Assignment 2: Your Landscape Symbols

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Time frame

Weeks 1 – 4: 31.03. - 21.04.2016

Task Description

• With this exercise we invite you to take a new and at the same time differentiated view at your everyday landscape. The task is for you to identify symbols in your personal surroundings (past or present) and consider what these symbols might mean, particularly in the context of landscape and democracy.
• The symbols you identify can be a variety of things. They can be sculptures referring to historical or political events, they can be public art including symbols found in advertisement, they can be religious symbols and various other visual elements, or they can be part of the architectural/urban form itself.
• Often we may not be much aware of symbols, or we might simply be taking their presence and message for granted. However, their existence is based on cultural and political conventions of a community and may also be supported by the respective power structure. Such conventions (and their symbols) came into being during certain moments in time, usually of the past, and hence the term 'landscape and memory' has been coined (see Simon Schama in the suggested readings).
• Power structures may be changing while symbols are either maintained, or removed, or reinterpreted. On the other hand, symbols can also appear outside of conventional power structures, spontaneously created, representing alternative approaches to mainstream ideas.
• These are questions need addressing: How and why did the symbols you identify appear in your landscape? Did their meaning change along with socio-political changes in your region, or country? What do these symbols mean to you today? Are they understandable for someone outside of your own culture? What do you think about sharing symbolic meanings of landscape?

Sequence of activities

• Weeks 1 and 2: Identify landscape symbols in your everyday environment and localize them on the wiki
• Week 3: Complete your template on the wiki (images, analytical drawings, reflection), reflect in your group
• Week 4: Present your findings in the group plenary on 21st of April 2016

Evaluation Criteria

• Adequate visual representation of your landscape symbol(s) on the wiki
• Use of original materials and images (taken by yourself in your own landscape context), no copy-paste from online resources (!)
• Differentiated reflection (social, historical, political, religious…)
• Quality of oral presentation (i.e. keeping time limits, clarity, expression, quality of presentation slides)