Blog 1

Place is defined by Cresswell on page 7 as a "meaningful location". For example, an empty house just built, waiting to be bought is just empty space. But, a house that has been lived in for quite a while would be a place to someone because it means something to them, there are memories in that house.  When the people bought their house, they took an empty space, made it their own and transformed it into a place. Landscape is different from place because landscape is just scenery and something to look at. Cresswell defines landscape as, “An intensely visual idea….the viewer is outside of it.” (Cresswell 8). While on the other hand, “Places are very much things to be inside of.” (Cresswell 8).

Place in America can be defined in many different ways. It just depends on where in America you live because someone from the south might look at place differently than say someone from the north or the west. I think place in America should be defined as wherever you feel comfortable because no matter where you are from you should feel comfortable and at home in your own place. 

Culturalpolitics.net

I think the Culturalpolitics.net website is a excellent source for everything that we are going to be studying in our Gender in Popular Culture class.  With how the website is broken down into different catergories/tabs it makes it easy to find exactly what you are trying to look for.  I think it will be very useful when it comes to our discussions and especially handy with our Pecha Kucha projects in the future.  Popular culture is such a huge topic especailly when you throw Gender in the mix.  This website provides everything from the different forms such as music, to the theory of culture.  To be honest, this website is so packed with different kinds of information that I have yet to have a chance to take a look at everything.  I look forward to using more of this website in our upcoming class projects, readings, and blogs.

culturalpolitics.net

As, many have already stated the overall first impression of the culturalpolitics.net website is very basic and seems easy enough to navigate. This site is full of information broken down into dummy-proof categories. I would assume it would be very useful for information on a wide range of topics regarding popular culture and easy enough to be accessed quickly. Not only does the side provide one with a plethora of accessible knowledge, it provides citation information to be able to legitimately use the information or a project, paper, etc. Overall, I think the site will be useful, not only in this course but for future needs as well.

BLOG #1 PLACE

 

            Place is defined as a "meaningful location"(7). Place simply stands still as the world moves about. We simply carry on with our lives, but find some way to a significant place or landscape that has a meaning to us. Narrative shapes out understanding and experiences in place because we are the founders of giving meaning to specific locations. Often times, we find places and become very familiar with them, placing values on those places and making them a comfort zone when things aren't as they seem. That place can take away the pain and suffering, or place can simply bring about hurt and prevent us from wanting to be there. It's all about a connection to that place... good or bad.

            A study of place in America can reveal several things about us and the people who surround us. Place provides at times a security of knowing surroundings. For example we are more comfortable in our neighborhoods. We see the same familiar faces, homes, cars, and buildings. When a new person moves in could provide a little discomfort of not knowing who is in your "space". Over time, you get to know that person or family and become more comfortable with them being around. The same situation for starting a new job. The new hire has to become familiar in a new place, in order to get comfortable. Often times, we find that one place of comfort in knowing that we are safe in that location.

            For me walking in a new classroom is a challenge. New classrooms, new teachers, new books, and ultimately new faces. As the semester progresses, I'm more comfortable with those people in my class. I'm sure a lot of students can relate to this "place".

Blog 1 --

Cresswell defines place on page 7 as a “meaningful location.” Therefore we give significance to specific spaces on earth. Cresswell mentions the phrase “A place for everything and everything in its place” to demonstrate how flexible the word place is (2). In order to understand place, we must understand space. According to the text, space is moving while place is paused. Therefore, “each pause in movement makes place possible” (8). While landscape is a place, Cresswell makes it clear that, “we do not live in landscapes – we look at them” (11). We “inhabit” place by making it our own personal space. People do this by redecorating or landscaping their homes, and giving space an aesthetic value. Cresswell states on page 13 that his text will “show how place is used in the construction of ideas about who and what belong where.” I think this will show readers how self identity is found by different people in different places (cultures) in the Americas.

Blog #1: PLACE

Place is defined as “a meaningful location” in the Cresswell book on page 7. However, place seems to have many subjective definitions, depending on the individual as well as the physical location of the space in question. Narrative shapes our understanding and experiences in place, because we are the ones who give it meaning through such.  On page 8 of Cresswell, the book states that "undifferentiated space becomes place". I think the implications of that statement is simply that we assign the meaning of an undifferentiated space as being simply that. It then becomes a place that is not special to us, and may hold no  meaning, but still a place nonetheless.

Landscape and place are shaped by fiction and visual arts by painting us a picture, or a visualization of what a place is supposed to be, or what meanings we are supposed to assign to it based on the feelings evoked by scenery or through story telling. With fiction or landscape, spaces can  become places without our own experience but the experience through these outlets.

To "inhabit" place is to make it your own, to possess it. The book talks about moving into a college dorm with a new roommate. To differentiate this room from previous owners and eachother, one might put up posters or photos, choose certain colors and decorations, whatever it takes to make that space feel like THEIR place, their inhabited place, and not someone else's place. A study of place in America reveals that there are many, many ways to define place and that consequently, there is no one way of looking at place in America. That speaks volumes about the culture and attitudes, beliefs, etc. of the people who make up "America", and everything that the word encompasses.

Blog #1 What is place?

               If someone asked me, “What is place?” I might respond in a matter of different ways, but the main ideas that illustrate place would be culture, home, comfort, predictability, belongings, and emotional understanding.  Since the class has been required to read from Tim Cresswell’s PLACE, I can assume that one very simple definition to suffice as an answer to the question is “a meaningful location”, as stated on page 7 of the book. Now, because I have read through page 14 of PLACE, I can recognize that this definition of place is the most watered down, elementary way of describing a word that took an entire novel to explain. Through the reading, I have reached the realization that the word place has many dimensions and requires a very wordy explanation. The phrase, “undifferentiated space becomes place,” (Cresswell, 8) speaks to the relationship between space and place and the dependence of the two terms upon each other.

               For me space is almost uncomfortable, and makes me feel small, helpless, or even distant. In contrast place feels warm, safe, secure, and most important to me, predictable.  For example, the first day of classes at KSU, each student is looking for their classrooms, for their teachers, for their classmates. They have no idea what to expect, zero predictability, zero direction, zero understanding of whether they are walking past the art building, or the east deck. These places are merely spaces to them at this point because they have not established an understanding of what it is to have the characteristics that make up the art building, or the east deck, or Dr. Whitlock’s classroom. As the semester moves on and we start to associate an arrangement, an assembly of desks, faces, décor, hallways, in a particular space we begin to have certain feelings about what it means to be in that specific space, and at this point it has become a place. No longer am I frantically moving through space blindly looking for room 1022, now I am walking straight to Dr. Whitlock’s room and that is comforting, and predictable.