Landscape, mobility, practice

Abstract

Merriman, P., Revill, G., Cresswell, T., Lorimer, H., Matless, D., Rose, G., Wylie, J. (2008). Landscape, mobility, practice. Social and Cultural Geography, 9 (2), 191-212.This paper is an edited transcript of a panel discussion on 'Landscape, Mobility and Practice' which was held at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference in September 2006. In the paper the panel engage with the work of geographers and others who have been drawing upon theories of practice to explore issues of mobility and how we encounter, apprehend, inhabit and move through landscapes. The contributors discuss the usefulness of conceptions of landscape vis--vis place and space, and different traditions of apprehending, practising and articulating the more-than-representational dimensions of landscapes. The panel discuss the entwining of issues of power and politics with different representations, practices and understandings of landscape/landscaping, and a number of the panellists position their thinking on the politics of landscape in relation to recent work on the politics of affect.Peer reviewe

Walking and talking through Walks and Talks: traveling in the English landscape with Frederick Law Olmsted, 1850 and 2011

“…71 Proceeding through Walks to arrive at Talks, or rather through practice to arrive at discourse, indicates the tension that binds these elements of Olmsted's narrative together, a tension which was also found in Olmsted's broader philosophy. Like Wylie's assertion that 'landscape is tension, the tension between perceiver and perceived, subject and object,' 72 Olmsted shunts back and forth between representational and non-representational modes; activating and then nullifying the latter in the goal of revealing the former, but choosing not efface the traces and marks of this process in the completed object. The physical reality of foot travel allowed Olmsted to concretize concepts which he could appreciate but not articulate with language: 'nature treats me so strangely; it's past my speaking of,' he noted, 'and yet, as a part of my traveling experience, I would speak of it.'…”

“…54 In this way, Olmsted provides a precursor example of the kind of 'approaches to landscape and mobility which demonstrate a sensitivity to and engagement with practical action,' which Peter Meriman and George Revill determine to be 'key to overcoming both the ahistoricism associated with some studies of mobility and the static pictorialism others associate with landscape.' 55 Olmsted the author made clear disclosure of Olmsted the walker, and he invited readers to literally fill his shoes. In an appendix to Walks and Talks entitled 'Information and advice for those wishing to make a pedestrian tour in England, at the least practicable expense,' he offered his readers a series of tips on how to duplicate his own adventure.…”

The hearing, the mapping, and the Web: Investigating emerging online sound mapping practices

“…In many ways, interpretations of sounds in these categories displayed on the map show that "visuality is always multi-modal" (Merriman et al, 2008, p. 201), as "visualities are always practiced and performed through a whole range of registers, one of which is the visual, but often that is accompanied by the auditory, the tactile, and so on" (Merriman et al, 2008). I call for more attention to the multi-modality of visuality in sound mapping because the visual would usually be the first encounter for the map user in this context.…”

“…While the existing literature has acknowledged the multi-media characteristic of VGI, not much attention has been given to the auditory aspect of VGI production and construction. I seek to extend this line of investigation of VGI as visual practices to incorporate a more expanded discussion on the notion of multi-modality of visuality (Degen, DeSilvey, & Rose, 2008;Merriman et al, 2008) in urban studies and landscapes to unpack the complexities of sound mapping practices.…”

Ethnography beyond the country and the city: Understanding the symbolic terrain of rural spaces

“…The task, then, is to show how such practices lend themselves to ethnographic enquiry. It is hoped that doing so in an exploratory way here will further blur town/country distinctions to foster a broader and more open-ended range of possibilities for comprehending human identity and culture-building within a variety of spaces (Serres, 1987; Thrift, 2004;Merriman et al, 2008). How, then, can we move away from the binaristic determinism that has characterized the discourse about town and country towards a more nuanced reading of rural distinction?…”