place.space.

De Certeau, M. (1984) Spatial Stories. From The Practice of everyday life. Berkely: University of California Press. 115-130. (Start at page 117, end at new section on page 122)

1- List the attributes on place and the attributes of space in terms of De Certeau's analysis.

It describes the relative positions of one element to another at one moment in time. Like a moment captured in a photo, 'place' is static in nature. Space on the other hand is dynamic and is activated through movement. It takes into account change through variables such as direction, velocities and time.

"space is a practiced place"

2- What do stories do in terms of places and spaces?

They transform places into spaces and vice versa. It navigates between between the descriptive 'place' and the active 'space'.

3- Summarise the difference between maps and itineraries.

Maps are more in harmony with the operation of places. It shows in an instant the locations of various items - seeing. Itineraries set out how you ought to experience, and thus more in harmony with the operations of space. One is directed through via a series of instructions - acting.

4- De Certeau identifies an important historical change in mapping practices. What is this change, why did it occur and why does De Certeau think it is important?

Medieval maps - rectilinear marking out of itineraries (pilgrimages). Its a compilation of events along a route. Then came the need to colonise space. There was a gradual erasure of itineraries and the pictorial stories that comes with it. Maps exhibit the products of knowledge from tables of legible results, it is the all powerful, all encompassing visual expression of the known.

Calvino, Italo. (1972) Invisible Cities. Harcourt, Orlando Florida. 10-11, 88-89

From the author you are reading what are the key characteristics defining "place"?

A place, the city is not the buildings, the infrastructure, the fields, rather, it is the activities that these shells support, the relationships it fosters and the memories it contains. (Here, it seems to be in contradiction the the previous reading where place is the descriptive and the visually static and spaces if the experiential.) The suggestion at the end of the reading that Esmeralda should include all routes through the city (birds, thieves, rats, smugglers etc) is in effect emphasising the importance of the itinerary.