In this Book
- Sites Unseen: Landscape and Vision
- Book
- 2007
- Published by: University of Pittsburgh Press
summary
Sites Unseen challenges conventions for viewing and interpreting the landscape, using visual theory to move beyond traditional practices of describing and classifying objects to explore notions of audience and context. While other fields, such as art history and geography, have engaged poststructuralist theory to consider vision and representation, the application of such inquiry to the natural or built environment has lagged behind. This book, by treating landscape as a spatial, psychological, and sensory encounter, aims to bridge this gap, opening a new dialogue for discussing the landscape outside the boundaries of current art criticism and theory.
As the contributors reveal, the landscape is a widely adaptable medium that can be employed literally or metaphorically to convey personal or institutional ideologies. Walls, gates, churchyards, and arches become framing devices for a staged aesthetic experience or to suit a sociopolitical agenda. The optic stimulation of signs, symbols, bodies, and objects combines with physical acts of climbing and walking and sensory acts of touching, smelling, and hearing to evoke an overall “vision” of landscape.
Sites Unseen considers a variety of different perspectives, including ancient Roman visions of landscape, the framing techniques of a Moghul palace, and a contemporary case study of Christo's The Gates, as examples of human attempts to shape our sensory, cognitive, and emotional experiences in the landscape.
As the contributors reveal, the landscape is a widely adaptable medium that can be employed literally or metaphorically to convey personal or institutional ideologies. Walls, gates, churchyards, and arches become framing devices for a staged aesthetic experience or to suit a sociopolitical agenda. The optic stimulation of signs, symbols, bodies, and objects combines with physical acts of climbing and walking and sensory acts of touching, smelling, and hearing to evoke an overall “vision” of landscape.
Sites Unseen considers a variety of different perspectives, including ancient Roman visions of landscape, the framing techniques of a Moghul palace, and a contemporary case study of Christo's The Gates, as examples of human attempts to shape our sensory, cognitive, and emotional experiences in the landscape.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-xi
- Part I. Landscape in Sight
- pp. 2-4
- 1. Landscape and Vision
- pp. 5-30
- Part II. Charting Vision
- 4. Moving the Eye
- pp. 61-88
- 5. Landscape and Global Vision
- pp. 89-107
- Part III. Envisioning Place
- pp. 108-110
- 6. Ancient Rome through the Veil of Sight
- pp. 111-130
- 10. Four Views, Three of Them through Glass
- pp. 213-240
- List of Contributors
- pp. 311-312
Additional Information
ISBN
9780822973201
Related ISBN(s)
9780822943082, 9780822959595
MARC Record
OCLC
680584956
Pages
334
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No