London Andraground
Marc Auge
quoting Pierre Nora
"what we are seeking … through our religious accumulation of personal accounts, documents, images and all the 'visible signs of what used to be', is what is different about us now; and 'within the spectacle of this difference the sudden flash of an unfindable identity. No longer a genesis, but the deciphering of what we are in the light of what we are no longer.'"
/
In response to Patterson abstracting the tube map from its representational purpose, I thought about how the map for me as a Londoner is as much a map of personal history as well as a transport schematic. Place names each with an emotional or historical association. But some not. Some I have never been to. Have no idea about.
Delete those. What remains is MY London. MY London, with place names derived from a history I do not share.
After reading Auge’s Non-Places I decided to assert the voice of personal experience - to raise personal history to the level of dominant social history - by renaming remaining stations after my own experiences and associations, thereby converting a transport schematic into a map of a life lived. In contrast to Patterson’s abstraction, the association between place and memory is key, even if this is solely as a trigger; as Edward Casey tells us, those memories - that nostalgia - now inhabits the 'placeless'.
quoting Pierre Nora
"what we are seeking … through our religious accumulation of personal accounts, documents, images and all the 'visible signs of what used to be', is what is different about us now; and 'within the spectacle of this difference the sudden flash of an unfindable identity. No longer a genesis, but the deciphering of what we are in the light of what we are no longer.'"
/
In response to Patterson abstracting the tube map from its representational purpose, I thought about how the map for me as a Londoner is as much a map of personal history as well as a transport schematic. Place names each with an emotional or historical association. But some not. Some I have never been to. Have no idea about.
Delete those. What remains is MY London. MY London, with place names derived from a history I do not share.
After reading Auge’s Non-Places I decided to assert the voice of personal experience - to raise personal history to the level of dominant social history - by renaming remaining stations after my own experiences and associations, thereby converting a transport schematic into a map of a life lived. In contrast to Patterson’s abstraction, the association between place and memory is key, even if this is solely as a trigger; as Edward Casey tells us, those memories - that nostalgia - now inhabits the 'placeless'.
digital print on brilliant white semi-gloss paper
15.65cm x 22.18cm (when open flat)
