Landscape – The Basic Element of Spatial Culture (original) (raw)

2013, Unity and Diversity in Knowledge Society, I, (Teodor DIMA, Cornelia Margareta GĂŞPĂREL, Dan Gabriel SÎMBOTIN eds.)

The space organizing and rationalizing processes are based on the notion of landscape, which can be generally defined as the totality of the space observed at a certain moment, by a given individual or community. Therefore, the landscape is generated by the observer and, as such, it can be classified as a representation. The existence of the landscape is independent of both its comprehensiveness and its similarity with the physical space. Locationally, the landscape exists independently of its coincidence to the space it represents, as the process of observation creates its own set of references/coordinates. As a function on perception, the landscape can be regarded as a phenomenon and thus non-unique. This multiplicity is the result of both multiple observers and multiple modes of perception. Once observed, the landscape is integrated within the cultural paradigm through rational or irrational mental “operational chains”, becoming thus established through its appropriation by the community and its members. The appropriation process is fundamental to the infinite mental and material iterations of the “first” landscape, resulting in second-order landscapes that are reproduced physically as cultural landscapes or mentally as imaginary ones. It is worth noting that the reproductive process is independent of the means of perception, the result taking always a topographical/geographical form, whether the space is observed through the sensory organs, measured geometrically or perceived irrationally through revelation or during the shamanic trance. After all, the landscape of Paradise includes rivers, even though these are (gustatory) made of milk and honey and it possesses climate, even though its perfection is defined according to a human sensorybound index of thermal comfort.