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Hodological space
Keywords; Experience, Accessibility
Interesting quotes:
The real space of the world is the space which Lewin calls "hodological" ...The space which is originally revealed to me is hodological space; it is furrowed with paths and highways, it is instrumental and it is the location of tools. - Jean-Paul Sartre In: Bollnow, 2011
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This hodological space is from the start contrasted with abstract mathematical space. - Otto Friedrich Bollnow
The geometry of living space, including directions in it, depends on the state of the person in question. - Kurt Lewin In: Bollnow, 2011
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Commentry:
Hodological spaces, in the extreme, are immersions within the mind of the individual in response to actual or illusory boundaries. The claustrophobe’s own anxiety of encapsulation immerses them with fear. This fear can then lead on to hallucinations that the physical world is constricting around them betraying their senses and undermining their reason. Immersion of this kind happens as a response to physical space being perceived and experienced on a psychological level. A unity popular with the gestalt school of psychology whose practices influenced Lewin. It focuses attention on one singular sense, vision, and maintains the feeling until an escape may be found in the sufferer's hodological space. On a more positive note, hodological spaces can also provide individuals with feelings of security. As we enter our homes, we experience a calmer type of immersion. We become more at ease, more liberated and can feel unburdened by other prevailing anxieties. Whilst it is not the same 'immersion of escape' as reading a book or watching a film, this form of emotional immersion is no less significant in affecting our psychological reality.
Immersion in our own dwelling offers an escape from the expanse of ‘outside’ within the walls of our house we have protection, not just from the elements but from the gaze of society. The house is also the centre of a human’s world, all journeys begin with and return to the home. How we feel when we are travelling inherently adds a small dimension of impatience which makes immersion difficult. How much harder is it to focus on work when there is only five minutes left before the end of the day. Our thoughts turn to the journey and the expectance of returning home. Finding immersion outside in the streets is a difficult process, works like Too much information with incorporate travelling around the external world suffer from the protection that would truly allow an audience to become immersed within the performance.
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As listeners stand outside in the world there is always other people, other noises, sights, smells that distract from the piece and limit the depth of immersion available. These limitations are lessened in the theatre and more so in the home, it returns to our ability to forget anxieties long enough for our minds to escape the world into the imagination. As such, it could be said that immersion requires the basic needs described in Maslow’s hierarchy for us to successfully detach ourselves from our environment. And that our experienced, or hodological space carries a large impact on our ability to become immersed.