Points of Interest: Points of View
Kathryn Walter
1994
Points of Interest : Points of View was produced within the context of the 1994 winter residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Using the particular example of the town of Banff, it intends to raise questions about the way histories and geographies are constructed. Banff was claimed for Western settlement in 1885 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Its growth is parallel to nineteenth century developments which brought about significant changes in perception through the dissemination of modern technologies. Histories of tourism, the railway, and the photographic image are significant to interpretations of Banff. The sites represented here recognize personal and diverse experience within these traditions. Each tour was approached in collaboration with each speaker, and each discussion introduces questions concerning the ways that sites are defined—where they are located, and how they function. The variety of voices creates a montage of stories which complicates the linearity and singularity of conventional historical interpretation. While tourist sites tend to be places of consumption, this publication discusses other meanings and uses of these social spaces. Points of Interest is an appropriation of the form of tourism which incorporates different concerns and ways of seeing through a variety of Points of View.