La mesa de la existencia - 25 de marzo, 2022 - Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space (French: La Poétique de l'Espace) is a 1958 book about architecture by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. The book is considered an important work about art. Commentators have compared Bachelard's views to those of the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Wikipedia

Gaston Bachelard coined a phrase that has remained with me for some time. Today I decided to take a photograph of the desk in my oficina. I was lazy and shot a few pictures. They were not quite sharp so I finally did what any good photographer will do which is to improve the capabilities of a camera by mounting it on a tripod.

Bachelard wrote of his work space, “the table of existence."

When Rosemary and I lived in Kerrisdale I had the handsome Edwardian desk in the picture above on one end of the living room. In the basement, in a very large room, I had all my negative files. In another room it was my darkroom. When Rosemary calculated my taxes she included the fact that a lot of our house was my work area. She would complain when I would use our dining room table to sort through slides.

Now, with no darkroom fumes in a damp darkroom, and my files all being in the same room as my desk, I find that my existence in it is pleasant. It is warm and dry and lots of light comes through the door and the window behind my CRT monitor. I have to adjust my Venetian blinds so I will not be affected by the glare.

Very important for my existence is that Epson scanner on the left of the photo. You can see the bamboo stick attached to my Art Deco lamp with a bloom of Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ suspended from it. I scanned the camellia and the results are here.

Living alone with two friendly brother and sister cats can be a bit melancholic in spite of the fact that they are affectionate. My office and the desk (a table it also is) is as Bachelard stated, my existence. I feel comfortable when I am in my oficina.

In bed at night, ideas come to my head in preparation for my next day’s blog. Sometimes like many a night I get out of bed and sit at my oficina chair after midnight.

With spring coming, my oficina existence will be shared with getting my garden ready for the season. Every year Rosemary and I opened our garden. We began sometime around 1990. Moving to the little deck garden in Kits never did change our habit. I will be opening the garden to the Vancouver Rose Society in June. I am sure that many of the visitors will be curious as to what is behind that door on the deck. 

I will quote Gaston Bachelard.