LONGING AND BELONGING IN THE URBAN PARK: Landscape Phenomenology with the High Line Park as example by MARIETTE

LOUW 22038061 Submitted for the subject VKK 755 Study Leader: Jenni Lauwrens DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ARTS in the FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Honours Year FIRST HAND IN 11 July 2011

JOHN WYLIE: Landscape, Absence and the Geographies of Love. (2009:pages 275-289) John Wylie uses the memorial benches at Mullion Cove, Cornwall to describe landscape phenomenology in terms of absence rather than presence as he claims is the prevailing contemporary phenomenological theory (p.275). Wylie uses the motifs of absence, distance, loss and haunting (p.275) The designers and supporters of the Highline probably also thought and designed in terms of presence and the way users would feel part of the city, its history and nature rather than how we are always separate and can not become part of a/the landscape. In the same way we are never together and a moment is also always fleeting, we can never be in the moment as might be the advice of friends, psychologists or self-help books as a remedy pacifier for our #quick# lifestyles in the city. This theory however is not as negative as it sounds; neither of the oppositions or sides of the dichotomy is actually achievable, it is rather always a dialectic that places us somewhere in-between. These experiences are also not just between any two oppositions, but between many oppositions at the same time. As such we are not completely separate or completely part of the landscape, yet we can still experience (whether fleetingly or lingering) either or a mixture of these. Designers that are more affiliated with modernist ideas might also believe that the way they design an outdoor area could reinforce or discourage different experiences. Craving loves keen sting: Wylie also discusses what he calls the geographies of love, or the way that love is actually also constituted by the possibility of loss. Wylie claims, based on other writers such as Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy that the impossibility of a unity between romantic partners, and as such also between his own views of the ocean at the Mullion Cove benches or with the person commemorated is what creates a tension that is the fundamental basis of love, or at least the reinforcer of it (p.284). 1

Through specific design decisions the designers and imbursers of the High Line Park might have intended to create a type of love for the park itself, of its railroad past and its peoples history, of the surrounding urban area and of their ideas of nature and of some ecological practices they deem proper. Wylie suggests that these ideas stem, at least equally as much as from presence and inclusion, from aspects of insurmountable exclusion and lacking. Instead of looking at the topics of landscape, embodiment, perception and material culture and our being-in-the-world in terms of presence and unity, these are also made up of negatively perceived characteristics such as absence, loss and lacking. The experience or emotions of nostalgia, lingering and yearning are examples of strong emotions or experiences that are a mixture of positives and negatives, as such they might be more appropriate in describing the dialectic nature of urban landscapes, whether purposefully designed or haphazardly formed. Ghostly Presence: The High Line can be seen in either of these oppositionals of either absence or presence, depending on our viewpoints. It would be more accurate in phenomenological and existential terms to regard it as a mixture of both. Even though the High Line is not a memorial per se, it commemorates the railway line and the way of life that went with it. That part of the High Line could represent a commemorative memorial and the past. In the present it is used as a park, a path to and from work (this also links with the previous use of the railway line in the nineteenth century. Memorials, monuments, cenotaphs or commemorative plaques try to make physical the memories of those lost physically so that they will not be lost metaphysically. They are again called to the present even though they are in the past. This links to word use such as a presence could be felt in the castle. Derrida argues that these ghosts of the physical body and its soul or sensibilities are reincorporated in some form or state, only in a very abstract artifactual body or prosthetics (p.277). The High Line not only serves as commemoration of the previous industrial 2

railway landscape, but also through its use of planting it commemorates the way nature took back the railway when it became unused. Through the designers attempt at good environmental practices they also attempt to show consideration and appreciation to nature in a larger sense even though it might not be lost it serves as a warning that it could be lost as well as a general call to value and respect nature. Richardson argues that ecological awareness and practice in landscape architecture (as with many other industries) is also a prerequisite in order to further the industry financially in order to be successful in our capitalist society due to the current environmental movement. Whatever the reason the designers had in mind a shaping of the users assumed general perspective through material use, vegetation selection, views from seating and walking areas as well as planned activities. Despite recurring Post-modern theories about the inability to pin down perspectives, feelings and symbolism such as Wylies, it seems that many designers, such as those of the High Line still believe the designer is in a way superior to the user and can largely form the users experience of a landscape. The changes in design from Modernist landscape architecture to a more Post-Modernist landscape architecture seems mostly to lie in purposefully allowing for more diverse uses of the design and in the inclusion of juxtaposed styles. On the other hand it is arguably more difficult, even impossible, to design according to Post-modernist theories and a general perspective and its shaping needs to be assumed in order to be able to design. Designers also still have a high status in society and as such needs to assume they can and should shape the users everyday life through their designs. Even Wylie, with his knowledge of philosophy and landscape phenomenology experienced some of the designers of Mullion Coves memorial benches intended experiences.

HAYDEN LORIMER: Cultural geography: the busyness of being `more-than-representational' (2005: pages 83-94) (p.83) In Cultural geography: the busyness of being `more-thanrepresentational' Hayden Lorimer states that non-representational theory has lately become an all-encompassing term for theory and philosophy looking to understand the worlds that are not simply visual but also include our other sensibilities, as well as our communication and electronic sensory technologies that make us more-than-human. Landscape architecture had to follow suit in not only thinking of design in terms of visual implications, as might be argued of designs such as the gardens of Versailles, but also in terms of a sense of community, daily activities and natural restoration. (p.85) Critique of representationalism is that it takes away the vividness that should be present in cultural geographys landscape theory by fixing, structuring and placing rigid boundaries on social constructs that are not as easily compartmentalized. This does not mean that the humanities cannot be studied, only that it should be kept in mind that it is more complex than can be studied and expressed empirically. Lorimer states that attempts to overcome the deadening effect or conformist politics of identity and textbook meanings tend to include the transient, performance and superfluous facets of life. (p.84) Ironically and remarkably the insignificant habits and routines in everyday living becomes important because they are so often repeated. Though they give no hints as to what they can or will become they play an integral part in forming identity, an allusion to community, to belonging and a sense of space and place in urban settings such as the city park or paths. Lorimer writes: The focus falls on how life takes shape and gains expression in shared experiences, everyday routines, fleeting encounters, embodied movements, precognitive triggers, practical skills, affective intensities, enduring urges, unexceptional interactions and sensuous dispositions.

Thrift (2004, in Lorimer, no page numbers given) contends that these actions also provide a kind of escape from more serious efforts that require or ask for analysis in terms of meaning, academics, pretences or ethics. The High Line includes community vegetable gardens that might encourage a feeling of belonging, affection towards the place and the group as well as the satisfaction of providing service to other people. David Crouch (2003a:18) discloses how the lay geographies or terrestrial activities can reassure a potent practical ontology or sense of existence. Working together in a vegetable, or other, garden can impart multisensual meanings and spatialities and give acc to metaphysical ideas such as growth, feeling grounded and fruitfulness. These might sound like clichs, but using more direct signs often give way to deeper connotations. (p.86) Lorimer states that physical effort can also not be neatly categorized into either pleasure or pain. It might be the combined experience of suffering together and enjoying the rewards together that strengthens the community bond. These earthy practices reaches out not only to Other in terms of human beings, but also to the non-academic and the non-human communities. The High Lines fortunate mixture of spatial properties such as being situated in the air rather than on the ground, becoming a tribute to labour classes of a certain era and the need for a green space in the area probably led to its development into a well-known landscape architectural project. (p.86) Lorimer also discusses how industrial lands disuse and/or misuse can lead to them being used as experiment in cosmopolitics and a means to do justice by overhauling them into islands of nature. A key part of the High Lines design objectives were to reclaim the park for nature, to make invisible natural processes visible and to promote what Lorimer terms earthly activism. (p.86) A sense of belonging in landscape design can also be strengthened by other techniques such as likening it to a home. Relational materialities and multisensual engagements are the ways certain customs, methods and protocols draw together people, objects, skills and technologies. The home is necessarily scaled around the size of the body as this is the starting place of all 5

our physical and metaphysical experiences. Tuan (2004: 165, in Lorimer) states that the home is necessarily small and intimate and this gives it its involving power because it is more directly experienced. The system of working from a smaller bodily scale to larger bodies scales is also employed in the High Line in order to make it more personable and approachable and less agoraphobic or exposed. There are benches and alcoves that are just large enough for a person or two but these in turn slot into spaces for a few people and for many people enjoying an activity or commuting on foot together. In a way parks also extend the idea of the domestic garden into the larger urban landscape as a transitory area from private to semi-private, semi-public and to public. This again works to move from smaller scales of our own personal spaces towards areas that belong to ourselves and to the other, where we in turn are another persons other. (p.88) In order to facilitate the being of business, an entity spaced and people voluntarily and dependent on the creation of an aura of support and codependence these transitions are necessary in order to prevent the machines gears and power from hiding in their comfort zones so that the system can keep on working. If people do not feel a sense of belonging in the outdoor world, they might retreat to the familiar home or other nests where they feel safe in order to hide from it. (p.88&90) According to Lorimer humans have a persistent urge to divine fixed meanings. In order to design for our current materialistic and capitalistic system designers have to create some sort of loose affiliation of like minds and create local situated conditions necessary for tolerable, sustainable, shared lives.

BACKGROUND: 5. REINTERPRETIVE IMITATION MERGING NATURE AND THE CITY 5.1 Definition The last category in emulating nature is that of reproducing a look, sense and the complex processes of nature in the unnatural manmade environment of the city. Due to the environmental movement it has not only become fashionable to design in accordance with nature but also practical if we are to enjoy nature and our cities for a long time to come.

5.2 The Highline, New York City, New York, U.S.A. by Field Operations; Diller Scofidio and Renfro

The High Line was an unused and neglected elevated railway track but was protected due to its historical value to the city. An ecological survey also came to the conclusion that the otherworldly aura of the High Line site was a character worth keeping. Diller Scofidio and Renfro therefore wanted to keep the wild atmosphere and create a raised park for the area (Richardson 2005:24;27). The planned areas were ecological, such as a vegetal balcony, shade garden, woodland, river overlook, butterfly garden, grassland, sundeck and an outdoor event space. The twelve entrances also each were planned with their own unique atmosphere. The structural aspects again were more modernistic to bring the city and nature together in an unexpected locale following Le Corbusiers notion that the best offset to a modern structure is that of an untouched landscape. The same elements that give the High Line its allure is what also attracts critique the areas flow seamlessly into each other so that there is no architectural focus, so that it can lack areas of character and become somewhat monotonous if a person does not concentrate on the vegetation and animal habitat detail (Richardson 2005:24).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cultural geography: the busyness of being `more-than-representational' Hayden Lorimer Progress in Human Geography 2005 29: 83 DOI: 10.1191/0309132505ph531pr The online version of this article can be found at: http://phg.sagepub.com/content/29/1/83 Richardson, T. 2004. Look but dont touch, in Domus 2005/884:20-29 Landscape, Absence and the Geographies of Love. Joh Wylie Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2009:pages 275-289 Trans Inst Br Geogr NS 34 275289 2009 ISSN 0020-2754 2009 The Author. Journal compilation Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2009