Aciman, Andre. "Shadow Cities." In Letters of Transit, edited by Andre Aciman, 15-34. New York: The New York Press, 1999.
Aciman's essay that he has contributed to this book tells the story of Straus Park, a landmark in his Upper West Side neighborhood. One day he was shocked to find out that it may be destroyed. The possibility of that moved Andre think about what this small island between the streets of New York City represented to him. "Going to Straus Park was like traveling elsewhere in time," he says. The journey takes us through the different chapters of his life and is a real reflection of what a place, or an environment can potentially represent for us. For Andre, that can take us back to Olde World New York City, across oceans, landing us in Paris along the Seine or in an Italian piazza, or back at the home we know, love and carry with us. It can link all of those places together though we may have experienced them at quite different times in our lives, but it is these places that bookmark the journey and frame the memory.
New York City and this little microcosm of New York, Straus Park, brought up the memories and also made New York not his home, but the catalyst for his realization that all of these places represented the best of his own hometown, a place that he cannot shake. He discovers himself and that where he comes from is very much a part of who he is.
This essay touches on the theme of change and passage of time and its affect on not just the New York City itself but its people, much like we see in Colson Whitehead's article in the New York Times from November 11, 2001 entitled "The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01: Lost and Found." It shows us that New York, or any place for that matter, can be or be seen as whatever we want it to be for ourselves, and that places help define our history.
I wish Aciman was not so hard on New York in some ways and I wish he touched more on the cause and effect of the renovation of this park, and recognized that it was not taken care of in its initial lifetime, yet look at what it can represent aside from being a place to sit at a point during the day.
Michael Chabon, "Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood," The New York Review of Books Volume 56, Number 12, July 16, 2009.
In this essay, Michael Chabon reminisces about a time gone by and the audacious spirit of childhood that seems to have waned.
He speaks of the vast outdoor space in his own backyard in Maryland, and how the history of the land enriched and influenced the adventures he had there. He dubs this the "Wilderness of Childhood," and uses popular children's stories like C.S. Lewis's the Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and the Peanuts cartoons to underscore his thoughts that such adventurous spirit is born of things like the absence of adult supervision in a child's life, or the thought that these are fantasies that they will never ACTUALLY experience in real life.
The journeys become points on the map of their loves, and what Chabon calls "the story of landscape, the interrelationship between human beings and topography." Our history, or our experiences, are told via the places we were in and what we did there. Like what we read in "Place Identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self," by Proshansky, Fabian, and Kaminoff which was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 1983, we are defined "not simply by one's relationship to other people, but also by one's relationships to the various physical settings that define and structure day-to-day life." For Chabon, playing in his "Wilderness of Childhood," was his life as a young person.
And what Chabon sadly reminds us, is that things have changed and for many reasons, children no longer venture out on their own, into their woods, or neighborhoods. Beyond the reasons offered of a parent's fear of child abduction, and possible guilt over our history of land expansion in this country, Chabon missed the opportunity to also mention that technology has significantly contributed to children not being outside anymore. Certainly, outside is where I sent most of my childhood growing up.
He then asks if this will end up stifling a child's imagination. I say yes.
Cooper, Clare. "The House as a Symbol of the Self." In Designing for Human Behavior: Architecture and the Behavioral Sciences, edited by Jon Lang, Charles Burnette, Walter Moleski, and David Vachon, 130-146. Stroudsburg: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., 1974.
In this chapter, Clare Cooper breaks down the studies of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and definitions of his concepts of "the collective unconscious, the archetype, and the symbol" and how we can relate them to the connections we make between our house and our idea of self, specifically that the "house is a symbol of the self." Evidence, both conscious and unconscious, to prove this strong link is presented based on various researchers' comparisons between people of different economic profiles and social status, via a look at how a house is presented in the media or in the written word, and through analysis of Jung's own dreams, where he realizes the parts of himself not yet discovered with the house as a mind model.
Studies are presented, such as those where people relate their idea of a "home" to be a house, versus that of an apartment, versus that of a mobile home, concluding that this could. We also are alerted to the idea of the house as a means of protection from the outside world, a protection of self, a sacred place, often with the "hearth" as the central symbol. Another example is the evidence that we look at our homes, and how we present our homes physically and decoratively, to the world publically, as a representation of what we perceive our attitude and social status to be. Even in 1974, when this work was written, the increase in popularity of interior design and decorating was noted. A similar trend has continued today, so one would surmise the idea that there is still this connection. It seems these studies are as relevant today, as they were nearly 40 years ago.
In the end, Cooper underscores the importance and relevance of this theory and offers a programmatic solution for the design of homes for low economic profiles through encouraging architects and designers to strive to understand how individuals see themselves currently with their house as a model. Once that is done, means to improve such feelings about self can be explored and devised through design. There is alot of power that comes with this knowledge and understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment