Living rooms and their wider ramifications

Lately we have been discussing the concept of space and how we cannot perceive it in a purely 'objective' way - I suppose that is the case of everything, but space is particularly interesting as a purely abstract concept, like time. For Kant, these were the two first 'filters' that influenced our perception of the external phenomena - and in fact nothing else. How would you imagine time without a sequence of events? And space without a sequence of objects? You probably would not. There are no features one would ascribe to time of space, except being. Perhaps this is why we tend to think of them as unchangeable. But, as Bergson noted, we can experience time in myriads different ways - it appears to be going faster if we are enjoying ourselves and slow down when we are bored, for instance. Same with space - our minds emphasize some parts of our surroundings and omits some. Our perception of space is influenced by our preconceptions and experiences.
More on that topic will follow in the post about landscapes, as today I wish to focus on a very specific kind of space - namely, rooms. Or, to be even more specific - living rooms. That was the prerequisite for our next material culture exercise - the analysis we conduct had to pertain to a living room, I suppose because it is arguably the most social space in the house. Even the name suggests so.
I live in student halls and know no one who has a living room in this lovely city, so I had to call my mum, ask her to take some pictures, use my memory and analyze the living room in my family house. This was also quite interesting as sometimes I would not remember about something as easy to spot as an armchair, but have a perfectly clear recollection of, let us say, a vase, which also demonstrates how selective our perception of space is.

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My Parent's Living Room

The room is a part of a four room flat in the southern part of Wrocław, Poland. The building itself is rather modern, my guess is it was built at the start of the 21st century, though I am not certain. 

Fig. 1 The building

The room is furnished in a modern, rather neutral style, with neutral (black) and warm (beige, vanilla, chocolate brown) tones domintaing and a very few decorations. As we have rent it almost completely furnished from a landlord, I suppose the style is rather impersonal in order to appeal to the largest pool of potential clients possible. It is furnished with dark wooden cupboards, beige armchairs and a sofa, a coffee table and two lamps, and has a dark-painted fireplace. On its brim we keep three pictures, two show me in my prom dress, the third is of me in the same dress with my parents, dressed for the mayor’s ball. My grandmother gave them to my mum for Christmas, although my parents keep saying they will remove them, they have kept them on this shelf so far. I suppose this is because I have moved out relatively recently and they like to have something that reminds them of me. 

Fig. 2 The fireplace - note the three pictures on the shelf

Aside of the pictures, the only decorations are a brass cross (present from my great-grandmother) and an Easter palm in a wine bottle converted into a vase, standing on the low shelf right of the fireplace. These are representative of my mother as she is a devoted Catholic (as opposed to my atheist father). She is also the person who tends to tidy it up.

Fig. 3 The vase with an old Easter palm and the cross

The objects can be generally divided into four categories, which are as follows:

Entertainment	Rest	Decoration	Practical
television	2 armchairs	Fireplace	Lamp
DVD player	Sofa	Vase	Reading lamp
Video player	Coffee table	Cross	Shelves
Music player		Photos
Speakers

The room itself is not separated from other chambers on the floor. There is, however, a wardrobe placed in the centre of it, and all the rooms (living room, dining room, kitchen and hall) are oriented according to it, as if one drew invisible walls going from the wardrobe to the outer walls. 

Fig. 4 We live as though there was a wall going from the window to the edge of the wardrobe - to the right there is a dining room, to the left - the living room

This forms a kind of ‚common‘ space in our house – we spend time together downstairs and if anyone visits, they are encouraged to sit there, too. In contrast, upstairs there are our separate rooms and the bathroom, and only guests staying overnight (close friends or family members in practice) would normally go there.

1   Both my mother and father say that they enjoy spending time together in the living room straight after getting back home, when they can talk about their work and relax. Later in the evening they often go there to talk a bit more or watch TV together. Sometimes dad will put music on or bring his guitar and play; mum likes to occupy herself with tasks that do not require much concentration so that she can focus on the music, tv or conversation. She frequently reads books there as well. Father never spends time alone in the living room as he has his cabinet, so in a sense it is more her room than dad’s or mine (especially since she is the one cleaning and decorating it). But by and large, we all use it together.

They both add that if their friends come to visit, they also sit in the living room, chatting and possibly drinking. Same applies to my friends, although I tend to use the living room more for spending time with family than with anyone else.

After a particularily stressful day, it is common for us to gather there together, have some brandy or whisky and talk things through. We normally do not celebrate there as we prefer to go out if something good happens, but the soothing atmosphere of the living room makes it good for getting over difficult issues.
They do not have much to say about any objects of significance. This may be due to the fact that we have changed houses quite a lot and for us what creates a living room – family space – is the people, not the objects. They point out how it is important to have some basic furniture that allows one to relax, such as armchairs, table or TV, but don’t have anything particular to say about these we own.

What I find interesting is how we never redecorate the room. According to Buchli and Garvery, such an action may be an expression of the desire for a change (Buchli 2007) (Garvey 2002). Since we tend to change houses so often, we much prefer to create a feeling of familiarity, which would explain our reluctance to refurbish the room.

All in all, the living room is first and foremost 'family' space for us - we do not have guests very often, so we mostly spend time there together. This has not changed since I moved away and when I come to visit, I am encouraged to spend time with parents in this very room. While the space upstairs is private, we all have our bedrooms there and prefer to retreat there when we do not feel sociable, downstairs is our sphere of contact.

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I am very eager to hear how it looks like in your houses. Are your living rooms more of a 'guest', 'externally sociable' places? Do you think we have a proper living room, or would you consider all of the ground floor one room? How long do you have to live somewhere to feel at home? And does redecorating help you settle in, or makes you feel uncomfortable? Please, do tell!

Bibliography:

Buchli, V. 2007. Architecture and the domestic sphere. Oxford: Berg.

Garvey, P. 2002. Organised Disorder: Moving Furniture in Norwegian Homes. In: D. Miller, Home possessions. Material culture behind closed doors. Oxford: Berg.

If you want to read more on Kant (which you do not necessarily need) or Bergson (which you certainly want to do - he is such a good writer that he received a Nobel Prize in literature), I recommend Frederick Copleston's 'History of Philosophy'. Or, for the sake of great writing, just look for Bergson's essays.