Reframing the Landscape: Gardens,
Suburbs, & Frontiers
VIS 129CN
Spring
2002
Thursday
9:35-12:25 AM
Mandeville
212
Instructor:
Grant Kester, gkester@ucsd.edu
e-mail:
gkester@ucsd.edu/phone: 822-4860
Office: VAF
364/by appointment
Course Description
This course
will explore the role of the landscape as a symbolic and material resource
during the modern period. While we will make reference to landscape as a genre
within the fine arts (in painting, photography and architecture), our primary
focus will not be art per se, but the broader set of ideas, values, and images that have
circulated around the concept of the landscape over the past two hundred years.
The course begins with an examination of the close interrelationship between
modern concepts of the self and the possession of land (in the writings of John
Locke, Samuel Pufendorf and others). This discussion will provide a
philosophical foundation for our subsequent reflections on the powerful
symbolism of landscape in the western imagination. Next we will turn our
attention to the emergence of the ÒnaturalÓ style landscape garden in Georgian
England. The natural style (epitomized by the gardens at Rousham, Stowe, and
Blenheim Palace) played on complex political and cultural associations between
uncultivated land and an essential human nature. The landscape garden was a
highly theatrical space, which masked an elaborate process of physical
manipulation (the movement of earth, relocation of villages and roads, the
creation of lakes, etc.) with the appearance of an artless and fortuitous
natural beauty. We will pursue this rhetoric of simulation in the third section
of the class, focusing on transformations in the perception of real and
imaginary space that occur during the nineteenth century through new
transportation technologies (the railroad) and new forms of entertainment and
spectacle (the panorama and the theme park). Simulation will also play a role
in the next section of the class, as we explore strategies developed during the
nineteenth century to regulate the urban landscape (and urban populations)
through quasi-aesthetic forms of city planning and incipient suburbanization.
The suburbs will become our explicit focus in the fifth section, where we will
survey the historical evolution of insulated or sequestered living spaces over
the last two hundred years, concluding with a discussion of the recent trend
towards Ôgated communitiesÕ that is especially pronounced in Southern
California. The sixth section of the course will examine Los Angeles as a
prototypical ÒpostmodernÓ city, which replaces the verticality and density of
the classic industrial city with horizontal sprawl. How do we grasp this new
form of space, conceptually, politically, and visually? We will conclude the
class by examining some of the ways in which contemporary artists have
responded to the ecological and cultural meanings generated by the landscape.
Goals, Grading and Assignments
This class
has three primary goals. First, to make you conversant with a range of
historical, theoretical, and visual research related to landscape as a theme
and symbol. Second, to improve your ability to comprehend complex written and
visual material. And third, to enhance your skill in the written and verbal
analysis of this material. While there will be some lecturing in this class our
time will largely be devoted to discussion and exchange. Your grade will be
based on three factors. The first part of your grade (25%) will be determined
by your participation in class discussions and by evidence of your engagement
with the assigned readings. There are no assigned books for this class but you
will need to purchase a course reader through Soft Reserves (in the Student
Center). Although the reader is expensive (around $50) it would otherwise be
necessary to require several separate books. The readings are listed on the
class schedule below for the week that they are due. It is advisable that you
annotate your readings with questions, points of agreement or disagreement, and
observations that you can bring to class.
Most of the readings are relatively accessible
(straightforward historical accounts or descriptions), but a few will be more
demanding (especially those in the first week). Allow yourself sufficient time
to re-read the more challenging essays more than once, and donÕt expect to
completely master complex theoretical or philosophical material at a single
sitting. You will also be asked to lead class discussion during a specific
week. This is the basis of the second part of your grade (25%) and it will
require additional preparation on your part (providing an introductory
discussion of the reading, presenting questions and points of discussion,
offering pertinent examples, etc.). Finally, you will develop a research
project (outlined below) that will be the basis for the remaining 50% of your
grade. These will be presented during the last two weeks of class. Late project
presentations will be marked down 1/2 letter grade per-day. Attendance is
vitally important. We only meet ten times during the term and your active
participation and involvement is essential to the success of the class. Your
final grade for the class will be marked down 1 letter grade for each unexcused
absence.
Final Research Project
Your
final research project constitutes 1/2 of your final grade. It is intended to
give you an opportunity to explore specific issues, historical periods, or
themes introduced through class discussion and readings. In a seminar class you
are expected to exercise greater initiative and independence than is typical in
a lecture class. This freedom, however, also requires a higher level of
self-discipline. You will need to determine which area of research you wish to
pursue and you will be largely responsible for framing the focus and direction
of this research. You will be required to submit a 2 page proposal, outlining
your research goals, theme, methodology, anticipated problems, and sources by
the fourth week of class (Thursday, April 25). I will review this proposal with
you in person. The last two weeks of the class will be devoted to formal
presentation of these research projects. All students must be prepared to
present their projects on the first of the two final classes. You have two
options for your final project. The first option is to develop a conventional
historical research paper on some aspect of landscape history. This paper must
be at least 3000 words long, including footnotes (approximately 12 pages), and
must conform to either the MLA or Chicago Manual of Style citation format. The
second option is to develop a survey or documentation of a specific landscape
in southern California. In this case your final project will combine a written
analysis of this landscape (at least 1500 words) along with detailed visual
documentation (photography, video, etc.).
Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to Class
Introductory
lecture and distribution of syllabi
Week 2:
The Extension of Personality
Karl
Olivecrona, "Locke's Theory of Appropriation," John Locke:
Critical Assessments
vol. III, Richard Ashcraft, editor (Routledge, 1991)
Susan
Bordo, ÒThe Cartesian Masculinization of Thought,Ó The Flight to
Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture (SUNY Press, 1987)
J.F.C.
Harrison, ÒLiving and WorkingÓ (excerpt), The English Common People: A Social
History from the Norman Conquest to the Present (Croom Helm, 1984)
Week 3:
The Picturesque Landscape
Martin
Hoyles, ÒEnclosure and the Division of Labor,Ó The Story of Gardening (Journeyman Press, 1991)
Malcolm
Andrews, ÒThe Evolution of Picturesque taste, 1750-1800,Ó The Search for the
Picturesque: Landscape Aesthetics and Tourism in Britain, 1760-1800 (Stanford University Press, 1989)
Tom
Williamson, ÒProperty and Prospect,Ó Polite Landscapes: Gardens and Society
in Eighteenth Century England (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995)
Week 4:
The Simulated Landscape
Stephan
Oettermann, ÒThe Origins of the Panorama,Ó The Panorama: History of a Mass
Medium (Zone Books,
1997)
Wolfgang
Schivelbusch, ÒPanoramic Travel,Ó The Railway Journey: The Industrialization
of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (University of California Press, 1986)
Michael
Sorkin, ÒSee You in Disneyland,Ó Variations of a Theme Park, Michael Sorkin, editor (Hill &
Wang, 1992)
* Research
Project proposals due
Week 5:
The Strategic Landscape
Thursday,
May 2
Friedrich
Engels, ÒThe Great TownsÓ (excerpt), The Condition of the English Working
Class (Progress
Publishers, 1980)
David P.
Jordan, ÒThe Implacable Axes of a Straight Line,Ó Transforming Paris: The
Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann (University of Chicago, 1995)
M.
Christine Boyer, ÒThe Quest for Disciplinary ControlÓ and ÒIn Search of a
Spatial Order,Ó Dreaming the Rational City: The Myth of American City
Planning (MIT
Press, 1983)
Week 6:
Homo Suburbanus
Robert
Fishman, ÒThe Suburb and the Industrial City: Manchester,Ó Bourgeois
Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (Basic Books, 1987)
Edward J.
Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder, ÒForting Up,Ó America: Gated Communities in
the United States
(Brookings Institute Press, 1997)
John Orr
and F. Patrick Nichelson, ÒExpansive Man,Ó The Radical Suburb (Westminster Press, 1978)
Robert
Smithson, ÒA Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey,Ó The Writings of
Robert Smithson,
Nancy Holt, editor (New York University Press, 1979)
Week 7:
Trouble in Paradise
Mike
Davis, ÒFortress LA,Ó City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Verso, 1990).
Spencer
Crump, ÒThursday, August 12: ÔBurn, Baby, BurnÕ,Ó Black Riot in Los Angeles:
The Story of the Watts Tragedy (Trans-Anglo Books, 1966)
Edward
Soja, ÒÓIt all comes together in Los Angeles,Ó Postmodern Geographies: The
Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (Verso, 1989)
Week 8:
Ecological Aesthetics
Deborah
Bright, ÒOf Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the Cultural
Meanings of Landscape Photography,Ó Exposure 23.4 (Winter 1985)
Eugenia
Perez Arango, ÒLand Art and Other Geographies,Ó http://www.artenaturaleza.org.co/english/landart/landart_og_macroprojects.htm
Jonah Goldberg, ÒUgh, Wilderness,Ó National
Review,
August 6, 2001 (53: 15). * The instructor will provide a copy of this essay.
Also see Jonah Goldberg, ÒCandid Camera and
Gamera: Monster Movies and the Fate of ANWR,Ó National Review, July 27, 2001, at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg072701.shtml
(includes GoldbergÕs photographs of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge)
Chilton Williamson Jr., ÒGoldberg Among the CaribouÓ
http://www.vdare.com/williamson/goldberg.htm
Alaska Wilderness League, ÒStop the DrillingÓ
http://www.alaskawild.org/arcticrefuge_intro.html
Also see ÒArctic Wildlife Refuge PostcardsÓ (compare to
Goldberg, above) http://www.alaskawild.org/card.html
Week 9:
Student Presentations
Week 10:
Student Presentations