Concentrates of Place

I like this story from the National Geographic about a project aimed at capturing the concentrates of a place by a teacher: Marianne Braca.

The project was influenced by the work of Tanya Shadrick.

Marianne said:

Tanya describes her Concentrates of Place as a ‘deliberate way of honouring places and people.’

The project resonated with me, and as a geographer I am so interested in place. I also love the idea of collecting little pieces of a place and putting them in a tin for safekeeping, and I figured if I loved this idea my students would as well.”

Shadrick drew on memories from painful events in her life to develop the idea of capturing a place within a tin.

The idea of canning 'ideas' or intangible products reminds me of items such as this, which I purchased from Margate's Crab Museum recently as a novelty item.

Mostly because I couldn't afford to buy one of Piero Manzoni's cans which contain something a little less fresh.

It's also a reminder of one of the missions in the first Mission:Explore book, which invited people to sell the smell of a place.

This was incorporated into some resources from National Geographic some years back.

They are still available on the website.

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