Initial Musings

Ever since emerging from the subway at the place de Republique, I've been intermittently pondering interior vs. exterior space. Where is the line between inside and outside? Is there a line, or is it more of a zone of transition? If it's a zone, what is the nature of that space that is both/neither inside and/nor outside?

The thought first arrived, as I said, when I came up the stairs of the subway and stepped into the middle of the place de Republique. It suddenly hit me that ever since I had walked into the terminal at the Detroit airport, I had felt like I was in an enclosed, limited space; contained; "inside." I ran back through all the places I had been since the trip began: terminal in Detroit, plane, terminal in O'Hare, plane, terminal in Charles De Gaulle, RER station in CDG, RER train, metro station (Gare du Nord), metro train, place de Republique.

I then ran back through the relative enclosure levels of each place, and found breaks in the collective seal: where the jetway meets the plane there is the feeling of breeze and an unfiltered view of the pavement; the airport terminal has a ceiling and walls, but the walls are transparent, affording a visual connection to "outside;" The RER station is enclosed, but is still open-air (free ventilation). So where did the "inside" stop and the "outside" begin?

Things got even more confused when I walked to my apartment. The streets were narrow and the building facades encroached so much that at times the sidewalk became almost too narrow for even one person. On a street with continuous built facades on either side, only 15' apart from eachother, a feeling of enclosure begins to creep in. I also pondered what role a roof played in this game, and how an open-air pavilion roof can define an area, but doesn't enclose it. It may be apparent what area is within the realm of "pavilion," but it's still all "outside."

This question came back to me yesterday afternoon when our class traveled to 104, an installation art exhibition gallery that used to be the city morgue.



These are both photos from within the boundaries of 104, but which location is "inside" and which is "outside"? Does it have to do with the existence of physical enclosure? Visual limitations? Source and amount of ventilation? Visual cues connected to a presumed typical condition of "inside" or "outside" (i.e. the direction of door swings, or the type/use of brick surrounding windows)? Temperature?

[aside:] Speaking of temperature, it's COLD here. Isn't Paris in the spring supposed to be above 60 degrees F? Maybe the conservatives were right and global warming really is a hoax....

....

.... and maybe I'll be able to succinctly answer all these questions I've raised within the next 24hrs. HAH!