A Response to ‘Landscape as Art’ – An Interview with Mark Blackwell
During a recent talk I attended through my university, Dr
Ying Li briefly interviewed the speaker, Mark Blackwell, on his views of the
role of art in making meaningful landscapes. Blackwell identified how important
is to have an ‘art layer’ within landscape architecture to create a design
vision – reflection of this layer offers a human and social aspect to consider
how people will interact and engage with one another within a space. He
stressed the importance of this connection in the way we look at our journey of
creating places for people. Blackwell also acknowledged the artistic link with
culture and cities – encouraging us to understand the influences of art, music
and literature on places and how we can reveal traces of them over time. He warned
against over designing spaces, in order to create platforms for people to
engage and create their own stories and places. The more physical appearances
of art within the profession were also discussed – Blackwell encourages the use
of model making, both physically and using 3D modelling technology, including
programs such as SketchUp. This is about succinctly telling a story to the
audience so they will remember our design.
I really enjoyed the talk from Mark, it was very interesting
to hear his perspective on landscape architecture and his advice for our
development in the profession. His view very much reminded of Kathryn
Gustafson, who I studied in my previous post. As someone who struggles to
explain themselves, art is a vital tool for me to portray my ideas and visions
for a project. Between the talk and my study of Gustafson, I have realised that
I do not visualise my ideas enough – I need to draw more and make more models.
My fear of them not turning out perfect holds me back but I need to let this go
and place pen on paper. I completely agree with his view on not over-designing
spaces, I feel people will make a place their own, even if you intended it to
be something completely different, and that is something we, as landscape
architects, need to embrace. I also feel I need to study art more, in order to
fully understand the way people view their landscapes, as well as gain
inspiration for composition and colours of the environments I design. I have included
my two favourite pieces of art depicting the landscape, both completely
different in style and form but both equally inspiring for me.
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