I think the idea of a site inherently implies a construct of time within a temporal period.
For instance: the Haimalayas were once under water -- although the 'site' spelled in global co-ordinates may be the same the geo-physical condition is markedly different now than it had been 50m years ago.
Also the definition of a site inherently has as a parameter : a lack of mobility. ( in german, and possibly in other cultures/languages for instaAlsonce, real estate is classified, translated, as immobilien -- quite legibly, for us im- mobile -- lack of mobility -- stationary)
On a cultural level, one must question migration itself -- does a migratory condition preclude the potential existence of a site? When a living being dies in a particular place in its journey,
the journey remains dynamic, the place of death becomes immortalized.
A site, with regard to a narrative, then requires more than the glacially
slow movements of geological time, less than the temporary transience of a migrant -- but certainly somewhere in between.
In some ways this intersticial temporality is of our own, culturally specific construction.
Monday, February 9, 2009
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made me think of the differences between the cultural production of nomadism (weeping camel) vs. the arguably much larger body of cultural production of settlement (starting with agriculture I suppose and leading to modern science etc) I wonder what kind of 'mobile infrastructure' we would need to maintain a sedentary level of cultural production on the move?
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