Experiencing the
landscape is a snapshot of the present, a surface at once flat and bumpy, lit
and shadowed. Or it is an immersion into an always present moment, a moment
that tunnels or ramifies or disappears or endures like an old piece of cloth.
In landscape we engage a surface reality, a reality that holds a fascination
and motion of its own, a reality that is so "present" it's hard to
believe it has a past. Or we see into a past at once murky and clear, designed
of its own dreams, elusive, illusion, allusion.
The landscape
seems static, unchanging, glacial. It may appear magnificent or insignificant,
close or far. Or the landscape is a cascade of movement, starry cold and
distant, or the shaded, singing liquid of a waterfall, or warm and smoky with
the depth of murky aromas. We see wind in the trees and the grass, we see the
movement of cars on the expressway, we see a squirrel busy replanting our
garden, and we sense the changing of the day in the movement of light and shadows
in our landscapes. But our brains work against us, against what we see. We
assume, we almost have to assume, that our landscapes are static. How could we
function in landscapes that move, that change, that transform? How could we
behave as the instrumental beings we are, or believe ourselves to be, in a
landscape lacy with melancholy, neither forged nor knitted, only a wisp of
colored smoke?
As part of our
cognitive toolbox, as beings that "do" we hold a model of the
landscape as something that accommodates us. We act in it or upon it. We are
present in its present and we move through it to more presents. Like our planet
we know it moves but we perceive the landscape as unmoving. How else can we
work in it? The job of landscape is to be still, not to change, to provide a
backdrop for our activities. But as a "present" landscape is perforce
a moment, temporary and all-quiet, without fabric. Without fabric there is no
texture and no time and in a heartbeat we realize the non-concreteness, the
non-presence that is evidence of landscape.
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ReplyDeleteTess,
ReplyDeleteI agree! That wisp can mean us, our brief presence here while time passes us by and the landscape around us continues on. It is so wonderfully written!
Cheers!
We are all moving together, just at different speeds.
ReplyDeleteStatic is a relative term. Nothing that we recognize as tangible objects are static. It might take million years to change the shape that can be recognizable by human's perception, but it is not static. This essay shows that everything is moving. Immediate tangible or recognizable movements are detected by us easily like squirrel playing around. Even the great monument that sits for hundreds of years is moving, wearing off by wind, rain and even by earth movements. Despite the differences in speed or appearance, they do move.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! Makes me realize that nothing is ever still or motionless. Whether we physically move ourselves or not we are still moving as the earth is in constant motion. Landscapes created as still life are nothing but a moment captured without existing movement. So much to think about!
ReplyDeleteThe word "souvenir" also exists in French; literally translated it means "a memory". This post made total sense to me because we all take souvenir photos which are a moment in time. They remind us of an place, an emotion, or an experience. Anyone who has looked back at their own photos can easily see that nothing stays the same - we age, change shapes, change partners or interests, and change locations. Even the same locations change over time due to natural or human intervention. I believe this is what makes photography such an interesting field of work. Capturing the "right" moment that transmits an emotion based on something that no longer exists is some kind of magic.
ReplyDeleteKayali Lenssen-Spiller - IS380 - Group 1
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ReplyDeleteIt is our job as humans to synthesize ("Kant"), the ideas and the landscapes that surround us. Elements of this synthesis: landscape, time, light, gravity, matter, minds, lives and love all ending up in a synthesized product called experience. Would I think the same if I saw these pictures once again ten years from now? Why?
DeleteWow; that was a mind bender. That being said, this post has me thinking about perpetual motion. Perpetual motion suggestion continuous movement without any external force. Of course, our build landscape moves and changes shape with deliberate external force, but the purer notion you mention in the blog, is less intrusive and more continuous, ever moving.
ReplyDeleteJust thinking of the movement of molecules and electrical currents in my brain to process this essay. Nothing is static
ReplyDelete" The Butterfly Effect" now that is intense when we think of movement and changes in out world.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written explanation. The geologic movements of the earth and the "human footprint" upon it, both evolve, but at dramatically different paces. After reading this article, I thought about how often I am aware of the movements of my environment's landscape. When I experienced an earthquake, or witnessed a local mudslide that demolished a house, it was in that moment that I acknowledged that the earth was not static.
ReplyDelete