Hi All, well looks like we are getting joined up writing here - Gair your comment about geography/art struck a note with me. My training was in architecture/urban design, and much of my own and general research at the time was on understanding PLACE as opposed to SPACE..we (architects)call it looking for the spirit of place. One method for doing this was evolved by Gian Carlo di Carlo, a renowned italian architect/urban designer who created a concept called 'reading' the landscape - this was done through immersing yourself physically within the place, learning the history,folklore,social/economic background, sketching, photograping, walking the ground and generally keeping oneself open to every impression from every direction in order that all impressions - subconscious or otherwise - will feed into ones understanding: when then ateeempting any kind of built or otherwise intervention in the landscape, all these ideas will feed back in.
Gian Carlo runs international design laboratories that run for 5 weeks every summer, based in Venice, san marino or urbino (where the projects created at the laborotory feed into the actual areas). Students from around fifteen different countries round the world attend, along with prestigious lecturers from every walk of life. See www.ILAUD.com for more info. Anyway, a couple of years after attending one of these workshops, I used his methods as a base for my master's thesis, which involved formulating a method of reading literature and applying it to one's understanding of a city; again as a tool with which to precieve 'spirit of place', that elusive philosopher's stone of any urbanist (or ruralist for that metter..) Now I am beginning to pick these methods of reading up again, to map visually places and understand them; through video, macro/digital photography, en-plein-air painting and sketching etc combined with reading whatever literature/history/mythology I can find on the area; and living there long enough to get a flavour of the people. (having lived all over the world, I think you can at least beign to pick up a feel for living in a place in around six weeks) Am I totally off topic here? let me back track a little before you snooze off all together... The whole concept behind Gian Carlo's ideas as far as I understood them was applying cross disciplinary knowledge to feed what you are doing in any media - be it art architecture music literature etc. This combined with the idea of somehow 'mapping' this knowledge is what made me excited when reading the last few posts - the idea of people doing this in every discipline is great! even if I don't totally understand the sound stuff, Catriona, it does appear absolutely fascinting. New media gives us all the chance to cross and recross disciplines, to pollinate and fertilise through connecting knowledge, wherther it be collaborative or not. Geographical/geological mapping both offers us a methodology worth exploring, and also another layer of icing unto the evr expanding cake of new media disciplines - if you'll forgive my clumsy metaphor; it is friday night... Anyway, enough rambling, thoughts anyone else? ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
