Nowhere, Exactly Repeated

Lecture 11 — SLOP2236

It performs no relationship with you at all.

The non-place, almost too exactly

  • no identity, no relations, no history
  • less of a relationship than the store performs at its own threshold
  • identical, branch to branch, chain to chain — and that repetition is the point

If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place.

— Marc Augé, Non-Places

Pure threshold

Nobody photographs a car park unless something is wrong. That’s what a non-place is: unremarkable by design, everywhere at once.

Before next week

  • next time you’re in one, spend thirty seconds actually looking at a supermarket car park instead of walking through it
  • name one feature true of every car park you’ve been in
  • note how long you spent in it, and what you actually remember