NOTEBOOK ON LANGUAGE IN THE LANDSCAPE
Posted on | August 30, 2010 | By David | No Comments
Photos: David Berridge, West Bromwich, June 4, 2010
In her essay “Language in the Landscape” Johanna Drucker observes:
“Language in the landscape, whether roads signs, billboards, or graffiti, shapes our relationship to the landscape in many ways. Language can be explicit (DO NOT ENTER), deceptive (THE ONLY REAL BEER), enigmatic (EDY’S CHARACTER CANDIES), confusing (PARKING THIS SIDE ONLY BETWEEN 4PM AND 6PM ON ALTERNATIVE TUESDAYS EXCEPT WHERE INDICATED), and elucidating (WINDOW 6 FOR TAX FORMS ONLY). In every case, written language represents an invisible conversation: someone is speaking, someone is being addressed, the message has a purpose, and the message is delivered in a particular way. Language is a symbolic system, full of implication. It allows us to discuss things that are not present. We cannot dismiss language in the landscape as auxiliary or duplicative. The relationship between linguistic statement and physical object influences every encounter we have with out environment.”
Drucker’s essay, originally published in Landscape. Vol.28, no.1, 1984, offers a preliminary classification of language in the landscape. Drucker begins by focussing on the forms of written language itself: ”The forms of written language are twofold: first, the visible features of the method of production, such as the style of typography or calligraphy, and medium employed; second the forms of the language per se, such as current slang, obsolete jargon, newly coined words, and unconventional spelling. Form affects meaning.” She then considers language in the landscape by means of the following categories:
Information
Beyond Information
Instructive Language
Language as Advertisement
Language as Identity
Language as Evidence
Language Creates Speculation
Language as Edification
Language as Context
Drucker’s comments on this final category also serve as the essay’s conclusion. They relate, too, to the photographs above, which were taken on walks around West Bromwich on June 4 2010, as part of my residency at the Black Country Creative Advantage. My written response to the language in the landscape can be seen here. As Drucker observes:
“Landscape serves as the context for the language in it. Written language does not simply identify objects in the landscape. Language changes our perception of the very situation in which it acquires meaning. As we observe words in the landscape, they charge and activate the environment, sometimes undermining, sometimes reinforcing our perceptions. For us, language is full of culture and history, but it is also full of ambiguity and enigma. Because it is a set of symbols we use to invoke concepts, we may find it divorced from the very objects it aims to identify, posing the issues of definition and identity as distinct from the material in which they are embodied.”
SOURCES: Johanna Drucker, “Language in the Landscape” in Figuring the Word: Essays on Books, Writing and Visual Poetics (Granary Books, New York City, 1998), 90-99.
See also: http://verysmallkitchen.com/2010/08/30/notebook-on-language-in-the-landscape/
Tags: Art > Berridge > Investigative Poetics > West Bromwich > Writing
receive a free pot of coleslaw
Posted on | August 12, 2010 | By Monika | 3 Comments
Out Now: Creative Report # 2
The second issue of our occasional activities report is guest-authored by contributing artist David Berridge. Pick yours up at the stall, or download it here: Creative Report # 2
You can also get the newsletter at those locations (amongst others):
African Caribbean Resource Centre
Charlemont Community Centre, Beaconview Road
The Fox & Hounds
Guru Nanak Community Centre
Hill Top Library
Kenrick Park Community Centre, Glover Street
Lodge Road Community Centre, Lodge Road
Sandwell College Student Association
Stone Cross Library
The Vine
Yemeni Association
YMCA
Wood Lane Community Centre, Greets Green
Tags: Investigation > Newsletter > Regeneration > Report > West Bromwich
blue-sky blueprint
Posted on | August 6, 2010 | By Manu | No Comments
Rahul’s house IS amazing, … I hope that Rahul and his friends will return to the market stall next month to join hours of paper modelling! 
I like to learn from you…
Here my thoughts how I like to approach the artistic research project for BCCA, “blue-sky blueprint”.
-
The most adaptive users of public space are children. Public space plays a major role in their development- as territory for meeting, exchange, and fantasy; as loci of collective memory; as environments of controlled risk. The playground constitutes only a small part of a
growing child’s range.
The contemporary trend in planning is towards the creation of sterile, defensible space that is designed around work, consumption, and phobia (and, increasingly, managed by private interest). This is the exact opposite of a space that accomodates unpredicted encounters, encourages plural uses, and generates initiative. A major step towards an open society lies in rethinking public spaces as spaces in flow, open to improvised use and dynamic processes – as learning
environments, for young and old.
Children are invited into this project as researchers and designers, with unique expertise in the creation of play, curious exploration, and imagination beyond regulation (’blue-sky thinking’). They will share their perceptions, responses, and fantasies as they reconstruct spaces they know as architectural models made of paper. These models will then be incorporated into a standard 3D CAD modelling of the neighbourhood.
The core question: will their narratives reveal existing qualities of (or present visions of) public space, that could be developed to create environments of informal learning for all, regardless of age?
They built a house…
Posted on | August 3, 2010 | By Monika | 2 Comments
Yesterday Rahul, whose parents run ‘One Stop Beauty,’ – Anna Francis interviewed him about this for her project – and the two sisters who were playing with himRhea built this awesome cardboard house. It’s got secret floors inside, but I did not want to open it without them around.
Legacy – Play your part
Posted on | July 30, 2010 | By Jonathan | No Comments
Pete and Jonathan of Urban Research Collective have decided to create a publication entitled Legacy as part of their contribution.
Scheduled for publication at our conference, which will conclude the project this autumn, Legacy is an attempt to better understand both the past and the regeneration and social and political issues active in West Bromwich. Urban Research Collective also hope the material will be directly relevant to other towns, suburbs and cities around the UK.
“Taking a look around the prospective Tesco site was quite an experience,” says Jonathan. “It’s an empty desolate area fast returning to nature. It got us thinking about the idea of ‘legacy’. It’s term often bandied around regeneration projects but something we wanted to explore further.”
Tags: Conference > Demolition > Investigation > Legacy > People > Publication > Sustainability
Bookmark
Subscribe
Subscribe to investigation_creativeadvantage Visit this group
I am 
Supported by
