PLACES and SPACES

Posted at Apr 02/2008 11:55PM:
Reem:

As I was thinking of an example of a place, my mind drifted away to the definition of the term place itself. I realized once I figure out what a place was, I can then give examples of it. The process of finding a definition of place mainly in the case of an archaeological context lead me to distinguish the term “place” from the term “space.”

A place is the state of being. It is not necessarily physical but it can be. It is what one can form attachment to in order to establish security and comfort. Thus, place can be a certain space, object, body, emotion, thought, conscious, imagination, etc. Moreover, place is not the physicality of these aspects but it is their conscious being.

Space on the other hand is larger than place. It is the physicality of aspects, which have energy, weight, force, and time.

As for abandoned archaeological remains and sites, I think they are spaces and not places, despite the fact that at some point in time when they were used, they were considered places. Now, as they stand alone in the landscape with no particular conscious linked to them- there might be some sort of conscious associated with them- they are incapable of being places on their on.

Example of a place: A conscious human being.