Space & Place, passing the threshold.

Space is known as and area in which things exist and move, space has many dimensions: Height, depth and width. However space takes many different forms. Could space be existent during our dreams? And if so what is the difference between dream and real space? Dream space in my opinion is the idea of the subconscious recreating a space in our mind that relates to us. Dreams take place in places that are familiar to us, we have to have seen them, or at least have an idea of what they look like in order to dream about them. Much like the people in our dream, you can only dream about people that you have met, or seen even if it is just a glance as you walk past them in the street.  Real space is a physical space, our bedroom or our classroom are physical spaces. They have boundaries, such as the walls and the floor.

In relation to space we think of places. These places are familiar to us, when we call something a place it inherits a meaning, it is no longer just a physical space, but instead it is a place that holds memories, we hold mental images of it. Pearson talks of a place as “a portion of land/town/cityscape seen from the inside… entwined with personal memory, known or unknown histories, marks made in the land that provoke and evoke.” (Pearson, 2010, 109) Both spaces and places have thresholds, a threshold is seen as a crossing, we have to cross the threshold in order for us to enter the space/place. For example the threshold to my studio is the door.

However when creating a performance space this threshold may change the atmosphere of a room, taking the audience into another dimension. Imagine a ride at a theme park, you step through the door of the attraction and you have passed over the threshold. You are now submersed in a different place it is no longer Alton Towers, instead you are in the towers, immersed in the history of the curse of the chained oak. Just by stepping through over the threshold, your perception of where you are changes.

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