PowerPointpresentasjon

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østlandsforskning - eastern norway research
institute
Tor Arnesen - Østlandsforskning Eastern Norway
Research Institute - Lillehammer -
Norway Title The way to go to do it, to
grasp it, to policy it. On theory of
landscapes. Setting Given the goal to somehow
impose or assess a (or more) landscape management
regime(s), this seems to imply access in a
relevant way, to those landscapes. If you
cannot or do not access them, there can hardly be
any justice in the way they are managed or
assessed. Question What exactly (or even
vaguely) does it mean to have access to or access
a landscape?
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østlandsforskning eastern norway research
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• What exactly does it mean to have access to a
  landscape?
• Rephrasing What conditions must be meet in order
  to have access to a landscape?
• The insufficiencies
• The insufficiency of un-prepared vision
• You cannot see it just-like-that
• The insufficiency of locomotion
• You cannot physically be there just-like-that
• As I develop this line of thought, I think you
  will recognize it as another round of debate on
  the classical issue of What the is a
  landscape anyway?
• My rationale for contributing to this discussion
  is to add a semiotic and pragmatic interpretation
  of the issue of the landscape.

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In courtesy of Rene Magritte (1898-1967) Who
studied the representation in painting of objects
and his work is a source of inspiration for
thinking about what we do when we represent
something as something for us in a certain
respect or capacity.
The picture represent the object. A the level of
knowledge, experience and culture is needed to
grasp the representation, to understand what
the picture is a picture of. The picture is
almost void.
The picture is almost void Or The picture is
a revisit to the object
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The insufficiency of un-prepared vision seems
obvious with the pipe. But if you told the
entrepreneur developing a second home area in the
outfields or the politicians and administrators
allowing for this to happen, that a rage from the
community dependant on sheep grazing in the same
area, that the conflict stems from the fact that
they do not know what sheep's in the picture
represented, it is not so obvious to them. or
to the national park administration when they try
top preserve the picture and suppress the
functions a theme I will return to.
This is not a mountain
This is a picture of the mountain valley of
Bjorli This is not Bjorli
A snap-shot certainly may be of a piece of
land, but as a snap-shot it is a representation
of the land not the land.
This is not a forest
and this is not a beach it is a picture of one
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• The insufficiency of un-prepared vision
• You cannot see it just-like-that

When seen, it is seen as represented. You cannot
escape from the representation. The object is
not accessible in any other way then as
represented.
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• The insufficiency of locomotion
• You cannot physically be there just-like-that
• It is not sufficient to be there
• - at least not if you assume that whatever is
  meant by the word landscape it is something
  different from an area as such.
• There is a representation and an interpretation
  of some sort between the area as such (the
  object) and what we mean when we refer to
  something as a landscape.
• If you have to enter and share some sort of
  representation and interpretation in order to
  access a landscape, being there is not sufficient
  to grasp the landscape in the area.
• The conclusion is that you have to make a
  distinction between locomotion and access.

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• The insufficiencies
• of un-prepared vision you may certainly view a
  landscape, but it requires an effort beyond just
  looking at piece of land
• of locomotion you may certainly experience a
  landscape, but it takes more than just walking
  trough
• The conclusion to have access to a landscape,
  something more is needed than a passive viewing
  or even on-sighting.
• An effort of some sort is needed to access a
  landscape beyond passive viewing or even just
  walking through, and this effort have to produce
  cognitive results the grasping of the landscape.
• I will return to what kind of effort. First there
  is a need to put this conclusion on a better
  theoretical foundation.
• Semiotics
• A pragmatic theory of meaning
• Finally compile this into a heuristic with some
  (more sketchy) methodological implications

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• Landscape The territorial meaning and the
  aesthetic meaning
• As discussed by Kenneth Olwig (1996), the
  interests in and not least the confusions
  entailing the word and the concepts landscape
  is in no way a novel affair.
• Hartsthorne 1939 (cited in Olwig 1996) landscape
  is perhaps the most single important word in
  the geographic language. Hartsthorne pointed to
  the confusion the word created. The word in
  English has been derived from the German word
  Landschaft meaning
• a restricted piece of land
• while the English word also used in an
  aesthetic way to refer to appearance of land as
  we perceive it the section of the earths
  surface and sky that lies in our field of vision
  as seen in perspective from a particular point
  (Hartsthorne 1939 cited in Olwig 1996)

This, Harsthorne observes, enable users to shift
from the use of the same word to mean, on the
one hand, a definitely restricted area and, on
the other, a more or less definitely defined
aspect of an unlimited extent of the earths
surface (Hartsthorne 1939 cited in Olwig 1996)
And within this dichotomy there seems to be an
inescapable and almost uncontrollable
flickering between the scenic object to the
sensation of landscape created by the pictorial
field of spatial vision.
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Semiotics
Interpretant
Irreducibly triadic According to semiotics we
are dealing with an irreducibly triadic relation
in all instances and only in those instances
where internationality is expressed or expresses
itself
The sign user for whom the sign is a sign for
something in some respect or capacity
Sign
Object
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østlandsforskning - eastern norway research
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Semiotics
Syntax All sign systems have a structure (some
times we seek that structure to better express
ourself in the system as I urban planning) a
set of rules defining what is accepted as
well-formulated expressions (in language
grammar) there are obviously a syntax in
landscape aesthetics as can be illustrated in
this snap-shot
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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Semiotics
Semantics Semantics is about the relation
between the sign and the object. The task of
semantics is to clarify rules for what every
well-formulated expression in a sign system refer
to or mean (Bedeuten / betyr). An important
feature of semantic relations is that they are
non-exhausting. Several signs may refer to the
same object, both within one sign system and
between several systems. The number of signs
referring to this forest is non-exhaustive.
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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østlandsforskning - eastern norway research
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Semiotics
Semantics The semantic relation between a sign
and its object is often exploited in landscape
theory. In Landscapes for tomorrow ORioordan
et al (1993) explores semantics by constructing
Seven different landscapes that might
realistically represent Dales National Park in
the lifetime of the present generation These
landscapes where imagined in the form of water
color paintings (and so on). Another example
is found in Emmelin and his Landscape Impact
Analysis (1996) where the author is occupied
with analysing through visualization
Landscape futures in specific parcels of land.
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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Semiotics
Pragmatics Explores the full triadic relation
(and is thus the fundamental perspective) and is
the study of sign in use. The task of pragmatics
is to study a complete piece of communication as
an act where the interpretant let the sign
represent the object in some respect or
capacity. This is an act, something being done.
In an action intentions and meanings are
expressed and given a shape suited for
communication within the same language and
possibly across languages (or more generally
systems of communication). Acts of
communication may be syntactically and
semantically according to rules, but
pragmatically meaningless. An example from
language I went to the cinema last night, but
I dont believe I did Could we have a parallel
in landscape analysis?
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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østlandsforskning - eastern norway research
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Semiotics
Pragmatics in landscape theory I interpret
Olwigs attempt at Recovering the Substantive
nature of Landscape as advancing basically by
performing an pragmatic analysis. It is not
enough to study landscape as a scenic text. A
more substantive understanding of landscape
derives from the historical study of out
changing conceptions and uses of land/landscape
In a similar fashion I interpret Kroghs
concept (1995) of landscaping when he defines
landscaping as mans process of creating
meaning in interaction with his environment
the outcome of which are landscapes. While
landscaping obviously must be understood as an
activity, an act materializing as an historical
process and through landscaping we make new
relations to an area, it is less obvious that
landscapes should basically be understood in the
same way. This is Kroghs focus exactly, that we
cannot access a landscape but through
landscaping. In order to bring home that
argument, we need to move one step further in
theory studies.
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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Meaning Meaning is about signs in use. To
simplify for now, I will define meaning as a
pragmatist The meaning of an expression, lies
exclusively in its conceivable bearing upon the
conduct of life. Nothing that might not result
from experience can have any direct bearing upon
conduct. If one can define all the conceivable
experiential phenomena which the affirmation or
denial of a concept could imply, one will have
therein a complete definition of the concept, and
there is absolutely nothing more in it. In an
abbreviated form Meaning refer to what
conceivable effect a sign has when we live our
lives.
Interpretant
Sign
Object
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• When we perceive a situation it is not pure
  unmediated sensation, but an mediated
  understanding or interpretation of it. The world
  does not appear to us as a chaos of smells and
  sounds, colours and touches, but as a organized
  and meaningful whole (more or less)
• The interpretation or understanding of the
  situation can be more or less personal coloured,
  it is to a high degree pre-organized through a
  repertoire of categories, or concepts,
  instruments and frames given through and immersed
  in language and culture
• Wittgenstein but before him, C.S. Peirce
  point to the use of signs as core in social life
  forms.
• What we are facing here is a cooperative, social
  project with an historical development
• The understanding of reality landscapes
  included is a function of institutionalised
  systems and meanings and reference given by
  language and culture.

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Question What is a landscape?
Interpretant
The landscape is a sign for somebody in some
respect or capacity
Sign
Object
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Interpretant 1 farmer with grazing animals
Interpretant 2 Second home owner
Recreational Landscape Sign system 2
Grazing Landscape Sign system 1
The object is the area this picture refer to

• What is interesting about this
• A given area may contain many (congruent)
  landscapes
• A landscape may change without any material
  change in the area
• The number of landscapes may grow or decline
  without material change

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østlandsforskning eastern norway research
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Back to the question What exactly (or even
vaguely) does it mean to have access to or access
a landscape?
From a pragmatic point of view, it means to
somehow take part in the life-form / life-style /
or simply activity and way-of-doing-things that
makes up the core of the interpretants projects
or program.
A good example of the kind of somehow I have in
mind Norman Hendorson doing Replicate dog
travois travel on the Northern Plains in Canada
(1994) in order to understand the area /
technology interaction, and essential features in
the native landscape. Or Henderson (1996)
trying to understand The canoe as a failure to
the Canadian Planes in the face of how
Canadians mythologize the aesthetics and
importance of canoe travel in their nations
development replicate travel being the means
for accessing and assessing the landscape.
Interpretant 2
Interpretant 1
Landscape 2
Landscape 1
The object is the area this picture refers to
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østlandsforskning eastern norway research
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What exactly (or even vaguely) does it mean to
have access to or access a landscape?
This is an argument against Schreibtischforschung
and Schreibtischadministration in landscape
management. The only way to access a landscape
is to immerse in the cultures present in the
area. This is the an argument for field work,
for participatory planning and policy making,
for street-level policy making, for
non-centralized governmental initiatives. This
is an argument for empowering of the local
cultures by insisting on the need to immerse in
cultures to be able to grasp the (in principle
may) landscape(s) in an given area. Then when
it is accessed in this way - a basis for forming
an putting into effect a policy exists.
Interpretant 2
Interpretant 1
Landscape 2
Landscape 1
The object is the area this picture refers to
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Which brings me back the title for this talk
The way to go to do it, to grasp it, to
policy it.
and keep this in mind