The Importance of Space, Revisited

Some of you may have noticed that it has been exactly one month since I published my last blog post. This is of course unacceptable. This time of year the usual excuses for a radio silence of such length are end of term grading and meetings.  I have been busy with end of term things (and also start-up things as our summer semester starts on Monday) but the main reason I have not been able to write in a month is because I moved house. 

 For the past three weeks I have been living in perpetual displacement and having it happen at the same time as end of term was both a blessing and an additional stress. The kind of work that we do as academics requires a specific type of space. I have written about how we need to be aware of the classroom space in our pedagogical strategies, but this awareness of space is also very important outside of the classroom. We all have spaces that seem to bring out our productivity. It could be a specific corner of a particular library (for those who need quiet), a neighbourhood coffee shop (for those who like background noise), or a part of your house/apartment (for those who require familiarity). 

My dissertation was written by and large in my office at the university where I was a grad student as well as on the train commuting between the city where I went to grad school and the city I call home (a 2hr ride).  The final edits of my dissertation were completed at the 1950s baby blue art deco kitchen table I inherited from my grandmother in my apartment. Sometimes productive spaces are forced upon us, sometimes spaces become productive ones over time. However, when you are faced with a move (especially when it is unexpected) spaces don’t feel the same any more, and new spaces need to be discovered. 

It was the discovery of a new space that caused the most stress. I live a city with 1.7% rental vacancy. Yes you read that right, 1.7% in a population of 2.6 million people. Therefore, finding a new apartment is a task of Herculean proportions. When you finally do find an apartment it is probably registered on the bed bug registry (I live in a city with a bed bug problem as well) and/or it is in a part of the city that would create approximately a 2hr commute to work.  I thought that moving at the end of term would be a good thing for the vacancies of students leaving for the summer would increase. In fact it did not help at all. 

After almost a month of searching I finally found the lovely apartment where I am living (thanks to a friend from grad school). Nowhere is the importance of space reinforced than where I am living now. My three priorities for a new apartment were in order 1. That it have a productive space for work 2. That it be clean 3. That it be relatively close to the college where I work/teach.  This place has all three! I am writing this post from my new desk which is at the window overlooking a very quiet street. My neighbours are the friend from grad school and an award winning fiction writer.  Productivity oozes out of this apartment which is a mere 45mins or so from work. 

To say that I am happy to have found a new lovely productive space is an understatement. I also have a beautiful public library a 5min walk away, as well as at least a half dozen coffee shops with free Wi-Fi within a 10min walk. I am fully moved in and thankfully not in boxes which is why moving now has been a blessing. As I mentioned, our summer semester starts on Monday and I can now start the new term fresh, with new routines and new spaces.  It’s going to be a great term where I won’t be so remiss in my blog posts; please look back often for new posts on tactility, ethics, Hardy, Ruskin, and of course space.