Knowing is Not the Same as Remembering

The notion of "place" is a human construct contrived primarily of sentimental significance. A nondescript dot on the proverbial line from "here" to "there," existing whether known or unknown, remembered or forgotten. Without further information or context, a "place" is just a location, a constellation of seemingly irrelevant coordinates. It's this divergent relationship between the irreverence to the irrelevance while being saturated in site-specificity that is the paradoxical crux of the nonsite. In other words, one does not need to be well versed in the cultural milieus of or even step foot in the Pine Barrens to grasp Robert Smithson's A Nonsite, Pine Barrens, New Jersey, 1967.