Non-painted landscapes, non-phenomenological phenomenology, and Mahatma Gandhi in London

Landscape. What is a landscape? This might be reminiscent of the first image that came to your minds:

Fig. 1 Caspar David Friedrich, 1822. Moonrise Over the Sea.

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Perfect German landscape, created by one of the most famous German landscape painters. Because that is the essence of a landscape – a beautiful overview that can (and will) be painted. Landscape painters, the first association. Landscape as an aesthetic construct, perceived and reiterated for aesthetic purposes in all its objectivity.

So much for paintings. But what about the concept of landscape and its relation to our daily lives? In one of the previous posts I touched upon the concept of space, and how it is only an abstract – the void that remains after we remove all the objects and spatial relations between them. Humans do not perceive 'spaces‘ (can plural form be even applied?)  as much as ‘places‘, constituted by objects, their spatial relations – and human perception of these.

Without the human factor there would be no ground for differentiating between a street and a park, a mall and a house, a road and a pavement – all these distinctions are man-made.

In his essay on the phenomenology of landscape, Chris Tilley emphasizes how the human factor encompasses both our somatic constraints, which force one kind of perception rather than the other, the goals aims we relate to one kind of place, as well as our experiences and preconception, which all influence the way in which we relate to the landscape (Tilley 1994).

I must confess I find it hard to understand why such a philosophical stance should be named phenomenology. Edmund Husserl, the father of phenomenology, conceived his theory as a mean of analyzing the object-in-itself, through the two-staged phenomenological reduction of first, our conception of the existence or non-existence of objects outside our perception and second, all the `accidental‘ variables of a given object (Copleston 2000). Tilley is doing the exact opposite, embracing these variables and integrating them into the objects, in a way arguing that they can only exist as objects of our perception, at least as far as we are concerned. While I would be willing to agree with the general idea, I cannot grasp the reason for borrowing Husserl’s term. If anything, the phenomenology of landscape has more to do with Merlau-Ponty’s ideas – admittedly, their provenance can be traced back to Husserl easily, however they also have a distinct name, and that is phenomenology of the body. Important addition. And just as Merlau-Ponty postulates that we cannot discard the somatic influence over our perception (criticizing all idealists who seem to think of a subject as some sort of transcendent, perceiving machine, rather than a human being), so the phenomenologists of landscape stress the importance of taking the sensory experience into account while analyzing 'places' or 'landscapes' (Hamilton 2006, 32).

For the next – and last – material culture exercise I was asked to go to the Tavistock Square – a tiny park close to UCL – and conduct an analysis of the space, and of Tavistock Square as a landscape. As usual, meticulous guideleines were provided.

Tavistock Square is, as I have mentioned, relatively small, however this is typical for London, where – aside of the gigantic Regent’s Park – one can encounter small parks almost at every corner of the street. Close to where I live alone there is Tavistock Square, Gordon Square, Woburn Square, Russell Square, Euston Square – and I am possibly forgetting about half a dozen (it is also worth noting that Regent’s Park is only a couple steps away).

These are all nice retreats from the hustle and bustle of the city, although it is sometimes hard to forget about the location. While the Tavistock Square is surrounded by a fence with plants growing along, and furthermore the buildings around also form a sort of barrier, the fumes can still be smelled quite easily.

Fig. 2 'Double boundaries'

This does not, however, seem to bother the visitors, who are happy to walk around, jog, hang out with friends or family, read – in other words, do all sorts of leisurely things. Some of the people I encountered were just passing through the park, possibly taking a shortcut, however most appeared to have come there quite intentionally.

What sets the Tavistock Square apart from other parks nearby, however, is the strong historical and political background. One of the first things to notice upon entering is the statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing in the centre.

Fig. 3 Mahatma Gandhi’s statue – note the flowers

People place flowers on its partly hollow pedestal – there was even a red poppy wreath, interesting addition to the statue of a major figure in the pacifist movement.

Fig. 4 Red poppy wreath

Not far from the statue there also is a cherry tree commemorating the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – while walking around the park, I have noticed a group of Japanese-looking young men (possibly students), who walked through the park straight up to the tree, stood there for a while and left. Apparently it was the only object of interest to them.

Fig. 5 The cherry tree planted to commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims

In accordance with these peace symbols, which appeared in the park in late 1960s, there also is a stone 'commemorating conscientious objectors all over the world', added in 1990s.

Fig. 6 Possibly the 7th July 2005 commemoration

I am not certain what this garden is, however in 2006 the British government announced that a memorial garden for the victims of the 7.07.2005 bombing (which took place next to the park) would be set up – perhaps this is it. If so, it is not annoted.

Aside of these historical references, all specifically relating to the war-related issues, there is also some more typical historical background, exemplified by the busts of Virginia Woolf  and Louisa Aldrich-Blake. However London is such a historical city that finidnig such commemorations, especially in the centre, is not unusual.

Fig. 7 Dame Louisa Aldrich-Blake’s bust

One could argue that there are two `layers‘ to the Tavistock Square – one of a typical, London park, used for general recreation, although also having an interesting history, and the other of a peace memorial. While most people seem to treat it just as a park, there are also these who come to the park specifically in order to acknowledge the historical and political references (i.e. the Japanese students described above). In any case, the reverence for all those commemorated did not prevent people from leaving heaps of litter around.

Fig. 8 Since I went to the park in the evening, hopefully someone cleaned them after it was closed

Bibliography:

Copleston, F. 2000. Historia filozofii, tom 9. Warsaw: PAX.

Hamilton, S. 2006. Phenomenology in practice: towards a methodology for a `subjective‘ approach. In: European Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 31-71.

Tilley, C. Y. 1994. Space, place, landscape and perception: phenomenological perspectives. In: Tilley, C. Y.  1994. A phenomenology of landscape: places, paths and monuments, pp. 7-34. Oxford: Berg.

The Friedrich’s picture (fig. 1) appears on the cover of Stefan Chwin’s `Hanneman‘. While he is a Polish author, the novel was translated into English and I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys realism, perhaps particualry 19th-early 2oth century, to read it (the book itself is contemporary, but visibly inspired). He is a master of description, and yet manages not to overuse adjectives. Worth reading, especially if you like Mann, Tolstoy, Gorki or perhaps Faulkner.

But this was just a sideline.