Sites unseen : landscape and vision / edited by Dianne Harris and D. Fairchild Ruggles.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harris, Dianne Suzette, editor.

Ruggles, D. Fairchild, editor.

Series:

Pittsburgh-Konstanz series in the philosophy and history of science.

Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Landscape architecture--History.

Landscape architecture.

Landscape design--History.

Landscape design.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 pages) : illustrations, photographs.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

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.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Part I: Landscape In Sight

1. Landscape and Vision // Dianne Harris and D. Fairchild Ruggles

Part II: Charting Vision

2. Landscape and Invisibility: Gilo's Wall and Christo's Gates // W. J. T. Mitchell

3. No State of Grace: Violence in the Garden // Martin Jay

4. Moving the Eye // Marc Treib

5. Landscape and Global Vision // Denis Cosgrove

Part III: Envisioning Place

6. Ancient Rome through the Veil of Sight // Diane Favro

7. Making Vision Manifest: Frame, Screen, and View in Islamic Culture // D. Fairchild Ruggles

8. Landscapes within Buildings in Late Eighteenth-Century France // David L. Hays

9. Sites of Power and the Power of Sight: Vision in the California Mission Landscapes // Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

10. Four Views, Three of Them through Glass // Sandy Isenstadt

11. Clean and Bright and Everyone White: Seeing the Postwar Domestic Environment in the United States // Dianne Harris

Notes

List of Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-310) and index.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822973201

0822973200

OCLC:

680584956