Bergen County, New Jersey: History as Nostalgia, Nature as Regret” by Despina Metaxatos
Sunday, February 10, 2008, History Café, 1:00 - 4:00 pm, Lecture begins at 2:00 pm. Refreshments provided.
My interest in space was prompted by my return to New Jersey following three years spent in the wide-open spaces of Western Australia, where I completed my MFA in Visual Art in 2005. I experienced firsthand the ways in which physical space impacts many aspects of our lives—our daily routine, our perceptions, even (and especially), our mental space.
On my return home, I developed a renewed interest in the history of my town, Teaneck, and in the history of Bergen County in general. If low population density and physical distance affect the ways in which people relate in Western Australia, these factors may have played changing roles in the development of my town from its colonial-era roots to the present. That the expansive sense of space, time and wild nature I associated with Western Australia had once existed in New Jersey was a revelation in broad daylight, while also provoking a curious sense of loss. “History is experienced as nostalgia, and nature as regret – as a horizon fast disappearing behind us”, writes Henri Lefebvre in The Production of Space. As physical space is usurped by virtual, screen space, the concrete acquires that aura of nostalgia.
Previous is an abstract of a paper I presented in November 2007 at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/ American Culture Association Conference in Philadelphia. My research was stimulated by comparative national spaces and straddles the domains of art, history and sociology. The paper is accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation, which includes my own photographs and archival maps and images.
Takes place at the Campbell-Christie House, 1201 Main St, River Edge, NJ. $5.00 donation, members free.
