Wednesday, September 14, 2011

On Landscapes

1. What does Susan Herrington mean when she says that landscapes are "invisible?"

2. . What do landscapes represent for humans and how has this changed over time since the 1800's?

Due Monday, September 19th at 8:30 am. Be prepared to discuss these responses in class.

14 comments:

  1. 1) Susan Herrington believes that landscapes are "invisible" to many people because they are a part of our everyday lives. We see right through them and do not observe them for the artistic features they truly contain. We may walk right past some of the mot beautiful scenes while rushing to work or class without even a glance or consideration.

    2) Throughout history, landscapes have represented a mixture of concepts. Many see landscapes as a backdrop for the main idea of culture, others center their focus on the landscape in which something takes place. Before, landscapes were ideally represented as pastoral, freeing, and untouched. Many would even plant dead trees to make the garden or landscape imitate real nature. Now, since the 1800's, landscapes have been focused on straight lines, geometry, and man-made perfection conjured up from angles and logistics.

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  2. 1. According to Susan Herrington landscapes are "invisible" because people do not pay attention to them as they are rushing about their daily lives paying more attention to the things they need to do rather than the environment surrounding them.

    2. Landscapes represent different concepts, depending on the landscape you are viewing and who has created that specific landscape. The landscape could be representing a historical myth, a message with contemporary relevance opening itself to the viewer that pays attention to its detail, or landscapes can represent a synthetic space that is used by humans and manipulated by humans for their advancement and growth. Before the present day thoughts of landscapes being man-made and the geometrical aesthetic, they were more free-flowing and untouched by humans need for perfection.

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  3. 1. Susan Herrington refers to landscapes as “invisible” because due to people’s lack of knowledge of what landscapes really are they look past them in their everyday lives. Landscape’s are everywhere and are taken for granted. They wouldn’t be so admirable if it weren’t for the select few people who took the time to care for them and make them that way. Landscapes are not easy to maintain so people should start noticing and appreciating their beauty.

    2. Landscapes can be represents in many different ways. Originally landscapes were not accepted as art once humans touched them and got rid of what nature originally put down. This forced people to want to recreate forms of nature in their landscape. Nature is viewed as good and morally innocent which is the view people wanted to uphold when creating their landscape. Historical myths about human life and creation also became popular as people wanted to incorporate nature into their landscape. The process of nature creates landscapes and depending on how certain individuals represent the landscape it can either be improved or destroyed.

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  4. 1.Susan Herrington’s belief on landscapes being “invisible” is that we rarely notice how beautiful something actually is because our minds are being contained by something else. If we actually took time out of our everyday kind of “bubble”, we could probably notice a not so “invisible” landscape.

    2. Landscapes represent a great amount of things and have ranged throughout centuries. Landscapes symbolize different things weather they are abstract or simple. In general, they simply represent a scenic area that is expanded and can be visible and noticed in a single view. Overtime since the 1800’s, landscapes now are more simple and less “decorative.” They are much more geometric rather than gaudy and perfected.

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  5. 1. What does Susan Herrington mean when she says that landscapes are "invisible?"

    Susan Herrington refers to landscapes as invisible because like many other things in life, they can easily go unnoticed. Lot's of things in our lives will be taken for granted unless we stop and take a look at what we truly have before us. Nature and the landscape are no different.

    2. . What do landscapes represent for humans and how has this changed over time since the 1800's?

    In early 1800 paintings, nature is depicted as a force that cannot be controlled by man. Most paintings depict a landscape that can easily overwhelm man. Because of this, nature is thought to be at its purest form. However, in recent years, artists have portrayed nature as a force that can now be tamed by the very creatures who once drew it with such admiration and fear, humans.

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  6. 1. Susan Herrington says that landscapes are “invisible” because we are so used to living our lives without paying attention to the natural beauty around us. This is partly because we take the landscape for granted but when we begin to take the time to appreciate our surroundings we realize how beautiful and important the landscape really is.
    2. For humans the way landscapes are represented has changed since the 1800’s. Earlier on landscapes were viewed as natural things that could not be altered. Humans were able to appreciate landscapes as they were: real and imperfect. Now however, humans try to modify the landscapes to make them perfect and unnatural.

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  7. 1) Susan Herrington refers to landscapes as "invisible" since people pass them by all the time without noticing them or taking the time to see their natural beauty. People just see the landscape as part of their every day lives and do not fully appreciate it for what it represents and provides for us.

    2) Landscapes have always been part of everyones lives, however, people never really appreciated them as art until they really took the time to appreciate and interpret them. The way people view the landscape has changed since the 1800's when it was only a pretty view but now people take these beautiful places and capture their meanings and essence through art. This has brought the landscape to life.

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  8. 1) Susan says that landscapes are "invisible" to people because they are so used to them in their everyday life so they dont take the time to look at them like they would of something that was in a museum.

    2) Landscapes represent nature to humans. The landscapes have changed a lot over the years and so have the ways people interpret and appreciate art. People have a lot of different views of what should be considered landscape so the types of paintings have changed a lot over the years.

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  9. 1. When Susan Herrington says that landscapes are "invisible" she means that it's not something people notice in their everyday lives. It's what we're used to seeing so we don't really pay attention to it. We don't really think it's significant because it's normal to us, it's nothing new. We don't stop and look at it to see the different textures or different colors that make up this landscape.

    2. Landscapes represent many different things. In earlier times it represented nature. It represented things untouched by man in a sense. It was drawn exactly how it was in life. Now it can represent whatever the artist wants it to. Modern artists can change the landscape to make it look like anything and make it represent whatever they feel like it should represent at the time of the drawing.

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  10. 1.Susan Herrington uses the term “invisible” when describing landscapes because humans do not take the time to stop and look at the detail nature has. For example, humans don’t usually stop and stare at the texture and details in the lines formed on a tree, let alone compare those details and lines to another tree. Each object has different details and it takes an “artist’s eye” to appreciate and notice each difference.

    2. Early centuries used the originality of previous artists as a start to their work. In the 18th century, artists redefined art using their freedom. They “rule-broke” all the natures of art from previous time periods. Each century shares one thing IN common; artwork from their time was always questioned in the century it was completed, and only respected after society had a chance to appreciate it for its significance. Landscape represents different aspects and pictures we humans would not ordinarily take the time to stop and look at the detail of the landscape.

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  11. 1. Susan Herrington says that landscapes are “invisible” to explain the fact that the landscapes are part of the “hidden art.” The fact is landscape is everywhere and it makes up a big portion of our lives, but people rarely notice the landscape around them. The landscape is everywhere, yet it is rarely seen in its fullness. The art of landscapes are invisible and are not seen as much as paintings and music that we can choose to ignore.
    2. Landscapes are spaces that condition and are conditioned by cultural and natural systems directly connected to our well-being. In the 18th century landscapes were more original and consisted of hills, valleys, and natural objects. Now landscapes are “overweighted with sentiment” meaning that we now see landscapes with Kleenex boxes, mugs, and bottles of soap. There is no resistance, and using the bagel garden as an example, it shows the labor behind making the landscape beautiful, and it loses its originality.

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  12. 1. What Susan Herrington is referring to when she calls landscapes “invisible” is that people tend to miss the simple beauties in life because they are unable to slow their lives down and take in their surroundings.
    2. In earlier times like the 1800’s landscapes meant more to the people then they do today. Much of the land was agricultural and a means of food and income for the majority of people. These days people sometimes may admire a nice view but they forget how valuable the land used to be and have replaced the majority of natural landscapes with urban areas.

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  13. 1. Susan Herrington's reasons for the landscape being "invisible" is that it is often taken for granted. We are to busy with our daily lives to stop and appreciate the natural world around us. We only see what we want to see as we head off to our next destination.

    2. Landscapes have been interpreted as many things over the years. From a nature scene untouched by humans to a more urban landscapes, the representation of a landscape as become more abstract. In the 1800's, the landscape was more pure and unknown. During these times it was humans that were subjected to nature but over time we have become more in control of the world around us thus changing the landscape as well.

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  14. 1) Susan Herrington is refering to landscapes as "invisible" because they maintain minimum importance in the lives of many. The mojority of the human species is too busy
    with other aspect of their lives, to stop and truely aknowledge the blatant beauty of the environment around them. We rush through our lives, without leaving ourselves enough time to stop and smell the roses.

    2) Landscapes are representative for a pethora of thing for humans. The representation depends upon the landscape, the viewer, and the one who created the landscape. A landscape may be affiliated with culture, or simply historical events. Previous to the 1800's, landscapes were known as natural, unalted by man, environments. Nature was seen as perfection on its own. Now a days, the majority of landscapes are constructed by humans to appear asthetically appealing. Our concept of perfection has changed. Rather than pure and natural, they are trimmed and shapped to fit our liking.

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