The Importance Of Spaces In Space

The space in which we live, which draws us out of ourselves, in which the erosion of our lives, our time, and our history occurs, the space that claws and gnaws at us, is also, in itself, a heterogeneous space. In other words, we do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that could be coloured with diverse shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable on one another. (Foucault 2002, 231)

Foucault, in the above passage, from Of Other Spaces, is making an observation on the way that individuals exists within space. In this short paper I will attempt to delve into more detail and interpret the above paragraph using comparisons to some of the writings of Zygmunt Bauman and Nicholas Mirzoeff and some of my own understanding and reflection.

To begin with, Foucault discusses how we do not live in a void, that we are impacted by the heterogeneous space of the world around us. It would be extremely naïve to think that we could operate in isolation and without being affected by our contact with the world beyond our individual sphere. Bauman discusses the idea of residing

Furthermore, Mirzoeff’s observations highlight the heterogeneous nature of modern societies, where cultures are able to mingle with one another, creating new spaces which form a reflection of the past, present and future based on the hybrid nature of society. Thus, we are able to illustrate that although we may be individuals occupying our own unique position in time and space that space is not without outside influences and pressures affecting it even though it may at least appear to be a completely delineated space, distinct from spaces around