tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post3295195864208385102..comments2024-03-15T08:11:20.547+00:00Comments on Landscapism: Conflicting narratives of a landscape past and presentEddie Procter (Landscapism)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10196792135158959223noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-43022746237109269642013-04-03T03:12:48.063+01:002013-04-03T03:12:48.063+01:00This shows a great picture of landscapes but let u...This shows a great picture of landscapes but let us help you gardening your home with <br /><a href="http://www.wbrlandscape.com/beverly-ma/landscape-maintenance/" rel="nofollow">landscaping beverly ma</a><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07704878500028540475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-17502229634911778112013-03-16T10:34:30.296+00:002013-03-16T10:34:30.296+00:00Thanks Sian. So called dodgy areas of Easton, Stok...Thanks Sian. So called dodgy areas of Easton, Stokes Croft, St Paul's definitely best places for a night out. I agree with your comments about the M32 dividing up the inner city - there was clearly little thought to this impact at the time. In a strange way the motorway has a more benign impact as it cuts through the green space on the way to this built up area. <br />Eddie Procter (Landscapism)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10196792135158959223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-54070299448805926892013-03-16T09:21:10.709+00:002013-03-16T09:21:10.709+00:00Fascinating post, especially for those of us with ...Fascinating post, especially for those of us with Bristol connections. I've been a resident in/visitor to the city on and off since 1987 and I'm teaching a couple of my A level students about the cultural geography of Bristol. In the late eighties I spent several months driving a parcel delivery van around the city and got to know its secret places very well. Back then St Paul's was considered a 'dodgy' place to explore after midnight but I can remember many happy nights in its pubs and clubs. Hartcliffe, on the other hand, really was a 'no-go' area.<br /><br />I can understand the aesthetic of the motorway landscape but whenever I'm in the vicinity of the M32 I can't help thinking it has had a tremendously negative impact on the inner-city landscape. As the demographic of the inner-city changes it seems to me that 'gentrification' (and I think that in Bristol the 'gentrification' process is different to that of London but that's another discussion) is pushing Bristol migrant/ethnic communities eastwards and I can't help thinking that the M32 at Eastville, along with the shopping complex on the old Rovers' ground, might become some sort of post-political 'Berlin Wall'.<br /><br />Ramblanistanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-66108948837888163682013-03-15T23:03:22.508+00:002013-03-15T23:03:22.508+00:00.
Great to discuss with you James. Like you, I a.... <br /><br />Great to discuss with you James. Like you, I am one for the hills and wild places, near and far. I do not hold with relativism, that all landscapes (and ecologies) are of equal value. The accelerated development, technology and capitalist free-booting of the last 200 years have wrought terrible damage to the planet and humanity itself. <br /><br />Some landscapes though, maybe damaged or degraded in ecological terms, in juxtaposing features and topographies from different era's hold a fascination to anyone with an interest in place. I would agree though that without an aesthetic and ecological context such interest is pretty hollow. Eddie Procter (Landscapism)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10196792135158959223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-6784368509852217712013-03-15T20:00:28.970+00:002013-03-15T20:00:28.970+00:00Yes I didn't think that was your position Eddi...Yes I didn't think that was your position Eddie. And I too enjoy the "psychogeography" of re-imagining spaces where there is some fragmentary beauty amongst the concrete: as you say, the birds you can still see etc. <br /><br />But there is some rhetoric which is devoid of ecological awareness, suggesting concrete lines are no more or less beautiful than field and trees; that all of it is just an idea one way or the other. Which is nonsense - for ecological reasons, and also aesthetic reasons, and how the two relate. James Lomaxhttp://www.jameslomax.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-59128564530676847512013-03-15T13:55:03.856+00:002013-03-15T13:55:03.856+00:00Thanks for your comments James. I am certainly no ...Thanks for your comments James. I am certainly no apologist for unrestrained concreting over of landscapes and ecosystems, and brutalist architecture and over-developed transport and distribution infrastructures are really not my thing; I'm totally with you on that. What I was trying to get at here was to look beyond the binary 'proper countryside/ halcyon days' good, everything else bad approach. Landscape and the historical events that shape it are a more complex, and interesting, beast than that.Eddie Procter (Landscapism)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10196792135158959223noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-36559094543968786892013-03-15T11:56:17.393+00:002013-03-15T11:56:17.393+00:00Lovely piece. What worries me about this approach,...Lovely piece. What worries me about this approach, however, is how it's devoid of any reference to ecology, the stark difference between concrete and earth, and what this both signifies and symbolises. Yes - it is possible to see beauty in the lines of concrete but plants don't see it, nor birds, insects, or animals. Concrete is essentially dead - it doesn't have the magnetism, life, call it what you will, that we find on a walk in the countryside. So while I don't disagree with this stuff per se, I do think it's a dangerous eulogy which planners, capitalists and developers use to justify their assault on the land. James Lomaxhttp://www.jameslomax.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-52130080399827856812013-03-15T07:46:32.487+00:002013-03-15T07:46:32.487+00:00Yes, a great example of how the landscape is not a...Yes, a great example of how the landscape is not a permanent presence, but one that shifts in timescales mostly beyond our brief lives. I love the image of 'sunnybanks' - the perfect metaphor for the lost english landscape; the georgian-era idyll demolished to make way for a flyover. You couldn't make it up.....<br /><br />Thanks again, Eddie<br /><br />IanIan Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12307429641552419242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2299006518616360287.post-30768961666672603202013-03-14T22:33:55.603+00:002013-03-14T22:33:55.603+00:00Excellent post Eddie. Very interestingExcellent post Eddie. Very interestingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com