Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes
The emphasis in landscape studies on human agency and needs can obscure the complex relationships between non-human living things and their animate and inanimate contexts. Diverse authors have pointed out that this anthropocentric outlook is problematic, destructive, and neo-colonial. How might it b...
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doaj-d82a841d4ace4326935118001aecb80f2021-06-01T00:34:21ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502021-05-01135729572910.3390/su13105729Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian LandscapesCynthia Imogen Hammond0Department of Art History, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, CanadaThe emphasis in landscape studies on human agency and needs can obscure the complex relationships between non-human living things and their animate and inanimate contexts. Diverse authors have pointed out that this anthropocentric outlook is problematic, destructive, and neo-colonial. How might it be possible to approach a landscape, i.e., land itself, and all that lives on it, in a way that foregrounds the realities and risks of that site, without falling back on familiar humanistic and anthropocentric tropes? In this essay, I explore three recent artworks that each engage with a different landscape: <i>Requiem for a Glacier</i> by artist and composer Paul Walde (2013); the <i>Urban Prairie</i> designed by landscape architects Claude Cormier + Associés (2012); and <i>The</i> <i>Boreal Poetry Garden</i> by visual artist Marlene Creates (born 2005-). By analyzing these artists’ and designers’ creative strategies in relation to these landscapes, I delve into the question of ecological collaboration in each project, and explore the ways in which the non-human aspects of the landscape do, or do not, take centre stage. In so doing, this essay has a second aim: to explore the extent to which, in performing a didactic relationship with their sites, these three projects contribute to an activist and pedagogical ethos around climate change, habitat, and ecology.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5729landscapesartlandscape designdidacticismanthropocentrismecology |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Cynthia Imogen Hammond |
spellingShingle |
Cynthia Imogen Hammond Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes Sustainability landscapes art landscape design didacticism anthropocentrism ecology |
author_facet |
Cynthia Imogen Hammond |
author_sort |
Cynthia Imogen Hammond |
title |
Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes |
title_short |
Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes |
title_full |
Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes |
title_fullStr |
Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacier, Plaza, and Garden: Ecological Collaboration and Didacticism in Three Canadian Landscapes |
title_sort |
glacier, plaza, and garden: ecological collaboration and didacticism in three canadian landscapes |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2021-05-01 |
description |
The emphasis in landscape studies on human agency and needs can obscure the complex relationships between non-human living things and their animate and inanimate contexts. Diverse authors have pointed out that this anthropocentric outlook is problematic, destructive, and neo-colonial. How might it be possible to approach a landscape, i.e., land itself, and all that lives on it, in a way that foregrounds the realities and risks of that site, without falling back on familiar humanistic and anthropocentric tropes? In this essay, I explore three recent artworks that each engage with a different landscape: <i>Requiem for a Glacier</i> by artist and composer Paul Walde (2013); the <i>Urban Prairie</i> designed by landscape architects Claude Cormier + Associés (2012); and <i>The</i> <i>Boreal Poetry Garden</i> by visual artist Marlene Creates (born 2005-). By analyzing these artists’ and designers’ creative strategies in relation to these landscapes, I delve into the question of ecological collaboration in each project, and explore the ways in which the non-human aspects of the landscape do, or do not, take centre stage. In so doing, this essay has a second aim: to explore the extent to which, in performing a didactic relationship with their sites, these three projects contribute to an activist and pedagogical ethos around climate change, habitat, and ecology. |
topic |
landscapes art landscape design didacticism anthropocentrism ecology |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5729 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT cynthiaimogenhammond glacierplazaandgardenecologicalcollaborationanddidacticisminthreecanadianlandscapes |
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