The document discusses the concept of landscape from historical and social perspectives. It argues that the term landscape emerged as a social construction that served to demonstrate social control and power. While landscapes may depict natural settings, they are designed and crafted to create an illusion of antiquity and nature while actually erasing oppression and exploitation. Landscapes became a way for elites to display wealth and status through carefully designed gardens, estates, and paintings of landowners in their lands. The roots of landscape architecture are embedded in the suffering of displaced peasants and the document examines how the concept of landscape has been used to commodify and profit from land.

1. CRITICAL SPACE PART 2
© Tony Ward
2007
For more free slides see: www.TonyWardEdu.com

2. THE CONCEPT OF LANDSCAPE
The term landscape does not appear in the English language
until the end of the 16th Century, from the Dutch, landschap.
This, like its German root, landschaft, signifies a human
intervention. It connotes at one and the same time, the
untrammeled naturalness of the wild world, and at the same time
the notion of control of the wild. The significance of landscape
rests upon the illusion of being close to that which is unsullied
by human agency - unchanged from the beginning while, at the
same time requiring that same human agency for its creation
and appreciation. As Simon Schama notes, “The Wilderness
does not name itself”. Its naming requires and is used to
supplement social and cultural vectors of power. The power of
Louis XIV is unequivocally clear in the ordering of the
landscape at Versailles (above right). In later, 18th and 19th
Century Romantic conceptions, such as that depicted by Richard
Wilson (below right) in his 1876 painting of Sion House,
Richmond, the feeling is one of being nestled into a primeval
woodland on the banks of an ancient river, but with all the
accoutrements of modern life (parasols, picnic hampers etc.)
The notion of Landscape is therefore a social construction,
designed to achieve an effect - the effect of social control. This
effect is more explicit in Versailles, but is nevertheless still a
major influence in the landscapes and paintings of the Romantic
period. The roots of landscape architecture are therefore
embedded deeply in the exploitation and suffering of countless
generations of dispossessed and displaced peasants.

3. LANDSCAPE OF DESIRE
When we think about “Landscape” we think of places like the romantic image of Stourhead in England, designed and
constructed by the famous English Landscape Architect, Henry Hoare II in the 1740s. In this design, which looks so
“natural”, everything has been created from scratch to create the natural look.Its purpose is as described, twofold: In
the first instance, it attempts to create the illusion of antiquity - that is to hark back to an earlier time, thus erasing the
recent bloody history which has made its existence possible. In addition, it serves to demonstrate the existence of
power - the power to appropriate, to steal, to exploit, to oppress, to erase the history of oppression, and to do all of this
with not only social, political and economic impunity but with style.

4. MR. & MRS ANDREWS
Portraits of landowners in their landscaped gardens became common, as in this well-known 18th Century painting
of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews by Gainsborough. It has been said that in this picture they are “engaging in philosophic
enjoyment of the Great Principle… the genuine Light of uncorrupted and unperverted Nature”. But as John Berger
points out, the possession of private land was a precondition of the very enjoyment they are experiencing.
Furthermore, the nature they are enjoying is anything but unperverted. It has been Enclosed and appropriated
precisely to render it more perverted from its original state. Mr. Andrews’ gun should also alert us to his need to
defend his acquisitions. As Berger also notes, the penalty for poaching on what had been common land was, at that
time, Transportation, while the theft of a potato was cause for a public flogging. Neither the property, nor the art
which depicts it are innocent.

5. LANDSCAPE OF POWER
Speaking of the great country houses of England that were built in the 17th and 18th Centuries, Raymond Williams
has this to say: “Some of them had been there for centuries, visible triumphs over the ruin and labour of others. But
the extraordinary phase of extension, rebuilding and enlarging which occurred in the 18th century, represents a
spectacular increase in the rate of exploitation, a good deal of it, of course, the profit of trade and of colonial
exploitation; much of it, however, the higher surplus value of a new and more efficient mode of production. It is
fashionable to admire these extraordinarily numerous houses: the extended manors, the neo-classical mansions, that
lie so close to rural Britain. People still pass from village to village, guidebook in hand, to see the next and yet the
next example, to look at the stones and the furniture. But stand at any point and look at that land. Look at what those
fields, those streams, those woods even today produce. Think it through as labour and see how long and systematic
the exploitation and seizure must have been, to rear that many houses on that scale...
What these ‘great’ houses do is to break the scale, by
an act of will corresponding to their real and
systematic exploitation of others. For look at the sites,
the façades, the defining avenues and walls, the great
iron gates and the guardian lodges. These were chosen
for more than their effect from the inside out... they
were chosen, also, you now see, for the other effect,
from the outside looking in: a visible stamping of
power, of displayed wealth and command: a social
disproportion which was meant to impress and
overawe. Much of the real profit of a more modern
agriculture went not into productive investment, but
into that explicit social declaration: a mutually
competitive but still uniform exposition, at every turn,
of an established and commanding class power.”
Williams, R., The Country and The City, Hogarth
Press, London, 1985, pp. 105-106.
Harlaxton Hall, 1834

6. THE NATURAL WORLD
The seductive illusion of being the first witness to
uncorrupted and unperverted Nature is present today,
and is most skillfully captured by Ansell Adams, whose
pictures of the Grand Tetons (above) and Half Dome,
Yosemite (right) seem to depict a veritable Eden,
devoid of human presence - albeit that Adams required
substantial technology to to create his illusion (vehicles,
mules, cameras, porters etc.). If there is anything to be
drawn from this, it is that depictions of the natural
ought to be received with great circumspection and
viewed rather as a mask for something slightly less
pure.

7. NATURE AS LANDSCAPE
The concept of Landscape is essentially based upon an ambiguity or a paradox. As already noted, it contains the
dual and mutually exclusive signifiers of unfettered naturalness and control. It also requires a position - that is, a
place from which to be viewed or experienced. Landscapes are always designed to be seen from a point of view.
Indeed, they define more than just a physical point of view. They also define an ideological point of view.
Derrida interrogates this with his concept of the parergon. The parergon in painting is all that which is suggested
but also excluded by the frame (both physical and experiential). He suggests that the frame is colonising, to the
extent that it hides as much as it reveals of the subject matter (as, for instance in Gainsborough’s painting of Mr.
and Mrs. Andrews. Below, is the relatively unadulterated view of Wenderholme Beach, North of Auckland, New
Zealand, now designated as Regional Park.

8. COLONISING FRAME
Below, we can see the Landscape Frame which has been erected by the Regional Council to define the very view we
have just seen. The Council are telling us that this precise point is the place to stand to really appreciate the finer
quality of the Wenderholme “natural masterpiece”. We are being educated here, to see the world from a particular
position - not gust a geographical and spatial position, but also from a particular point of ideology and history. What
is being rendered is a decontextualised aesthetic, that elides from its discourse any reference to Wenderholme’s
original inhabitants, what their name for the place might have been, or the economic role it might have played in their
lives prior to its colonisation, appropriation and commodification. We are being encouraged to buy into the belief that
beauty has nothing to do with its effects or consequences.

9. NON-COMMODITY LANDSCAPE

10. SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
According to the late French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, status in
society is determined by three kinds of capital:
• Economic - having large amounts of money and economic
resources
• Social - having large numbers of influential friends
• Cultural - having high level skills and understanding of the
codes used to describe objects of high aesthetic value. It is
usually passed down within families as a set of
understandings of the world - a habitus.
All three tend to reinforce each other making it easier for someone
with high capital to increase it in any or all areas.
Symbolic Capital is really a subset of Cultural Capital and refers
to the outward manifestations of power, influence and status. It is
expressed in the possession of fine objects - art, cars, dress, living
and working environment.etc.
The power of the concept of LANDSCAPE is dependent upon the notion of SYMBOLIC CAPITAL. - The power of a
particular set of spatial articulations, given or bestowed with a legitimacy through imposed dominant class values to
establish self-actualising distinctions of a class and cultural nature.
Middle Class Magazines such as Home and Garden, and Trends, and events such as The Chelsea Flower Show are a
major media for the transmission of these symbolic values, and for the realisation of the social distinctions which they
both create and reproduce.

11. CONSIDER TWO IMAGES
The photographs were taken about half a mile apart in San Francisco. In the first, the San Francisco City have
erected metal arms on public seating and barriers around grassed areas for the express purpose of preventing
the homeless and poor from using them to sleep. The poor were affecting the tourist industry! In the second,
the City fathers have developed a public garden, with cushioned seating and pots of fragrant flowers for the
lunch-time use of the office workers in the CBD. Note the sleeping, suited worker with his creased-trouser
uniform, the trash receptacles, the lack of barriers and the creation of peaceful enclaves.
THEY ARE BOTH FUNDED OUT OF THE PUBLIC PURSE.
ASK YOURSELF WHY THESE PLACES ARE SO DIFFERENT

12. COMMODITY SPACE
Although global space, in the broadest sense, is finite, and the idea that one can
create space seems preposterous. In the literal and physical sense this is true.
“They are not making any more land”, as the investor/realty saying goes. But as
Henri Lefebvre has noted, in the more specific sense of land-as-
commodity/property, space is being “re-organised” or “restructured” all of the
time. When land is surveyed and subdivided, new space is “created”. This is one
of the contradictions and illusions of capitalist development - that space can be
infinitely “created” in a finite world with finite spatial resources. Driven by
capitalist development, the restructuring of space is designed to create and
extract increasing profit from the resource, by turning it into a market
commodity in the global economy. For the first time in history, space is seen for
its potential profit-making, rather than its capacity to sustain life. Hence, when
the land-use planning designation of a a farm is altered in a District Scheme
from “Agriculture” to “Housing”, it is because each little new subdivided lot can
be offered for sale to a wider market for a higher price.
As a result, good farmland is disappearing at an
alarming rate.Environmentally inappropriate as it is,
the Midwest monocultural farmland (bottom right) is
gradually replaced by suburban development as at
Levittown (top right). Developments such as these
require roads that are paid for by the taxpayer and
maximise the profit not only for the developer and/or
landowner, but for the automobile and petroleum
companies who lobby for them forcefully with federal
authorities.

13. THOMAS COOK,
REALTORThe advertising for sections in this beachfront subdivision
state:
“NOVEMBER 1769
The transit of Mercury was due to occur on the 9th
November 1769, and Cook was anxious to observe the
phenomenon from a safe position on shore. And so it
was he stepped ashore on what is now Cooks beach.
He was so impressed with the uniqueness and beauty
of the area that he gave it his own name. It was here on
Shakespeare Cliff that he planted the Union flag for
the first time, claiming possession for the crown.”
Even the culture and history of the coloniser is not
immune from the commodifying forces of rampant
capitalist development and accumulation.

14. DISCOVERY
Once indigenous peoples have been dis-placed and re-
placed, the continued advance of capitalism requires
the continual redefining and recreation of space
through development. Surveyors, planners, developers,
architects, are all party to the process, and all must find
ways to resolve the contradictions and ambiguities of
their roles and their projects. As noted already, the
process of development involves a contradiction
requiring the maintenance of a continual tension
between the natural and the developed. Resolution of
this contradiction requires the continual mystification
of language. The notion of discovery is a typical
example. To discover something means, literally, to be
the first person to find it, to be the original voyeur -
usually involving a prolonged exploration and
hardship. To “discover” the Cooks Beach subdivision
requires no effort! The advertising does it all. But the
notion of “discovery” has a deeper hegemonic
structure. It suggests an absence of original occupation,
which finds its legality in (for instance) the
proclamation of Australia and other colonised lands as
terra nullis - that is unoccupied prior to discovery by
the colonisers. The doctrine of terra nullis was
invented to bypass the conventions of international law
which would have allowed indigenous peoples to claim
and defend their sovereignty. Here (right) the original
linguistic violation is buried under successive layers of
everyday use and acceptance of the term.

15. RENT A
MOUNTAIN
Once commodified - that is, reduced to a tradable
commodity - the earth itself can be a source of
incommensurable wealth. Here (left) we see an
advertisement for a highly profitable time-share
apartment investment in a mountainous paradise
(sic!). The juxtaposition of the image - illustrating an
apparently uninhabited natural setting - along with
the somewhat contradictory text (offering chalets,
hotels, elegant apartments etc.) captures the essential
contradiction that is inherent in the meaning of
“landscape”. It also identifies the capitalistic basis
for the entire conception, uncomfortably close to our
Puritan Realtors shown earlier.
The notion that one can “own” a mountain would
have been ludicrous to most precolonial indigenous
communities. For one thing, the notion of ownership
of the earth presumes a necessary separation (not to
say distinction) between the self and the source of
life - a preposterous idea which has, in the end led to
the destruction of the ecosystem and has brought the
human species to the point of self destruction and
probable extinction.

16. NEUTRAL STATE?
The prevailing belief is that the State operates in the interests of the whole of society, acting as a neutral referee
between competing social and cultural groups. This belief is not backed up by a critical look at history. It is a
socially constructed myth. Rather, the State is not a neutral entity, but is the arm and instrument of the dominant
culture. It’s role is to maintain dominant cultural power by maintaining the myth of neutrality. The myth serves to
delude the people into compliance with the constitutional framework (the Law) which has been initiated and shaped
by the dominant culture itself. Its agencies are headed by the elite, its values are the values of the elite and its
practices most benefit the elite. This is most evident in countries that have been colonised, like New Zealand,
Australia, Canada and the Americas, where the dominant culture equates most closely with the elite colonising
culture., and where the original inhabitants are the most marginalised and excluded. Here, constitutional forms have
been designed specifically to strip the indigenous of their productive capacity and their ability to resist.

17. INDIGENOUS SPACE
DOGON VILLAGE, MALI (above)
MARSH KURDS, IRAQ (below)
NIGERIAN VILLAGEMOSGOUM HOMESTEAD
CAMEROUN
Pre-Capitalist indigenous peoples have evolved an
infinite variety of house and settlement forms which
echo, express and facilitate their cultural patterns
and exist in a state of balance with their physical
environment and climate. Each culture has its own
unique forms and expressions, supporting identity,
sense of place, history and economy. These forms,
expressions and identities are bound together by a
series of sacred precepts and rules of social conduct
that have existed and created the conditions for
social harmony for thousands of years

18. VERNACULAR
Whether it be Turkish tenements with wind-catchers (below left), Algerian courtyard housing (below centre) or stilted
houses of the lake-dwellers of Lake Nokwe, Benin (below right), each community is distinct and lives in a state of
reciprocity with its natural environment. The imposition of capitalism has changed all of this, has homogenised
cultures, and has blurred the edges of cultural identities and the commodification and ultimate abandonment and/or
violation of previously sacred beliefs. Yet paradoxically, it is these beliefs that the world now so desperately needs as
it stares into a bleak environmentally degraded future

19. CULTURAL
EXPRESSION
And whatever the overall form of the settlement, the expression of the
culture is carried through into the details of the house, as here in an oasis
house in Mauritania (left), a Samoan fale (below left), cliff and troglodyte
housing in Santorini (below centre) or Nubian courtyard housing (below
right). In each case, the built form is the unmistakable expression of the
culture that produced it.

20. CULTURE AND FORM
In each case, the shaping of the space, the world in which the culture exists, is built into the learning patterns of the
culture itself such that the education which the young receive, is inseparable from the rules and patterns of behaviour
(tikanga) of the people. These are the relationships which the advent of capitalism and a cash economy has destroyed
or is destroying. It begins with the measuring and surveying of space. It continues with the exploration for resources
and concludes with the assignment of private boundaries enclosing private (and tradable) parcels. With the introduction
of capitalism everything is reduced to a tradable commodity - even spiritual values. Indigenous cultures world-wide
have had their traditional ways of life dramatically transformed by global capitalism. Maori are no different. While
they have embraced the Western economic model, they have struggled to adjust to the penalties upon their culture that
it imposes, including loss of land and resources and the introduction of profound ambiguities about tapu and noa.

21. FORESHORE AND SEABED
For several years, up to 2004, a group of N. Z. South Island tribes from the Marlborough Sounds area had been
petitioning their Local Governments for a say in the development and distribution of commercial mussel-farming
operations in their area. They were continuously ignored, and so took their case for Customary Ownership to the High
Court. When, in 2004, the Court of Appeal found that the Iwi may have a case for customary ownership, and that they
could if they wished, pursue their case to the Maori Land Court, Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand
(attempting to stem the tide of pakeha racism then sweeping the country) announced that her Government would
introduce legislation to prevent this from happening. For Maori, who had helped to vote Clark into office, this was the
kind of betrayal that they head experienced for 150 years. So they organised a Hikoi (Land March) from the top of the
North island to Parliament in the South. Some 40,000 arrived at Parliament to deliver an unmistakable message to the
Government, and the Maori Party was born. Below, the Wananga component of the Hikoi

22. MAORI
PLANNING
In the face of such political duplicity, it is
ironic that Maori are being also encouraged to
take a greater role in the planning process by
Local Authorities such as the Auckland City
Council (left).
It can only be noted that this attempt is an
extension of the policies of assimilation which
have been in evidence for 100 years or more.
What is being asked, is that Maori participate
in a non-Maori planning process, driven by
Capitalist ethic and greed - a process which
runs absolutely counter to the cultural
conceptions of space that Maori and most
bother indigenous peoples have had to accept
and survive since they were first colonised.
It is pertinent, perhaps, to ask what the
alternatives might be? Certainly, it could be
possible, given the will, to devise a dual and
separate planning process which honours the
cultural experiences and histories of both
partners to the Treaty.

23. CLASS SUICIDE

24. THE KHOEKHOEN
For those who suggest that it is not possible to “turn back the clock” on the colonisation of space there is a simple
answer, the Khoekhoen of South Africa. These were the first occupants of the sub-continent, the first to meet the
white Boer settlers and the ones to bear the brunt of the colonisation process. A nomadic culture, their land was
taken from them initially buy farmers and eventually by the Government acting on behalf of diamond miners. With
the fall of Apartheid, the 4000 strong former residents of the so-called Richtersfeld went to court for the return of
their land - 85,000 hectares of land and 1.5 billion rand in compensation. In 2003 the court agreed, and now are
about to receive not only their land, but between 3-4 billion rand so they may once again take up their nomadic lives.
(Source, New Zealand herald June 10th 2006. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.