology, with social upheavals…have an impact on the physical world of the person.’ (p.79)

This concept of ‘place identity’ can be applied to illustration reportage where issue based content aims to explore personal experiences or responses to location.

Relph gives a detailed phenomenological account of how places are experienced and how they are changing. He argues that place is a fundamental aspect of people’s existence in the world. Explored are how and why people engage and identify with particular places. He agrues that spread of modernity is causing a sense of ‘placelessness’ destroying ‘distinctive places and the making of standardised landscapes that results from an insensitiveity to the significance of place (preface).

This was one of the first major studies that examined the idea of place in terms of the human experience. However, it is important to note that this study conducted in 1976 may not apply completely in today’s global world. It is included here as it provides a background to this topic and is supported in part by contemporary studies like ‘Place-identity’, The People, Place, and Space Reader.

List of Figures:

Fig.1 Author’s own work, Pen drawing of everyday objects

Fig.2 Book Cover ‘Place-identity’ The People, Place, and Space Reader

Reference list:

Gieseking, Jen, Jack, Mangold, William et al (ed) (2014) Proshansky, Harold, Fabian, Abbe, and Kaminoff, Robert, (1983) ‘Place-identity’ The People, Place, and Space Reader, pp.71-81, London: Routledge.

Relph, E. (1976) Place and Placelessness, London: Pion.

Related links:

http://peopleplacespace.org/toc/section-3

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Eugene Rochberg-Halton. 1981. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Delany, Samuel R. 2001. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. New York: New York University Press.

Dixon, John, and Kevin Durrheim. 2004. “Dislocating Identity: Desegregation and the Transformation of Place.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 24(4) (December): 455–473.

Pain, Rachel, and Susan J. Smith (eds). 2008. Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life.London: Ashgate.

Understanding the everyday

Continuing my investigation into the theme of the everyday, I became interested in the cultural theories of Pierre Bourdieu. He is a prolific writer across a whole range of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. I decided to focus on one major text, Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. 

This particular text is a major contribution to the field of sociology and debates on the theory of culture. Bourdieu’s theory is useful in my research enquiry as it gives a social and cultural dept to my research theme. This is important because it offers an understanding into the behaviour and practices that can inform my illustration work of the everyday.

Fig.1

Bourdieu gives a detailed account about how social factors influence the tastes and preferences of the French middle class. He argues that in everyday life people are constantly choosing between what they find aesthetically appealing and what they do not. He states that these different aesthetic choices are all indicators of class. The small distinctions of taste and preferences become indicators for social judgment. Class groups are determined by a combination of the different degrees of social, economic, and cultural capital. Essentially Bourdieu argues that the social world functions as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system. ‘Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier’ (p. 6).

I would imagine this information is helpful when deciding what images mean to different audiences. This is an idea that I’m curious to develop. It poses questions like, who are my audience? Where do I situate myself as an illustrator within this field? Does class influence how I see and what I draw?  I find the more research I continue to do the more questions I have regarding my illustration work.

List of Figures:

Fig.1  Book Cover, Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.

Reference list:

Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, trans. Nice, Richard, Abingdon: Routledge.

Related articles:

Corchia, Luca (2006). La prospettiva relazionale di Pierre Bourdieu (2). I concetti fondamentali, in «Il Trimestrale del Laboratorio. The Lab’s Quarterly», Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, 4 ISSN 1724-451X

Cazier, ean-Philippe (2006). Abécédaire de Pierre Bourdieu (in French). Mons: Sils Maria Press. I

Fowler, Bridget (1997). Pierre Bourdieu and cultural theory: critical investigations. London Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. 

Grenfell, Michael; Lebaron, Frederic (2014). Bourdieu and Data Analysis: Methodological Principles and Practice. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG. 

Grenfell, Michael James (2007). Pierre Bourdieu: education and training. London New York: Continuum. 

Jenkins, Richard (1992). Pierre Bourdieu. London New York: Routledge. 

Lane, Jeremy F. (2000). Pierre Bourdieu: a critical introduction. London Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press. 

Wacquant, Loïc (2005). Pierre Bourdieu and democratic politics : the mystery of ministry. Cambridge, UK Malden, Massachusetts: Polity. 

The Flâneur

To support my continuing learning and to critically understand the meaning of the everyday I needed to gather relevant information about the everyday. I did this through a number of avenues with cultural theorists and in literature. It was important to return to my original aims -i.e to develop a critical understanding of my research theme that supports my practical work. It also helped me to broaden my understanding about why I was doing a particular drawing, perhaps some areas in my practice I had taken for granted without really questioning what I was doing in my work.

One distinct idea that immediately appealed in relation to my research theme, was the flâneur. This term described a 19th century  French literary character, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word itself was associated with: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. What interested me was the idea of illustrating the urban world through the perspective of this individual. There is a certain visual narrative that that could be potentially quite interesting.

Fig.1 The Flâneur

I was drawn to  Walter Benjamin’s book  ‘The Flâneur’, Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, which examines the idea of the flâneur in relation to the work of the important Parisian lyric poet, Charles Baudelaire. The flâneur is an urban observer set in Paris of the 19th century on the brink of modernity. The focus is the individual’s experience of the everyday in an urban environment. This notion gave me a number of interesting ideas for my practical work, like contrasting perspectives of urban life in Dublin. How does the individual experience the everyday? How to depict this in my work? The illustrator I mentioned in previous post Lyndon Hayes captures this eloquently in his ‘People of London Drawings’.

This concept of the Flâneur is followed with movements like the Urban Sketcher, consisting of a global community of artists who practice on-location drawings of urban settings over the world. Again I like this idea of the individual’s perspective show through drawing, an interpretation of the world. What is also appealing is the idea of seeing the world through another perspective.

Its important to note that Benjamin was one of the most important cultural commentators and theorists of the 20^th century. The theme of the flâneur is explored in dept in his seminal work The Arcades Project (1999).

List of Figures:

Fig.1  Paul Gavarni, Le Flâneur, 1842

Reference list:

Benjamin, Walter (1997) ‘The Flâneur’, Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, trans. Zohn, Harry, New York and London: Verso Books.

Related links:

The Arcades Project Project: The Flaneur

The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris (2001) by Edmund White

Women’s Passages, a Bildungsroman of female flânerie. (2005) by Karen Van Godtsenhoven

http://www.urbansketchers.org

 

Developing my research theme

In order to develop my research theme and critically understand what it means in terms of my illustration practice I found that I needed to clarify the question first. I’m writing in past tense here because the vast majority of my research I did in my notebooks, both written and drawings, so I’m retracing my steps here, which actually helps me to access a larger understanding in hindsight.

Fig. 1 Book Cover

In Alan Male’s book, Illustration: a Theoretical & Contextual Perspective, he outlines the importance developing the brief by defining the rational, the aim and the objectives. This book is very helpful to refining my understanding of my own illustration practice and that of the wider field.

The pivotal points pertaining to my research theme the everyday was to clarify the aims and objectives.

I needed to map out initially, my aims:

• Research theorists dealing with the everyday-broaden my understanding and knowledge
• What other illustrators/artists deal with this theme and how?
• How does my work compare with the above? How do I develop this? What is of particular interest to my work?

Objectives:

• To have a clear sound understanding of my research theme.
• To produce illustration work informed by sound research.
• To develop illustration work that will facilitate situating my practice in the larger illustration field.
• To gain a critical awareness and knowledge of my field- What do I want to say/ What kind of illustrator am I?

List of Figures:

Fig.1 Book Cover, Male, A. 2007, Illustration: a theoretical and contextual perspective

Reference list:

Male, A. 2007, Illustration: a theoretical and contextual perspective, AVA Academia, Lausanne.