Place

The word "place" is a common term that is used in our society. It can be used to address a location or signal ownership. When thinking about the word place I automatically think of home or somewhere dear to me.

Cresswell described certain aspects that make a space turn into a place. First, it must be somewhere where people have made significance to or are attached in some way. A place must also have some relationship to humans and the human capacity to produce and consume meaning. My relationship to my house and association with it to place shows this. My home is my own space where I can do whatever I want. I have marked my territory by placing certain items in my space that connect and represent me. By doing so, I am taking the space that was not originally mine and making it my own by placing meaning.

Naming is a way that space can be given meaning becoming a place. I thought Cresswell's example using colonists and natives an interesting way to describe how naming a place can be both constructed and subjective. While the colonists saw the open sea as simple vast empty space, the natives saw the sea as places associated with spirits and dangers. Since the natives had more meaning associated to the sea their journey in their canoe became a more significant experience. Place is not just a thing in the world but a way of understanding the world. For example, our connections between places and people builds our understanding on how the world functions. I believe that our culture also shapes how we interpret a place. For example, we can believe that places that are more rural have less educated people. Or that America is better than another nations because of its technological power. These misconceptions can also be infiltrated in the popular media. We must be careful that we do not make judgments about other places, especially if they are places that we have never visited.

I found the first article "Denotations, Connotations and Myths" particularly interesting because of its discussion of denotations and connotations effect on social codes. The denotation of a sign is its literal meaning that can be understood amongst people in a particular culture. Connotation is a emotional or philosophical association that we put with a sign. However, most semioticians argue that no real difference lies between denotation and connotation because we are constantly placing our own values and judgements on a sign. Signs and codes are generated by myths and are used to maintain these myths. They are used to make ideological and historical beliefs seem normal within a culture. From our experiences we interpret certain events and people in culture. Values are then reinforced in society causing us to view the world in a way that is specific to the culture that we live in. Myths can become both imposing and expose of our behavior. It is what you have grown up with and all that you know.