HKU-Landscape-Annual-2013-14

MLA
ARCH7043
Special Topics in
Landscape Technology
Instructors:
Scott Jennings Melbourne
Special Topics in
Landscape Technology
Landscapes offer a plane of opportunity, spaces and environs
to accommodate the growth and interaction of various species
of flora and fauna; of life. It is within and across landscapes
– that is outdoor environments more so than interior spaces
– that humanity has over the millennia spent the bulk of its
waking hours hunting, harvesting, exploring. These activities,
and the fundamental relationship between individuals and their
surroundings, naturally change over time, most significantly
in response to the paired forces of industrialization and
urbanization.
1
Landscape Engagement and
its Representation in Film
This course was focused on better understanding the shifting
forms of landscape engagement experienced across cultures,
with a particular emphasis on the ways in which these
activities and relationships within the Chinese context are
represented in film.
These activities, that can range from the collection of drinking
water from a stream to the high-tech industrial exploration
of mining resources, can be described with words and
represented within still images, but the motion picture offers
a distinct advantage in more compellingly illustrating not just
the details of these activities, but in fact the nature of the
relationship between individual and environment.
With an eye toward how this engagement has changed
over time, China was presented as an especially compelling
case study as its transition from pre-industrial to industrial
economy occurred faster than any other major nation, and
the timing of this transition conveniently coincides with the
rise of the film industry. The result is a significant offering of
study material in the form of movies that, while not exclusively
documentary in format, have an immediacy of relationship
between the time of their subject and creation.
The goal was for students of landscape architecture to better
understand the shifting forms of landscape engagement
within a historical context, beginning to recognize ways in
which expectations of landscape as a medium continue to
evolve and, ultimately, ways in which practitioners may more
holistically consider the relationship between users and the
built environment.
1
Jean
Mei Yee CHAN
2
Esther
Yick Nga FUNG
3
Twiggy
Tsz Kei NGO
4
Jason
Tsz Ho NG
64 65
2
3
4