Landscape,embodimentandvisualimpairment:an explorationofthelimitsoflandscapeknowledge

HANNAHMACPHERSONandCLAUDIOMINCA* NewcastleUniversity UK h.m.macpherson@ncl.ac.uk PaperPresentedattheForumUNESCOUniversityandHeritage 10thInternationalSeminar CulturalLandscapesinthe21stCentury NewcastleuponTyne,1116April2005 Revised:June2006

*

DepartmentsofArchitecture,PlanningandLandscapeandGeography,PoliticsandSociology (respectively)

Introduction Landscape has a whole range of meanings and associations. For researchers the uptake of these meanings can depend on disciplinary and professional affiliations as well as on research goals. In this paper we question some of the ways in which landscape has been thought about and conceptualized, with a focus on recent theoretical developments in the social sciences. In particular we scrutinize ideas of landscape as a territorial unit, a form of visualization and of interaction.We will then proceed to show how a combination of landscape concepts has aided research with visuallyimpairedwalkersinthePeakDistrictandLakeDistrictLandscapesofBritain, enablinganexplorationofthediverseprocessesthroughwhichthemateriallandscape ismaderelevant. Landscapeasaterritorialunit Forsomescholarslandscapeistobeconceivedasanobject,asamaterialthing.Itis something quantifiable and visible, unquestionably real since its existence does not dependonthepresenceofanobserver:itmaythenbeameasurableterritorialunitor a particular ecological scale. The International Association of Landscape Ecologists adopts this concept of landscape and on their website under the heading What is LandscapeEcology?theyexplain:Landscapeecologyisthestudyofspatialvariation inlandscapesatavarietyofscales.Someof thecorethemesoflandscapeecology areidentifiedas:therelationshipbetweenpatternandprocessinlandscapesandthe effectofscaleanddisturbanceonthelandscape(http://www.landscapeecology.org). Accordingtothisexplanation,thelandscapeisanareaoraterritorialcontainerwithin whichecologicalpatternsandprocessesmightbeidentified. TheideaoflandscapeasaterritorialunitcanbetracedtothetermsuseinGermanic languages and older forms of English (Mikesell 1968 Olwig 2002). Recently it has represented a common starting point for a range of crossdisciplinary approaches to landscape (Fry 2001 Scott 2002). Gary Fry, a key figure within landscape studies, arguesthattherehasbeen an emergenceof landscapeasa level of organisationin countryside managementand goes on to suggest landscapeecology in itsbroadest sense would appear to be the most promising candidate for the development of interdisciplinary theory applicable to multifunctional landscapes (Fry 2001, 160163,

emphasisadded).Suchapproachestolandscapetendtobeinformedbytheideathat landscaperesearchisascienceorientatedtowardthesolutionofproblemsrelatedto landscapes. (Tress and Tress 2001, 4). Landscapes are then conceptualised as the arena or the scale at which problem solving takes place. However, as YiFu Tuan pointedoutover twodecades ago, Limitedto thefunctional or utilitarianperspective, the concept of landscape is redundant since the more precise terms of estate and regionalreadyexist.(Tuan1979,9) Although a common starting definition may be regarded as a useful strategy when debatingaboutlandscape,theinterpretationoflandscapesasareas,territoryorlevels of organization is highly problematic. In fact, this choice brings with it a clear risk of reducing the possible meanings of landscape and of forgetting its fascinating history and its functioning as a spatial metaphor. This limited and essentialised approach tendstoconflatelandscapeswithtermssuchasterritoryorregion.Furthermore,other ways of knowing landscape suchaspeoples qualitative and mobileperceptionsmay becomereducedtomappableunits,asifeverythingcouldfitneatlywithinthisparticular 1 landscapeascontainerframework .InhisappraisalofUNESCOsculturallandscape designations,PeterFowlercallsformorefluidconceptionsoflandscape,remindingus that landscapes may travel with us inour imaginationsand that,inadiasporic world, culturallandscapeswithfixedboundariesareunlikelytoexist(Fowler2002). Researchers from a range of theoretical and disciplinary fields have developed challengingconceptualizationsoflandscapewhichtranscendthenotionofaterritorial container,emphasizingtheroleofhumanagencyintheunderstandingoflandscapes andthesocialsystemsthatproducethem.ThecollectionofessaysTheinterpretation ofordinarylandscapes(Meinig1979)withcontributionsfromYiFuTuan,J.B.Jackson and David Lowenthal, is a prominent example of this concern. Inspired by work in cultural studies and humanistic geography, Meinig states in the introduction, Landscapeis,firstofall,theunitywesee,theimpressionsofoursensesratherthan thelogicofthesciences(1979,3).Thisbookdevelopsasetofideasaboutlandscape which interprets it as a cultural expression, able to travel in our imaginary, shape material spaces and operate as a selective representation of the world. An idea of landscapeasaformofvisualizationwasemerging. Landscapeasaformofvisualization TheworkofhistoricalgeographerDavidLowenthalisconsideredtohavebeenkeyin preparingthewayforapproachestolandscapewhichbegintoconsideritasaformof visualizationandawayofstructuringknowledgeaboutspace(Olwig2003).Lowenthal, initiallyinhisworkwithHughPrince,analyzedtheimpactofclassandnationalidentity onthecreationofmateriallandscapes(LowenthalandPrince1964).Thisworkbegan toshowthesociallyconstructedwaysinwhichspaceisperceivedandcomprehended aslandscape.Theideathatlandscapeisnotathing,quantifiableandreal,butrather aculturallymediatedconstruction,hasbecomepopularacrossthesocialsciencesand, particularly, in human geography (where landscape made its first appearance as a scientificconceptinthemidNineteenthcentury).Themostprominentgeographerto adopt and develop this cultural perspective on landscape is geographer Denis Cosgrove. Denis Cosgroves Way of seeing approach has had a major influence on Anglo American Cultural Geographers throughout the eighties and nineties. Cosgrove suggests that: Landscape is not merely the world we see, it is a construction, a composition of that world.Landscapeisa way of seeing the world. (Cosgrove 1984, 13).Heinterpretslandscapeasaformofvisualideology,hisanalysisbeinginspiredby WesternMarxistthoughtandearlierworkonrepresentationsuchasthatofRaymond Williams(1973).Cosgrovetracesthedevelopmentoftheconceptoflandscapebackto

the Italian renaissance and suggests that a particular landscaped way of seeing th emergedasaresponsetoEuropeancapitalismofthe17 Century,whichhadcreated a demand for new techniques of spatial ordering and control over society and environment (Cosgrove 1984). This work formed part of a wider concern with the conditions of visualization and the material production of landscape, and his perspective has become influential in the social sciences, particularly within cultural geography (Barrel 1990 Barnes and Duncan 1992 Daniels 1993 Mitchell 1994 Agnew1998Casey2002). Work on landscape as a form of visualization has begun to show the processes throughwhichlandscapecanoperateasaculturalandpoliticaldevice.However,this work has beencriticizedforplacingtoostronganemphasis on representation,at the expenseofconsideringourmaterialinteractionswiththeworld(Rose2002).Takento a postmodern extreme, such theorisations have, in some cases, led to completely immaterial conceptualizations of landscape (cf. Clarke and Doel 1994). Cosgroves way of seeing approach and the work it has inspired, is thought to deny the connectivity of representations to the world outside (Olwig 2003), downplaying the importanceoftherelationshipsbetweenthematerialworldanditsrepresentations.Itis alsoconsideredtohaveprivilegedthesenseofsightattheexpenseofothersensory modalitiesand ways of experiencing landscape(Okely2001).This isan argumentto whichCosgrovehimselfnowsubscribes(Cosgrove2003). Anthropologist Tim Ingold explicitly rejects Cosgroves representational or way of seeing approach to landscape. This forms part of Ingolds challenge to conventional accountsoflandscapeandenvironment.Hesuggeststhattheparadoxattheheartof western scientific thought is that it tends to rest on a separation of humanity from nature: a position which may eventually undermine ecological and sustainability concerns. Contesting an understanding of the world which divides it into subjects (minds)andobjects,headvocatesanalternativemodeofunderstandingbasedonthe premiseofourengagementwiththeworld,ratherthanourdetachmentfromit(Ingold 2000, 11). In short, Ingold suggests that landscape is a part of us it is felt. For example, in his discussion of the painting The Harvesters he asks the reader to imagineherself/himselfasaphysicalparticipantinthescene:Throughtheexercisesof descendingandclimbing,andtheirdifferentmuscularentailments,thecontoursofthe landscapearenotso much measuredas felt theyaredirectly incorporated into our bodilyexperience.(Ingold1993,166) Ingolds work provides a way of rematerializing the conceptualisation of landscapes and a route away from approaches merely concerned with the social and cultural implications of landscape representation. His work has had a significant impact on contemporary landscape studies ingeographyandmany scholarshavebegunto link his ideas of landscape with ideas about embodiment, experience and representation (Cloke and Jones 2001 Rose 2002 Wylie 2002 Lorrimer and Lund 2003). For example, Lorrimer and Lund (2003)echo Ingolds perspective when theyfind intheir research on Munrobagging in Scotland that an understanding of the body and landscapeisfeltthroughthephysicalterrain.Inasimilarvein,geographerMitchRose argues that theengine for the landscapes being is practice: everydayagentscalling the landscape into being as they make it relevant for their own lives, strategies and projects.(Rose2002,457) TheResearch Thecontentofthecontemporarydebatesonthenatureoflandscapehasinspiredthe decisiontoresearchvisuallyimpairedwalkinggroupsaspartofmyPhDthesis.Inthis researchitseemedimportanttoconsider:theideaoflandscapeassomethingfelt,the social, cultural and political processes which structure the visualization of landscape

and the connections between these two processes. I set out to ask: How does landscapecomeaboutforvisuallyimpairedpeople? The research has been carried out with two different organizations: the Sheffield Visually Impaired Walking Group and Vitalise (previously named the Winged Fellowship Trust) who run walking trips in the Lake District for people with visual impairments. An indepth,ethnographic approach tothe research was taken,utilising one to one, tape recorded interviews and written field notes. What follows, is some earlyfindingsandsomequestionswhichhavebegunarisefromtheresearch. During the fieldwork, inspired by Ingolds interpretation of landscape, I initially considered how a sense of the areas designated as landscape such as the Lake DistrictandthePeakDistrictweremediatedthroughthematerial,physicaldimensions ofthecane,theguidedog,theweather,thesightedguidesbody,theothersensesand any residual sight each person had. Through indepth interviews with walking group participants I began to learn about the alternative points of view which could be generated by the body, to ensure an immediate knowledge of the terrain. Adrian, visuallyimpairedallhislifeandnowtotallyblind,explainedhowhegotasenseofthe areashepassedthrough yourbodysortoftakesontherolealmostofanextrahand,youcanfeelthroughthe shoe,youarefeelingthetexture,insteadofanticipatingwiththeeyesandgenerating imageswiththebrainyouhavetoanalysethetextureandfeelwithyourbody Wasthisexplanationofhowhegetsasenseoftheimmediateareaanythingtodowith landscape? If we take Ingolds explanation of landscape, as anengagement, as felt theanswerwouldprobablybeyes.TheactivityAdrianistalkingaboutalsooccurredin an area designated as landscape the Peak District. However if I asked any of the interviewees directly about what constituted landscape I tended to get very different answers I:EveryonethinksoflandscapeassomethingdifferentandIwaswonderingwhenIsay landscapewhatdoyouthink? H:IwouldprobablythinkofapaintingfirstofallpossiblybyConstablesomethinglike that, of the traditional English countryside, you know the trees possibly in the foreground, a stream running by, a lot of greengrassand rolling hills further into the backgroundandablueskywithsomewhitefluffyclouds. I:andwheredoyourememberthosepaintingsfrom? H: I dont know, but that is possibly my perception, when you say landscape that is whatIconjureup,thatimage,thatismyimmediateperceptionoflandscapeandwhen you said youwere studying landscape at first,Ithought wellwheredowefit into this youknowasblindpeoplegoingoutintothecountryside,wheredowecomeintothat (laughs)thatwasmyfirstthought. Itseemsthatneitherasolelyembodiedapproach,focusingonlandscapeasfelt,nora solely representational approach,focusing on landscape as a form of visualization is enoughtograsptheworkingsoflandscapeinthisresearchcontext.Ingoldsarguments and other phenomenologically inspired embodied approaches may result in every interactionwiththelandbeingconsideredasmeaningfulaslandscape.Furthermore suchapproachestendtofocusonthephysicaldimensionofourembodiedinteractions with landscape how bodies give us orientation, geometry, balance and scale ignoring the more emotional qualities of embodied interactions. Perhaps most

importantly, the interviews carried out so far show that not all interactions with, and knowledge generated of, the territory is classed as landscape by interviewees. Landscape tends to be understood as something either for experts to talk about archaeologists,botanists,geologistsorsomethingsovisualastobemeaninglessto people with no sight. It seems Doreen Massey is correct when she points out that "embodiedness has to be on certain terms to result in meaningfulness" (Massey 2004,8). Thisobservationraisesanumberoffurtherquestionsabouthowlandscapeoperatesto structure knowledge about space: how do the felt dimensions of experiencing the territorybecometranslatedintomeaningfullandscapeexperiencebyvisuallyimpaired walkers?Andwhatistheroleofsightedguidesandotherinterpretativematerialsinthis process? It seems that to be losing sight or to be without sight, yet living in a predominantlysightedworldwhich,inBritain,privilegesparticularculturesoflandscape appreciation, positions the visually impaired walker at a number of junctures. In particular they are positioned between a collective visual cultures with particular norms of landscape appreciation and their own personal embodied identities and perceptionsofareassuchasthePeakDistrict. Contactauthor:HannahMacpherson
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SeeforexampleAlisterScottattemptstoincorporatepublicperceptionoflandscapedatainto alayerofGISfortheCountrysideCouncilforWalesLANDMAPprogrammeScott,A.(2002). "Assessingpublicperceptionoflandscape:TheLandmapExperience."LandscapeResearch 27(3):271290.

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