Plac e 1:
Plac e
-Non
According to Marc Auge, we are living in a world with excess of time, space and individualization. A super modern world that turns individuals back on themselves, making them more like witnesses than actors in life. What Marc Auge defines as a non-place, is a space with unrootedness, one that human beings do not recognize themselves in it and are not recognized by others. This assignment aimed to make us understand what is place and its perceived opposite, non-place, through analyzing this terms based on the readings. After that we had to find an example of place, and on of a non-place in Manchester.
Proje ct 0
NON-PLACE
PLACE
The exchange square in the centre of Manchester is defined as a place for me. In contrast with the market street and the Arndale centre, where everyone is distracted by shops, cafes and colours and act as individuals, here people have relationships with each other. They suddenly stop from the madness of this consuming era, and they interact with the people next to them. They are relaxing, chatting, having beers and eating together and they understand one another. It is a meeting point, a PLACE for a break from the non-places surrounding it.
'..the same place can be looked upon as a place by some people and a non place by others..' Marc Auge
What comes to my mind when I hear the term 'non-place' is Spinningfields. For many it can be perceived as a place, since it is always full of people, it has restaurants, gardens and shops. But for me it is not. To my eyes, it seems like a square of glass boxes, DISPLACED in the middle of Manchester and more specifically, next to the Victorian Gothic building, the John Ryland's Library. But even the people that you see there do not really make any difference. They are all the same, wearing suites, individuals not talking to each other, always in a hurry to complete their tasks. No one is rooted to that place. There is a mixing and the end of genres, with everyone waiting to get out of the 'uniform' and go to a place where they recognize themselves and are recognized by others. All these turn Spinningfields into a non-place that could be placed or displaced anywhere.