Reimagining Space, Time, and Belonging

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  • Title: Reimagining Space, Time, and Belonging: Visualizing Henri Lefebvre’s Trialectic Space Through Creative Practice
  • Author(s): Clive Barstow
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Series: Common Ground Open
  • Journal Title: The International Journal of the Image
  • Keywords: Lefebvre, Abstract, Time, Space, Visual Art, Trialectic, Imaginary
  • Volume: 16
  • Issue: 1
  • Date: February 13, 2025
  • ISSN: 2154-8560 (Print)
  • ISSN: 2154-8579 (Online)
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8560/CGP/v16i01/39-62
  • Citation: Barstow, Clive. 2025. "Reimagining Space, Time, and Belonging: Visualizing Henri Lefebvre’s Trialectic Space Through Creative Practice." The International Journal of the Image 16 (1): 39-62. doi:10.18848/2154-8560/CGP/v16i01/39-62.
  • Extent: 24 pages

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Abstract

This article presents a personal and creative reinterpretation of Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space, visualized through to the production of artworks as a mechanism to propose imaginary and reconstituted truths. Several key thinkers on space and place are examined to present an abstract notion of time and space that re-presents history as a series of synchronous and relational moments in time. In line with Lefebvre’s dialectic approach, I argue that his various models of spatial triads posit a differential space that is open ended and, thus, accessible to artists to develop a participatory and embodied form of praxis that is adaptable and especially accommodating to cultures in flux. I extend Lefebvre’s expression of trialectics toward a model of auto-ethnography for the practice-led researcher that positions them within the dialogue as participant, thus avoiding the pitfalls of othering that can occur in traditional ethnographic studies. The concept of abstract space is used to form an interdependent and embodied relationship between theory and practice that evokes imaginary worlds through which we can question the construction of cultural norms within the established framing of history and place.