What makes something iconic and why do we memorialise places?
Objects become icons when they have not only material force but also symbolic power (Bartmański, D. and Alexander, J.C., 2012. p1). Icons allow members of societies to experience a sense of participation in something fundamental whose fuller meaning eludes their comprehension and to enjoy the possibility for control despite being unable to access directly the script that lies beneath. Icons are cultural constructions that provide believer- friendly epiphanies and customer- friendly images… This provides anxious human beings with a sense of ontological security and legitimates ongoing social arrangements (Bartmański, D. and Alexander, J.C., 2012. p2).
To be iconic is to be known by everyone, regardless of what people’s opinions are of it. Loved or hated.
People can become iconic. So can places. Even objects too.
To memorialise something, by definition, is to preserve the memory of; commemorate. We memorialise places after they have become iconic.
There are many fine examples in Melbourne of things becoming iconic, then memorialised. One example being Flinders Street Station.
Flinders Street Station is Australia’s oldest train station, and with its distinctive facade and green copper dome it’s a city icon. Takeaway stands line the concourse, and the upper floors were purpose-built to house a library, gym and a lecture hall, later used as a ballroom. Flinders Street is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere, with over 1500 trains and 110,000 commuters passing through each day (Whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au, n.d.). Flinders Street Station began it’s construction in 1905, and since has become iconic to Melbourne and it’s identity, so much so that it’s made it’s way onto the Victorian Heritage Register – A database listing the Victoria’s most significant heritage places, objects and historic shipwrecks, protected by the Heritage Act 2017.
We protect Flinders Street Station, among many other places in Melbourne, because they have been around for so long that they do become iconic and engrained so deeply as a part of what makes Melbourne, Melbourne – and ultimately, because it’s our home, becomes a part of who we are. Apart of our identities. Because of this, we want to celebrate these places and keep them alive. Memorialise them.
Iconic places like these exist for communities all over the world. And they serve us for many different reasons; including to shape our identities, and to mark history. This is why they are iconic, and this is why we memorialise them.
Citations
- Bartmański, D. and Alexander, J.C., 2012. Introduction: materiality and meaning in social life: toward an iconic turn in cultural sociology. In Iconic power (pp. 1-12). Palgrave Macmillan, New York<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137012869_1>
- Whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au. (n.d.). Flinders Street Railway Station, <https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/placestogo/melbournelandmarks/historic/pages/6223.aspx>