The Third Space is a Bank
...the fractal drag of place.
The Scene of the Crime of Fraud
I am sitting in a Capital One Cafe in the vibrant & shopping centric neighborhood of Carytown, RVA. While there is a mural on the outside of the building (non-offensive, gentle colors) that begs you to believe this establishment has RVA art cred the inside is…the same. Its drag is kindly asking you to relax and trust it. “We are not a bank - we are a neighborhood cafe with modern conveniences!” The glass walled conference rooms hover in a mezzanine above the central coffee bar with it’s shiny espresso machines, flanked by the ATMs, and engineered with pocket spaces labelled “Lifestyle Lab” with colorful couches and clean surfaces. These client only comforts are tucked up and away from the unhoused who wander up and down this beat. Tiny signs declare you can reserve this adorable closet with the app. I wonder if they could book one for the afternoon and stay, unmolested, indoors for a while… “Your dogs and kids and money are welcome here!”
I spy with my little eye…a first date. A classroom. The colorful muraled facades of indie retailers through the second story window. Waste. The reflection of my aggressively red lipstick in the screen’s reflection.
Why am I here, you ask. Discounts - save a penny here, spend it in on tour.
Let me go back to Fractal Drag. When the thing you are trying to hide is amplified by the things you are using to hide it. It’s like seeing several dimensions simultaneously. Everywhere I look I hear “money” and “bank” and “we own you” in the soft textiles and helpful kiosk attendants and spotless exposed utilities ducts. The faces of the baristas make it VERY clear where we are and would you like to apply for a line of credit with your gingerbread latte you paid 1/2 price for?
Third Space
The sociological concept - codeveloped in the 1980s by academics - codifies the idea of a physical space that is neither home nor work, but holds the possibility of gathering. Cafes, parks, social clubs, church, etc. The big talking point these days is that there are so few of these spaces that don’t cost money to engage with.
I was considering, to me theaters are this space. Well, playing spaces. WELL Festivals too…I guess I’ve never liked hierarchy and the idea that “Work” gets second pillar in the temple of our society. What is Home? What is Work? Where are my gathering spaces? Is this a lack of healthy boundaries or the Orphic urge inside me, to know that the All is of the Many and the Above of the Below…
More interesting to me, its that my “third space” is not YOURS. That we are coexisting inside a meat suit space with different filters on. This Capital One Cafe is the workplace of these baristas AND the easiest public toilet in a dense shopping district. The Carpenter Center main stage is the workplace of the union stagehands AND the most magical transportive sandcastle of a vaudeville palace you’ve ever seen the Nutcracker in.
EVEN MORE INTERESTING to me, is that these places are mutable. They can shift and change within us in spirals. That Home and Work have “stable” signifiers (you pay rent, you earn rent) but the “Third” space…isn’t that just the Liminal? Isn’t that the Betwixt? Isn’t that the sea of mystery and opportunity of literally ANYWHERE ELSE other than islands of Home or Work?
So, back to the Fractal Drag of place.
The more the concept attempts to atomize the more abstract it reads. (This is a common challenge in the immersive theatrical space so I’m very limber on this particular intellectual obstacle course.) What use is there in the tight definition of a thing that is the fluctuating immeasurable perception generated by each conscious being. EVERYONE WILL RELAX HERE. FOCUS HERE. DELIGHT HERE. What use…except to sell us something, measure something, control something.
Well Darlings, I’m an anarchist, maximalist, queer, artist & alchemist in a well dressed meat suit ready to wander into an adventure. Small or large, grand and humble. I’ve got polydimensional vision and the Betwixt is the sea I swim in as it erodes the coastlines of Work and Home. Build a boat or jump in with me - we’re going together.
Above are sneaky snapshots I grabbed while working for the ballet this holiday season. On the left, is the curtain of the proscenium arch, leading to the 2600 seat 100 year old theater. On the right, the shadows who make the magic.