Yi-fu Tuan 1998

Thanks to Matt for introducing Yi-fu Tuan into the dialogue, as we look at the role of Space/Place in Augmented Reality Gaming. It promises to be very interesting stuff from a reflective academic. From past experiences, I guess I sort of expect a quiet sensibility from the Human Geographers I've met (and, speaking of, thanks to Nich Bauch, an advisee of Yi-fu Tuan, for further updating me). Those well-rooted in place seem to have that quiet sensibility (Aldo Leopold? Henry Thoreau? etc.)

Here are some quotes by Yi-fu Tuan from his Charles Homer Haskins Lecture for 1998

“Life, with no sense of direction, is drained of purpose.”

“I took up geography because I have always wondered, perhaps to a neurotic degree, about the meaning of existence: I want to know what we are doing here, what we want out of life. Big questions of this kind, which occur to most children as they approach puberty, have never left me. But rather than seek an answer in the great abstractions of philosophy and religion, I began my quest at the down-to-earth level of how people make a living in different places and environments.”

“Geography has allowed me to roam from the physical to the human—from climate and landforms to morals and ethics—and still remain within its capacious borders. The downside is isolation—isolation from fellow geographers who may roam the same grounds but come up with quite different questions and answers; and isolation from scholars in philosophical disciplines who, though they may share my questions, find no reason to heed the cogitations of an outsider.”