READING RESPONSE

Architecturally Speaking: Practices of Art, Architecture and the Everyday edited by Alan Read.


Chapter 3. Getting lost and the localized mind. Written by Franco Cecia.

I actually do not usually like or even mildly enjoy the articles I receive and am supposed to read for class. Which is why I was surprised when I read Architecturally Speaking and found it one of the most interesting things I have read in a while. I think the main reason for this is because what the author is talking about is something that I can apply to my life right now and to the experience I am having while abroad. It was also one of the influences for our art project. So I am also found of it because of that. The article is all about getting lost, or rather how it is impossible to get lost in our society these days. According to the article getting lost is a cultural experience that we usually share with other people. It can remind us of past times we have gotten lost and then found ourselves.

However the articles also talks about how getting lost intentionally becomes more difficult. Which I think is quite true. When you get lost in a city, all you have to do to reorient yourself is either buy a map or ask a local who would know. At a time when maps were not an option, a person who was lost in a city they did not know, was forced to ask. It was apart of the role the stranger. If you lived in a town you knew who the foreigner was because that person would inevitably have to ask for directions to the place he or she was headed. Really the only way to truly loose yourself would be to go out into the wilderness or somewhere that would separate you from people. But that being said, since it is so hard to get lost these days, it would seem that the fear of getting lost is stronger than the feeling we have when we are lost. And yet most of us are so afraid of being lost. Of losing ourselves. It is as if we associate being lost with the loss of our identity. If you are in a place where no one knows you, your previous identity is surely gone. Or so some might think.

I think this is one of the reasons that people in college go abroad. They are trying to get away from themselves. Trying to leave behind a personality, a past, a person they are not proud to be. This reminds me of a quote one of my friends told me once on just this subject and it is, “Where ever you go, there you are.” You cannot really get away or loose yourself. Which makes the fear of getting lost kind of silly because you are never going to loose your personality just by changing scenery.

I guess another reason why someone would feel lost is because they are unable to see people and places they know. But if you if you stay in one place for long enough, those unfamiliar places are going to become familiar and you will meet people and make new relationships. So while you might be nostalgic for the things and people you are unable to see anymore, you make a new niche for yourself and that feeling of being lost is temporarily relieved. These are all just things I thought about while reading the article because it really makes you think about your place in a city or town that is unfamiliar to you.


“Then there is getting lost as a condition of beginning.”