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Nine: Environmental Criticism
- Temple University Press
- Chapter
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Environmental Criticism Chapter Nine ~ Criticism occupies a distinctive place in writing about art. While not primarily historical, it usually draws on scholarship in the history of the arts. And while not mainly concerned with developing theoretical concepts or structures, critics frequently identify new movements in the artworld and contribute terminology for innovative techniques and altered sensibilities to the discussion of the arts. Yet criticism rests on theoretical commitments, even though writers are often unaware of this and rarely acknowledge their assumptions . There are notable exceptions, all the more significant because they are not typical, from Richard Wagner and Eduard Hanslick to Clive Bell and Roger Fry and to contemporary critical theory.l While such people are outspoken proponents of particular, often innovative theories, it is common for critics, especially journalistic ones, simply to assume that art is some sort of "symbolic" "language" that "expresses" "emotion." I put these words in quotes because they take on the character ofcliches in discussions ofart, yet they harbor theoretical commitments that may be challenged and, in my judgment, are quite misleading. What, then, is criticism? To call it the normative genre ofwriting about art is uncontroversial, yet this tells us rather little. For while 126 127 criticism is explicitly normative, it is not exclusively judgmental. Although the bulk ofwriting about the arts can be called critical, in the large sense, it is important to recognize the relatively small quantity of critical literature that directly assesses art objects, even though this is what first catches the eye. The normative pervades critical writing more subtlely in comparisons ofhistorical and contemporary cases, in formal and thematic analyses, in interpreting art objects, and in considering appreciative responses. The functions of criticism are, however, far more complex still. In addition to normative commentary, they range from identifying influences and recording information about creative processes and techniques to describing art objects and events, analyzing works and performances, and alerting and guiding an appreciative response to them. This is, of course, a partial characterization of a vast literature. Still, it is important to keep such considerations in mind when proposing , as I wish to do here, that criticism be applied to a subject matter not ordinarily considered aesthetically and toward which the techniques of criticism have rarely been directed-environment. But what is environmental criticism? What is it not? Even more basic, is it possible? And, if so, what can it offer our understanding of environment? Let me begin by stating that environmental criticism, in a sense comparable to art or literary criticism, hardly exists.2 Some nature writing appears to verge on criticism. But nature writing proceeds on a different tack, being largely descriptive, informative, appreciative, and often moral in its character and intent. There is an important and long-established critical literature in architecture, certainly, and that approach has been directed more recently to environmental complexes formed by new towns and large-scale urban developments, such as Reston, Virginia and Seaside, Florida. Yet architectural criticism, explicitly historical studies aside, often focuses on new construction and is directed to the built environment: to structures and their sites. Still, can't this be considered exemplary for environmental criticism? Isn't it possible to adapt architectural criticism to environmental purposes? While such criticism comes closest to [3.237.189.116] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 05:57 GMT) 128 Environmental Criticism meeting our needs, I do not believe it can merely be extended to environment, and for at least four reasons. First, writing about the built environment is directed, as is art criticism in general, to objects-buildings or building complexes. It is clearly delimited in its scope and purpose, the first to a sharply bounded structure and the second to the planning, design, and construction of that structure. Such criticism is illustrated by the continuing controversy over Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York and Piano and Rogers' Pompidou Center in Paris. Architectural criticism characteristically discusses the functional considerations to which the building must respond, its interior and exterior design features , the extent to which it harmonizes with adjacent structures and the surrounding community, the relation of the building to other designs by the same and different architects, and sometimes the political process of obtaining approval of the plans. These and similar considerations reflect a concern with the building as an object, perhaps in a context and perhaps in a web of relationships, but as an object nonetheless. In contrast, environment, as we have seen in earlier chapters, is neither sharply...