Language of Landscape

But he
"''35 really inco It. He was in this whole tunas}' ",-odd.
And no one was Iookins at tum like he "'"as stran~. To me that
was strange, but nobody else seemed ro~, or att. ~
Ah:hough~,the ideaof~mking in a place- md ~having
a story come (0 you~ ~ fiuniliar phrases, used as ohm by landscape architectS articulating a design process as by the general
public (0 descri~ the meaning or vatU(' of a landscape. These
phrases, and their corollaries, belie a distioction berv.'een -space~
and "place,~ (0 borrow the words ofgeographer Vi Fu Tuan. One
is purely physical, while the other has rel~-ance and connection
co someone. It is this distinction that d~~ Cooperman (0 situate ~ film in Bryant Park wben she could have JUSt as easily
woric:ed in East RiVet Park or Morningside Park. Brrant Park is
mtegraJ to the scoC')'. Or, foraccuracy, perhaps it is better to say that her StOry is integraJ (0 Bryant Park.
~ is a loo5dy defined group ci dw:orist:s and pracmionets woo ~ lookil18 at this ~ ci meaning in
bn<h<>p< '""'-'gh dr ""',
_gh, .. Ian·
guagt'. They fed---eJrhough there is difkrern in the
details.----that landscapes are composed of signs thu,
likeanaetuallan~,canbe -read.~ One only has (0
scud)' itS S}'Tuax, recogni~ itS vocabulary, and pracrice
itS diction (0 learn the language oflandscape. Beyond
itS a1literati\'e allure, "the language of landscape" has
appeal in that it combines into a single, contained
idea--01.'O very slippery and complex ones. Lmguage
has baffied civilizarion (~..et since the first literate expressIOn (c. 15,000 B.C., the date ci the a.\~ paintings
at A1wnira and Lasa.ux, seems as good a ~ as
any). AIguably.landsape has lUrrov.-m brows for~"'CO
longer. (Can we affix the due wtx-n H_1a(JtmI fust
cupped ~ eyes and kloked OUt O\'er the savannah?)
If the languageoflandscapevi'ere a lIlO\'UTlmt, Annr
Whisron Spim, ASIA, v.'OlI.Id be itS leader. A. professor
"""""y
cilandsa.pearchit(CtUte at the Uni\-m.ityofPennsyl\-ania, Spim has recently published a book on the subject tided, appropriately, TM Langllogt of LandJ(a~
(Yale University Press, 19(8). In it she codifies this
language on twO I~'els, First there is the syncaaical
1~'CI, in ",'hich she compares the Strucrurt oflandscape
t
82
I
and the Stf\lC'tUfe of \~rbaI Ianguaae: features are like nouns.
~ like
their intctaecions like- subJ«(S and predi-
\-rms.
a.tes inttrrWining. &neath the syntaCttallS the metaph;>rical
I~~I where,like \~rballang!.Ja8e,acolYrent structUtt can b<'gin
to take on meaning. Here Spiro's examples ~ abundant. She
looks at the politically comentious landscape of Skamling Hill
oonh of the Slesvig-Holstein region of Denmark. For dose to a
LITERAL SIC:-:S m tIN landscape provide mark('rl and dues
about a culture, such as Trenton, NewJerrey's proud dietumo/
mdustry': TRE.''TOl\' MAKES, TIiE WORLD TAKES, above. In a
dfflgn for an 10W0I mt stop, fuR Conu.'O)' I'nd Mart)' Schulte-are
urmg tM word "pwn«rr" to Ilruaurr tM rpaa, bdcN..
me aro was under Getman rul~ and
the Danish-speaking populat:ion forbiddm
to speak their Iang~; when finally Iiber~ in 1945. tbto landscape became ifl'UTlediatdy rrinscrilxd \l.. ith culrural ~ing
by members c:J the Danish ~istaJn. Today
dr p~ is rnaJ'k«i by a memorial, a Single
to\\'ttc:J srones. HO\\~'tt, the entire region.
allandsc:ape c:JSbmlingsb:mke has lxm invested with narionalistic symbolism-the
landscape is no less than a rnt'Clphor for Dan·
ish pride.
Spirn comests [hat, like poetry, [he
meeaphorica.l meamng of landscapes varies
in amplitude. Some, lik~ Skamling ate OVert
or Mpolentica.l.~ Others are sulxIer, or what
she ca.IJs deeper, such as me Great Plains c:J
America, wIleR the metaphors c:J the landscape ate less rberorica.l. Spim teUs tbto stOty
of coming upon a house in a
great expanse c:J t~less plains
somewhere ~t of llin\'er.
Around the ~ ...."ere .§e'\m
very large rrees planted dose to
the structure to ptO\'lde shelter
againsr rhe unrelenting sun and
wind. Bur Spirn also understands this as a structured response, a dialogue, wirh the
Menduring d~ep context of
place. ~ She wmcs;
Ct'flfW}'
M
M
In this context,
the language
is not the
lingual power
structure of laws
but the spatial
power structure
of the built
envirornnent.
Each !a,..h(JlIJt 'J pla.ltd
rwmd uuh IrfCJ. tlx IRIgt oId6
tlWl di.""Jh'ng tIN b6MJtJ.
oft"' hlilfgalou1 no .,,-r tho"
-floor bigh: IrtItS arr planted
OJ dlMtlS 1mf-t from the~,
Jlraight t'tTtifal tnm/u'. Jharp
lJmtrOJt 10 the broadbortZ/mtai
JUffp. markillg tnrh a JjJ«iai
piau. The farmhotlJtJ Jta11d
agaimt tht skJ, ao/ated, txl."t/Jt
ff)f'thtHtms. I tltufmklnd uly)' thtwtlmplamedtrfCJsodlJYtf>gtJhtr and nearlhe hNdt. a dttail f1IIt rolf IalCb (I1Ito. I dril't lJafi
tou'af"li thtal)' and S« trm agai.: tht) ta1IW Jht IattdJcape. gn't 10
the tl/JDt1ltSl a 1fnJ.
In thU exampl~, Spim's ability to discm1 the syntax rLlandscape--ttS fearures (nouns), procr:sses (\"t'tbs), and the principles
goo.-em.ing their mteraction--ll.JJov.'S her to pettti""e how landsa.pecan ha\"e metaphorica.l or S)'mbolic sIgnificance, how it an
stand for the mlaCity c:Jli~ on the Plains.
Alrhough these musings have a lofty and t'SOtehc «X'Ie cothern.
one c:JSpim's pnmary interestS is sociological: Iflandscape is langua~, what is the stateofliteracy? For the last twelve years Spim
has worked wirh residents and studems in [he grirty western
neighl::orOOods c:JPhiladdphia on landscape literacy proiern with
the purpose c:J educating people about their
~vironmem,I'1aw it is shaped. by ~ and,
~
imporouuly, how residentS can use
those forces to chan~ It. 1be idea. has Its
roots in the phil050phy c:J the Gvil RightS
MO\"m'leflt, mat lireracy equals empovovIn this contlCXl:, the Ianguag.e is nor: dr
lingual pov.'tt strueture c:J laws and rights.
bur the spatial povo"t'f stnJC£W'e c:J the built
environment; and the illiteracy Spim has
fOund is as much an ignorance of how land·
scape is shaped as it is the misapprehension
that it cannot be refonned in other ways,
West Philadelphia, like a lot of poor
urban areas, ....-as built in the floodplain. or
bottomS, of a wat~, Although today
Mill Creek is piped underground, during
hard rains it makts appearances, &oding
Streets, bascm~ms, and ~t lots, as it
metlL
A.'>r.\'E \'('H1S'I'O~
SPIR:', mils !Iln~ npmJl(IfI~JUdJ flS thIS
tkbigb plainrofColcr~ord«p(1)ntt'%J,· u~
tk LmiJi4~o/!Il~bIJS • shmng. panic qw/.tl)' In tIN VIIlt
cpuu~, thu IhOng p/mttmg p,fJf:idn ". tktml on~ am !IlJdJ onto, •
grOf:~on
o..v
r«reates itS natunl 60w,
rhe last th~ ).ea.tS, a. group c:J
sinh, SC'''mth, aJXl. oghth graders at Su1zberger Middle School
hav(' '\lo'llrled with Spim and herstudents in a Universityc:JPmnSyl\1U1ia design studio to study and map Mill Creek. They followed its perambulations from where it runs abo\"e ground, to
where it descends, where it fioods sewffS, where it serdes in \'a.
cant lotS, and where it connectS with and defines the neighborhood. uWle teach th~m how to read th~ landscape of the
neighborhood, Msays Spiro. She also reaches them how to be fiu·
em in 1andscape, how to ~write~ landscape; and as pan of their
centur}' the area "'as under German ruI~ and
the D.utish-sptaking populacion forbidden
ro sprak chei.r lang~; whm finally lib«attd in 1945. the 1andscape b«ame im~­
diacdy mnscribed with cultural meaning
b)' mmlbersof the Danish ~ismn«-. Toda)'
the place is marktd b). a memorial, a S1figJ~
rower ofscones. HO.....~"ef, the entire' lC'gion.
a.J landscape ofSkamlingsbankt has b«n in\"fSted with nationalistic symbolism--(he
landsca~ is no less than a metaphor for Dan·
ish pride.
Spirn com ens that, like poetry, the
lTlffilphorical meaning of landscapes varies
in amplitude. Some,likt Skamling ~ ",'en
or ·polemical.- Othets ~ subtler. or what
she caI1s -deqler.- suchas dleGmu PJainsof
Ammca, whett the mecapbor.s of the landscape are less rhetorical. Spim tells the stOI1'
of coming upon a ho~ in a
grett expaIR of (f~less plains
somewhere east of Denver.
Around the ~ \\'n'C' 5e'\"t't'a.I
\"el')' large tnoes plamtd close ro
the Structure ro prCl\'ide shelter
against the unrelenting sun and
wind. But Spirn also understands this as a Structured reo
spon~, a dialogu~. with the
-enduring deep context of
place.- She writes:
In this context,
the language
is not the
lingual power
structure of laws
but the spatial
power structure
of the built
environment.
the pwpasc oftducating people about their
environment, how it is sbaptd by fom:s. and,
more imponandy, how residents can ~
d105e forces w change it. 1be idea has its
I'OlXS in the ~y of the cn'il Rights
l\{O\'mlent, that litetaey equals etnp<)\\"ef'
ment.ln thiscoocext, the language is flO( the
lingual fJO\\"ef StnICf\1lC' of laws and righrs,
but the $pltia! PO\'o'er st~ of the built
~nVHonment; and the illiteracy Spim has
found is as much an ignorance of how land·
sca~ is shaped as it is the misapprehension
that it caruxJ( be reformed in ocher ways.
West Philadelphia, like a lot of poor
urban areas, was built m the floodplain. or
bottoms. of a watercourse. A1mough weby
Mill
is piped underground, during
hard rains it makes appearances, Rooding
St~, basements, and vacant lon, as it
ermc
,s
,
•!
I
!
i
i
i
i
Each lannhtulJt pla.ltd
,."Jurrhlrrttl, rhtlutgtWkr
tnllS ditRlnishing tM hoI/HI.
o/fttl Imtlgalou'S .., RttJn lhan
Ottt floor high: lrtJlJ mr planlttl
as dtMas 1mf«r fr-rhe~.
Jlraight ,rrtical tnmks tlf sharp
roRrraSllfJ the broadhor,zontal
IUn:P. markitlg tach a sp«ial
piau. The !armhfJlIltS sta1ld
agaiwt tIN skj. isdattd. txapt
fiw r~ lrtJlJ. luttdmrand ubJ lIN Mulm plaRrttl trm J(} dON tt;gtthtr ami nwr tIN!xJJm. a ddail (}nt COli larch (jIlr().. I drit"t ha<k
tDuard tlNcil) a"J _1rrttI again: rlx) ranw tht latrdscapt. glt"t to
tIN tifJmMU a /oaa.
A.'':\'E \\"HISTON SPIR.'l aJJs lmr~ncprnJtom-sw:h as this
gtOl..~on lkh,gh plamsofColorado--pl.am o/·tkrpQ)ntm," uYxre
tIN Imrgw~of ItJII~bas. mrnng, fXN11€qua/iJy. In 1M uuJ
ccptm~, Ibtl S170IJg p/Ilnlmg PlY)(-"dn •• tkwiJ on~ OI1IltJsth onto.·
rec~tes its natur.l.I Sow. (),."ef the last th~ )-eaIS, a group of
sixth, 5e'\'mth, and cighth graders at Sulxberger Middle School
hav~ worled with Splm and herstudenrs in a Univm.it}'ofPennSrh'aflia design studio to study and map Mill Crtd.:. They foI·
lowed its perambulations from whett it NOS aJ:.oo,-e ground, to
whett it descends, whett it floods sewers, whett it settles in va·
cant 10000, and where it connecrs with and defines the neighbor.
hood. "We teach them how to lead the landscape of the
neighborhood,- says Spim. She also teaches them how to be flu·
ent in landsca~, how to "write" landscape; and as part of their
In this aampk. Splm's abilit}' to disam the S}Tltax cIland·
sape--irs feacures (nouns), processts (\'nbs), and the principles
p-eming chei.r imeraction---Wlo....'s her to perttiv~ how IandscapeCUl hav~ metaphocical orsymbollcsignificance, how it CUl
stand fOr the tenacity cIlife on the Plains.
Although these musings ha\'t'a lofty and esoreric ronetorhem,
one ofSpim's primary interestS is sociological: Iflandscape is lan·
guage, what is the stateofliteracy? For the last tweh·e rears Spim
has worktd with residentS and students in the gritty western
neighlxxhoods ofPhiladelphia on landscape lireracy projects with
"
The postmodem debunking of the validity of texts needs to be
work £he srudefUS have' also generartd. ideas for new landscapes,
including a design for a minigolf puk that karum the creek as
part airs program. According toSpim, dlt'~'s gro-...·jng support
for the idra, arxl it looks as dIough Mill Cr«:k Mini-Golf might
actually be built. ~h's te.aching the kids to OQ( only know the
place they li\~ in, but [o~vision ~and kam how roidfcet
chan~ ... how ro be df«tivecirizms.
Spim says that \\-uKing on landscape literacy is important in
places like West Philadelphia, where pcwt'rty and abandonmem
have broken down the community in ways d1at laws and rights
M
alone are simply pov.mess to deal with. Landscape archi[~,
she says, is opportundy positioned to mah piaces that can -create' kJo,'!' and COlllleCtKJn within a rommuniry fora~. h is exciting [0 think about the Iandsca~ that R:Sidenu ofWcst
Ptubddphia might create "'-ere thqempov."t'rM mOOso. What
vocabulary ",-ou..Id dle}' ~? How would they StructUre their
Iandsc:ape phrases? What stories v,.'ould they tdP
As much as West Philadelphia begs ans.....~ to these questions. rne Lttino rlC'ighborhoods of Los Angeles literally bubble
forth with them. In a current exhibition of photographs tided
M
El Nuevo Mundo, the sociologist and photographer
Camillo Jose Vergara explores the rapidly changing
neighborhoods of east and south Los Angeles. What Vergara found in Los Angeles was nol the palm-lined boulevards of film and telt"'ision but rh(- duSty front yards,
murals, and urban gardens of a Tijuana or a Mexico City.
Rather than living within the imitation McditenaneaJl
a&heric olaIlBlo Los Angdes, Winos, ~Iy from Mexico, have ~reaced the I.andscape with a vocabulary and
~o~ .\1\' STREET f:f.~~
"
is J1"tty MIlCh m ~Y)n~ Jy.'s
businm, ~ UJs F.IItn4 WllWms, • studmt Ilt SU~"
Muidk SdJooi In W<!'ft PhtLuk/ph1tl For W,J1U1ms, h"
block o/Union Str«t, leEr:, is Il L:mtfsa,~ 0/douhk Dutch
and Olb" gfJmn, noS] neigbbors, and tb~ ronllfJnl struggk
wltb speeding cars. Anotlxr home L:mdsmpe, Stonington
Harbor, Conn«llCUt, above, protJrd~s fJ ronnectlon with the
pilst and Il bulu.vJr!e against nrCTOtJdJlng romm~lism
-I
-'
carefully weighed against two millennia of moral philosophy.
palette that is rJl()le familiar fO them. Murals of die Virgin of
Guadelupe prtdorninat(' Vergara's images, ohm rombinrd with
mutal-likt: ad~isemenlS lOr 10cal bosinesse5---Q mnmon practice in Mairo--writtm completdy in Spanish. ResKJential gar4
dens also rdlect a conscious desire ro recreatC'a homesoum of chr
botdn within the Los Angdes comot. Take. fOr instanCe, a man
known simply as Vincente who Vergaro. encountered in his froot
yard where he had covered the din wirh a neat matrix of concrete. When presS«l, Vincente explains that he has several
grmdchildren and a dog, and that rather than have rodeal wjth
a muddy yard after rain he's converted
to hardscape. A garden ofseveral dozen
gam. -(BUt winos in Los Angeles] ~ sum'ming lhis Wasp
parad~ of gtem grass and lemon treeS. ~
During his work on EI NtJeYO Mundo, Vergara cravded roMex·
teo and brought along some of his phocographs to show poopk.
When he pasemod a phorograt:h ofa home that- had been adorned
with murals and larm of coI01fu1, plXtod plana to a restaurant
owner in Tijuana, the restaurateur rmurked, 01bey do this 50 as
rxx ro feel nosr:algia for their counuy, their rowns, their friends. 0' In
anothercase, Vergara showed a picture he'd taken ofa tire shop in
South Unual Los Angeles toa Mexican. (ComimmJon Pagt 90)
hanging potS surrounds his porch,
adding color to {he lively and warm
landscape. ~People are used (0 seeing
California in a urtain way, ~ says VetFOR SPlRN, 1M lil"gua~ 0/ bl1/dsaJ~ iJ
most n:iJe"J in dmgnd uorks, ~. tIS
wtJh tJ /ina, u,'1OUght ~ 1M Iaym 0{
17fN/fing ~ ~ Juai1ra and tkvdcptJ.
Sk potnls to Richtzrd Haag's BIoftki ~
~ IlfUi FotnI Cmtn"y m SrockhoIm,
below. 4I t'XJlmpln 0/tinlflls thtu /rom
~ou&t wm'tonaivtJ tl1 produasO/
A/t6 mJdmg tiN{.a 0/Goat
RsxJe, mowtlllm dmtbm tm tmlJN 10
ltmg,.,~.
~-o/&>ktI'a.,. ......
1851
Language of Landscape
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building was covered in muralsadvenising
the shop's services. '"This is a hardworking
person, someone with imagi- nation,~ he responded, easily reading the Mexicanized
landscape of Los Angeles. In Spim's words,
Vergara's photographs show how the immigrants of"lDi Angeles are using thegrammar and synrax of their native land [0
remake the Iandscl.pe.
Manhew Poneiger wishes we would
talk about stOries ramer than language per
se. In their book, Landscape Na"'alit~
(john \~Iey & Sons, 1998) Poneiger, a
professor of landscape architecture at the
Snue University of New York-Syracuse,
and his coauthor, Jamie Purinton, write
about the variety of stories that are communicated by the landscape. Like Spim,
Poneiger and Purinton write about both
the structure of landscape and the human
meaning ascribed to it as literate Structures, or Stories. P(){teiger says that in researching the book he interviewed dozens
of people and posed the simple request:
~Tell me the Story of this place." The conversation that ensued might cover history,
a story about something that happened
here; or maybe the person would talk
abom how the landscape changes over the
season, what she notices about thedimate
and the wildlife, or even something as
nebulous as the shifting panems of light;
or maybe the conversation would veer into myth or spirituality, a belief that the
landscape is dear to one's hean or that it
possesses a soul.
Potteiger's methodology of soliciting
"s[Qries~ abom landscape should be familiar to any landscape architect who has
been involved in a public charrene
process, ror what inevitably comes to light
in these processes are the stories that the
residents of a panicular place tell abom
that place. A haJlmark of the profession's
enlightenment has been the emphasis on
nO{ only gathering these stories but designing with them. Potteiger applauds
this development, which he says helps to
create better designs, ones that provide a
strong and valid "relationship between
users and a plac~. You hear designers complain '\~11 people get it?· ... 1 think the
real question is 'Can we get it?'"
A popuJar trend nowadays is to attempt
to tell these stories ofa community literally, by using acruaJ text in landscapes. A
short !ist of projens that have appeared in
Lands<npt Arrhiunurt over the last several
years ,,"'OUld include the Walker and Ma·
cy S[Ory Garden in Portland (which graces
the cover of Landscnpt NnrTalitltS): George
Hargreaves's design for Lbrary SqI.laTe at
the University ofCincinnari, which culminates in a phrase from Oliver Wendell
Holmes; Halprin's FOR /lltml.Jria/: and the
corporate landscape of rhe Fannie Mae
Corporation. This list should also indude
a new rest area along Interstate 80 in Iowa,
which has been designed by the Iowa firm
Conway+Shulte. In their work, Conway+Shulte uses text both as a strucruring
device and as an element in the landscape.
The Iowa rest area (which will be consuucroo this summer) contains playful
phrases etched into the hardscape that tel1
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is to attempt to tell these
s.&-bT_,""""'-'"
stones ofa community
literally, by using actual
text In landscapes.
the Story of the state for passersby (See
Riprap, February 1998). Each ofthe textS
describe some famous pioneers from Iowa
history; however, the word "pioneer" writ
large also forms the underlying structure
ofthe sight. Ifone were [0 Ay over the rest
area, he would be able [0 literally read the
word as a series of plantings, landfurms.
and architecture. On the ground, this legibility is lost; yet Bill Conway, one of the
designers, says there's "not a danger in
this, but a welcoming. \V/e're not looking
for a kind of always-evident designer's imprint. You go [0 Englishgardens or other
designed landscapes, and over time you
don't say, 'Oh, I can see the first move; or
you don't ask for that kind of legibility
from the first instance of the designer's
thought to the last instance ofexperience.
\Y/e always expected our structuring device of the word "pioneers" to gently give
over to becoming a landscape. The Strucrure meltS away. In ran there is no place at
rhe rest Stop where you can read the word
'pioneer,' because you're in it."
Both Potteiger and Spiro lament the
proliferation of verba1language in current
landscape architecrure--it "has become a
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cliche," says Spiro. But Conway believes
verbal language, if used rightly, can be a
useful device in design because rather than
explaining, language creates ambiguity,
complexity, and hence wonder. "If we recite a poem twice we get a different meaning," says Conway... tr has to do with
wonder. We're looking for the possibilities in language, and in that sense we're
looking for the possibilities in landscape."
Conway's view of language reAects a
postmodemist interest in subjectivity and
the relativity of meaning, qualities that
are embodied in the theory of poststructuralism. A literary theory birthed in
French linguistics, poscstrucruralism
holds that language is an artificial Structure applied [0 the world tather than derived from it, that words and the things
they signifY are not "narutally" connected,
In LandJca~ Narratlt'tS, Potreiget and
Purineon refer (0 an example from Ferdinand de Saussure, in which he demonStrated how there is nothing inherently
"tree-like" in the word ttee. This simple
idea has grown and expanded over the
ninety years from when it was first uttered, and in its wake it has spawned
countless "deconstruCtionist" works,
mosdy (0 the effect of making us uncertain ofwhat we're reading. As interpreted
and transmuted by Roland Banhes,
Jacques Derrida, Julia Krisceva, and
countless other academicians, poststruc·
tutalism has pervaded almost every discipline, going beyond the boundaries of
literary theory to ha\'e a profound effect
on the social sciences. The connections
with the language of landscape are obvious, for there may be no more subjective
experience than that of landscape. Like
language, each person may read different
types and levels ofmeaning intodifferem
land="".
The question that has plagued poststructuralism is the question of universalism: Is the text that I read the same as the
text you read? \'Qimout universalism, who
is [0 say there is any text at all? There are
only readers and their subjective readings.
The same problem existS in landscape,
which people seem to view in different
\\faYS. The question is flO{ whether people
ha\'(" different experiences of1andscape-it
is assumed they do--but whether they
read those landscape experiences in a way
that might construe a common language?
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Thr best answer to chis question depends
whether a Story is panicu.lar or genera.l.
A panicular Story might go lik~ this.
AJ~ Pcanoo is a groIogisc in San Francisrowhospendsa lot of time rock climbing In NortMrn California_ Onr ofMr
fa\'Orit~ spots is a plac~ called Goat Rock
located in Bod~ga Bay, a coupl~ hours
north of tM city. Goat Rock is Dot a challenging plac~ to climb, but Pemon likes
it b«ause as a reward at the end of th~
climbshe is treated [0 a magnificent view
of the Pacific Ocean. When she describes
this 1andsc.1pe, she talks about the small
bits of shiny-m:!. garnet schist that cover
che rock and that tdl a story about cheex~ metarnClrphic processes that formed
the Sto~. To unckrstand tM SfO!)'. one
n«ds panicular knowled~ofgeology00
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There may be no more
subjective experience than
that ofumdscape. Uke
language, each person may
read different types and
leveLs ofmeaning into
different landscopes.
to unckrsmnd ",-hat garnet schisc is. to unhow m~tamorphic geology
occurs. and fO perhaps ('l'm ha\'~ a merlOll
ima~ of what these things look like, As a
sci~ntist, Pearson can dissolv~ her d~­
scription into parricular signs that are
shared among a group-sciemists, Landscape architects do this all the time when
they design to a particular context and attempe to tell Stories that perhaps only I~
cals will truly understand.
A~ story might go like this. My father li\'es in che prttty lutk cwstal~"I1of
Stonington, Connecticut. E\'~ty day he
dri~ duuugh dr hilly woodlands 00 his
way to work and he IlO{Keli dr details of
d~tst;;l.nd
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the la:ndscape, dr dense decKluous \\'OCllk,
dr oa:asionaI dearing. and dr ubiquitouS
soon~walls that ~ divided dr land into
parcds. "lky remind mecifiums,M hesays.
"They take me back to earl ier generations,
which issomerhing my mind loves towander back to. This pan: of Connecticut has
experienced great change in recent years,
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Language of Landscape
most specifically in the deo.oelopmem ci a
,~ Iargr casino thai: bas inc~ uaffic
"LAndscape is 1101 just
00
r[ike language,' it is a
me tOIIIds and contributtd a bright glow
to d~ horizon. In contrast, my f.uher feds
like Ir m'eS in a linkcmis that is somehow
ttSistinB thl:R changts.. The botdtr cL this
OlilSis is fOrm«! by rwo\'isibletdges.: a high....-ayand acommm:iall)'mned atCl. BUt in-
si<k of thlS demarcation. my father kels
Insulattd and prott'l"ttd from thto ~1"C8Ch­
ing neon. ~ Maybt this is naive, but I ftd
like \\'e.~ in a link romet.~ He imagines
putting acompm poim down in rown and
swinging a radius se·..eral miles in length
that would CUt JUSt inside ci a few garish
commen::ial districts, including d~ casino.
"'You swing cllaI: circle? "Thar'sa lin:le ha,'ro.
Ic's an oosis ofbeaucifullandscape:'
Although he uses specificdetails to tell ie,
the main (hrusrs of his 1andscape narrative
at{' irs themes ofbeaury,oosis,and rnecomron c:A history. As such, it is a mom! suxy
thar nnphasizes valurs. On one I('\'d. such
values are sub,ecriYe-; bm on anomer they
at{' also uni~. This is tricky ground, a
pIacc w~ the pownodr:m argument debunking the ,'31idity ci text needs to be
language. And IandsClJpe
architects use it.·
amully "'-eighed against (91,'0 millennia of
moaI philosophy. The larter might indeed
argue, '"Yescertain ~~good,~­
Clin 1ando;capes ~ uue.
M
To say that landscape is a language inevitably oJ'('ns the Aoodgaees for thest'
rypes of questions about landscape
knowledge, landscaJ'(' J'('rceprion, and
LandscaJ'(' value. Perhaps this is becau.sc
language is so contentious. Ifthere is one
thing the posesrrucruralist5 have succeeded at in rhe last fifty years, if is making us quesrion our assumptions about
the power and tnnhfulness of language.
But how far can this questioning pro-ceed? Is it applicable not onl)' to thc
rnetaphoricallC\-d oflanguage, but (0 the
syntactical as weill Do we ",,'Onder about
the realiry of nouns, \'efbs. and sentence
structure) Anne' Whiston Spim raisrs
this question o:plicidy in her book. al£hough it S«ffiS laden in most e\-ef}' landscape design that attcmpt'S to be good
and beautiful in general terms, to appeal
to morc than just a single ~rson Ot
group. Lke Conway, Spim sees the language of 1andscaJ'(' as an ocpansi,~ forcc,
ont' that conJlt'Ct'S and IOtl"lTeWes in surprising ways, MLanguagc is what links
West Philadelphia to SOffit' of the grel.f
1andscaJ'(' proj«ts of the world-Forest
Cemetery in Stockholm, or the Bloedc:l
Rrsen~,M saysSpim. MI u.sc eheword 'Ianguagt· deliberately. \'<'hen \\~ shaJ'(' IandscaJ'(' we express meaning. LandscaJ'(' is
nOf JUSt 'Iikc language; it is a language.
And landscape' architects u.sc ie.
LA
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This 111111n/6, 1\lauhtu.' POlltig" u.;11 curaft
an exhibition wltd Storied Land: LandscapcJ Nar!aU\·c.lArt at Iht Slone Qua..,.,
Hill An Park. CazmtJl1a. Ntu. York (315655-3196J. EI Nuevo Mundo u.;11 br 011
r-im'Jl(lIt 29-Srplt",kr 5. 1999 i" Ntu
Yri CiI) ill ,htCooptr Hm.,n National CNJigrt AIMJOlll (212-860-6890).
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