Hi Lyndsay,

I have thought quite a bit about Auge's non-places for my thesis on 
modified-car culture. For me his approach is highly problematic and 
only ever offers (and works from) a partial understanding of place that 
excludes other forms of place-based engagement and sociality. I read it 
as something akin to the Frankfurt Schools critique of pop culture but 
for cultural geography. For a critique of Auge you might want to check 
out (if you haven't already):

Merriman, Peter. (2004) "Driving Places: Marc Augé Non-Places, and the 
Geographies of England’s M1 Motorway" Theory, Culture & Society 24 
(4/5): 145-167 

On the service station space as a social space:

Laegran, A. S. (2002). "The Perol Station and the Internet Cafe: Rural 
Technospaces for Youth." Journal of Rural Studies 18: 157-168.

On the film side of things there a couple of people from ANU who are 
doing some work in a local suburb of Canberra on car enthusiasts. I 
actually went down to Canberra a couple of days ago to sit in on a 
screening of their work in progress and the stuff I saw (I was late!!) 
was pretty bloody good. If you want their contact details I could pass 
them on.

Even though you may be using the space as your frame of reference (is 
the place still a nonplace then for you? surely a film project that 
requires you to 'camp out' in a space for a duration of time will allow 
you to develop an organic connection to the space thus reproducing the 
space as a place in Auge's terms?) and the people passing through the 
frame are 'everyday' it might be good to keep in the back of your mind 
Paul Corrigan's short piece in Resistance through Rituals on "Doing 
Nothing". The street space for the youth in Corrigan's piece (as it is 
for my automobilised car enthusiasts) becomes an event-space that is 
potentialised through a variation in movement or practice. Anticipation 
of this 'eventuality' of the potential 'eventfulness' of a space is an 
important drawcard for people who stand around in carparks, shopping 
centres or where ever 'doing nothing'. This, of course, is different 
from de Certeau's tactical engagement with the temporalisities of a 
city space, as the tactical engagement still subsumes movement to the 
journey. The precipitation of the incorporeal 'nothing' that 'happens' 
in the event-space of the potentialised 'eventfulness' of the street 
may have heterogeneous strategic (ritualised) and tactical 
(spontaneous) framings that works from various performances centred on 
the variation of movement and cessation. Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis also 
works from a similar absence/presence dialect to Auge, but I think it 
is more successful. 

Lastly, two pieces on shopping centre/public spaces. The good people at 
the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS) and Tema Q (I 
think) at Linkoping University have carried out a massive “Passages 
Project” (invokes Benjamin's Arcades project). Johan Fornas is the main 
man to speak to about that [log in to unmask] Some of their published 
work may be very useful to you as it seems like exactly what you want 
to do, but represented in a written text. The second project was 
carried out a few years ago by some people at the Centre for Cultural 
Research (nee Institute of Cultural Research back then I think) at the 
University of Western Sydney. I don't know much about this one, but I 
know my principle supervisor provided a soundbite. It was on uses and 
abuses of the huge Westfield Parramatta shopping centre. Apparently it 
was a research partnership with Aus TV's gov run SBS and it was 
broadcast on SBS. Here is a link for it: 
http://www.uws.edu.au/research/researchcentres/ccr/partnerships/sbs 
You should be able to approach SBS and get a copy of this.

For 'nonplaces' in movies I have a list of car flicks they may or may 
not be useful to you. I think the car stuff may not be what you want.

Ciao,
Glen.


-- 
PhD Candidate 
Centre for Cultural Research
University of Western Sydney

Read my rants: http://glenfuller.blogspot.com/

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