Plastic Eternities and the Mosaic of Landscape

Bibliographic Data

ID4476286
AuthorsChris Van Dyke (University of Kentucky, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume31
Issue3
Pages400-415
Publication date2013-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/d15010
OpenAlexW2082122727
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited93

In recent years nonrepresentational theory has been applied with increasing frequency to landscape studies. This paper responds to this trend in two ways. First, through a close reading of John Wylie and Mitch Rose's writings, I critique the application of nonrepresentational theory to landscape interpretation. While nonrepresentational theory has, crucially, highlighted the importance of performativity, affect, excess, and relationality, it has been imperfectly translated to landscape studies. Landscape studies grounded in nonrepresentational theory overburden the landscape with philosophical and theoretical propositions, which has the effect of exonerating landscapes from their temporal, spatial, and visual circumstances. Second, drawing mainly on the work of Catherine Malabou and Bruno Latour, I suggest that different metaphors and concepts are needed to improve landscape studies: plasticity and a revamped, historical account of relationality. The aim of this paper is to establish a means of visualizing the dynamics of landscape and their historical mutability, with the intention of producing readings that are more ecumenical, and avoid the theoretical reductionism found in current nonrepresentational accounts of landscape

Aesthetics · Civil engineering · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Landscape architecture · Linguistics · Performative utterance · Performativity · Reading (process · Reductionism · Sociology · Engineering · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub