Atmosphere in NON-Places

In favour of montages, metaphysical renders and abstract visuals; I have utilised those modes of expression to depict personal ideas for my ongoing studio project. In support of this methodology, I share with you my outcomes of an attempt to define 'non-place' as a term.

To begin with, I chose 2 sites in Castlefield to showcase why such spaces might be considered as non-places. Trusting my intuition, I picked up on atmosphere and thought of how it has affected me the most in making me think of the viaducts and Roman Ruins Fort (in Castlefield) as non-places.

Rainy Viaducts as a Non-Place, Sima Oklah, 2013

Foggy Roman Ruins Fort as a Non-Place, Sima Oklah, 2013

Atmosphere plays a great role in making one comfortable or not, it also implies that one becomes aware of their body as it becomes unbearable to stand in a wet cold or blurry environment for too long, so we tend to move on and disregard the factor of relaxing or even enjoying the beauty of nature hence it creates this non-place for any person (unless it is a place for homeless then we start to question how accurate and subjective the term 'non-place' is).
Among other aspects that 'qualify' a space into a non-place is the continuous movement of trains, trams, pedestrians and vehicles [ the transient behaviour ] which disabled me to connect and be mindful of the state of being there. The viaducts and Roman ruins scale and proportion in relation to my body have also minimised the chance to correlate at all.

Finally, in the accompanied montages, I aim to show this dialectic formation of being aware of a non-place by heightening senses through discomfort.

Have a powerful cheeky up-coming weeeeeeeeeek!!

With love,
SIMA