Perec's Species of Spaces

Detail of sketchbook work   2013

In 2010/11 during my uni years, when I wrote my space poem in the form of a list (see post "Drawing Space"  http://stillmotionajourneyintospace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/drawing-space.html), I was not aware, nor had I ever seen Georges Perec's Species of Spaces. So it was a great pleasure, joy (and relief!) to encounter his work. Many thanks to Juan, my architect friend, for recommending him. Here is an extract from Perec's classic book, a small gem of a piece entitled 'Space'.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

SPACE

We use our eyes for seeing. Our field of vision reveals a limited space, something vaguely circular. which ends very quickly to the left and right, and doesn't extend very far up or down. If we squint, we can manage to see the end of our nose, if we raise our eyes, we can see there's an up, if we lower them, we can see there's a down. If we turn our head in one direction, then in another, we don't even manage to see completely everything there is around us; we have to twist our bodies round to see properly what was behind us.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far.

Elliptical eclipse on my studio table (ink, paper & stone)

When nothing arrests our gaze, it carries a very long way. But if it meets with nothing, it sees only what it meets. Space is what arrests our gaze, what our sight stumbles over: the obstacle, bricks, an angle, a vanishing point. Space is when it makes an angle, when it stops, when we have to turn for it to start off again. There's nothing ectoplasmic about space; it has edges, it doesn't go off in all directions, it does all that needs to be done for railway lines to meet well short of infinity.

Georges Perec  Species of Spaces and Other Pieces  1974