Movement Space
I was reading an interesting article by Malinda Markham exploring the possible influence of Chinese/Japanese writing on the development of 20th century American poetry in Kyoto Journal (54), when this caught my eye:
In her article she refers to Inoue Mitsuo’s Space in Japanese Architecture regarding architecture during Japan’s feudal period (1573 -1868) * the most Japanese in history* in which Chinese influences were “abandoned or significantly altered”
In any case she goes on to explain that:
..the main result was a shift in how space was viewed. Instead of seeing space as a geometric, architects gradually developed what (Inoue called) “movement space,” space described in terms of its “irregularity” and “indeterminacy”. If geometric space, seen from above, can be traced onto a grid, movement space means little unless one is directly inside of it. Or in other words, geometric space relates to ideas of order (an axis or pole) outside of itself, and movement space relates to what I think of as a highly subjective space-sensitive or time-sensitive ideas of order.
(Inoue uses the example of train maps):
He writes that movement space is like a train map because what is important to the traveler is not the curve or the angle of the track, but the names of the stations and what order they appear. Train maps, he notes, are not even drawn to scale, since what matters most is one’s destination and the stations adjacent to it, as markers.
Working on my plone site feels like engaging in this “movement space.” The key to it all seems to be about understanding *relative location*, i.e between the Zope Management Interface and Plone, customizing the portal skins, navigating the Wikis etc. Working on plone has been a massive conceptual leap for me as a *non-coder* and I am still endeavouring to come up with something that will allow the user to easily “find their destination and the stations adjacent to it.”
Of course the whole open source movement exists in “movement space.” Things are always shifting and evolving, with every “nightly rebuild” but there is (usually) someone around to help you if you get *lost*
Sometimes when I’m in “movement space”, I feel I need to take a snapshot of the scenery as it hurtles by. This is what this blog is all about.
Laundry drying from a Tokyo “danchi” as I hurtle by on a train
