Nonplace

Marc Auge identifies the nonplace as both a symptom and product of supermodernity. Auge's designation of the nonplace is neither prescriptive nor apocalyptic, realizing that the differential relation between place and nonplace is never absolute. The proliferation of nonplaces, however, is directly related to transnational capital and "supermodernity"; indeed, the nonplace is one of its products and mechanisms. Accordingly, the nonplace "designates two complementary but distinct […]

Nonplace does not mean no place, nor does it mean a nonexistent place. It just lacks certain conditions that a place should have, such as a name and a referential reality. Commonsense tells us that to have a name but no referential reality, or to have referential reality but no name, does not count as a “place” in the strict sense. Yet, for a cartographer, so long as it is included in the area of a map, even though it does not have a name or a referential reality, no twodimensional space at […]

And so the followers of Seferis, although they inherit a method, practice an unmethod, a methodological void. Or, to put it more precisely: although not forced to travel fleetingly from place to place, they travel anyway—to nonplaces, […]