Michel De Certeua– The Practice of everyday life
Yielding readers an inspiring vision on the city, Michel De Certeua raises the distinction between ‘place’ and ‘space’. The former one, as he suggests, is ‘an instantaneous configuration of positions’ that ‘implies an indication of stability’, which the later one ‘exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities, and time variable’. For Certeua, a space is a practiced place, however, they are interchangeable. It is stories that make the two do not necessarily be consistent. Spatial stories and city strollers map the city into spaces, with so much fantasies, offering links between the places and people. It reminds me of the reason that I am so obsessed with the city I live, is not only because of the stunning skyscrapers, but more importantly the loving citizens and the stories and memories we created here. With collective memories, the place with graceful architectures becomes a space that has value to us.
Chan Hiu Yan (3035716244)
A thougtful and well-written response to Certeau’s reading – in particular, your concluding reflections on the city you live in and how the spaces and places within it are constantly contextualized by its different users in creating collective memories/histories (Abbas!).