Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Panelists: Dr. June Jordaan and Prof. Nic Theo

The conversation responds to the theme set by Cape Peninsula University of technology, “Representing Space, Place, and Liminality”:

The concept of liminal space has gained traction in contemporary discourses on place and space, particularly since the proliferation of placeless geographies (Ralph) and Non-Places (Auge) in the mid-20th century. Liminal space, also understood as thresholds, transitional or transformative spaces, have also become more manifest and, in recent times, taken on peculiar expressions. Strict COVID 19 lockdowns in 2020, that descended on us globally, necessitated the absence of people in public space. These environments, void of human interaction, were subject to a substantial amount of visual representation. In some instances, these representations re-instated the spectator, the photographer or filmmaker’s gaze of architectural and natural space and place, and in others, they brought about the question of the fetishization of abandoned space and ruination.

In turn, these modes of representation raise questions about space, as an abstract concept, and place as a phenomenon with expressive characteristics, meaning and significance – both issues that have long been subjects of philosophical, architectural and aesthetic contemplation. One such example is the visual representations of space and place over the last century in the world of cinema. Examples include cinematic representations of outer space, mental space, domestic space, gendered space, and of places like cities, as seen in the City Symphony in the 1920s.

In these, and other modes of visual representation, space and place have been explored as fundamentally diachronic. Today, however, the past, present and future have become miscible through contemporary visual media, with the environments we inhabit seen as less time-bound. AI is arguably a perfect example, enabling us to visually represent our memories, imagination and dreams of places – our oneiric places. In doing so, it transports us to these worlds, past present and future, and increasingly diminishes the subject-object dichotomy of our perceptions of space and place.

Through exploring such questions and themes we encourage abstracts for papers and creative contributions related to the representation of space, place, and liminality, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. We welcome papers examining intersections of place, time and representation through a wide range of medias: painting, photography, cinema, virtual realities, AI, architecture and more.