in situ
BA Major Design
BA Visual Communication Project
Winter semester
In 1974, French writer Georges Perec spent three days observing Place Saint-Sulpice, a public square, in Paris. While doing so, he took notes, about events and non-events – the whole idea was an experiment to capture a particular place in a literary and experimental way. Places are the visible manifestation of complex social interdependencies, which, beyond the obvious function of a place, provides information about its history and its relationship to the present, e.g. about its creation, preservation, destruction or appropriation, about ownership and power. Places can be public or private, they can be accessible or remain obstructed. Natural or built, large or small, in all cases they create an identity that is accepted, controversially discussed or rejected. The idea of the project is to describe and represent a place in an experimental way. The aspect of contextualisation plays the decisive role – how can a tension be created between the visible and the illegible of a place?
