Tate Britain | Millbank London SW1P 4RG United Kingdom

Class E53 Place is used here to model geographical areas and locations. Mapping this content type to this class only models place based on the immaterial, mathematical area as defined with a frame of reference and as such it is not appropriate to express the physicality of space which is important. Also this class does not include temporality of places which is critical in a cultural context. A different model could make use of class ‘E27 Site’ which relates to the mathematical notion of E53 Places through property ‘P156 occupies’. That alternative solution is more complex but models place more accurately albeit using more than one class. Another problem with the concept of geometrical place is the fact that boundaries which do not exist in the physical world are needed to define it. This brings up questions around the agency of the people creating these boundaries, naming them and the problem of abstraction in maps which is reductive.