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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
1087894
Lasc 410 Design Critique Project 3: A Creative Act: Practising Critique Site – Malt Works, Heathcote Valley, Canterbury, New Zealand. For the final project of Lasc 410, I will carry out a sustained criticism of the Malt Works site, situated in the Heathcote Valley, Canterbury. Through this criticism I will consider a composite of different approaches to assessment of site, with a focus on interpretive critique. I will reflect on bodies of thought and theory, such as Meaning (reading, language, semiotics); Appearance (aesthetic conventions); Experience (Phenomenological, Spatial), a Subcultural or Political perspective and Psychoanalytical implications of this site. Through this critique I have written with the audience in mind of Landscape and Architectural professionals for a Landscape Journal publication. The Malt Works Out of sight out of mind: Gone but not forgotten
The Malt Works was completed in 1875 and was a well-‐known landmark in the Heathcote Valley. The Malt Works created industry for the area, employing locals and using locally grown produce. The Malt Works was in operation for over a hundred years until production ceased and it was closed in 1999. There were proposals for different uses for the site however it gradually sank into a state of disrepair, and nature began to reaffirm its place in the landscape. Demolition of the Malt Works has occurred recently, with all structures pulled to the ground.
Retrieved from: Google Images 10/06/2012
Interpretive critique focuses on impressions of site created by the critic’s interpretation of a work. It considers advocacy of the critic’s interpretive point of view of landscape, as the critic seeks to create a compelling argument of their oeuvre through subtly challenging metaphors associated with site. Interpretive critique is often seen as a manifestation of the critic’s point of view, challenging the audience to consider this element as an advocacy for the landscape. Interpretive critique is also evocative. Often landscapes may be interpreted with photos or poems, which evoke sentiment in the landscape, and offer a different perspective for the audience to consider. Association has importance through evocative interpretive critique, as making associations with emotions, or remembrance of past can bolster linkages with certain perspective and the space highlighted.
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
1087894
Impressionistic interpretive critique can be seen as a work of art in itself, evoking sentiment with subtle associations made with metaphor and the landscape itself. Peter Green (1975) uses impressionistic interpretive critique of the London underground. He considers London as an entity in itself, as it breathes and lives. “I went down into your intestines, London, through your mouth, through your dirty lips, cracked tile, patched tarmac, down endless escalators, trundling in the half-light; strap-hanging in aching compartments, strap-hanging across a city, across a continent, balancing, reading single- handed giant newspapers, breathing again the ten times breathed air. I travelled into a dream of nausea, cheek by unshaven cheek, thoughtlessly through thoughtless tunnels...” (Green, 1974). I considered the Malt Works a living entity. He is a thing in himself, which lived and breathed, as he became forgotten. From here on I shall refer the Malt Works as if it is a living entity. Referring to him, rather than it. Considering landscapes as having the ability to form emotions and perspectives in their own right, allows us to remember how they were, and how they are now. This metaphor creates an intrinsic connection with him (Malt Works) and the perceiver. I remember the look on your misshapen face. Your toothless smile with that light hearted grin. I remember your frayed clothes; your grubby hands with lines of time entrenched, allowing the inhabitant read your story. I remember nature growing over you, cleansing your
wounds, healing the sorrows of your past. I remember you becoming unified, at one with the land, which surrounded, you as vines crept up your legs, as you began to feel as if you had no control of your future… Now you’re gone. You have left this place. Not even your footprint remains. Now all I have of you is memories. Now all I have is photographs. I will remember you, even though you have gone. Today and tomorrow… He has imprinted himself on so many. This is my polemical perspective of him. Another way for me to critique the Malt Works is through an evocative and interpretive method of sketch and photography. Sketch and photography allows you to remember him as you please. These vessels enable you to remember the past and present him. Catherine Dees (2012) analyses landscapes through this methodology, establishing a framework for approaching design. Dees interpreted case studies of design with respect to sketching landscape elements to depict points of view in the landscape. Dees considers the ‘aesthetics of thrift’ that relates to the employment of artistic practices as a framework for judgments for utility and goodness. This principle, along with the definition of embodied design in landscape constitutes her design philosophy or polemical point of view of landscape design critique. Employing this theory to the Malt Works allows you to consider how he looked through time. On a continuum of being a fully furnished
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
1087894
and running Malt Works, to his transition to an unused entity.
Malt Works in use. Retrieved from: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Photos/GimblettCollection/Gimblett-‐0003.asp 10/06/2012
Malt Works in its derelict and forgotten state. Retrieved from: Google images 10/06/2012
Malt Works post demolition. This theory also considers the transition of Terrain Vague landscapes as once dynamic and used spaces, to vague parks or spaces, which are derelict in use, and vigor. Vague Parks, transitional spaces on the fringes of society, like the Malt Works site constitutes uses reflective of needs of different individuals. These individuals are
subcultures that he has adopted. Krystallia Kamvasinou (2006) notes how vague landscapes are perceived as empty. They are often the focus of architectural and urban design desire for productivity, control and order. This instrumental view disregards the richness of vague landscapes. (Kamvasinou, 2006). Vague landscapes are rich in interpretive critique as the perceiver embeds themselves in the landscapes, as these dynamic spaces are active and able to be occupied spontaneously. The perceivers write themselves in the site’s social narrative. They create a metaphor of the site as their vessel for desired use. Malt Works is dynamic for the drifter. He becomes the vessel for use as subcultures jump his fences and adopt him as their friend. He becomes their accomplice in illegal activities as he allows them to tattoo his skin with graffiti. Using the method of interpretive critique it is also important to link to bodies of theory that are important tools for reflecting on the Malt Works. Marc Treib (1995) considers the meaning of landscapes in Must Landscapes Mean?: Approaches to Significance in Recent Landscape Architecture. He states, “meaning, it is argued, results less from the effects of a particular design than from the collective associations accrued over time”(Treib, 1995). He considers whether it is possible to create a semantic dimension in space, and if so how? The designed meaning of the Malt Works site is by no means reflective of observations or meaning the perceiver takes away from site. The past use of the Malt Works has been obscured, and its uses abstracted. People read the Malt Works in terms of the space
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
1087894
itself, as the designed meaning of the landscape becomes irrelevant. Meaning for the Malt Works, should then be considered in terms of the concept of the ‘Death of the Author’ by Roland Barthes, (1968). Barthes interprets meaning in landscape as a result of birth of the viewer, or perceiver on site, and death of the designer as intention of design is irrelevant, the viewer or subculture has taken ownership of the site. The site then becomes reflective of the inhabitants uses, blending their needs with objects or spaces they may mould around them. Analysis of subcultures taking ownership of site may also be linked to Lance Neckar (2005) who introduced linguistic interpretation so deeply rooted past superficial symbolism that it became intrinsic to that subculture’s vocabulary. This was observed with the memorial landscape of Berlin in Lance Neckar’s (2005) ‘Berlin: Topology of Contemplation.’ This can be observed with the Malt Works in terms of the adolescent subculture often inhabiting site. This inhabitant would have a different language for deciphering spaces through the Malt Works which links to their activities through his dynamic and multifunctional spaces. For example the adolescent may consider the sites linearity and edges through space as possible angles for ‘grinding’ their skateboard, or ‘jumping’ there bicycle. This adolescent sub culture may also see a wall of one of the derelict buildings not as a construct or arm of his frame, but as a blank canvas for graphic expression as the adolescent inhabitant begins to depict their own
meaning and language on the Malt Works skin. Another body of thought worthy of consideration in terms of interpretive critique of the Malt Works is appearance, and aesthetic conventions through space. The aesthetic attempts to create normative responses to landscape elements in an attempt to create landscape ‘types’. The Malt Works site, if critiquing against picturesque, beautiful, sublime and melancholy would fit into all of these categories. This presents a flaw in the over simplicity of the aesthetic body of thought. Malt Works and Beauty – He delights the eye, with a delicacy of nature taking over and regaining control of him. Malt Works and Picturesque – he is rough, wild. He shows irregularity as time has defaced parts of him. He would take a very striking picture. Malt Works and Sublime – He is sublime. He is great, he is terrible, and he is awe inspiring by scale and grandeur. He is impressive. Malt Works and Melancholy – He contemplates, with small spaces for reflection and intimacy. He feels sad because he as been forgotten, he is neglected. He is melancholic. Showing that the Malt Works has elements of all aesthetic notions within his physical personality shows this is an irrelevant method of critique for him. He is subjective, just like aesthetic is and as a result the viewer must make their own judgment on his appearance. To different subcultures, or a single perceiver his aesthetic qualities will vary. He can be beautiful and melancholic. These are reflections of
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
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the inhabitant’s cognitive state when they visit him. He may be a shoulder to cry or reflect on, or become awe inspiring and an inspirational feat with his grandeur. Interpreting the Malt Works site in terms of theories of sub cultures, and who personifies the site is an important aspect of its interpretive critique. It is important to realize multiplicity in landscapes with the recognition and assertion of multiple perspectives of encounters with landscape. Multiple perspectives through space relates to Meyer’s (2008) critique of Landscapes in contemporary practice. Meyers considers inbetween conditions of time. Considering the after hours use of spaces allows for use of landscapes without restrictions of political powers in particular spaces. Reasserting the truths of successful landscapes constructed through professions allows you to accept different beauties in space, seen through different subcultures. The Malt Works was home to adolescent subcultures after hours. He became their refuge when they were otherwise not accepted in society. The adolescent subculture was attracted to his roughness around the edges, and in a way he can be seen as a metaphor for their perception of the world. They saw beauty in despair, and related to his sense of melancholic, as a forgotten void on the fringes of society, often how they may have perceived themselves. Their attraction to a forgotten space links to emotions of feeling forgotten by society. They were unconcerned about his ‘truthful’ or perceived societal use, and were more concerned with
writing their narrative on his skin; he became exactly what they needed as a reflection of their cognitive states. His skin changed. He camouflaged to suit the needs of the perceiver. His tangibility asserts this sub cultures attraction to him. This subcultures use of the Malt Works is a drastic contradiction to historical confines set on landscapes by political powers.
The beauty the adolescent subculture saw in the Malt Works. Retrieved from: Google images 10/06/2012
Considering subcultures historically it is important to relate to interpretations of the Malt Works use through the ‘truths’ of profession. Considering subcultures that related to Malt is a useful way of asserting the need for over one hundred Malt Works in New Zealand from The Malt Works establishment in the Heathcote Valley, Canterbury in 1875. The nursery rhyme ‘This is the house that Jack built’ considers folk law developed in the sixteenth century, reflective of the perceived needs of people at that point. “This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat that ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the cat that killed the rat That ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the dog that worried the cat That killed the rat that ate the malt
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
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That lay in the house that Jack built.” Malt had a focal contribution to people’s lives at that time as this staple ingredient was seen through households throughout England. Politically Malt, and the narrative that went along with it of perceptions of the correct way to live in that era link to political power in the landscape via design principles or truths. Most of these interpretations of the correct way of living were norms’ laid out by the wealthy and powerful. The shift in social climate around malt, and the Malt Works site in Heathcote Valley reflect the changes in these truths laid out by these professionals. No longer are we set to abide or conform to regulations, rather interpret our own meaning of landscapes, resulting in the birth of subcultures, no longer so strongly set on the fringes of society. This acceptance of inbetween states of place, and the diffusion of ‘truths’ laid out by professional’s links to interpretive critique of experience through space. Phenomenology was once disregarded as a way of interpreting landscapes. Today it allows for the admission of perspectives that were once disregarded as sound interpretations of place. It is important to acknowledge and accept landscapes through all spheres of possibility, including the non-‐visual. Linking to non-‐visual aspects of site allow the perceiver to create a more deeply rooted connection with landscape elements. This considers the cognitive and kinesthetic relationship between land and people. This includes the experiential, as the perceiver begins to explore multi sensate conditions
of place looking at sensory aspects of phenomenology as you immerse yourself within these tactile spaces. Cognitive and kinesthetic critical interpretations through the Malt Works site link to his ability to evoke emotion through reflective spaces created in his midst. Melancholic spaces are generally focused on through visual or aesthetics of space. Although the visual of melancholy is important to reflect on, I also interpret the cognitive and kinesthetic experiential spaces through the Malt Works to have melancholic connotations. This is reflective of intimate spaces of reflection through the Malt Works ravaged body. The weathered insides of his carcass have a sense of sorrow and despair, as it seems there is little hope for him. It is obvious that the subculture of the adolescent has experienced this and attempted to change his sadness into joy through a surface facelift of bright colors painted onto his dark and misshapen body. They have touched his worn edges, and smelt the mustiness of his insides as they step into his cold and damp interior. They walk out and through him in the landscape, and experienced the reassertion of nature covering his broken bits. Experience of landscapes is reflective of individual perspectives of a person or group of peoples. Design often sets to ‘place’ experiential perceptions on space, however true experience in landscape is reflective of cognitive needs of the inhabitant, and depends on time, emotion and weather conditions in the landscape, as perceptions may shift as these elements change around them. Interpreting Psychoanalytical
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Lasc 410 – Project 3. Ani Ross Hoskins
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linkages with landscapes is often common practice in landscape theory. Psychoanalytical landscape understanding relates to how people relate to ‘self’ in spaces. This considers how the inhabitant understands a landscape, as a result of elements, which the landscape reveals to accommodate certain activities or uses for spaces. This would make the landscape an element with the ability to trick or change people’s needs. The landscape would have the ability to make the inhabitant feel safe, or scared. This would be seen in enclosed or open spaces. But is it the landscape itself that creates these feelings for the inhabitant? Or does the designer set out to evoke different emotions for the perceiver, therefore making their landscape successful or unsuccessful to different users as a result of different components at certain times? Does nature itself have the ability to change people’s cognitive state? Or is it purely through design intervention that this diagnosis is reached? Considering nature allowing a change in people’s perception of space relates to ideas of camouflage. Ken Smith observes Camouflage with the MoMA Roof Garden. This roof garden is ironic as it intends not to hide itself but to disregard it through changing norms of camouflage, in terms of scale and pattern. Changing these elements makes the roof garden stand out rather than hide. This relates to the ideas of ‘fake naturals’ in the landscape profession, which set out to hide the ugly in society. Bowering (2005) considers the MoMA Roof
Garden by Ken Smith in Revealing Concealment: The Strange Case of the MoMA Roof Garden. She states “The interpretation of camouflage as intentional disguise is a kind of misprision. The function of camouflage is not simply to hide or conceal. It is a symptom of the perplexing and paradoxical relationship of self and other, and the positioning of an object within its milieu.” (Bowering, 2005) Considering psychoanalytical interpretations of camouflage in terms of the Malt works links to his relationship with nature. Nature and the Malt Works have been in discussion. They have joined forces in a perplexing and paradoxical relationship and have set an alliance against the political confines wrapped around the Malt Work’s lifespan. Nature has grown fond of the Malt Works. Her roots are entwined with his foundations. She begins her attempt to camouflage him and hide his deformities from society, submerging him in her construct. Her best efforts at hiding him have failed; his scale and grandeur are too great. He has been found, and the predation begins. To conclude, interpretative critique has been the basis for my reflection of the Malt Works. My indepth experience and analysis of site and relevant theoretical bodies of thought have noted the perceiver as a strong element of this interpretive critique. This has fuelled from the need for personal reflection of site to truly experience it. The imprint he has left on people allows his spirit to be remembered, gone but never forgotten.
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References Attoe, W (1978). Criticism. In Architecture and critical imagination. New York, NY: Wiley. Borden, Iain (2001). Another Pavement, Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique of Architecture. In Iain Borden, Joe Kerr, Jane Rendell and Alicia Pavaro (eds) The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-‐262-‐02471-‐3 Extract available here
Bowring, Jacky. (1995). Pidgin Picturesque, Landscape Review 2: 56-‐64. ISSN 1173-‐3853
Bowring, Jacky. (2005). Revealing Concealment: The Strange Case of the MoMA Roof Garden. Thresholds (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), 30: 18-‐24.
Bowring, Jacky (2009), Lament for a Lost Landscape: The High Line is Missing its Melancholy Beauty, Landscape Architecture Magazine, October 2009: 128-‐127 (reads in reverse order).ISSN 00238031
Neckar, Lance. (2005). Berlin: Topology of Contemplation. In Rebecca Krinke (ed) Contemporary Landscapes of Contemplation. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 041570068X Treib, Marc. (1995) Must Landscapes Mean?: Approaches to Significance in Recent Landscape Architecture. Landscape Journal 14(1): 46-‐62