Democratic Landscape Transformation 2023 - Team 4

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Background of your team

• Please write a few words about your team.
• Which linguistic and cultural perspectives are you representing? Which disciplinary backgrounds?

Vachla Theano: I hold a Degree in Architecture of the University of Thessaly, Greece. After my graduation I attended the Laboratory of Scenography and Costume Design at the Greek National Theatre. My area of interest is focused on architecture, scenography and illustration. Since 2018, I have worked in various architecture studios, with different specialization, such as Scenography, Protection, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Monuments and Buildings. Μy recent absorption is architecture related more with public space, protection of natural landscapes and museology.

Your Landscape Democracy Manifestoes

Here you can add links to the manifestoes you have presented on April 26

• Vachla Theano - Visual Manifesto: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1onofZVuGnTgsEP68p3iu_fdF5hX6U5ld/view?usp=sharing
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Examples of Landscape Activism

In the session on May 10 you will discuss examples of landscape activism from your own contexts. You can share the examples in this section (link, image and/or short explanation).

• Vachla Theano - Travelogue:

My example of design activism is a Travelogue that took place in 2020, in Greece and It's been such a pleasure to be part of this. The Trekking (314km) was a campaign against the looting of the mountains and of nature and started from Mount Kitheronas on August 21 and ended up in Agrafa Mountains on the 5^th of September 2020. It was a symbolic act of protest against the predatory exploitation of common natural resources in the name of “development”, it was a struggle for life itself.

During the last years, more and more wind power lobbies claim for public land, through simplified processes of licensing, without essential installation planning. Participation of citizens is limited to short - time consultations, even during the pandemic period and public holidays. Moreover, residents that react, journalists and the media face mass persecutions. The idea of this initiative was born under the shadow of the pandemic and confinement and was spread by word of mouth. Participants did not know each other at first but through open meetings on a weekly basis, they came closer and managed to organize the travelogue (food supplies, transportation, routes, intersection points of the specific routes with road network, access to potable water, spots for camping). In the trekking took place around 30 people of different age, almost all from Greece. During this, they had the chance to meet local people from the mountain region, share thoughts and exchange ideas and ways of collective action. This was very encouraging both for the participants and mainly for the residents, as the vast majority of the population is elderly people unable to act against the planned installations of wind stations.

The route and the planned installations (site of the Travelogue):

https://odoiporikostavouna.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/ola_oi_epemvaseis.jpg

Here you can watch the documentary of the Travelogue with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLwVCZ3ogM&t=2517s that was produced by the team of this initiative. Additionally, here you can find a link for the 2021 Diary of the Travelogue that was printed after the completion of the project. It includes photographs, information related to the initiative and the biodiversity of the regions that we visited, in order to disseminate the importance and beauty of these areas and allocate the funds to relevant activities or judicial expenses for people that fight for the protection of the natural public land.

Diary:

*All the material was produced by the people that participated in this, working collaboratively.

The Role Play

In the session on May 17 you will present a small role play with your team. Please add here a short reflection on what you have learned from this play. The short list of landscape democracy 'movers and shakers' can be found here

>>> All information on the phase B activities is compiled in this PDF

Readings, concepts and definitions

• Start: April 5, 2023
• Due: July 5, 2023

Working in your group, express your personal understanding of the relation of landscape and democracy in the form of a concept map with linking words or any other diagrammatic representation. Please make your maps very visual and not just verbal. Think critically about why one map differs from another

About concept mapping

Before starting the exercise you can read this article by Joseph D. Novak & Alberto J. Cañas about Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them. This paper gives a good explanation of how concept maps are conceived and developed.

You can use any tool you like for producing your concept map. However, since the result needs to be submitted digitally we recommend the following open source software for producing your maps:

• Cmap Tools >>> you can also work with your group on the Cmap cloud doing a shared map
• VUE - The Visual Understanding Environment

Please add your concept map(s) here

• Possible format: JPG (for wiki upload) or link to any other resource
• You may add one map per team member or an integrated one
• add as many additional materials as you need

• Addyourfilename.jpg

  one caption per author

• Addyourfilename.jpg

  one caption per author

• Addyourfilename.jpg

  one caption per author

• Addyourfilename.jpg

  one caption per author

Please finish with a short reflection

• What are the similarities and differences in your team regarding your understanding of what democratic landscape transformation is?
• In how far did the seminar lectures and readings help you to clarify this?
• What will you take home from this seminar?