This document discusses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding landscapes. It draws from the work of scholars who see landscapes as both physical environments shaped by human design as well as cultural constructs that help make sense of the world. The author advocates examining landscapes as sites of intervention composed of possible behaviors and considering partial tactical adjustments. Questions are posed about how to walk through and theorize about the future using a landscape approach that incorporates human passion, intelligence and imagination.

1. WALK THE FUTURE
LIKE A LANDSCAPE:
THEORIZING AN
INTERDISCIPLINARY
APPROACH
Jeremy McGinniss
@jmymcginniss LACUNY 17

2. WHY
LANDSCAPE?

3. “…SIMULTANEOUSLY A
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
AND WAY OF PERCEIVING
THAT ENVIRONMENT…
BOTH A WORLD AND
A CULTURE CONSTRUCTED
TO MAKE SENSE OF THAT WORLD.”
EMILY THOMPSON

4. LANDSCAPE AS
“…SHAPED LAND…”
THAT HAS BEEN
ACTED UPON
“…BY CONTRIVANCE,
BY PREMEDITATION,
BY DESIGN.”
JOHN STILGOE

5. SEEING THE
NOTHING

6. THE GIANT

7. BENTON
MCKAYE

9. THE ANT

10. PERSPECTIVE
CONTEXT
CONNECTION

11. AS SITES OF INTERVENTION
COMPOSED OF A REPERTOIRE OF
POSSIBLE BEHAVIORS,
WHAT ARE THE
PARTIAL AND TACTICAL
ADJUSTMENTS
WE NEED TO MAKE?

12. “MY HORIZON….[IS] CROWDED
WITH HUMAN PASSION,
INTELLIGENCE, YEARNING,
IMAGINATION, SPIRITUAL
COMPLEXITY AND DEPTH...”
MARSHALL BERMAN

13. QUESTIONS
CONTACT
@JMYMCGINNISS
JEREMY.MCGINNISS@GMAIL.COM

14. SOURCES
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https://newleftreview.org/I/144/marshall-berman-the-signs-in-the-street-a-response-to-perry-anderson
• Easterling, Keller. 2001. Organization Space : Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
• Ellsworth, Elizabeth. 2005. Places of Learning: Media, Architecture, Pedagogy. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
• Graham, Stephen, and Nigel Thrift. "Out of order: understanding repair and maintenance." Theory, Culture & Society 24, no. 3
(2007): 1-25.
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Space.” Accessed May 18. http://www.wordsinspace.net/shannon/2017/04/02/stacks-platforms-interfaces-a-field-guide-to-
information-spaces-pratt-acrl-yale/.
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• -- 1999. Outside Lies Magic : Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places. New York: Walker and Co.
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1900-1933. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
• Ulin, David L. 2017. “Claudia Rankine, The Art of Poetry No. 102.” The Paris Review. Accessed May 18.
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6905/claudia-rankine-the-art-of-poetry-no-102-claudia-rankine.
• Wessels, Tom. 1999. Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. Pbk. ed. Woodstock, Vt.: Countryman
Press.