Representing Landscapes by Amoroso Nadia;Holland Martin;

Author:Amoroso, Nadia;Holland, Martin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Frame and Peripheral Vision

Diana Balmori wrote in Drawing and Reinventing Landscape that “Landscape architecture is an art of peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is essential for understanding and appreciating landscape; central vision alone cannot capture it.”3 To explore this, vision scientist Denis Pelli and Balmori Associates’ staff set up an experiment to measure how restricting the observer’s field of view affects the observer’s experience of the beauty of a landscape. The viewing devices chosen for this demonstration are a tube and truncated cone (with both ends cut off). The results show that restricting the observer’s peripheral vision reduced the viewing pleasure.

In 2011, Balmori Associates implemented the viewing cone described above as a series of planes with a circular opening, the void gradually rising from the ground at the Jardins de Métis Garden Festival. When progressing through the frames towards the St. Lawrence River, focusing on the floating islands, the field of view opens, the horizon gets wider, and infinite space offers itself to the viewer.

After testing the role of peripheral vision by experiencing an existing landscape and the design of an installation that demonstrates the importance of peripheral vision in the pleasure given by a landscape, we pursued to represent landscape with peripheral vision. An initial series of tests that consisted of applying a homogeneous filter to the periphery of the image failed. We have yet to succeed in doing this, and the deformation of the objects in the image was more successful.

The frame is an important element in the perceptual experience of landscape, and the viewport in 3D modelling software plays a similar role in the representation of landscape. By creating an outline, the frame defines a field and creates a view. “Looking at a view”—​‘what does that mean?’ asks W. J. T. Mitchell in his essay called “Landscape and Invisibility.”4 The view is the combination of three elements: the collection of individual objects in the visual field—​a tree, a flower, a leaf, or a bench—​the relations between them, the connections they create in space, and the imagination of the observers, their recollections, and knowledge. Refer to Figure 12.1, Figure 12.2, Figure 12.3, Figure 12.4, Figure 12.5, Figure 12.6, Figure 12.7, Figure 12.8, Figure 12.9, illustrating a variety of Balmori Associates’ drawing styles.

12.1

Harrisburg. Drawing combining plan and perspectives for the Courthouse, Harrisburg, PA. 12.2

Bealestreet Flood. Section of Beale Street Landing in Memphis, TN, in relation to Mississippi water levels. 12.3

Binney3. Four seasons rendered across the view of a residential project in Greenwich, CT. 12.4

BRIT. Dot matrix applied to the entrance of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, TX. 12.5

Madrid Nuevo Norte, Perspective Legendre. Digital and analogue techniques illustrate the space and the activities taking place in Calle de Mauricio Legendre in Madrid Nuevo Norte, Spain. 12.6

Madrid Nuevo Norte Section. Section displaying prominently the roots of the trees in Madrid Nuevo Norte, Spain. 12.7

Métis CYOA Time-Process. Diagram illustrating three stages of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” garden at Jardins de Métis International Garden Festival, when first planted and how it gets modified with people’s movement in it.

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