Read and Response - Edge Effect: Six Quick Lessons in How to Read a Landscape

Prior to reading “Six Quick Lessons in How to Read a Landscape” by Daniel Grant, Spring Greeney, and Ben Kasten, much on my thoughts on reading landscapes were quite literal. I imagined that the process of reading landscapes were to be observations, some testing/sampling, and other direct fieldwork in the location selected; nothing more, nothing less. Instead, I was quite wrong with my idea because there is so much more that goes into the process of reading landscapes; many of the steps taken can be quite intimate and personal rather than to just simply observe and record. This idea of intimacy in reading landscapes is briefly explained in the article’s last lesson, Particularize.

In the last lesson, the writers explain the importance of reading further into landscapes and how symbolism/themes attached to such landscapes can help elevate one’s understanding of the selected location. While there are symbols/themes that are generally understood about a location, intimate and personal experiences/knowledge can also become an important symbol/theme of the location. The main objective of reading landscapes is to not just scratch the surface of the landscape’s visuals and history already known to the public, but to also find the hidden treasures that the public were never aware of. These deeper findings can lead to unexpected connections to other locations or a “better reading” of the location (which is the, again, the main objective of reading landscapes); examples could be certain patterns present in specific locations or comparisons of before and after of specific locations only the artist/reader may know. As readers will understand after going through Edge Effect’s article, landscape reading is to present findings that merge the scientific observations of a location with its history and culture; out of the three, culture is what can bring meaning into the story of the process of reading a landscape.

From a project’s point of view, this individuality can also help separate a project from the rest when focusing on similar (if not the same) landscape/location.