The French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s book The Poetics of Space suggests that spaces — houses, shells, drawers, nests, and the corners of things — are far more than physical; they are laden with soul-making and dreamwork. In a practice he calls “topoanalysis,” Bachelard encourages us to entwine our understandings of physical space and personal identity. 

In the chapter “The Dialectics of Inside and Outside,” the philosopher remarks on thresholds, interrogating the image of the door (a potent portal). “If one were to give an account of all the doors one has closed and opened, of all the doors one would like to re-open,” Bachelard writes, “one would have to tell the story of one’s entire life.” 

What doors and other thresholds shape our lives and senses of self? How do our experiences of physical space and psychic space intersect and create one another? Join us at the downtown Redwood City archway to consider these and other questions through a Sidewalk Study and discussion, following Bachelard’s lead.

Text: Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space

Date: Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 PM

Location: Redwood City Archway, Redwood City, CA with Erika & Peter