Friday, 23 November 2012

Latin American Landscape Initiative





Says...
"2.3. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of LALI is to promote the recognition, valuation, protection, planning and the sustainable management of  landscape, conducive to the declaration and recognition of the diversity and values of the diverse landscapes of our countries, by means of the fulfillment of the following specific objectives

  1. To preserve, with the adoption of protective measures of landscape, the right of the citizens to live in culturally significant surroundings and to guarantee access to the same and the possibility of enjoying it.
  2. To favor the harmonic evolution of the landscape in agreement with the concepts of rational use responsible for the land, of ecosystem functionality, and of sustainable urban development. 
  3. To consider the consequences concerning landscape, of any performance of land regulation and management, and to value the effects of the construction and other interventions (forestry, mining, new production and uses) concerning landscape. 
  4. To foment the educational formation and professionalisation on the topic of landscape. 
  5. To promote in landscape policies the participation of the social, professional, and economic agents, especially that of the professional unions, universities, associations, and representatives of the business enterprises and trade unions. 
  6. To cooperate with the diverse public administrations in the establishment of policies and implementation of planning concerning landscape. 
  7. To promote the coordination of the public and private initiatives in decision making about landscape, the adoption of instruments, and the promotion of performance on the same. 
  8. To admit that in sustainable tourism, the landscape will have to be considered as one of the components that allow cultural and economic development of diverse Latin American regions.
  9. To promote a change of attitude towards the environmental conservation and protection, as much in the inhabitants as in the visitors of each landscape, considering people as integral parts of the landscape. 
  10. To incentivise the inventory and catalogue of landscapes of ecological, historical and aesthetic value in the different Latin American regions. 
  11. To recognize the landscape units in transboundary spaces, such as shared heritage asset (binational or multinational) and to combine efforts for its integral protection, with shared responsibility. 


 FIELDS OF ACTION
Landscape, by its holistic character, integral and integrating, has impact and its time it is affected by the majority of human activities under the sky.


Monday, 12 November 2012

Savage Messiah, psychogeographic London, talk by Laura Oldfield-Ford


BOOK EVENT‘Savage Messiah’ with Laura Oldfield Ford
Saturday 1st December, 6.30pm Entry £3, redeemable against purchase
Artist and writer Laura Oldfield Ford introduces her psychogeographic take on London.
Savage Messiah is an unflinching and compassionate examination of London urban landscapes within the confrontational cultural politics of the 1990’s. Originally published as a series of zines it quickly developed cult status and has recently been brought into book form by Verso. Laura will be discussing her work and the politics that permeate it. Drawing from a diverse range of fields including critical theory, illustration and an updated Punk-collage aesthetic, it considers the plight of people in areas of London facing intense structural change from the unrelenting gentrification unleashed by both Thatcherism and New Labour.

“One of the most striking fanzines of recent years is Laura Oldfield Ford’s Savage Messiah, focussing on the politics, psychology and pop- cultural past of a different London postcode. Ford’s prose is scabrous and melancholic, incorporating theoretical shards from Guy Debord and Marc AugĂ©, and mapping the transformations to the capital that the property boom and neoliberalist economics have wrought.

Each zine is a drift, a wander through landscape that echoes certain strands of contemporary psychogeography. Ford—or a version of her, at least—is an occasional character, offering up narcotic memories of a forgotten metropolis.

The images, hand-drawn, photographed and messily laid out, suggest both outtakes from a Sophie Calle project and the dust jacket of an early 1980s anarcho-punk compilation record: that is, both poetry and protest.”—
Sukhdev Sandhu, New Statesman

Title information

Title:           Savage Messiah
Author:       Laura Oldfield Ford   
Our Price:    £19.99
Format:       Paperback
Size:           448 pages (211mm x 138mm x 31mm)
ISBN:          9781844677474
Publisher:     Verso Books
Published:    29 September 2011
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Bridge over untroubled moving waters = Trim, Ireland

I was at University with an Alison Trim, named after this place in Ireland... Trim Castle in the background and a picnic party in the 19th century (thanks to the National Library of Ireland)
Bridge over untroubled water by National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Same bridge now the water has gone
View Larger Map .Same  Trim Castle now
View Larger Map
And The OS map showing where the river was in the 19th Century (follow link)
http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,680521,756536,7,9 

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Pumpkins, Gourds, Bangladeshi-type gardens, Tree houses and urban planning in.... Denmark

Much is made of character - developments enrich or detract from it, etc. so I noticed this autumn....


Bangladeshi-type gardens at Stepney City Farm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsankey/4771243493/in/set-72157624302897051
Pumpkins and gourds grown over structures are a feature of Bangladeshi-type gardens found now in the East End of London (including a tiny patch outside of my block of flats) http://www.a3associates.com/allotment_photos.html ... They have become "characteristic" of the East End

The image below shows what a magnificent display many varieties of gourds and pumpkins can make when grown together. I look forward to more of this

Talking of verticality: this  picture below is purportedly a TREE HOUSE....

The world's largest tree house is located in Crossville, Tennessee, USA.
Built by Horace Burgess, a Landscape Architect.

....and contrasts with
Urban planning in Denmark
These Circles lie just below the O3 / 21 junction below, and contrast with the high-density housing and industrial estate north of the 21. 


View Larger Map

I am much reminded of Guy Debord's map of Paris torn along the lines of Boulevards - 
Guy Debord 1957: Psychogeographic guide of Paris
and neighbourhoods, good.... and bad?