User:Enrico

enricopiffer.com lostandfoundcollection.org

SEPTEMBRE 2024

SEARCHING FOR CREATIVE PATHS

The exercise I am working on this week is based on the text "Morphology of the Landscape" by Carl Sauer (1925).

On an attempt to redefine Geography as a science, Sauer suggests that Geography is the study of "Cultural Landscape" and the work of a geographer is much similar to the one of a landscape painter, choosing "salient and related features (...) in order to establish the character of the landscape and to place it in a system." Moreover, another concern expressed in the text is the connection between natural and cultural relationships in the landscape. Sauer claims the "geography is based on the reality of the union of physical and cultural elements of the landscape", and later describes culture as the "impress of the works of a man upon the area."

To continue this exercise, I am going to make use of the observed features from a landscape in the attempt of creating a narrative. The subject of this experiment will be the view from my previous house which I photographed regularly for a year.

For each of these images I assigned a number and listed the features from the landscape that would call my attention on each scene.

1	2	3	4
Night Night lights (windows and poles) The building Cars Street Sidewalk	Day Cloudy (wheatear – Wind? Rain?) Trees Different cars Street Sidewalk	Day Huge cloud (scale?) Passer Buses More different cars Street Sidewalk	Early morning/Sundown Shadows Structure Shape Geometry
5	6	7	8
Day AGAING “A new dynamic” There is a van instead of a car The opportunity for contrast Repetition Street Sidewalk	Day More about shapes than details Block of houses + Council building + The building	Day Out of frame review (bus stop is in the street) New info Space for new perspective	Same as 7

Next, I am looking at each of the images and noting what are the impressions left by men in the area? Are there artifacts?

- Light

- Noise

- Colour

- Paint

- Trash

- Signals

- Lack of space

- Demarcations (Lines from the bus stop, as well as the architectural ones)

Finally, based on this date, I will come up with different scenes interacting with the scenario from the images.

SCENE 1 - The Plastic Bag

It's a cloudy day. In the asphalt, by the sidewalk a plastic bag rests in the ground. A man is crossing the road, he notices the plastic bag and reaches for it. When he is about to grab it the wind blows the bag away further away from him. He reaches for the bag once more, and again the wind carries it even further. It's absurd, even cartoonist, but the man chases the bag as it travels through the block. When he wind blows in a different direction the bag gets carried away around the corner, the man follows. When he turns around he spots the plastic bag stuck in a fence. The man tries to reach it, he jumps one or twice, but the fence is too high. The man gives up and leaves the bag waving in the fence.

SCENE 2 - Toy pt.1

A mother is walking by the sidewalk pushing a baby stroller, when the baby drops a toy from the stroller. The mother doesn't notice it and continues their way.