Semiotics of Space

This is a new column exploring different concepts that we use when we talk and write about space and geography.

By: Shoshana Schwebel, Research Designer 

In my mind, there are few books more lovely than Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space. Part spatial theory, part psychology, and part exploration of poetry, Bachelard unpacks many tiny and unnoticed spaces that are in fact scenes of our most intimate experiences. Take the drawer or the box. While most of us do not notice our daily reliance on their storage and utility, to Bachelard they are 'living' images, of special importance to children as placeholders for our need for secrecy, privacy, and mystery; within their interiors we access 'the secret psychological life'.