There Is No Place Like Home : simplebooklet.com

3List of IllustrationsList of IllustrationsWong, Millicent, Just me and my quarantine wristband (2020)Figure 1Wong, Millicent, A screenshot from the StayHomeSafe App on my last day of quarantine (2020)Figure 2Wong, Millicent, Map 1: Basic physical layout of my bedroom with simple annotations (2020)Figure 3Wong, Millicent, Map 2: Initial mapping of intentions/ activities taking place under quarantine (2020)Figure 4Wong, Millicent, Map 3: Close-up map of the desk area (2020)Figure 5Wong, Millicent, Map 4: Close-up map of the bed and bay window area (2020)Figure 6Wong, Millicent, Map 5: Mapping intentions and significances (2020)Figure 7Wong, Millicent, Map 6: The final map of my bedroom during my fourteen-day quarantine (2020)Figure 8

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4IntroductionThe coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has radically changed our daily lives as the world is experiencing different levels of lockdown in response to the situation.1The current COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption to social distancing (or distant socialising) have prohibited many activities from taking place outside. With stay-at-home orders, mandatory quarantines, and self-isolation being implemented in countries across the globe, individuals are now spending more time in their homes.2 We have been pushed to live our daily lives within our dwellings, with limited access to the outside world.As we are spending more time inside our home, has our relationship with our home changed?The central idea of this paper is to investigate the influence on an individual’s sense of home, more specifically under the quarantine context, where one has been confined to their home with little to no access to the outside world. This will be examined through using my quarantine experience in Hong Kong as the primary case study.The paper will attempt to investigate this situation by firstly sharing my quarantine journey in Hong Kong in reference to Marc Augé’s theory of “non-place” and Edward Relph’s notion of “insideness” and “outsideness”, as well as the impact on a person’s sense of belonging to a place when distant socialising is mediated through digital experiences. This is followed by a further analysis between an individual’s emotions and behaviours and the physical landscape through the lens of the Situationist International (SI), specifically exploring some of their studies and strategies such as psychogeography and dérive, developed to counter with the mundaneness of everyday life conditioned by capitalistic ideals. Last but not least, by reinterpreting the theories and strategies studied in the previous chapters, I will develop my own methodology based on the connection between a physical place and an individual’s emotions and behaviours to understand and provide insights on my sense of home during quarantine.As this paper is highly motivated by my personal quarantine experience, I will be adopting the first-person narrative for the majority of this paper. This is not to trivialise or be overtly subjective, but rather it is adopted to create a stronger sense of engagement between the reader and the research and findings I wish to communicate and convey in this paper.1 Ciara Nugent, ‘Tough Measures to Stem the Coronavirus Outbreak Could Be in Place for 18 Months, Scientists Say’, Time, 2020 <https://time.com/5804555/coronavirus-lockdown-uk/> [accessed 24 May 2020].2 Mohammed Haddad, ‘Coronavirus: How Much More Time Are People Spending at Home?’, 2020 <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/coronavirus-world-staying-home-200406122943899.html> [accessed 15 May 2020].

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5Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeTo many, home is the place one takes for granted, where one can belong to and feel most comfortable in3. But what if one’s sense of home, a place where one identifies with and belongs to has become a transient space at the same time? How may this paradoxical situation affect our relations with our home, and more importantly, ourselves? This chapter investigates the disintegration in my sense of home throughout my quarantine for fourteen days.3 Michael Allen Fox, Home, A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 2-3My Quarantine ExperienceI made the decision to fly back to Hong Kong to stay with my family as I feel safer and more assured under the pandemic climate. As enforced by the Hong Kong government, I underwent in a mandatory fourteen-day quarantine at home when I arrived.Figure 1. Just me and my quarantine wristbandFigure 2. A screenshot from the StayHomeSafe App on my last day of quarantineMy bedroom became my entire world for fourteen days.During my quarantine I had to wear a wristband (figure. 1) that has a QR code on it, which is used to connect the user to the StayHomeSafe smartphone application (figure. 2) with the purpose of monitoring and tracking the wearer.

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6Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeMy Quarantine ExperienceIn the beginning, I was aware of the wristband as it served as a reminder for myself that I am under quarantine but it was nothing more than a distraction. However, as time went on and the wristband started to wear, I began noticing the red clip would often leave a mark on my arm when I was sleeping. The wristband to a certain extent had become almost an extension of my body as I had to keep it on me at all times until the fourteen days are over. The texture of the worn out wristband was becoming all too familiar to me as the edges felt softer on my wrist than when I first starting wearing it, it became an emblem of my conflicting thoughts during the quarantine. On the one hand, I was in the comfort of my own bedroom, which is part of my home; but on the other hand, the comfort was slowly shifting into a state of fatigue and indifference.Despite the fact that I was living under the same roof as my parents, we had to separate all of our activities, for instance, we could not have dinner at the same table and I was to eat in my own room, facing a wall. We had to distance ourselves from each other physically as I spent most of my days in my bedroom. What kept me sane throughout the fourteen-days quarantine was talking to my family and friends through social media and phone calls, reminding myself that I am not alone.As mentioned before, the wristband is connected to the Hong Kong government’s StayHomeSafe mobile app. When I first arrived in the Hong Kong airport, we had to fill in health declaration forms with our personal information and contact details.I later on received a message from the government with the pin code for the registration and the process was fairly simple. What really stood out to me throughout the entire registration journey with the application is that it requires the user to walk around their home for one minute to register and analyse the environmental communication signals – such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and geospatial signals in the neighbourhood.The recording of the space was particularly fascinating to me as the experience of walking around my home with my phone, recording these signals was almost as if I was setting a physical boundary for myself through recording the digital data of the surrounding landscape. The person is supposed to keep their phone on themselves at all times alongside the wristband, with the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions turned on throughout the quarantine.The line between the physical space and digital realm have been blurred and intertwined with one another as I was not only constrained to a physical space (my bedroom), but the constrain was reinforced by the collection of the data that is enclosed within my surrounding environment.My sense of home, a place where I can unwind in, had been invaded by the sense of being constantly observed and monitored. Hence, my bedroom had transformed into a space where I became just an occupant for fourteen days, restricted by my wristband and phone. This led to my question of how has my sense of place transformed if the place itself had become an ephemeral space for me to only return to as a ‘home’ after the fourteen days are over.

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7As I questioned my sense of home, I found myself asking what makes a particular space (my bedroom), a home? Does the detached and alienated sense of place of my bedroom mean it is merely a space despite that space is part of my home?The notion of “non-place”, from Marc Augé’s perspective, comes from the deprivation of meaning and the homogeneity of a space, making a non-place easily substituted by another non-place.4 Human beings are anonymous beings in non-places, where their state of beings are not significant enough in a space to be regarded as ‘places’.5 By contrast, a place would be something we are familiar with as we forge and assert our identities in such places through our actions.For instance, an airport would be classified as a non-place by Marc Augé as the airport itself encourages solitary in individuals where any meaningful relationships are trivialised as we all become a passive spectator of the space that is devoid of any significances.6 Airport itself has defined features and functions as a transitional space where the travellers shared this sense of anonymity until they are asked for their identity documents to be checked at the immigration desk.However, Dylan Trigg commented on the shortcoming of Augé binary definition and distinction of non-places and places as it concerns itself more with the social production of places; it does not take into the account of the ambiguity in the inseparable relation between the body and world; a relation that is mediated constantly by our mood where we adjust ourselves to the world.7 This indicates the distinction between a non-place or a place is not predetermined by logic or the layout of the environment. But rather it is in a dynamic state, shaped by our emotions, pragmatic needs, and our intersubjective relations which are never fixed in place.If the distinction between non-place and place is highly subjective and responsive to changes, is it possible for both the sense of place and non-place to exist at the same time? Although the basic notions of place and non-place are inherently different, the ambiguity blurs the line between those two terms.According to Edward Relph, the strongest sense of place is associated with home, where one is familiar with their surroundings and the people in it, as reinforced by our daily routines; he categorises this high level of belongingness as “existential insideness”.8 Existential insideness can be described as one’s authentic relation to a place, in which it implies the complete identity of oneself as manifested in the place, filled with meanings that are known and experienced by us.Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeHome As a place; Home as a Non-PlaceHome as a Place; Home as a Non-Place4 Marc Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (London: Verso, 2008).5&6 Ibid.7 Dylan Trigg, ‘Place and Non-Place: A Phenomenological Perspective’, in Place, Space and Hermeneutics, ed. by Bruce B. Janz (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017), V, 127–39 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52214-2_10>.8 Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (London: Pion, 1976).

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8The fundamental differences between “existential insideness” and “existential outsideness” lies in the sense of belonging and involvement.9 To experience “existential insideness” is to be fully involved and immerse oneself in a place that empowers their identities, where the place becomes an extension of their bodies. On the contrary, “existential outsidenesss” is when an individual despite being physical present at a place, still experience “placelessnes” as the place itself lacks the significances, not recognised and disregarded by people through their perceived attitudes towards the place.Through studying the nuance between a place and a non-place, the condition of being “inside” or “outside”, the question of whether my “quarantine” bedroom is a place or merely a space where I am sheltered under is becoming apparent. Our relation to our sense of home is subjected to a mix of our emotions, experiences, and intentions.From a utilitarian perspective, my bedroom served as a space for me to quarantine in. In reference to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, my bedroom has fulfilled my physiological need as a shelter.10 My bedroom under the quarantine context is also keeping myself and my family safe, addressing my need for safety and security under such uncertain times. This can be constituted as “behavioural insideness” where I am viewing the place as a collection of objects and activities arranged in a particular manner with the awareness of knowing where I am.11Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeHome As a place; Home as a Non-PlaceThe place is still my bedroom, the boundaries defined by my wristband and StayHomeSafe App prevented me from reaching out to my family and friends in a physical setting. This somewhat hindered me from satisfying my need for love and belonging. As stated before, the sense of belonging to a place is the crucial factor in transforming and elevating the state of insideness. My “quarantine” bedroom is therefore neither a total place or total non-place from the perspective of “behavioural insideness”.To be fully considered as a non-place, my bedroom would have to be deprived from any significant meaning. Yet my bedroom is an extension of myself where I spent the majority of my time in it and my daily quarantine routine evolved around the place. But the sense of outsideness creeps in as I became detached from the world outside of my bedroom. In the previous section, I briefly discussed about keeping in touch with my family and friends through social media during my quarantine. As physical interactions with others were prohibited, can the sense of belonging be satisfied if the interactions are mediated by digital technologies such as social media? When extending our perception of a physical place to the digital domain which can essentially take place anywhere with internet connection, what does this entail to the already complex and vague understanding of place?9 Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (London: Pion, 1976).10 Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality. (London: Pearson, 1987).11 Edward Relph, p. 53.

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9According to Goffman’s notion of physical interactions as a performance, an individual’s concept of self is dependent on their interactions with others, when they are denied from such experiences, they have also lost their sense of self; a person puts out a sort of performance in the front stage for their audiences to observe and interpret and only return to their relaxed and ‘true’ self when they are in the backstage.12Goffman’s dramaturgical theory suggests we depend on face-to-face interactions to establish our identities and social relations with others. We put ourselves in the front stage where we only present a certain part of ourselves with consistency when in front of the audience. More importantly, there is a backstage where no audience is present, the actor can take off their costumes and are not concerned with pleasing anyone but themselves.13Exemplified by the concept of “existential insideness”, home is the perfect backstage for an actor as the place is an authentic embodiment of the dweller. They are relieved from judgements by the audiences and are not concerned with satisfying anyone but themselves.Our speeches and actions are perceived by others as they construct their interpretations of who they think we are, which in turn establish one’s social relations maintained by interactions with a consistent presentation and interpretations of ourselves and each other.With social media, the user as one actor manages different identities on different online stages. The issue is the absence of a backstage online especially on social media platforms, even if we simply go offline, our profiles and past activities are still put on display where unseen audiences are always present.The omnipresence of oneself on social media is an indicator that despite being physically away from one another, we can always connect with a friend no matter the time differences and physical distances. However, this also signifies the digital experience as a representation of a pseudo-world of curated images and appearances. As there is no backstage in a digital realm, where everything we do online is recorded and collected in the form of data, we strive to accentuate the state of appearance in one’s identity for a much larger audience. Even if we are familiar with the person that we are talking to online, they are still delivering a maintained impression of themselves whether knowingly or unknowingly. Social media companies rely on their users to produce data, no matter how trivial it is, the process of data analysis has alienated subjective meanings in users’ input from the objective results to be translated into revenue as the data is used to intervene and modify the users’ behaviour for profit.14 This is a major issue that I wish to acknowledge in the discussion of social media as a place for self-expression since users’ identities are being undermined and trivialised by such companies.Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeSense of Belonging beyond HomeSense of Belonging beyond Home12 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London: Penguin, 1990).13 Ibid.14 Shoshana Zuboff, ‘Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization’, Journal of Information Technology, 30.1 (2015), 75-89 <https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5>.

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10However, this does not necessarily equate social media and similar technologies to being intrinsically bad. As suggested by Zygmunt Bauman, identity is simply a narrative and a question of choice, our identities can be highly subjective and prone to constant changes.15 The digital realm is not only a tool but is also an extension of ourselves, we need to be conscious that our identities are not fixed entities. Just as the meaning of place and non-place to us is never consistent and predetermined by the logic or layout.Thus, social media should not only be regarded as a ubiquitous digital representation of oneself, but also a place or non-place to be defined by how much of the user wish to assert themselves into that digital setting.In the midst of a pandemic as countries are in lockdown and social distancing is in effect, according to an international study by Kantar, various major social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram have experienced a surge in usage since the outbreak of COVID-19 by at least 40% in the 18-34 age group.16Chapter 1: Making Sense of HomeSense of Belonging beyond HomeAs more people a adopting to digital communicative technologies, this have accelerated our reliance on receiving information and staying in touch with others online. I am guilty of the same thing as I spent a substantial amount of time on my phone and laptop and as frustrating as this situation has been, it is undeniable that social media has played a significant role in keeping people in touch with each other in an online setting as a temporary substitution to physical interactions, which enhances an individual’s sense of belonging that goes beyond their immediate and tangible surroundings.This also brings in the question of whether social media and similar technologies can truly substitute and satisfy one’s sense of belonging to a place, a question to be returned to in the later chapters.15 Zygmunt Bauman and Benedetto Vecchi, Identity: Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).16 Kantar, COVID-19 Barometer: Consumer attitudes, media habits and expectations (2020) <https://www.kantar.com/Inspiration/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Barometer-Consumer-attitudes-media-habits-and-expectations> [accessed 10 April 2020].

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11Chapter 2: hacking the Sense of HomeThe previous chapter examined how my sense of home as a place has shifted during my quarantine and explored briefly on the role of social media in one’s sense of belonging if one is unable to fully establish their identities in a place. However, the digital experience does not necessarily add onto one’s belongingness to a place, but rather reinforces the mediated reality, detaching us from our immediate relations. In this chapter, I will attempt to make sense of the relations between an individual’s emotions and behaviours and the physical environment through the lens of the Situationist International (SI) and their tactics.17 Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age (London: Routledge, 1992).18 Mckenzie Wark, The Beach Beneath the Street: The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (London: Verso, 2011).19 Ibid., p. 57.20 Guy Debord, ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’, Les Lèrves Nues, 6, 1955, 23-27 (p. 23).21 Sadie Plant, p. 58.The Situationist International & PsychogeographyThe Situationist International (SI) was an international movement that drew influences and inspirations from Marxist theory and avant-garde art movements particularly Dadaism and Surrealism; their aim was to disrupt and overthrow capitalist developments as a reaction towards the spread of capitalistic ideals in every aspect of life in the late 20th century.17One of the SI’s major theoretical concept is alienation and separation which is borrowed from Marx’s theory of alienation where workers have been forced to sell their time and energy to the capitalist as wage labour that alienates them from the commodities they have produced with use values. They are unable to enjoy the fruitfulness of their own labour and exploited by the capitalist ruling class who is the biggest winner in this situation.18This in turn divides an individual’s time and space into work, leisure, and resting. The SI suggests that a city is designed and constructed to maximise efficiency, by deliberately separating the different aspects of everyday life from a utilitarian approach. Such conditions contributed to the SI’s rejection of the clear division between life and art and questioned how we can fully actualise the leisure time without having to consume or remaining in a passive leisure state and thus disrupting the everyday capitalist routine.19In response to this phenomenon, Guy Debord, one of the founding members of SI proposed a new way to study the urban geography known as psychogeography in which the objectivity and subjectivity intersects, a mean of researching the impact of the geographical environment on the emotions and behaviours of individuals.20The purpose of psychogeography is to raise and develop the awareness of the impact the environment has on one’s everyday life. By being conscious of the influences the environment has on us, it encourages the discussion of our daily life and its relation to the urban environment.21

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12Chapter 2: Hacking the Sense of HomeDérive & Psychogeographic MapOne of the means of psychogeography is through the act of drifting and wandering around a landscape, whilst reflecting and contemplating on the changes along the journey, also known as dérive, a tactic the SI utilises when studying the landscape and the emotions and behaviours evoked by the place.22Dérive requires the individual or individuals as a group to disassociate themselves from their relations, work and leisure activities. They must be detached from their habitual motives and actions, in order to be fully immersed in the journey, their actions and movements should be instinctive and prompted by whatever they are attracted to. The data collected from the dérive can be manifested in a form of a map, utilising the technique of cartography. A psychogeographic map can introduce new ideas and elements to a place by altering the physical layout of places to combing the spaces of two different places as a method to defy and intervene with our daily life conditioned by the physicality of space.23 Through the dérive, one should be able to recognise and indulge themselves in the subjectivity of the urban landscape and society, derived from their raw emotions and arriving to one’s liberation from a mundane everyday life by creating situations.24On the other hand, a comparison and analysis can be performed between the data in a psychogeographic map and a map marked with an individual’s string of intentions and planned activities in their daily lives, which might reveal interesting findings that might not be apparent at first.Dérive & Psychogeographic Map22 Guy Debord, ‘Theory of the Dérive’, Internationale Situationniste, 2, 1958, 19–23 (p. 19).23 Guy Debord, ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’, p. 26.24 Ibid.

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13Chapter 2: Hacking the Sense of HomeReinterpreting Psychogeography & DériveAlthough psychogeography and dérive stems from the rejection of the capitalistic ideals imposed on us in our daily lives through the landscape of the city, the same study and tactic may be applied to the study of one’s dwelling to expose any emotional dispositions that might be disregarded or hidden at the first glance, but with different intentions.I wish to apply a similar approach of the SI’s studies and tactic on the relations of a place and an individual’s emotions and behaviours to further elaborate and analyse my sense of home under quarantine, with the intention of elevating the sense of “insideness” and place through breaking the autonomy and monotony of my quarantine. More specifically through creating different types of maps for comparison as my primary methodology, thus becoming more aware of my immediate environment.The defined physical boundaries of my bedroom may not be the SI’s ideal definition of what constitutes as a dérive, as the restriction of space itself reduces the sphere of actions. The quarantine itself has certainly disrupted my daily routines and behaviours but it has also created a ‘new normal’ for me.In fact, from a contemporary perspective, psychogeography and dérive does not need to be restricted to a physical landscape. Despite the term psychogeography suggests a geographic nature in the study, cybercultures are embracing and adopting psychogeography and dérive in the World Wide Web (WWW) landscape, comparing a dérive to the web surfing experience.25 As places are not only limited to physical activities anymore, behaviours can be extended and mediated by a digital form, for instance social media. However, one must be careful when approaching the technological and digital landscape with the intention of studying human emotions and behaviours as the digital experience may become a spectacle of a mediated reality filled with representations and appearances, trivialising our sense of reality as suggested by Debord in The Society of Spectacles.26Reinterpreting Psychogeography & Dérive25 Amy J. Elias, ‘Psychogeography, Détournement, Cyberspace’, New Literary History, 41.4 (2010), 821–45 (pp. 821-822).18 Mckenzie Wark, The Beach Beneath the Street: The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (London: Verso, 2011).26 Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2013).

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14Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeWhen one’s home has been confined into a small bedroom, with little to no physical interactions with the ‘outside world’, one is bound to redefine and reshape their relationships and emotions with the space. In this chapter, I am combining and reinterpreting the theories and techniques from the previous chapters to develop my own methodology to understand the impact of my quarantine experience on my sense of home.Learning through Lived ExperienceTheories and the process of constructing theories about the world help us understand things through explanation. Some theories and knowledge when applied to practices can help us solve the identified issues and problems in a logical process.27 I went through this process in the first chapter in this paper with analysing my sense of home with the notions of places and sense of insideness in an attempt to explain the contradictoriness I was experiencing in a transient space within a place with significances.Theories can also be derived from experiences in more complex situations; the process of understanding how we think and act as informed by our experiences in real life. It is also a process of learning what shapes the way we interact, subsequently transforming our awareness.28Through the combination and reinterpretation of the theories and techniques uncovered in this paper so far, I wish to understand the implication of the fourteen-day quarantine on my relation with my bedroom and sense of home in both an objective and subjective manner by creating an iteration of maps of my bedroom.27 Graeme Sullivan, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts, 2nd edn (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 2010), p. 96.28 Ibid., p. 96.

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15I have produced a series of maps and sketches throughout and after my quarantine, adopting a mixture of visual styles, from hand-drawn sketches to a combination of both sketches and digital collages. A sense of progression is achieved through the iterations of the maps, from an objective perspective to the subjectiveness of the place, as if the reader is taking a tour of my bedroom.The first map (figure. 3) is a basic layout of my bedroom with simple annotations, produced from the perspective of a passive observer. Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineBEDWINDOW LEDGEDESKCHAIRBOOKSHELFCLOSETDOORMIRRORFigure 3. Map 1: Basic physical layout of my bedroom with simple annotations (2020)This is the starting point of the mapping journey of my bedroom under quarantine. This map bares no subjective significance and acts as the skeleton of the other maps as we continue.

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17Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineBuilding on top of the first layout map, the second map (figure. 4) focuses on the mapping of the activities and my intentions within the space. I have divided my intentions within five categories into work, resting/ seating, moving, only when necessary, and (distant) socialising. This map illustrates the “behavioural insideness” of my bedroom as I sketched out the place according to the arrangement of objects and my intentions with the object in the place. I also highlighted the repeating movements between my bed and the chair, both areas are intended for resting/ seating, which overall demonstrates my movements being restricted by my bedroom. One of the most interesting aspect of this map is the door to the unknown, deemed as “only when necessary”. This reflects my relationship with the world beyond my bedroom at the time, where I was sheltered from the uncertainty and danger in the “outside” world. I would also like to address the labels order, whether it was arranged subconsciously or randomly, the order might have reflected which aspect held the most to least significance to me. However, if we compare the amount of space each intentions takes up to the order of the labels, both and (distant) socialising occupy the same amount of space, yet work was placed in first and (distant) socialising was placed at the bottom of the list.A justification for (distant) socialising being placed the lowest might be due to my usual sense of what a bedroom should be: a place for rest and alone time, which in turn might have demotivated my intention for socialising with others. As everyone is scattered across the globe due to the pandemic, social media is one of the main gateways for me to contact my family and friends. Such digital experiences transcend both distances and time, yet despite the convenience and efficiency in these technologies, the sense of belonging has somehow become even more lost in this quarantine context. This is only a speculation as social media and other digital communication technologies have enhanced my sense of belonging, not to my bedroom, but my relations with others. Such intentions became a substitution for the missing physical interactions with others during my quarantine to elevate my sense of belonging. However, the significance was not enough for me to place (distant) socialising above the other intentions, especially since this intention is technically not tied to a physical environment, but rather tied to the access to the internet.

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19For the third and fourth maps, they are a close-up version of the second map (figure. 4), further examining and analysing the desk area and the bed and bay window area.Map 3 (figure. 5) breaks down the activities that took place in the desk area during the quarantine, expanding the scope of the intentions and activities with more details. The desk area in the previous map was designated for work and (distant) socialising, with the chair as a resting and seating place; another crucial activity that took place within that area was “eating”. As mentioned in chapter 1, I had to eat in my own room, facing a wall to prevent spreading the virus in case I was infected. My meals were usually placed right outside of the door and I would fetch it from there. Normally, when I have my meal with my family, we would eat together at the dining table, making small talks with each other with the television turned on.This had changed my meal experience as I substituted the television and conversations with my laptop set up in front of my meal. I was still passively consuming (online) contents, but without the social aspect of a meal. The sense of isolation was most intense in this setting compared to the other areas as one of the best thing about having a meal to me is not the background noises coming from the television, but rather the conversations that pops up randomly. The spontaneity within the eating experience which breaks the monotony of everyday life was lost in this context.Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During Quarantine

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21Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineThe bed and bay window area was one of the most fascinating area and a hidden gem to me during my quarantine. I had unexpectedly regained the spontaneity and playfulness in my daily life, lost previously through the physical restriction, constant monitoring and repetitiveness in my day-to-day quarantine routine through the deliberate act of staring outside of the window. What led me to setting up a make-shift seat at corner of the bay window was because the bed is placed right next to the bay window. That area has become an extension of my bed by default. Although I was sitting in an uncomfortable position, the openness of the environment outside offers a new way for me to observe my surrounds, allowing myself to get lost in it. Even though the view outside is mainly the other residential buildings, there is a gap between those buildings where I see the harbour; the contrast between the rigid structures and layout of the buildings and the ever-flowing water, sometimes accompanied by ships and boats was far more entertaining than staring at my laptop screen.This area is arguably the least active area if we take the little amount of intentions into account, where the space was only intended for resting and seating originally. When we compare this map to map 1 (figure. 3) and 2 (figure. 4), one would notice that the work and (distant) socialising elements were missing. Initially only the bed area was being utilised, when combined with the window space, the whole area has opened up new opportunities for me to carry out my intentions in a different manner.

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23Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineIn map 5, I overlaid the intentions with spaces deemed as significant to me as uncovered in the previous maps. In addition to the spaces, the red dash lines represent what makes those spaces significant to me, whether in a positive or negative sense. The intentions are less important in this map as the significances of each area become apparent. I have also added arrows to some of the areas to signify how they may transform the place.Starting from the door, as it opens from the inside, it signifies the sense of welcoming as one enters the bedroom without intruding the space outside of the bedroom. Although such significance was lost during the quarantine as I was spent most of my time in my bedroom, the door became a gateway for me to communicate with my parents from a distance.Moving onto the desk, although unmentioned in the intentions of this map, was not only where I spent most of my time either working or socialising with friends, but I also had all my meals there with the desk panel extended out, creating more desk space for my laptop. Although it was not a positive experience, it had its own significance in a sense that I was able to realise the importance of the social aspect during a meal with my family and friends.Next to the desk is my bed, despite the fact that I did not go into details of the resting or seating intention, it was the fact that the bed is deliberately arranged next to the bay window that sparked the special moment.The special moment is naturally the act of staring outside of the window. There are three windows that can be opened to the outside, this may not directly transform the physical space, however it signifies why this area is significant in the first place. As I was restricted within a physical space that is my bedroom, the only way to be in touch with the outside world was through the windows.

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25Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeMapping My Bedroom During QuarantineIn the final map of my bedroom, the intentions and functions of each space have been stripped away, with no labels nor annotations either. Instead, I extracted the significances in each space and arranged them back into a map that forms the place.The circle with arrows in it suggests the repetitiveness of my quarantine routine. Yet with the significances from each space, it forms a place with in that circle. The door itself is not placed within the circle as it was positioned as the mean to access the circle from the outside and to access the outside from the circle.As identified and analysed in the previous maps, the final map draws a summary of each separate space with different intentions, and when combined together, it creates a cycle of significances that is an extension of ourselves as we regained the sense of home.

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26Through the iterative process of mapping my bedroom alongside the analysis of my emotions and behaviours during my quarantine, it has been helpful for me to detect noticeable pattern and understand how and why I have transformed my bedroom to better adapt to my daily quarantine life, thus creating a place that reinterprets the significances of the spaces.If we compare my first map to my final map, the very basic elements that made up the place are still noticeable. However, the final map has fully reinterpreted the meaning of those components through the iterative process, starting from a functional and deliberate perspective, to finding the subjective significances in them that not only identifies my connections with the different areas but ultimately enriching my sense of belonging to my bedroom.The iterative process may seem complicated as the process goes from analysing the physical environment with a practical approach to breaking down the place into smaller components to analyse one’s emotions and behaviours with the intentions in each space and finally putting the pieces back together to form one big picture (or map) of an individual’s perception of the place. I have created a short instruction of my mapping exercise to clarify what steps I have taken to arrive at the final map.A short instruction of the mapping exercise:1. Create a basic layout map of the place. → Map 1.2. Begin with the mapping of intentions/ activities within the place using map 1 as the skeleton. → Map 2.3. Choose an area (or more) within the place that intrigues the individual and create a close-up map(s) of them, with more detailed intentions in mind. → Map 3 or more.4. Through the close-up maps, one should be able to identify the significances of those areas that were attracting to them in the first place.5. Use the place’s outline from map 1 to map the intentions with significances (preferably an overlay of significances over intentions to detect any patterns, it may be predictable or unexpected). → Map 4.6. The final map should be detached from the intentions and instead focuses on the significances of the place. → Map 5.The individuals are free to apply their experiences with the place and insights gained from this exercise to help them further understand what a place may mean to them, or what might be missing from a non-place from being regarded as a place with significances from their perspective.The Making of Maps22 Guy Debord, ‘Theory of the Dérive’, Internationale Situationniste, 2, 1958, 19–23 (p. 19).23 Guy Debord, ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’, p. 26.24 Ibid.Chapter 3: Mapping the Sense of HomeThe Making of Maps

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27Discussion and ConclusionFrom the iterations of my mapping exercise, I am able to recover my sense of home and belonging which was previously disregarded in the first chapter when I declared that my bedroom during my quarantine was neither significant nor insignificant enough for me to fully immerse myself in it. Although my activities have been restrained to my bedroom with minimal activities taking place in the other areas of my home, through the mapping exercise, it has transformed and changed my understanding of home.My sense of home stems from a place where I can always return to from the outside world, where I am free to exercise and insert my own desires and self-identity. The mapping exercise has allowed me to precisely achieve that; as I broke down the different spaces within the bedroom, it has provided me with clarity on what were the defining features that help me establish a stronger sense of home whilst becoming more conscious of what were the missing qualities in my bedroom that prevented me from experiencing the sense of belonging during my quarantine.Through Marc Augé’s theory of “place” and “non-place” and Edward Relph’s notion of “insideness” and “outsideness”, it has enabled me to identify my sense of home through a logical approach as a starting point for my investigation on an individual’s sense of home as affected by the quarantine situation. By contrast, SI’s concepts of psychogeography and dérive have provided me with much more freedom in terms of exploring my bedroom through a subjective perspective with the same intention of becoming more conscious of our surrounding landscapes. However, this would have been more difficult if I did not have a basic framework that I can to refer to. This justifies the combination of these theories and strategies used in constructing my methodology.Nonetheless, the influences and importance that the theories have on my methodology could have been explained more clearly throughout the mapping exercise.A potential limitation of my methodology I would like to acknowledge is that it was structured around the Hong Kong context, the housing conditions can vary in different countries, which may have an influence on how the exercise is executed. The mapping exercise have been helpful for me when investigating my shifting sense of home through probing into my quarantine experience, but this process might not be suitable for everyone.I have also failed to expand on the topic of identity, social relations and the mediated reality in social media as briefly discussed in chapter 1 and 2; the topic was only addressed later briefly in the mapping exercise.With the limitations in mind, how can we apply the rich amount of qualitative and visual data to other situations and contexts?I believe this practice of iterative mapping can also be useful for people who are stuck in a space with little to no significances or meaning to them, but are keen to establish their own presence in the space, hence constructing a new place. The iteration of maps is an indicator for what generates a sense of place for the individuals as one discovers the similarities and differences between the maps. The process of doing so is a journey within itself as the individual drifts through the different interpretations of the same physical space.Our sense of home is not in fixed state. As demonstrated in this paper, where my sense of home was first lost during my quarantine and later on rediscovered as I found new meanings within the place. Now that my quarantine is over, I truly understand that there is no place like home.

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28BibliographyAugé, Marc, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (London ; New York: Verso, 2008)Bauman, Zygmunt, and Benedetto Vecchi, Identity: Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004). Beer, David, and Roger Burrows, ‘Consumption, Prosumption and Participatory Web Cultures: An Introduction’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 10.1 (2010), 3-12 <https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540509354009>Debord, Guy, ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’, Les Lèrves Nues, 6, 1955, 23–27--, The Society of the Spectacle (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2013)--, ‘Theory of the Dérive’, Internationale Situationniste, 2, 1958, 19–23Elias, Amy J., ‘Psychogeography, Détournement, Cyberspace’, New Literary History, 41.4 (2010), 821–45Fox, Michael Allen, Home: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2016)Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London: Penguin, 1990)Gunnar Sandin, ‘Dealing with Non-Place in Exploitation, Belonging and Drifting’, Nordisk Arkitekturforskning, 12.2 (2003), 67–85.Haddad, Mohammed, ‘Coronavirus: How Much More Time Are People Spending at Home?’, 2020 <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/coronavirus-world-staying-home-200406122943899.html> [accessed 15 May 2020]Kantar, COVID-19 Barometer: Consumer attitudes, media habits and expectations (2020) < https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/coronavirus/covid-19-barometer-consumer-attitudes-media-habits-and-expectations> [accessed 10 April 2020]Maslow, Abraham H., Motivation and Personality. (London: Pearson, 1987).

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