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Authenticity in landscape and place

September 21, 2016 by mcmont20

In Meinig’s introduction of Beholding Eye he states an idea similar to one, that through text and class discussion, we’ve established as true, “any landscape is composed not only of what lies before our eyes but what lies within our heads”. The difference is that previously, we’ve only read and discussed this idea without the use of the word “landscape” but rather the words “place” and “space”. In one of our first class discussions, we sorted through the differences and meanings of the words “space” “place” and “landscape”. In those times, “space” and “place” took center stage. This piece seems to legitimize the idea and deep meaning of “landscape” and further proves its significance to our interpretation of place. A piece of text that stood out to me was, “It is landscape as environment, embracing all that we live amidst, and thus it cultivates a sensitivity to detail, to texture, color, all the nuances of visual relationships, and more, for the environment engages all of our senses, the sounds and smalls and ineffable feel of a place as well.”( Meinig, 45) This reminded me heavily of Relph’s distinction of the experience of “insideness” and “outsideness” in the human experience of place in Cresswell’s Genealogy of Place. The distinction has to do with “authenticity” meaning, “to be inside a place is to belong to it and identify with it, and the more profoundly inside you are the stronger is the identity with the place” (Relph, 1976, 49)  This same idea of authenticity seems to be important to what Meinig describes “landscape as place” to be. To see and be in a landscape with genuine awareness is the stepping stone for creating landscape into place.

Filed Under: Sep 22

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