A Dwelling in the Screen: At least for a little while

Whalley, Joanne and Miller, Lee (2005) A Dwelling in the Screen: At least for a little while. Performance Research, 10 (4). pp. 138-147. ISSN 1352-8165

Abstract / Summary

This article foregrounds the conceptual concerns central to Whalley and Miller’s various practical explorations of Marc Augé’s concept of the ‘non-place’, a concept typified by the shopping mall, the motorway service station and the airport lounge. It seeks to reinforce the research imperatives of the performance installation ‘Wider than a Mile’ (1-31 December 2005), and includes an exploration of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, particularly in relation to its support of the lived-through experience of the users of the non-place – according to Augé, a liminal space which is traversed but never fully occupied. Further to this, the article draws upon previous performance work, ‘Partly Cloudy, Chance of Rain’ (durational site-specific performance, September 2002) and ‘We Will Remember You’ (internet performance piece, online from April 2004 at www.dogshelf.cm/wwry.html), in order to frame ‘Wider Than a Mile’ in the broader research context of Whalley and Miller’s practice-as-research

The installation, commissioned by The Trafford Centre, Manchester, was intended to function as a ‘wedge’ in the consumer driven landscape of the video screen on which it was located (and thus in the shopping centre itself), and to provide an alternative rhythm to that otherwise offered to shoppers during December. In addition, the authors suggest that the spatial practices engaged in by the users of the non-place result in an operational understanding of Augé’s abstract articulation. Thus, they argue that any counter-articulation must be framed within the context of said spatial practices. Both the installation and the article explore the ways in which Whalley and Miller’s practical incursions might provide an, albeit temporary, counter-model to the dominant conceptualisation of the space.

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