'Seeing is Not Everything': Exploring the Landscape Experiences of Different Publics (original) (raw)
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This paper discusses Phenomenology as a potential over-arching paradigm for trans-disciplinary research on landscape as place; regarding social practices performed on/with/for/about landscape. It discusses: 'lifeworlds' and 'taskscape'; embodiment and affordance; inter-subjectivity and communalized intentionality; topophilia and other affective relations; and essences and universality of landscape concepts. It includes findings from the Manyjilyjarra landscape language case study (with linguist Clair Hill), other interactions with Yarnangu Aboriginal peoples from Australia's Central and Western Deserts and earlier Ethnophysiography studies (with David Mark). Reinforcement of community cohesion via preservation of the complexity of traditional landscape language is discussed. One practical application is to the activities, governance and reporting of Martu Ranger environmental management programs.
Many Perceptions, One Landscape
Landscape review, 2007
H ERITAGE LANDSCAPES IS AN INCLUSIVE CONCEPT, as attested by the broad range of disciplines and interest groups attending the Looking Forward to Heritage Landscapes conference that gave rise to this and other papers in this issue of Landscape Review.! The presentations made it clear that the 'heritage value' of a landscape includes its significance to a variety of disciplines (e.g., historians, landscape architects, archaeologists, ecologists), its value to various groups (e.g., heritage agencies, nature conservation organisations), and its value to associated communities (e.g., tangata whenua,2 residents). The concept, thus, has enormous potential to encourage cross-fertilisation between disciplines, and between these and the groups and communities for whom specific landscapes have significance. So far, however, we are still feeling our way as to how to make this inclusive concept a reality. In New Zealand, as elsewhere in the world, there is more written about the potential for an integrated approach than about its realisation. This was borne out by the very different ways in which the heritage value of landscapes was conceived at two earlier conferences held in New Zealand in 2003: one hosted by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust entitled Heritage Landscapes Think Tank and the other hosted by the Environmental Defence Society entitled Reclaiming Our Heritage: The New Zealand Landscape Conference. At the former conference there was general agreement that heritage landscapes were: ... those landscapes, or networks of sites, which deserve special recognition or protection because of their heritage significance to communities, tangata whenua or the nation. They encompass physical structures and changes made to the environment by people, natural landforms modified by human action, the meanings given to places and the stories told about them (Stephenson, 2003, p 2). The latter conference was primarily focused on the heritage value of the indigenous biodiversity and 'naturalness' of landscapes, and was: ... prompted by a growing sense of general unease, ofloss and regret, engendered by the nature, rate and scale of some of the changes that are occurring in coastal and high country landscapes [and) also in places like the Waitakere Ranges (Smale, 2003, p 227).
EXPERIENCING LANDSCAPE. A PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
In this paper, I draw on a possible conception of landscape from Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. Starting from an overview of the two main positions regarding landscape within the continental philosophical tradition (Simmel and Ritter), I consider the use of the term 'landscape' in Merleau-Ponty's thought, without wishing to claim that the French philosopher presents a philosophy of landscape within his works. I want to show that important elements for the outline of a phenomenological conception of landscape emerge from Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. According to Simmel, landscape is seen as the product of a spiritual act, and in Ritter's perspective, landscape emerges from a detached contemplation of nature proper to humans in the modern era. Contrasted with these views, a consideration of Merleau-Ponty's original works allows to draw on a conception of landscape in which the experiential and perceptual dimensions are fundamental. This view enables us to consider landscape in its centrality for human experience, and leads to a better understanding of the strong ontological commitment between humans and nature.
Capitalising on multiplicity: a transdisciplinary systems approach to landscape research
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2001
Different disciplines have landscape as the focal point of their research. They are successful in presenting new ®ndings about landscapes within their specialisation, but collaborationÐand thus, transfer of knowledge across disciplinary boundariesÐis seldom realised because a common approach that bridges the gaps between disciplines is missing. Instead, different landscape concepts exist side by side. Yet, cooperation is required to tackle the various environmental and social problems related to landscapes. This paper provides an overview of the historical development of landscape concepts originating from different cultural and scienti®c trends, and presents a new complex concept of landscape, which is designed to enable transdisciplinary landscape research. The transdisciplinary landscape concept is based on ®ve dimensions of landscapes: the spatial entity, the mental entity, the temporal dimension, the nexus of nature and culture, and the systemic properties of landscapes. In contrast to other approaches, it unites dimensions that are usually the domain of individual disciplines and makes it, thus, possible to capitalise on plurality in landscape research. The concept promotes landscape as the combination of the subsystems known as the geo-, bio-and noo-sphere, and is illustrated by the people±landscape interaction model. The concept can be applied to all human±landscape-related research, but is exempli®ed by two studies that have investigated the relationship between landscape and second-home tourism, and landscape and farming, respectively.
Being in, and with, Biocultural Landscapes
Langscape Magazine
A photo essay that meditates on multiple ways of perceiving landscapes as totalities, drawing on Indigenous and Western philosophical viewpoints. The essay incorporates some of the author's photographs of Kakadu and Lake Mungo National Parks