SPACES FOR THE ROLE URE IN AN EXISTENTIALLY CIETY Nelli WahlINTRODUCTION “Postmodem life could be desenbed as a state in which everything beyond our own personal biography seems vague, blurred, and somehow unreal. Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture’ In 2015, we are living in an age where we are able to travel to more places, access more informaticn, and consume more products and services than ever before We are able to contact and connect with people anywhere in the world, and share our thoughts with milions at the cick of a button. From the comfort of our ‘own homes, oF from any number of spaces that we inhabit, we can find out about the most recent discovery in astrophysics, buy a new set of cutlery, engage in a debate about worldwide political events, or watch live footage of kittens playing Yet despite this cornucopia of possiblities the modem city can fee! like an alienating andisolating place Peter Zumthor attributes this to the breaking down of traditions and cultural entities, and the arbitrary world of signs and information that arises cut of mass communication? David Harvey describes the postmadem city as one that “swims, even wallows, in the fragmentary and the chaotic currents of change 2a f that is ll there is," yet beyond these hypotheses there lies a deeper problem that is intimately related to the very nature of cur human existence. This is @ problem of detachment from the immediate physical world as we find ourselves more and more engaged with a world of images, ideas and information * The phenomenological method is a philosophical approach to understanding the nature of reality by ‘examining our fist person experiences of the physical world By following this train of thought, we find that the way that we exit s through those interactions wth that world that make us aviare of our o¥in position in ‘a much greater whole. Rather than seeing the self as an isolated mind observing the world outside, the self in this case is tightly interwoven into that world through the sense of physicality that it pervades through The significance of this in the present discussion is that many of the problems with the postmodern existence that Zumthot, Harvey and others deseribe have at their core a certain detachment from the physical world, and = focus instead on the visual or intellectual For example, the arbitrariness of the content put out by the mass media arises cut of the fact that information fom all over the world is presented to us with great efficiency in 2 purely (audiovisual way, detached from its physical context and presented in @ continucus flow alongside unrelated content without 2 sense of distance or time. This juxtaposition of varying images and ideas into one continucus flow causes stories and events lose their relevance and significance, developing into a sense of nvreality as @ consequence of their one-dimensicnality Despite this growing disconnect betwreen the self and the physical world, and thus our sense of reality, | Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, Basel Birkhauser, 2006) 2 Peter Zamthror, Thinking Architecture, Basel Bitkhaurer, 2005) Dand Harvey, The Condltion of Postmodern. An Enquiry into the Origine of Cutural Change, (Oxford Bail Blackwell, 1909, put | tahoe! be nite! that hs tern "past in the ecient a abil i ef to pastnockeniy ai the canaian of seat fllovang medemity, azoviated uth conctant change, late capitalzm and digital metns afenrenunicatan This nat referring te poseredernism as the late 20th Century movernents i art, music anditeraturethere are moments where this connection can be restored, such as through spatial experiances that speak to all of the senses, and root us in a sense of space and time Good architecture is able to provide meaningful ‘existential experiences for its inhabitants by connecting with the first person sensory experiences that phenomenology is concerned with However, we can also encounter spatial experiences that only perpetuate the feelings of isolation and detachment that are rfé in the modern city, namely spaces that fall vietim to the same problems of the dominance of the eye and the intellect, and a detachment from the body as a whole The aim of this study is to gain an insight into the various ways in which we are becoming detached from the physical world and what this means fer cur existential disposition, then to investigate how architecture can either counteraet or augment this detachment WHAT IS “BEING”? - A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNT Tobegin this investigation wemustfistestablish what ismeantby “being” intermsof phenomenology Since Descartes’ ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, one of the major struggles in Western philosophyhas been the problem of dualism Having cast away through the Method of Doubt all knowledge that cannot be trusted with certainty, including all knowledge gained through sense experience, Descartes concluded that "I existed without doubt, by the fact that | was persuaded, or indeed by the mere fact that | thought at all"? By this he means that, regardless of whether he has been deceived about the existence of his body or the outside world, the fact thet he has been deceived or is thinking about being deceived, means that he must exist in some form, and “the proposition | am, | exist, is necessarily true, every time | express it or conceive of itn my mind"? This was a radial realisation that went on to have a vast effect on much of medem philosophy however, it left him in a dificult position where he was arguably unable to convincingly prove the existe of anything beyond his owm mind, despite his efforts later in the text to prove the existence of God and the physical world which were virought with philosophical problems’ Having established the mind as a subjective non-physical thing in contrast to the objactwe, physical body, the problem of dualism was created how can the mind affect, and be affected by, the body? Descartes later made @ vague suggestion of the pineal gland being the point in the brain where the contact takes place", however this stil faled to offer an explanation as to how something physical can be in contact with the mind, ‘A major breakthrough came about with the school of phenomenology established by Edmund Husserl over 200 years after ‘Meditations on Furst Philosophy’ was frst published In ‘Cartesian Meditations, Husserl employs Descartes’ objective of finding a solid foundation on which to build a reformed philosophy. Atthough he rejects the majority ofthe ideas posited in Descartes’ ‘Meditations’, he states that transcendental phenomenology could almost be referred to as neo-Cartesianism, as it employs a similar method of doubt, of casting away all knowiedge that is not entirely apodictic’” Accepting Descartes’ idea of the cogits {the self that indubitably exists, by the fact that he is able to conceive of the idea in his mind, Husserl goes on to contemplate the existence of the external world Although he acknowledges the fact that his sensory experiences could be an illsion or dream, he claims that this 1s not a sufficient criticism for disproving the ‘existence of the world, fora non-being of the world is inconceivable The world is, in essence, whatever tisthat ‘exists Howaver,n order to follow through with his method of transcendental-shenomenclogical reduction, which he refers to as epoché,"" he cannot use the world as grounding of his theory $9, just like Descartes, he ‘employs the self as his foundation - a self that is prior to the world He reflects on his Gwn experiences of the world, and points out that, even fhe abstains from believing in the existence of the world that is presented to him, itnevertheless continues to appear to him. The fact that he is carrying out the process of abstaining from his belief in it, means that it must exist in some form, for his thinking cannot be directed towards nothing " He notes thet the same ts true of all of his thought processes they are all directed towards, and presuppose the ‘existence of, the world. By casting doubt across the objective world, he isnot left confronting nothing, but he ‘acguites the pure essence cf his existence, which is made up of subjective experiences, and everything that is meant by them. Thus, he acquires the universe of “phenomena”, of objects as they exist to him and only him, as this subjective world is the only world that he has direct access to" In conclusion, he states, “I must “René Descartes, ‘Mecitations Discourse on Method and the Meditations, (Great Britain Penguin Becks, 196), p. 103, Reng Descartes, Meciatione 103 " Edkrnd Hussetl, Certesian Meciations. An Itredction to Phenomenclogy, Dordrecht Martinus Nihof, 1788, Rene Descartes, The Pratiors of the Seu (nsianepelis Hackets, 165), p 3657 * Eckrund Hussel, Cartesian Meckttions,p1 "Edmund Hurserl, Cartesian Mecttetions 17-16 ' Emnund Huser, Certesinn Meta 'SEsmnind Hussar, Carteainn Macitations 20-21lose the world by epoché in order to regain it by @ universal self-examination,” meaning that the way we can seek to gain knowledge about the world is not by attempting to look outside of ourselves and get hold of an objective wrld, but to introspect and reflect on cur own subjective experiences Therefore, Husser eliminates the problem of dualism by avoiding it entirely, as he shows that the connection between the mind and the physical world 1s not the important thing to investigate in order to gain an understanding of the world. This i= not to say that the actual world that lies beyond the subjective mind is not important, itis ust put aside for the purpose of the phenomenological investigation Martin Heidegger took this idea further by describing the self as Dasein, or “being there,” meaning that the way that we exist is by being among things in the physical world We are naturally disposed to be engaged with things while having goals in sight, to the extent that we aren't always aware of it For example, we can stand up and move from one side of a room to the cther without directly thinking about the act of walking. Our relationships with the physical world happen before we step back and analyse or categorise those experiences ” His idea is that there is an osmotic relationship between the self and the physical world, and life should be understood as a series of relationships between things within one whole, rather than as distinct parts ® At times Heidegger refers drectly to spatial experience, stating that “dueling is the basic character of Being, in keeping with which mortals exist “ Thus, Heidegger's writing has gone on to influence ‘many architects, such as Alvar Aalto and Peter Zumthor who, ina world where decisions are often justified by technical or economic statistics, strive to appeal to the intimate human experience in their work In summary, @ phenomenological understanding of “being” is of having relationships with things in the physical world that we comprehend through cur direct sensory experience, prior to rational reflection, and those experiences are what groundus in the world This idea holds relevance in the field of architecture, which deals with our subjective experiences of being in the world, rather than an abstract world of information or facts Edmund Husserl, Cartesian Mecttations, 157, " Christan Netoerg Schule, Architecture, Presence, Language, Place, (Mila Skis, 2000), p 9 Mar Linsenrayer, Seth Paskin and Wes Alon, Episode 32 Heidegger Wher “Being”?! The Fartely Examined lite (2011, hiro vans parnallyaxamanetifo com/201 192/07 epirocie-2-heicegger hat:s-being’= [accessed 17 Novarrber 2014] Adar Shar Hoideggar for Architects, (Abingdon Routledge, 2007), = 27 " Chastan Neroerg Schul, Architecture. Prooance, Language, Place, 6 9 Manin Heisegger Bulcing, Thinking, Dwaling EasieWrmngs, London Rovrledge, 1993) p. S58 * Adam Share Heidegger for Architects, p.2,p 91QUANTIFYING THE WORLD IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION Writers on phenomenology have often commented on the inadequacy of science in effectively getting ahold of the world that we live in. Merlesu-Ponty notes that by its very nature science cannot hold the same depth of meaning as the world of our sense perceptions, because it 1s an abstraction of the world, a way for Us to categorise and make sense of it, rather than @ true grasp of the world as it exists to us To illustrate this point, Norberg: Schulz describes how, at school, we learn about water as a chemical compound formed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, expressed as H,O, rather than as a fascinating substance of encrmous flexblty that is considered to be the source of the origin of the world ® We are so keen on quantifying things and establishing facts that we fail to take into account the deeper meanings of our direct experiences of the world around us Fundamentally, experimental science strives to remove the fiters of cur human experience and see the world objectively, as it "really s " The aim is to find some truth that is not coloured by human emotion or subjective experience However, this is problematic as everything that we percewe ss inevitably seen through the filters of cur experience ® The world of scientific tuth is not one that we are able to access di contrast to the subjective world that phencmenclogists are interested in. This is nct to say that scien valuable or important to humanity, but when considering the root of cur existence as being grounded in our direct relationships with the physical world, science feels far removed from tt The implications ofthis are described by Ken Robinson ina TED talk about how schools are educating children out of their creative capacities. Despite this disconnection between science and human experience, science and maths are the subjects that, all over the world, are considered to be the most important subjects tobe taught at school, with the arts being considered the least important Even within the arts, art and music tend to take priority over drama and dance, the two subjects that are most connected to the human body ‘and ts relationship with the world. The reason for this is that public systems of educetion as we know it did not exist before the 19th century, and they were created to meet the needs of industrialism, therefore the subjects that were thought to be most useful for work came to be the pricrity, while creative subjects fell at the wayside * Robinson states that, “what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.""* So, as scon as we begin cur education, we start to distance curselves from the world of our bodies and focus on the intellect and the world of abstract information YiFu Tuannotes how poets describe emotional moments that lament a lost innocence of childhood, that is related to the immediacy of experience that has yet to be affected by the distancing of reflective thought * There is some part of us that yearns for the direct, immersive sensory experiences that we encounter as children, when we are absorbing all the senscry stimuli in our surroundings, with an eagerness " Maunce Meroau-Pony, Phenomanology of Percept on London: Rouiasige, 1982), pm Iiicvan Norberg: Schus, Architecture, Prasance, Language, Place,» 20 ® Colin Davies, Thinung about Archrecture (Landon Laurence King 2011) p66 * Ken Robinson, How Schools Kil Cret ity, 2008), [accessed 3 Apr 2015] " Gilbert Chl, Stee Eclcation. In The |, Uncerstanding the Mant 1 Practice, (Edinburgh Floris, 1991, 183,p. 147 Aparaach = IE{for example by allowing to check their own work This, again reflects the idea of the child as an autonomous and engaged being, discovering the world through their own subjective experience IMAGES AND INFORMATION IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE “Ours is a brand-new world ofallatonceness “Time” hes ceased, “space” has vanished We now lve ina global vilage. 2 simultaneous heppening”* Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore ‘The Medium is the Massage While our education systems cultivate the intellect at the cost of cur immediate sensory connection to the world, outside the classroom we exist in a culture where the visual takes priority over the other senses, This isnot an entirely recent phenomenon - clues of this can be found in our use of language, for example by describing the most intelligent people as "Visionaries", or “seers "™* However, in The Eyes of the Skin’, Juhani Pallasmaa attributes “the groming experiences of alienation, detachment and solitude in the technological world teday"® to numerous technological advancements in recent years that have allowed for the en-masse reproduction and distribution of images, from television to newspapers and advertising When we are constantly confronted by an endless flow of images, they start to become depleted of ther meaning and become commadities for postponing boredom, favouring instantaneous impact over emoticnal depth ® Art historian Branclon Taylor reflects this view by describing television as "the first cultural medium in the whole of history to present the artistic achievements of the past as a stitched: together collage of equi-impertant and simultaneously existing phenomens, largely divorced from geography and material history and transported to the living rooms and studlos of the West in a more or less uninterrupted flow." By having these mages cof events from all over the world and throughout time directly accessible on our television screens, we feel that we have access to all of these events, but its just an illusion, as these images are devoid of context, and ‘our sense of time and distance is warped mhen all of these events are presented to us in a constant flow, with images of war preceded by perfume adverts, preceded by soap operas In the words of Pallasmaa, “vision separates us from the world whereas the other senses unite us with it" Consumerism has also played a part in shaping our visually biased society In ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, Guy Debord reflects on haw, living in an age of production where we have an excess of capital available to us, we no longer focus on the basic things that we need for survival, but the excessive things that wedesire. The nature of postmodern society- the "society of the spectacle” -convinces us thet those excessive things are the things that we need. This means that cur conception of what we need increases and increases the more we have, always being slightly out of reach, making us strive towards an image of an ideal life beyond our own, The second stage that has followed this shift, isthe shift from wanting things, to wenting the appearance of those things. We buy commodities in order to convince ourselves and cthers that we are living cout our ideal selves, and adhering to an image of a certain lifestyle, dictated by the dominant system, We do not seek to purchase the items themselves, but the appearances and illusions that they create - "The spectacle is capital accurulated to the pont where it becomes image."* We are not directly ving mand experiencing the world, rather we are focused on these images that are far removed from true realty Moreover, our own desires become confused with the desres that society expects of us, detaching the consumer nat only from the world but from hinvherself Similar issues also arise with the abundant availability of information as @ consequence of the same technological advancements In an 1846 article attacking the press, Seren Kierkegaard lamented the mass distribution of destuated information, as he believed that this wes cultivating detached individuals who have {an opinion on everything without having ary first hand experience of the matters at hand The press allows for people to be informed about matters beyond their immediate society and environment, which for many would be seen as a triumph of democracy, however for Kierkegaard this meant the proliferation of anendlessly reflective and ultimately disengaged public who form depthless opinions on these issues based only on = Marshall MeLdhan ancl Quentin Fare, The Medium isthe Massage, (Landon: Penguin, 1967), p &3 © Marshall McLuhan ancl Quentn Fiore, The Medium some Mescoge. = 117 = Juhane Fallamas, The Eyoe af ha Shan, (Chichertr Wiley Headey, 2008)» 19 % Jahan Pallasmaa, The Eyes of tho Skin, p 3 ” Brandon Taylor, Modernism, Postmodernism, Realism. Criteel Fercpective for Art, Winchester. Winchester Schacl of Art Press, 1987) 102-105, % Juhars Pallasmas, The Eyes af the Skin, p25 ~ Guy Debora The Soninty ofthe Spectacle, Now York Zane Backs, 194), p26 “© Soren Kietkegaord, The Present Age’, The Presert Age and of she Diflerence Bemeen Geriusend/an Apostle, Londen. Glaegew Coline, 1982),p 7rational principles * As these people have no direct responsibilty towards the situations that they are forming ‘opinions on, they simply reflect on them endlessly without the need for any kind of resolve or ary resulting action, thus creating a society of dividuals who are lacking in any real passion or commitment This view may seem extreme today in regards to the press as Kierkegaard knew it, which has become commonplace to us, but it reflects some very current concerns with the Internet in the present day With its ever-expanding plethora of information and forums in which to make one's voice heard, the Internet is the ideal breeding ground for the “passionless and reflective” society that Kierkegaard feered "In this virtual world thet 1s simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, anybody can passively find information about a near infinite amount of issues, events and ideas, and anenymously debate about them with equally anonymous individuals. There isnoneed for these individuals to take responsibilty for or act on their opinions, for they are manifesting in an abstract vacuum, detached from the reality of their immediate lived experience Alec Charles notes how this attitude is exemplified on the Facebook homepage where the empty field in which the user is invited to wte a status Update asks "What's on your mind?" rather than, for example, "What are you doing” Charles states that “the Facebook user becomes a voice devoid of context, one which expresses itself and only itself, a subjectivity defined by and equal to the processes of Facebook use “# In essence, the Facebook user is not seen as & sensate being existing in time and space, but an abstracted mind, character cr conglomeration of arbitrary thoughts THE COMMODIFICATION OF PLACE In‘Place and Placelessness', € Relph reflects on the term ‘kitsch’ as a way of being in industrialised! society where many people can afford to own excessive and trivial things, and as @ consequence there exists 2a relationship between man and objects where these banal, unnecessary objects are produced en masse purely for the seke of consumption, and their value is measured only in the hollow measures of cost and sppearance This idea is similar to Debord's idea of excessive consumption, but Ralph then applies this thought to the places that we inhabit He argues that our idea of home’ has been degenerated by the ease with which people are able to travel away ‘rom home, and move home, as @ consequence of travel being faster and more economical thanbbefore Moreover, the idea of home has been commercialised and exploited bby developers who use the term to makes sales in their generic high rise apartment buildings. Relph quotes an estate agent in Torente that advertises, “If you want a place to call home, call us “4 When something ‘2s personal and intangible as cur sense of home becomes yet enother marketable commodity, it starts to become depleted of ts true meaning, and that sense of place weakens Relph cites tourism as another key player in the diminishing of cur sense of place. In every major city in the world, you cannot avoid the swathes of tours who go on guided tours in order to tick off the boxes of the sights that they feel they are expected to see when visting that city They have litle interest in truly experiencing unique places, and are simply adhering to what somebody else has decided are the important things to see “Indeed, Heidegger held the same disapproving view of tourists, who he felt vist places without truly seeing them While Heidegger found existentially meaningful experiences in the places he encountered, ‘most tourists simply experience them as feeting images * Tourism exacerbates a culture where the idea, or the status, of having gone to a place matters as much as, cr even more than, the experience of that place in itself It is for this reason that the majority of the profits of themed restaurants and attractions does not come from admission tickets, food or drinks, but from the branded merchandise that tourrsts buy to confirm that they have been there and to ostentatiously show their peers The place once again becomes a commodity, 2 spectacle for the consumption of the hedonistic and laissez-faire consumer Net only are tourists losing out on their own sense of place, but tourism can be seen to have 8 devastating effect on the local landscapes and sense of culture that attracts the tourism in the first place. ‘As a particular place gains popularity as a tourist destination, it gradually becomes riddled with architecture that is aimed towards the outsider and the consumer, with a distinct lack of authenticity towerds the original character of the place ® The original inhabrtants move away, and the place becomes filled with consumers of 4 Seren Kietkegaard, The Present Age’, The Present Age and af the Diflorence Between # Garits endian Apostle, Londen, = Ane Chavis, Imarectity 2 Now Macia, Paltes and Society. (Osford PeterLang. 2074), p. 124 “E Relph, Place and Placolaseness, Londen Pion, 1976),p 62463, “E Rejph flace and Pacelecsness, p83 SE Reiph, Place and Placelesanese, pS © Baler Shar; Heidegger for Architecs,p 12 [sha Hannigan, Fantasy City Planaure anc Profin the Postmadern Metropolis (Landon: Routledge, 1998), p69 SE Relph, Piece ana Pacelossness. p93 «John Hannigan, Fantasy Cry p 73culture arrving from outside, but none of the people who make and shape the culture # This type of kitsch is ‘exemplified in garish shopping and entertainment districts that exist across the world in popular tourist cities, that Kenneth Frampton makes a poignant reference to when he writes, “We exonerate the strip, ever fearful to admit that we might have eliminated, once and for al, the possibilty of ever baing anywhere "® By providing endless distractions in the form of shops, bars, restaurants, theatres and casinos, the strip allows people to ignore that fact that what they are experiencing isnot applace at all, but a fantasy of what that place is expected to be Similatly both Times Square and Piccadilly Circus assert themselves as important urban spaces for gatherings and celebrations with screens displaying images that create a virtual sense of elsewhere, which in turn gives the impression that this space isin the centre of everywhere However, without the screens both of these spaces would feel quite unremarkable as public spaces The illusion of @ sense of place is created by something that is distinctly deteched from the place itself TECHNOLOGY AND THE NARROWING DOWN OF SENSORY EXPERIENCE Twenty years ago, if you wanted to find out 2 piece of information about an unfamiliar subject, you would most likely speak to another person and ask them about i, or make your way to the local library, walk amengst the shelves, pick out a book and flick through the pages with your fingers, find the information and maybe make note of it with a pen and paper By being in an environment where you're surrounded by information that’s organised in 2 physical space, t's also likely that you'd chance upon another book that seems interesting, and lock through that too, and find out something that you did't even set cut to lock for By physically interacting with the space, your curiosity has the freedom to wander, and the learning process becomes an immersive and open-ended experience Nowadays, however, due to the popularisation of the Internet, we tend to just look at a screen, press some buttons to type @ search term into Google, and have the information presented to us in a purely visual way. The sensory experience is no different to any of the multitude of processes that we carry out on @ computer, and we are also limiting ourselves by searching specifically for the particular information that we want to find out. and having it almost immediately accessible The experience of the search is narrowed down to make it as simple as possible, so that the information itself is the main thing that matters, rather than the experience as a whole. This makes for an impoverished sensory ‘experience as well as limiting the potential for @ more wide-reaching leaming experience Although websites such as Amazon include features that make suggestions for further reading in an attempt to replicate ths idea of a continuous joumey of discovery, this is nevertheless unable to hold the same value as the physical ‘experience. We often don't know ourselves what we are curious about until we discover it, so it goes without saying that the complexity of our curiosities cannot be reduced to an algorithm that makes suggestions based con simple data Many other activities and processes have also fallen victim to the same sensory homogenisation by being available online, such as shopping and entertanment As we have vastly narrowed down the range of sensory experiences that we would normally enccunter on a day to day bass, its not entirely implausible to imagine a future in which the majority of people would go days, weeks, months even, without leaving their home. Even within the home, the items around us that we interact with are being distilled into multifunctional pieces of technology The items that once cccupied our working spaces - notebooks, pens, calendars, clocks, folders, rubbish bins - can all be contained in a laptop computer, which doesn't even necessitate the desk itself" The workspace is no longer defined by the objects of the physical envranment, but by the immaterial world of the information stored on one’s computer. The workspace can be snywhere, but at the same time it is nowhere This is evident in many office Buildings of high tech companies where much of the private offices lay empty, whereas we often see people working in aeroplane seats, cafés, hotel rooms and park benches The same thing happens in cur pockets, The items we used to keep in them, such as notebooks, ID cards and keychains, are being condensed into smartphones, an example of what William J Mitchell refers toas “instruments of displacement “® These are generally intended to extend the range of activities that we can do at ary given time, regardless of where we are As a consequence of ths, it could be argued that our physical environment is becoming less and less important to us because places are becoming detached from ther purpose, as is the case with the high tech company’s ofice. Frampton argues that an understanding of “place” calls for a social meaning applied to the physical space So, what differentiates “space” fiom “place” “Kenneth Frampton, ‘On Rasding Heidegger Qppesitians d, (1975), 9 1 "Willard Mitchel, ‘After the Revolution. Instruments of Dsplecemen, Deppeering Architecture: From Real to Virvnl to Qusntuny, Basel Bitnauser, 2009), 71 = Willard Mitchel After the Revolution Instruments of Displacement’ 923 = Willams Mitchel After the Rovalunion. Instruments of Displacement” 20.21is the fact that a "place" offers a meaningful socio-cultural experiance as well as @ physical environment in which a person can come into being * Surely, as the socio-cultural experiences that we engage in in various places become more homogenous, that sense of place becomes blurred Kenneth Frampton noted in 1975 that “we exchange our already tenucus hold on the publie sphere for the electronic distractions of the private future" 2 This observation feels particularly relevant m the present day, when on every bus ride, n every café, at every concert, ve are surrounded by people looking down at therr Phone, strolling Facebook, watching 2 video or writing messages, detached from their immediate physical surroundings and engaged in their own virtual werld The place becomes meaningless when in every place we go, we are engaged in an actiity that istelated to things that are happening elsewhere. In an article about how Facebook use cen affect our brains, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield wams us of “a life where the thrill of reporting [|] completely trumps the ongoing experience itself" ‘Although one could vicry that we will eventually live in @ world where we are all immersed in cur personal virtual reality with a total disconnect from our surroundings, fortunately there is evidence to show that this isnot the case Mitchell notes that although development of immersive virtual reality and augmented realty systems was once @ popular topic, they were eventually found to have little use outside of the world of simulation and entertainment: While a smartphone gwee us a small window into the virtual world, with the physical environment stillhaving some effect onus, immersive virtual reality systems proved tobe too intense, {co all-encompassing, to engage with realistically on a day to day basis” “Kenneth Frampton, ‘On Reeding Heidegger p 3 ® Kenneth Frarptcn, ‘On Reading Heidegaer’p 1 {Satan Greonfela,Facnbionk Home Caulel Chenge Our Berns’, The Telegraph, & April 2013, Cummings, Jonathon N, Brian Butler, and Robert Kraut, ‘The Quality of Online Social Relationships’, Communications of the ACM, No.7, Vol 45, uly 2002), 103-108 Frampton, Kenneth, ‘On Reading Heidegger’, Oppositions 4, (1975) 1-4 Greenfield, Susan, ‘Facebook Home Could Change Our Brains’, The Telegraph, 6 April 2013, Kraut R, M Patterson, V Lundmark, S Kiesler, T Mukophadhyay and W.Scherls, ‘Internet Paradox. A Social Technology thet Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-being?" American Psychologist, No 9, Vol 53, (1998), 1017-1031 Siibak, Andra, ‘Constructing the Self Through the Photo Selection. Visual Impression Menegement on Social Networking Websites’, Cyberpsychology. Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, (2009) Spier Steven, ‘Plece, Authorship encithe Concrete. Three Conversations with PeterZumthor’. Arg Architectural Research Quarterly, Vol 5, Iss. 1, (March 2001), 15-36 PODCASTS Linsenmayer, Mark, Seth Paskin and Wes Alwan, ‘Episode 31 Husserls Phenomenology Dicussing Descartes Meditations’, The Partially Examined Life, 2011), Linsenmayer, Mark, Seth Paskin and Wes Alwan, ‘Episode 32 Heidegger What is “Being’”, The Partially Examined Life, (2011), RECORDED LECTURES Howard-Kunstler, James, The Ghastly Tragedy of the Suburbs, (2004), Hughes, Steven, Good at Doing Things Montessori Education and Higher Order Cognitive Functions, Robineon, Ken, How Schools Kill Creativity, (2006),