Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

This presentation allows me the opportunity to present the progress to date of my investigation into the depiction of temporality and repetition in place making and the visual representation of place and a contemporary landscape. The research involves a re-examination of the interrelated ideas of ‘space’, ‘place’ and ‘landscape’ through the lens of contemporary art, specifically digital still and moving photography. This includes questioning more traditional fixed representations of the landscape and the relationship between place and space whilst travelling. The interconnectedness and definitions of ‘space’, ‘place’ and ‘landscape’ are principal elements within human geography, Yi Fu Tuan (2011) suggests that the difference between ‘space’ and ‘place’ can be described in the extent to which human beings have given meaning to a specific area. Wells builds upon this, submitting naming and representation as means of rendering space into place (2011). In his seminal book about ‘Place’ Tim Cresswell suggests that “Landscape is an intensely visual idea”, and that in most definitions “the viewer is outside of it”, as opposed to places which “are very much things to be inside of” (2004). He further states that landscape is a view of the earth’s surface that can be viewed from one spot. It will explore how the incorporation of temporality might lead to a portrayal/depiction of the landscape which not only reflects our contemporary relationship with the land we inhabit and move through. It will further touch upon and contribute to conversations about and understanding of our relationship with the land around us and that we move through.