Spatial Desire

van der Linden, Martin

doi:10.1007/978-981-33-4658-1_1

Martin van der Linden¹²

Part of the book series: Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements ((ACHS))

475 Accesses

Abstract

We discover, move through and occupy within, space because of our mobility. Through a change of diet, bipedalism, the use of tools, curiosity, and by following prey, hominins expanded their original territory out of Africa. This I would like to call: a spatial desire, which resulted in humans exploring and quickly settling anywhere on the planet. Immersed in the world, humans have observed and created a framework in which the search for an essence of the phenomena that this world brought forth, could be represented, and maybe understood. Through the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, especially his Phenomenology of Perception, we aim to support the argument that we make perception out of things perceived. In addition Merleau-Ponty helps us to understand that the world is not what we think we see it is, rather it is how we experience it. Earlier, Oscar Wilde had suggested that art brings out not only the essence of an object, but also the phenomena of the object of art. To Wilde and Merleau-Ponty art shows us the world as it truly is. As an example the work of conceptual artists, Richard Long and Walter De Maria, show that through a minimal intrusion the essence of the site can become visible.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 84.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 109.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 159.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Gilles A. Tiberghien: Land Art. p. 13.
2.
Yang Wang and Manoj Srinivasan: Stepping in the Direction of the Fall: the next foot placement can be predicted from current upper body state in steady-state walking, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0405.
3.
Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man. p. 35.
4.
Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man. p. 35.
5.
The Smithsonian Institute: Laetoli Footprint Trails https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails.
6.
Kate Douglas: Puzzles of Evolution: Why did we become Bipedal? https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328571-300-puzzles-of-evolution-why-did-we-become-bipedal/#ixzz62gteY6DS.
7.
Sherwood L. Washburn: Social Life of Early Man. pp. 93–94.
8.
S.L. Washburn and Irven DeVore: Social Behaviour of Baboons and Early Man: in Sherwood L. Washburn et al.: Social Life of Early Man. p. 94.
9.
The Oxford Handbook of Engineering & Technology in the Classical World. p. 136.
10.
Adolph Schultz: Some factors influencing the social life of primates in general and early man in particular, in Sherwood L. Washburn: Social Life of Early Man. p. 61.
11.
A. Irving Hallowell: The Protocultural Foundations of Human Adaption in Sherwood L. Washburn et al.: Social Life of Early Man. p. 243.
12.
Julian Steward: Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups. p. 33.
13.
Yi-Fu Tuan Space & Place. p. 80.
14.
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel. pp. 32–36.
15.
C. Loring Pace, A. Russell Nelson & Pan Qifeng: People of the New World in: C. Michael Bartfon: The Settlement of the American Continents. pp. 28–38.
16.
Richard Long: Five Six Pick Up Stick, in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 566.
17.
Richard Long: Five Six Pick Up Sticks, in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories nd Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 565.
18.
Richard Long: Five Six Pick Up Sticks, in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 565.
19.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology of Perception p. xx.
20.
Paul Guyer: Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics. p. 227.
21.
Walter W. Skeat: The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. p. 5.
22.
Albert Hofstadter & Richard Kuhns: Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger. pp. 4, 5.
23.
R.G Collingwood: in William Debbins., ed. Essays in the Philosophy of History, p. 122.
24.
John Dewey: Art as experience. p. 12.
25.
Michel Foucault: The Language of Space. p. 167.
26.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology of Perception. p. ix.
27.
Walter W. Skeat: The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. p. 137.
28.
Aristotle: The Metaphysics. p. 61.
29.
Edmund Husserl: Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy. p. 41.
30.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology of Perception. p. 5.
31.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception. p. 5.
32.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception. p. 5.
33.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Cézanne’s Doubt, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. p. 70.
34.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Cézanne’s Doubt, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. p. 67.
35.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Cézanne’s Doubt, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. p. 71.
36.
Oscar Wilde: The Decay of Lying in De Profundis and other writings. p. 78.
37.
Oscar Wilde: De Profundus and other writing. p. 78.
38.
Oscar Wilde: De Profundus and other writing. p. 79.
39.
John Sallis: Klee’s Mirror. p. 36.
40.
Paul Klee : Pedagogical Sketchbook. p. 6.
41.
Paul Klee : Pedagogical Sketchbook. p. 20.
42.
Paul Klee : Pedagogical Sketchbook. p. 32.
43.
GillesA. Thiberghien: Land Art.
44.
Walter De Maria : Some Facts, Notes Data, Information, Statistics and Statements. in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 527.
45.
https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit/walter-de-maria-the-lightning-field.
46.
Walter De Maria : Some Facts, Notes Data, Information, Statistics and Statements. in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 527.
47.
Walter De Maria : Some Facts, Notes Data, Information, Statistics and Statements. in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 528.
48.
Walter De Maria: Some Facts, Notes Data, Information, Statistics and Statements. in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 527.
49.
Walter De Maria: Some Facts, Notes Data, Information, Statistics and Statements. in Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. p. 528.
50.
https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit/walter-de-maria-the-lightning-field.
51.
Marc Treib: Attending in Rebecca Krinke: Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation. p. 28.
52.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception. p. vii.
53.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception. pp. 21–22.
54.
Marc Treib: Attending in Rebecca Krinke: Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation. p. 28.
55.
The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. p. 51.
56.
Harvey Croze: The Serengeti’s Great Migration. p. 19.
57.
Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species. p. 416.
58.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/how-clumsy-galapagos-cormorant-lost-its-flight.
59.
J. Edward Chamberlin: Island p. 131.
60.
Walter W. Skeat: The concise Dictionary of English Etymology. p. 520.
61.
Paul Lunde & Caroline Stone: in Ibn Fadlan : Ibn Fadlan and the Landof Darkness. p. xxiii.
62.
The Complete Works of Zhuangzi. p. 187.
63.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca: Natural Questions. p. 11.
64.
Robert Joost Willink: the Fateful Journey. p. 36.
65.
Noel Titus: The Amelioration and abolition of slavery in Trinidad 1812–1834: experiments and protests in a new slave colony. p. 17.
66.
About £3,200,000 in todays currency.
67.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 38.
68.
J.F. van Hengel: Geneeskundige Plaatsbeschrijving van het Gooiland. p. 108.
69.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 52.
70.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 63.
71.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 63.
72.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. pp. 63–65.
73.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 126.
74.
Robert Joost Willink: The fateful journey. p. 103.
75.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. p. 127.
76.
Robert Joost Willink: The fateful journey. p. 105.
77.
Henry M. Stanley: Through the Dark Continent.
78.
Robert M. Sack : Human Territoriality. p. 83.
79.
Walter W. Skeat The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. p. 174.
80.
Robert Sack: Human territoriality. p. 83.
81.
MauriceMerleau-Ponty: Phenomenology of Perception. p. 243.
82.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology of Perception. p. viii.
83.
Robert Joost Willink: The Fateful Journey. pp. 131, 137.
84.
Paul Virilio: Landscapes of events. p. 54.
85.
Jaques Riviere: in Pierre Mac Orlan: A Handbook for the Perfect Adventurer. p. xii.
86.
Pierre Mac Orlan: A Handbook for the Perfect Adventurer. p. 7.
87.
Georg Simmel : The Adventure in David Frisby ed. Simmel on Culture. p. 223.
88.
The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. p. 89.
89.
Blaise Pascal: Pensées. #72.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

van der Architects, Tokyo, Japan
Martin van der Linden

Authors

Martin van der Linden
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin van der Linden .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

van der Linden, M. (2021). Spatial Desire. In: Architecture. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4658-1_1

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4658-1_1
Published: 13 March 2021
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-33-4657-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-33-4658-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics