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    The Human Experience of Space and Place PDF

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    Jorge Castillo-Sepúlveda

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    7 ROBY SUBJECT, TIMESPACE ROUTINES, AND PLACE-BALLETS* David Seamon Phenomenology strives for the actualization of contact. AS away of study it seeks to meet the things of the world as those things aren ‘themselves and so deseribe them. Geography studies the earth asthe dwelling place of man, As one ofits tasks, seeks to understand how ‘people ie in relation to everyday paces, spaces, and environments. A phenomenological geography borrows from both fields of knowing and ical daily pattern, The activities follow a sequence which s largely habit ual and unpremeditated, The women’s activites are an extended time space routine incorporating many individual body-ballets ~ water feteh> ing, fre building crop tending, and weaving, ach activity requires @ particular combination of gestures and movements which correctiy manipulate materials at hand and produce the desired artifact or am ‘The skil of weaving for example, isa knowledge of the hands, which Tong ago learned proper sequence and rhythm and ean now conduct their work quickly and automatically. ‘One can alo visualize inthe above scene a series of place-ballets Un- folding throughout the Menomin's day. He can imagine, for example, the ‘women's mesting at the stream as they fetch water and partaking in onverition, This place isnot ony a Source of water but a scene of Community interaction and communication which epeats each morn- Ing because of the regularity of water fetching The underlying structure ofthis place ballet is no different from the contemporary street sene that Jane Jacobs describes on the block where she once lived in Greenwich Vilage in New York “The stretch of Hudson Street where Live is each day the scene ofan intricate sidewalk ballet. make my own frst entrance into ita litle after eight when I put out the garbage can, surely prosaic occupe tlon, but enjoy my part, my litle clang, 8 the droves of junior high School students walk by the center of the stage dropping candy "wrappers. While Fsweep up the wrappers I watch the other rituals, Body-Subject, TomesSpace Routines 161 fof the morning: Me, Halpart unhooking the aundry’shandeatt fom its mooring toa cellar door, Joe Comnaccha's son-in-law stacking oUt the empty crates from the dliatesen the barber bringing oUt his sidewalk folding chair, Mr. Goldstein arranging the cols of wite ‘which proclaim the hardware store is open, the wife ofthe tene- nent’ superintendent depesiting her chucky three-year-o1 with tay mandolin onthe stoop, the vantage point from which hei at ing the English his mother cannot speak. Now the primary shideen, ‘heading for St. Lake's, dribble ehrough fo the west and the children from P.S.41, heading toward the east (Ja00bs, 1961, 52-3) “The esential expeential process working on Hudson Street, inthe Menomin village, inthe corner café is much the same, though om the turface each pace i considerably different from the others. People come together in time and space as each individuals involved in his oF het own timespace routines and body-balles. They recognize each other and fften partake in conversation. Out ofthese daily, taken forgranted interpersonal dynamics, thee spaces of activity evore a sense of place that each person does his small part in creating and sustaining "Teas places ate mote than locations and space (0 be traversed. Each comes to house a dynamism which has arisen naturally without dieeted Intervention, These spaces taken on the quality which Reiph (1976, 58) has called existential insidedness ~a situation In which place i experienced without deliberate and selfeonsious reflection yet ll ‘vith aignicances” Relph goes on to say that existential insides i the wry foundation ofthe experience of place, and this pint echoed in the plae ballot Through habitual patterns meeting in time and spact, tn area can become a place shared by the people who come into spatlo- femporal contact there. The dynamism ofthat place is age in propor tion to the number of people who share in is space and thereby create and share nls tempo and wait Implications It the geographer i to study the spaces, places, and environments it riick person typically ives and dwells — his vedspace, as phenomen “lois someunes speak of (Bolnow, 1967) ~he rst recognize that {hirepace fst of all rounded in the body. Through body subject the penon knows where he isin elation tothe familar objets, places and evionments which in sum constitute his everyday geomaphicl word 162. Body Subject, TimesSpace Routines Whatever the particular historical and cultural context, the bedrock of his geographical experience is the prereflective body stratum of his ile his bodily lived-space. As well habitual movements in argerscaled ‘avironments, this adil Lived-space incorporates smaller gestures such ts stepping, turing, reaching, andthe extended patterns of body-ballet land timespace routine. By exploring the bodily portion of lived space, the geographer gains a picture ofthe stabilizing, habitual forces of particular lifeworld He can better understand how unselfeonslous patterns within a particular place continue to make the place what i€ was inthe past. Further, he may be beter able to predict the effect of part cular environmental or social changes on that stability “Astrong patter in modern society is the fragmentation of space and time: home is separated from market, neighborhoods ae split by express ‘ways, work is separated from leisure, At the same time, socal critics speak of growing alleation and the gradual breakdown of community, ‘which Slater (1970, 8) has defined as “the wish to lve in trust and frater ral cooperation with one's fellows in a total and visible collective entity” If community i an important component of asatifying human exist: ‘ence and if community is presently eroding, the geographer can wel ask wnat community isin experiential terms nd how it might be buttressed. Place ballet may have considerable bearing on this question because it ‘regulary brings people face to face who otherwise would probably not know each other, in this sense, place-allet generates some ofthe intr- personal cooperation and trust of which Slater speaks. ‘Place-ballet has particular bearing on the nature of neighborhood, which the economist Barbara Ward once defined asa place where children can grow up without being un over, where frends can meet, ‘where that deeply reylected resource, two human les, can be re Covered and used, and where the sociability and the exchanges of hhuman existence can take place ina civilized form (ited in Horley, 1998, 1-2). {none sense, tis definition of neighborhood is founded in placeballt. Ward suggests community in place rounded ina bosiy scale and interpersonal continuity. In part, such a place must be founded in familiarity: people knowing each other well enough so they can com fortably interact. A portion of this farliarity may well be the result of. ‘nselfconseious regularity. A habitual base, however, does not mean a precely predictable neighborhood dyeamie composed of robotike Fumans continuously repeating the same sets of behaviors. Rather, Body Subject, Tone Space Routines 163 the precogitive regularity of place-allet provides a foundation from ‘which ean aise surprise, novelty, and unexpectedness: the spontaneity Of cildplay, neighbors ‘bumping into” one another, a community FOU (quickly organizing to oppose a proposed sect widening, Sabity and Continuity of place therefore, ae at least partially responsible for the civilized network of iterations that Ward points ton her definition ‘of neighborhood. At the same time, this order in terms of place estab- lishes a pattern of regularities around which a progression of shifting vents and episodes can occur. Pace, in other words, requies both repulaity and variety, order and change. lace-allet some means by which a place comes fo hold these qualities. ‘Neighborhood is only one example of place-allet, Any situation where atleast some users come together regularly ~ for example, Tounge, ae, office building, marketplace ~ may provide a base for place-blle. ‘A the same time, however, many place-balletsappeat to be eroding and ‘diappeating. The rend, as Relph (1976, 117) reminds us, ‘is toward an ‘crvitonment of few significant paces — toward a plaeless geography, 8 ‘atscape, + meaningless pattern of buildings. ‘mths sense, the notion of pace-ballet has important theoretical and practical implications, Fist, joins people, time, and place in an organic Irhole and portrays place az a distinct and authentic entity ints own Fieht. Ia the past many approaches tothe person-environmentreation- ‘hip have been piecemeal and mechanistic: place i only the sum of the ‘behaviors ofits individual human parts. In contest, place-ballet depicts whole grester than ie elements: place is a dynamic entity with 29 ldenity a distinct asthe individual people and environmental elements ‘comprising that place. lace-bale, in other words, san environmental Synergy in-which human and material pars unintentionally fost Target whol with its own special rhythm and character, An outdoor marketplace, fr example, ay be grounded in economic transactions, but is considerably more than ust those transactions (Nordin, 1976) “The market takes On an atmosphere of wialty camaraderie, excitement artven aaity, ‘Meeting fiends and acquaintances becomes a important ss buying (Seamon and Nordin, 1980) or environmental planning, therefore, place-bllet provides notion sound which to construct policy and design. What places have what tind of place-balets? Would a place bea better human environment iit tha place ballets? How could place-ballets be started in that place? For residents of places themseives, the notion of place-ballt is expecially ‘aluable, People recognize unconsciously the significance of place-bllet but generally becuse of the natural attitude have no refined means for 164 Rody-Subject, TimeSpace Routines articulating the entity in clear terms. Place-ballet makes one ipliit dimension ofthe lifeworld explicit. It provides an articulated concept ‘which might be of valu in creating, regenerating and protecting places.” Notes 1 On phenomenology, its history and method, se Nacanson, 1962; Wile, 1963; Sogo, 1968 Examples mpi phenomenology canbe found 8 Glamor al 19%, 1975. "tn pac ths dtntion dicount reflexive movements uch a DAN. 530m bear, se Tylor, 1967; Mere-onty, 1962, 1963; Koo, 1964 ‘Tete sot one behaviorist ery bat man. Som beast ceogtze Cope tin cot itervening proces in the mal esponse sequence. Se, fr ‘ape, Tolman, 1973 “fecal 1932; Bau ana Sta, 1973: Get and Boot, 1971 so EL age 196: Sten and ow), 1979: Moor ad Codes, {Au account ofthis group proces povided in Seamon, 1979. 1. omplete statement of thee apd folowing accounts ean be found in Seamon, 1973 Apis important to fae tat some behaviors interception a ‘sn mportan intervening proces between siulos apa response. See hate 3 eee Ponty, 1962 For further dscanion of Meexe Ponty gifcnce es Seanon 1379, 0. This pony conidered farther i Seaman, 1979, Chapter 19. References Bolo Oo. 1967 Lmganice? oN Lawns and Donna ds) eta in Extent Phenomenol. 8a, Eapword Cis NI: owns, Rope: Mand Stes, Davi (es). 1973, mage nd Env ronment: Copive ‘Mapping ond Spall havo “ide Chico: ‘Get Arh, an Boot, Bary MIDI -Spul Behar: Rattand Men, The seston ‘iors, Ameic, Fischer, Cand Mura, E (ed), 1975. Duguene Sadist ‘Frnomanaoge!Pjchoogy, wo Pitssng: Daguese Unversity Pe TE, Atkinoon, abd thse, 1-197 Inodution fo Pekan Hocke, CF 1913 Ma's ace fn Near. New York: McGaw Hons. 1978. Making of «City Nebbernoods New York Tey 24 ‘Decne, Sc 89, ppe 2 ul; Gark 1983 4 Behar Sytem. New Haven: Yale University ree Body Subject, Time-Space Routines 165 {cob Jane 1961. The Dash and Life of Grea American Cites, New York sen ot Krowledge as Kesh Sigmund, 1964. Peycology and Emering Conceptions of Knowle ‘itary “In TW. Man (ed), Beheionim and Phenomenology. (Chicago: Untersity of Cheapo Pes Us wees Leff ever. 1977, Bepenence, Bxaronment, end Hunan Potentials, New tyne ee TDON The Image ofthe Cy Cambs, Mass MIT Ps Hse Ponty Maurie, 1962, Phenomenaagy of Perception, tans. Coli "Rew York asus Pe 136) The Sur of hv, tA Fak Baron: Be ag 8 Kapwig aout Emon Kaori: he Ce we Te ne ase Rr Tce Race tm a se Literature, Pilonophy, st ce rmem em aceasta et eee Eason ne hae mem it Bae? i

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