| I'd like to open by thanking ResCen and Doreen Massey for a thoroughly stimulating seminar on Wednesday… the breadth of reference we were able to explore was truly astonishing – I am tempted to suggest that it could be mapped – mind maps?
My notebook is dense with resonances from Doreen's inspriational input and the responses from the associates. I wanted to explore at least three lines of enquiry as a result…
1 – the artist has regalarly been fascinated by simulataneous or interlocking spaces and there was a clear connection with Doreen's phrase 'co-evalness'… as well as the opportunities for generating a new dynamism using new technologies (and in the project I lead at NESTA, we have directly experienced the creative possibilities of telematics and the work Ghislaine has been exploring) the artist brings universes together, sometimes in tension or collision… from the victorian fascination with camera obscura and diorama, which bring the exterior into the interior to the overlapping worlds in science fiction (ref Kurt Vonnegut's Chronosynclastic infundibulum – the places where different truths appear together – in the Sirens of Titan)…
2 – time and space. Doreen explored the separation of time and space as different dimensions of geography… time being the dimension of measuring change… I was reminded of my feelings in and about New Zealand… and the imbalance of news values around the world. New Zealand is in an almost constant state of reaction to events that take place while they sleep. Each morning NZers wake up to a world that has changed (as far as the centres of economic and political power are concerned, Europe and the US). Reference for Rosemary and the power of place/time in East Anglia – WG Sebald, The Rings of Saturn map in literature a journey in time and space, where image, history and geography combine. I would say that Sebald was exploring in a brilliant new form the cultural fusion of history and geography.
3 – Maps… aren't, weren't we all fascinated by the shapes of maps.. the intricate islands like Sulawesi (Celebes) or the coastlines of Norway (for which Slartibartfast won an award remember). I've been using maps with young people and colleagues to record journeys across creative thinking or SWOT analyses... and will explore Doreen's concerns about maps lacking other dimensions of surprise and dynamism…
thanks again – I look forward to exploring these topics further and others in the forum.
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