The first Place most people put on the map when they join
Platial is home. It might be
where they were born,
where they live now, where they lived
when they were growing up,
all the places they have ever lived, where they might live
in the future. All of these are ways of thinking about home.
Origins, for better or for worse, are defining. They are one of the important ways in which humans organize information about the world, and especially about the people they encounter. Knowledge of people's geographic origins are repositories of information, impressions, prejudices, images, and preconceived notions of all kinds. It is incredible how useful these can be in navigating a cosmopolitan social world and how heavily we draw from them without even realizing it most of the time. It goes without saying that this human dependence on incomplete and flawed repositiories of goegraphical/anthropological information can also get us into trouble, but especially when one is aware of the limitations and the flaws, it mostly serves to make a person more socially adept. The more a person knows about other cultures and Places the wider the person's potential overlapping social spheres.
Think of the last 10 people with whom you have socialized. Do you know where they grew up? Where they were born? I noticed recently at a party I went to that within a couple hours everyone knew where everyone else was from.
If knowing how to interpret this kind of information is an invaluable skill, then also is knowing how to impart it. Humans are constantly striving to control the message of their their own identities, whether consciously or not. What we tell, how we tell it, and when...

Watching the story of someone's life plot itself out in space and time on a map is one of my favorite things to do on Platial. I've always been fascinated by stories, and these autobiogeographical maps are a new kind of story, or rather the same old story we are always telling, but structured in a new way. They are another tool in the construction of the story of self. Another piece of the documentary so many of us are constantly creating about ourselves.
Recent Comments