Representation of spaces

Assignment 1
Richa Singh| Shilpa Jain

CULTURE AND SPACE

The perception of a personal space across culture is different. Different
culture handles personal space differently. Sometimes it is related to the
time and material world. The space between people or where the things/
objects are positioned in a room have different meaning to people from
different cultures. Personal space varies depending upon the culture. It is
the distance which we keep between self and the person in front of us.
One often tends to create a personal space and feels uncomfortable if
someone else tried to enter it.
Professional
Family /
Friends
Personal

In certain cases the person feel comfortable if a person from the same
culture enters for e.g. If we go outside our country, we feel comfortable in
involving the other person from the same country in our personal space,
whereas in other cases within our country, the choice for comfort level in
bringing a person into our personal space may vary depending upon
region, time, location, situation and person. With the absence of this
space, there is no privacy.
In some cities people walk close and place is crowded to personal space
for example China, whereas, in some cities people walk at a distance
where there is a space for everyone for example Dublin, Germany. Every
culture has a set of hidden cultural rules concerning the physical space or
proximities between people when communicating.
With reference to the topic Culture and Space, the study done defines a
space as a flat and one-dimensional modern existence which lacks a layer
of the sacred and exists solely on the plane of the profane.

Representation of spaces
Assignment 1
Richa Singh| Shilpa Jain

Any space can become sacred matter of space whether it is a Muslim

prayer rug or grand Kaba/ Cathedral. Even a place becomes sacred and
culturally important because of the event which happened in the past.
With an event related to religion, which occurred in the past, makes that
time sacred and with time that place/ space becomes sacred as well and
visa-versa.

Room

Room

People usually take their

As soon as a sacred object
comes into the room slippers inside the house.

In the ancient time (past culture), geographical locations and natural

features like a mountain or a tree were worshiped by the people. In
todays time, present space is less likely to be sacred since people keep
on migrating and to connect oneself to those sacred times of the past
events which is considered religiously important, people have built
religious spaces like temple, church, mosques etc. by adding wall to a
space approachable to them. These spaces create connection between
visible and invisible i.e. the spiritual world. It is a veil between humans
and transcendent.

Representation of spaces
Assignment 1
Richa Singh| Shilpa Jain

Profane place becomes

sacred with the activity.

People use to worship

mountains and river.

Sacred spaces leads to sacred time which is marked by the same

ambivalence that characterise sacred power. Time and space are ordinary
until given a religious meaning to them. For instance a morning time
prayer at home can make the space around us sacred.
Modern world is profane and as soon as we enter a worship place, we
leave profane world outside. For any building we enter, we feel different,
taking the example from religious point of view, if a person enters her/his
religious worship place, he/she experience that place to be pure and holy
and feel belongingness whereas, if that person enters other religion
worship place, he/she might feel the holiness of the place but not being
belonged to it. Entering into a sacred space, we enter into a state of
liminality-a state of being in between, neither here nor there, one
becomes different than what he/she is in normal life. We temporarily
suspend ourselves from say-to-day world.
The sacra are sacred solely because they are used in a sacred place; there
is no difference between a sacred vessel and an ordinary one. By being
used in a sacred place, they are held to be open to the possibility of
significance, to be a see as agents of meaning as well as utility.
The space not only makes the environment in it holy but also adds
meaning to the objects in it, which would be otherwise ordinary. A worship
place acts as a focus lens, making and revealing significance. For instance
at home a room remains a room until a Pooja takes place at home. The
character of the place changes.
Some culture defines spaces for men and women also as a sacred space
(based on gender) such as in a mosque. All these spaces are culturally
important become restriction to others indirectly.

Representation of spaces
Assignment 1
Richa Singh| Shilpa Jain

In the present time, with the availability of application in the phone, it has
helped create virtual sacred space, a space for an individual and
eliminated restrictions that traditionally accompany entering a sacred
space in real.