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"Place is an organized world
of meaning" - Yi Fu Tuan
IDEAS IN PLACE
There is a realm where places and ideas intersect,
and as a geographer by training, this is where my interests and
expertise lie. This pathway, where the tangible and abstract
meet, has taken me in two very different directions, corresponding
(more or less) to the left and right sides
of the brain.
 On the logical
side (with a fair amount of artistry thrown in), I am a freelance
indexer of books
 On the creative,
intuitive side, my geographical research is on the poetics
of place, with an emphasis on gardens.
For the Right Side of the Brain:
The PLACES we inhabit can be better understood and experienced
through ideas associated with them. I call this "poetics
of place." I analyze places to consider the way they are
experienced, drawing from the ideas of many traditions, including
Western and Eastern philosophy, psychology, perception and color
theory, and feng shui.
For the Left Side of the Brain:
On the other hand, IDEAS have places of their own: they dwell
in books. To read a book is to enter into the realm of ideas,
and we need to be able to locate those concepts within the realm
of the book. One powerful tool for navigating the books that
house ideas is the back-of-the-book index. As a freelance indexer,
I create indexes that guide the reader, incorporating both the
science and the art of indexing (so the right brain gets in there
too).
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