On the representation of places

Abstract

The reasons for representing places are manifold, and so are the ways in which they are represented. Travel guides, music, and paintings give an impression of often distant places, and scientific texts seek to represent places and their context objectively. By going beyond the existing semantic discourse on representations and focussing on places more specifically, this article seeks a better understanding of the representations of places. First, naturally occurring representations are discussed as the result of the patterns that are formed by place-making and the very being of a place, such as archaeological finds and traditions. Subsequently, I argue that many of the natural as well as non-natural representations can be understood as ‘representation-as’ in Goodman’s and Elgin’s sense, because they represent places as part of a genre, for example, as a tourist attraction or a retreat. This understanding facilitates the conceptualization of individual representations and their placement in the overall context, which in turn helps laying the foundation for a conceptual framework for ‘platial’ information.