Janet Dwyer and Dan Keech are involved in the Urban Futures 3 Conference, which is taking place at the University of Gloucestershire’s Park Campus on 21st and 22nd June.
This conference has been organised by David Buck and Carla Molinari from the Landscape Architecture department of the University of Gloucestershire in collaboration with the CCRI, which has supported its organisation.
Janet will be contributing to the introductory address on Thursday 21st and Dan will be chairing a paper session on the morning of Friday 22nd and then giving a presentation in the afternoon, entitled ‘Creative engagements with ruins: unlocking spatial and temporal ecologies’.
The conference will welcome international and national researchers, from academic and professional environments, who are related to the concept of landscape and want to help in figuring out its future.
The concept of the conference:
The conference will explore the concept of landscape from both philosophical and practical perspectives. The concept of landscape has always been bounded to the idea of representation, starting from its own origins. From the picturesque paintings by Claude Lorrain, until the townscapes of Gordon Cullen: the landscape is related to its depiction, is related to the human action of modelling the urban or natural environment creating a new specific aesthetic vision, experience or character. But what is happening now? The conference will consider how has the concept of landscape been changing? What is the landscape of the present? And what about our and its future?
Cities are constantly growing, overloaded by images and inputs, the areas between urban and rural environments are left to change without clear visions, the relationships between human beings and nature are always more hidden and complicated, natural areas are disappearing or have been transformed in protected untouchable open-air museums, even sustainability itself seems at times to already be an old fashion trend while the rhythm of our life is increasing constantly. In this context, what is the new meaning of landscape and how are human beings creating new relationships with nature? As the poet Antonio Machado noted, ‘there are no paths, paths are made by walking’ and this conference will try to answer these questions defining the landscape as social, economic, political, artistic, design, historic, and theoretical products of its own era and identifying its transformations, from the past to the future. Trying to focus on the concept of landscape broadly, the conference will produce interdisciplinary and innovative discussions related to the topic.
More information concerning the conference can be found on the ‘Gloscape’ blog page.
