Non-Places by Marc Auge (1995)

From Places to Non-Places

Non-Places:
If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which
cannot be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity will be a non-place (77)
Clearly the word non-place designates two complementary but distinct realities: spaces formed in
relation to certain ends (transport, transit, commerce, leisure), and the relations that individuals
have with these spaces. (94)
non-places mediate a whole mass of relations, with the self and with the others, which are only
indirectly connected with their purposes. As anthropological places create the organically social, so
non-places create solitary contractuality. (94)
The link between individuals and their surroundings in the space of non-place is established
through mediation of words, or even texts. We know, for a start that there are words that make
image or rather, images: the imagination of a person who has never been to Tahiti or Marrakesh
takes flight the moment these names are read or heard (94-5)
defined partly by the words and texts they offer us by their instructions for use, which may be
prescriptive (Take the right hand lane), prohibitive (No smoking) and informative (You are now
entering the Beaujolais region). (96)
Supermodernity:
[On characteristic features that contribute to supermodernity ] Subject the individuals cons
entirely new experiences and ordeals of solitude, directly linked with the appearance and
proliferation of non-places (93)

Performance and Place by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris (2006)
Lois Keidan This must be the Place: Thoughts on Place, Placelessness and Live Art since
the 1980s
(Live Art) cannot be held in any singular cultural boundary or place, but occupies many. (9)
Live Art is synonymous with practices and approaches that cannot easily be accommodated or
placed, whether formally, spatially, culturally or critically: practices and approaches that could be
understood as being placeless... (10)
Live Art is an itinerant and inquisitive approach to art that is not bound to any singular cultural
boundary or place and cannot be reduced to a practice that only fits into the configurations,
economies, possibilities and expectations of one kind of culturally proscribed space. (15)
Emily Puthoff - The Patina of Placelessness
our eyes begin to adjust to the technological wizardry. We barely take notice of that
man behind the curtain anymore (76)
Non-places are constructed by the movement of people rushing through them, by the trajectory of
individuals. (76)
We often find ourselves rushing through non-places as means to arrive somewhere else, often
more non-places (76)
This plurality of places, the demands it makes upon the powers of observation and description (the
impossibility of seeing everything and saying everything), and the resulting feeling of disorientation
causes a break or discontinuity between the spectator-traveller and the space of the landscape he is
contemplating or rushing through. This prevents him from perceiving it as a place, from being fully
present in it, even though he may try to fill the gap with comprehensive detailed information (76)
We are basically devoid of any emotional attachment to the places we travel.
Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politic, Place, Practice (2012)
Keren Zaiontz - Ambulatory Audiences and Animate Sites: Staging the Spectator in Site-Specific
Performance
site-specific spectators often function as both the sight of artistic attention and the physical site
of the performance (167)
Immersive Theatres by Josephine Machon (2013)
Sensual Worlds: Immediacy, Intimacy and Sensuality
Awakening and engaging the fullness and diversity of sensory awareness is a central feature of
immersive practice.
manipulation and celebration of power, promise and potential attribute only to live performance.
This is true even where that performance employs pre-recorded digital worlds
Aroma is designed as an interactive feature. It becomes heightened in immersive theatre. Ring of
truth in Pigeon Theatre.
In immersive practice, because all of ones senses are heightened, it is difficult not to become
acutely aware of the natural aromas of the space, of polished wood floorboards, of dank cellars, of
earthy green woods.
Banes details a taxonomy of odour in performance of which there are six categories:
(1) To illustrate words, characters places and actions; (2) to evoke a mood or ambience; (3) to
complement or contrast with aural/visual signs; (4) to summon specific memories; (5) to
fame the performance as ritual; and (6) to serve as a distancing device. (2007: 30-1)