Landscape phenomenology

Wylie, J., (2007), Landscape, Oxon, Routledge.

page 139.
Landscape phenomenology often lays stress upon some measure of direct, bodily contact with, and experience of landscape.

page 141
land art/ earth art, - movement began late 1960s, - aim to liberate art from confined, controlled settings e.g. galleries / museums. (spiral jetty).

page 143
landscape is conceptualised in terms of active, embodied and dynamic relations betweem people and land, between culture and nature more generally.
these relations are seen as ongoing and evolving rather than static. forever changing

page 144
landscape becomes the accomplice and expression. ?

p145
we define ourselves - we define the essence of what it is to exist as a human being - in terms of visual detachment. we define ourselves not as creatures in a world but as points of view upon it.

p146
thinking is thus the essence of being human, or, as Descarts puts it, I think therefore I am.

p149
"far from my body being for me no more than a fragment of space, there would be no space at all for me if I had no body" (ibid102).

p150
As I contemplate the blue of the sky I am not set over against it as an acosmic subject: I do not possess it in thought, or spread out toward it some idea of blue.....I abandon myself to it and plunge into this mystery, it thinks itself in me. (Merleau-Ponty, 1969, p214 Merleau - Ponty, 1969 quoted in Wylie, 2007, p150)) It's only when someone puts it into words.

p152
When I look, I see with landscape

p160
Landscape here understood , is not an amount of something, but a quality of feeling, in the end an emotional investment. I aggree.

p161
'through living in it, the landscape becomes a part of us, just as we are part of it' (ibid. p.191).

At its most intense, the boundaries between person and place, or between the self and the landscape, dissolve altogether. (ingold, 2000,p.56, original emphisis).

p.162
the landscape is not so much the object as 'the homeland of our thoughts'. (ingold, 2000,
I like this.
p176
Landscape is more than a way of seeing. Landscape is that with which we see, a perception - with - the - world. When I look I see with landscape.

p178
'my power of imagining is nothing but the persistence of the world around me'. Yes I only think about what I see and hear.

p182
Phenomonology originally takes shape as a lost quest for lost essences and ultimate foundations. ? Is this true?

Landscape Architecture.

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“Landscape Architecture can’t compete against nature. But if Landscape Architects understand Landscape as the terrain we live on, they see the spectrum of responsibility”.

 

Journal  Scholfer, P. (2012). The World of Landscape Architecture. 20 Years of Topos. Issue No. 80, Page 4.

Letter From Beirut.

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Art Monthly. Issue No 360. October 2012. Letter From Beirut.

This article is in response to the letter from Cairo. It points out the dedication, commitment and also make me feel the difficulties the artists involved in the Cairo art scene may have. Artists in Cairo are mostly self funded, or fundraise their own salaries or are willing to volunteer there time. 

The letter goes on to talk about the Beirut art scene as a “utopian creative bubble”.   Beirut has been redeveloped into a modern city centre boasting designer clothes shops, restaurants and cafes. Beirut’s nightlife brings status as “unofficial gay capital of middle east and north Africa”. and now has a vibrant and busy art scene which attracts artists and curators from around the area as well as the wider region because of its new social liberalism.  Beirut also has an “institutional infrastructure” as well as the BAC (Beirut Art Centre) and the BEC (Beirut Exhibition Centre). The BAC is funded by sponsors and has a board of trustees, though the board has a lot more control than boards of trustees in the west.

Letter From Cairo

Art Monthly. Issue No.357. June 2012. Letter From Cairo. P38

This  artical is about the art movement in Cairo since the revolution in 2011.
It talks about the newly formed "Coalition of Independent Culture".  making reference to the "liberation of expression". The new graffiiti art that has spread around the city's buildings and walls,"in Cairo, the walls have tongues".  it makes reference to the way attempts have been made to curate shows and "how easy it is to curate an exhibition in a city that had turned into one massive art studio".
All of these comments  make me think how art must have exploded into existence and how the people must have felt about the restrictions there must have been on art. it is something I would not have thought about.



    

FAITH BEYOND BOARDERS

Mosley, D., Holliday, J., (2010) Faith Beyond Boarders, doing justice in a dangerous world, Nashville: Abingdon Press 

 An autobiographical account of Don and Carolyn Mosley’s life, and there work with Jubilee Partners and Habitat for Humanity International. Don tells the stories of the refugees, from all types of conflicts who passed through the doors of Jubilee Partners. He successfully transports you to the conflict zones.  Where he works with Habitat for Humanity, to transform and build houses for local people. 

What comes across in the book is just how strong and unshakable Don Mosley’s faith is, also how important faith is to the people who live in the conflict zones around the world. Mosley shows us the power of humanity, his belief in loves thy enemy and holding out the hand of friendship is unwavering. 

A truly inspiring book.

 

The Legacy of Genghis Khan

Komaroff. L.,  Carboni. S., ED.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Exhibition Cataloge, (2002), The Legacy of Genghis Khan Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353, Available at http://www.lacma.org/khan/captionscredits.htm   Accessed on 13 Oct. 12 at 18.15pm

Introduction 

Genghis Khan created the world’s largest empire, stretching at its greatest extent from Korea to Hungary. 

The Mongols’ support of pan-Asian trade, their keen taste for luxury goods, and their practice of relocating artists produced unique artistic ideas throughout Eurasia. This development created a amazing new visual language.

By uniting eastern and western Asia for over a century, the Mongols shaped a unique event for cultural exchange that changed the face of art in Iran forever.  Manuscript illustrations, luxuriously decorative arts and architectural elements,this was Genghis Khan’s legacy.

The Mongols in China

The vast Mongol empire was divided among four dynasties: the Ilkhanids in the Iranian world, the Golden Horde in southern Russia, the Chaghatay in central Asia, and the Yuan in China and Mongolia

The Mongols practiced shamanism but they maintained an open policy toward religion.

Muslims reach positions of power and wealth under the Yuan.

The Mongol’s support of art and global trade helped boost Chinese forms, motifs, and techniques westward to Iran, where they contributed to the creation of a new visual language.

This cenotaph, or grave marker, found near the city of Chifeng in Inner Mongolia show the presence of Muslims at the upper echelons of Chinese society under the Yuan dynasty.  The head of the cenotaph is inscribed in Arabic script:- the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no god but God (Allah). Muhammad is the messenger of God (Allah)." (Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 2002)