Power of Place, Winifred Gallagher

The Necessity For Ruins by J. B. Jackson

A Sense of Place, A Sense of Time by Jon Brinckerhoff Jackson

My Notes:

• National Land Survey 1787, Jefferson, divide land, each a square mile (640 acres). Created a landscape. Did not take into account/make adjustments for rivers, hills, marshland. .
• The grid a way to organize, not live by. When it was planned, a view from above was not possible.
• America had acquired a vast amount of space - needed to organize it. This space was free of factories and cities - romance of open space. We took the land - driven by desire/romance of space/freedom - which turned to greed.
• Roads not part of plan. Pioneers - wheeled transportation rare, followed Indian trails by foot or horseback. Eventually roads outline the grid - rough, unkept. 
• "…the road is a very powerful space; and unless it is handled very carefully and constantly watched, it can undermine and destroy the existing order." Roads could lead people with ill intentions to a place. 
• 17th century - increase in wagons/carriages - new type of road to accommodate. Also, new farming methods and urban sprawl - travel to get food to people.
• Archetypal road - serves daily needs and preserves ethical values of community. Territorial instinct. 
• New roads disrespect the grid. Sinuous layout. Eliminates right of passage.
• "…the gradual but total destruction of the distinction between the life of the street and the life behind the facade. What has taken place is the elimination of those immemorial rites of passage that were once the hallmarks of our culture. Those architectural monuments - the church, the university, the office or place of work, the public building, the restricted residential area, all once characterized by a degree of isolation and internal privacy, are now wide open and accessible to the street." 

• "For what makes the landscape so impressive and beautiful is that the it teaches no copybook moral, no ecological or social lesson. It simply tells us that there is another of of measuring time." p. 17
• "They knew their landscape by heart." p. 20

Space and Place, Yi-Fu Tuan

Grotto of Redemption

Fr. Paul M.Dobberstein (1872 - 1954), West Bend, Iowa.
Encrusted in $6 million worth of semiprecious stones.
NPR article on Dobberstein.  Link here.
Also, Fantastic website spacesarchive.org that lists this site and many others.  Link here.

SENSE OF PLACE

Notes from 
Wisdom Sits In Place 
by Keith H. Basso

"Place is the first of all beings, since everything that exists is in a place and cannot exist without a place" -Archytas, Commentary on Aristotle's Categories

"lived relationships that people maintain with places, for it is solely by virtue of these relationships that space acquires meaning"

"...familiar places are experienced as inherently meaningful, their significance and value being found to reside in (and, it may seem, to emanate from) the form and arrangement of their observable characteristics."

"places come to generate their own field of meaning."

"Even in total stillness, places may seem to speak."  "places express only what their animators enable them to say" - linking to reflection

Rubin Museum of Art

This summer I visited the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.  This is a wonderful place - if I lived in NYC I would take advantage of all the Rubin offers - exhibits, lectures, music, art making, film and a restaurant. You can link here to see the programs offered.   

Tibetan Amulet Box

One of my interests is objects made for reasons that support a belief system.  The amulet box has always interested me - a portable shrine.  Not only is it an object but it creates a space, a place to worship. I pulled some of my notes on other objects and spaces and posted information and my thoughts below. 

Ark of Covenant

From what I have read, the Ark has not been revealed but is housed in a church in Ethiopia. Someone is with the Ark at all times and the public is not allowed inside the building.

Stupa in Gotemba, Shizuoka City, Japan

Stupa crowning, Java, Indonesia

After the death of the Buddha, the relics of His body were collected from the funeral pyre and divided into eight parts. Stupas were erected on the relics. The practice of pilgrimage in Buddhism probably started with visits to these places, the purpose of which was to achieve personal advantage such as rebirth in a good location, as well as to honour the great master. 


The below text is from an exhibition at the Rubin entitled Pilgrimage and Faith.  Link here.

"For millennia people of all faiths have embarked on the practice of pilgrimage, journeying to a sacred place or shrine of special religious significance, while proceeding at the same time on an inner, spiritual journey. Objects associated with pilgrimage—whether works of high artistic skill or those intended for everyday use—often reveal deep human needs that transcend particular faiths.

Pilgrimage and Faith explores these important spiritual journeys in three of the world's largest religious traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. While reflecting on the shared goals of personal development and communal solidarity evident in each tradition, the exhibition also highlights their particular ritual practices and artistic expressions.

The exhibition features diverse examples of objects from each faith, including a Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage map, a Tibetan Buddhist hand prayer wheel, a twelfth-century Christian reliquary casket, Muslim clay prayer tablets."

National Park Service

Collections
Prehistoric and historic objects and places help us understand the world and our place in it. They connect us to the past, but they can also connect us to the present and each other. The National Park Service cares for some of the largest and most diverse natural and cultural history collections in the world. It also keeps records and lists of our most treasured historic places.






Virtual Exhibits link here.

Museum Management Program link here.