Talk:Landscape

I have added the words: "and associated water bodies such as rivers, lakes and the sea" into the definition as landscape is not just land but often includes water.--Alothian (talk) 07:21, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Should this page distinguish seascapes, moonscapes and the like? --Daniel C. Boyer 20:10, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

that is an artistic perception :-)

Megan Lewis is famus o finding these wonderful places all around the uk, and have protected these parks fer the public to enjoy the outstanig landscapes and vews

PomPom

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Shouldn't we have some better disambiguation between this meaning of "landscape" and "landscape" as an orientation (i.e. horizontal as opposed to "portrait" as vertical). The only reference I can find to this is landscape mode which is a bit of an odd page. Oh, I see, there is a sentence hidden in there somewhere; I guess this page just needs a bit of refactoring and formatting, which I don't have time for right now, I'm afraid. - IMSoP 23:36, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

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The term 'landscape' has acquired such a vast multiplicity of meanings that it is dificcult to visualize how an exhaustive disambiguation page might look like. A way to overcome the problem might be to think in terms of the concept LANDSCAPE having various meanings, each determined by the context that applies (see papers by L.W. Barsalou, notably, Yeh and Barsalou, The Situated Nature of Concepts). A summary view of such a disambiguation page might present a list of Contexts, each with hyperlinks to places where the particular Concept/Context pair is described in detail. User:Landscapnik —Preceding undated comment added 21:28, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

looks familiar....

This article looks strikingly similar to a footnote in Barbara Bender, Landscape: Politics and Perspectives, page 2, footnote #3...unless Barbara submitted this material, I hope whoever did asked.

There is an end quote to the Bender note, but no clear indication of where the quote begins. Perhaps with "Landscape"? Needs clarification. Deirdre 23:43, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Reorg

The Landscape article was flagged as needing cleanup so I tried to make a start by creating a new page called "Landscape (Visual Arts)" for the painting stuff, and having "Landscape" as a sort of disambiguation page.

The "Landscape (Visual Arts)" page seems to be pure purple prose. I don't understand a word of it and I don't know which bits should be left in the "visual arts" page and which moved elsewhere. BTW I called it "Visual Arts" rather than "painting" so as to potentially cover photography too. If it's felt better then there couldbe one page for paintings and one for photography (if there is ever any photography content).

For the record, the following are the only substantive bits of information from the old "Landscape" page which haven't yet found a new home. It's important that information isn't lost when this sort of thing is done, so I'll look at this soon when I get a moment (or anyone else please go ahead):

"The practice of designing landscapes to engage with issues around visual pleasure and other aspects in terms of function is landscape architecture. A member of the landscape architecture community who has passed a state registration exam is termed a [[landscape architect]]." - should be covered under landscape architecture but I'll check.

"Landforms are based on a set of elements that include elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. Landforms by name include berms, mounds, hills, cliffs, valleys, and so forth." - should be covered under "landforms" but I'll check

"The Habitat Theory claims that people like open landscapes because the human species originates in the African Savanna. This theory has been applied to explain why open landscapes are valued, but it fails to explain why this is not universally true." - not sure about this one. New "Habitat Theory" article???

Above now done.

More reorg

Rather stupidly when doing the above I didn't check to see if there was already a "landscape painting" page. There was, just redirecting to Landscape. Anyway, what I've done is move "Landscape (visual arts)" to "Landscape painting", which is what I should have done to start with. That article is still (IMO) largely incomprehensible, but there you go ....

Merge with Landscape (disambiguation)

I propose merging Landscape (disambiguation) into Landscape because most articles link to Landscape. 99% of the articles that link to Landscape (disambiguation) are linking from a redirect from Landscaping, which could itself be as disambiguation page. Sparkit 14:26, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

• IMO the two should clearly be merged. If you do it then it would be worthwhile fixing the continuity of the bullet point text at the same time. Curently it reads:

Landscape means:

• The layout of a land area...
• Landscaping is the practice of arranging elements...
• Landscape art is the depiction of a landscape in a painting or photograph.
• The orientation of a rectangular page...
• In String Theory, it is used to refer to...

which doesn't flow correctly. I would tend to have landscaping just redirect to landscape, since there are currently seem to be no meanings of landscaping for which this wouldn't be appropriate. Otherwise there will probably end up being a fair amount of duplication and overlap (e.g. "landscaping" and "landscape" will persumably both have to refer to "landscape gardening", "landscape ecology", etc. etc.) Matt 02:40, 11 January 2006 (UTC).

Merged in Landscape (disambiguation) and cleaned up while i was about it :: Supergolden 19:33, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it would be helpful to show more used links first. For example, I searched for Australian Landscapes and all I got was links to Australians. I think it would be MUCH more helpful if you arranged them diffrently.

Kirsty Gray, not Wikipedia user.

Landscape orientation

Shouldn't this make mention of landscape photography and also landscape orientation (as opposed to portrait)? Not sure, so I'm asking here first. Goyston (talk) (contribs) 03:26, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Landscape in optimization

A neighborhood structure togheter with a problem instance define the topology of the search space, also called landscape. A search landscape can be visualized as a labeled graph in which the nodes are solutions (labels indicate their objective function value) and arcs represent the neighborhood relation between solutions.

Nonsense etymology

• What absolute rubish that Dutch "land" would stem from Basquish.

"comes from the Dutch word landschap, from land (patch or area that comes from the Basquish word landa meaning labored earth)"

Quite obviously Dutch "land" is the same word as English "land". So get rid of this stupid etymology. And verify your etymologies of "land" and "landscape" at http://www.etymonline.com/

-- LR, a Dutch speaking Wikipedia user 10:23, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

• I completely agree. Please, some authorised wikicontributor CHANGE IT! I found this: [Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land; see lendh- in Indo-European roots + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).] The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. Anyway, the whole article is pretty poor. Gaianauta 10:25, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

ithink that landscape is something created by a greter being like god!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.46.40.7 (talk) 11:11, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't normally contribute, so I'm sure of procedure, but someone wrote "i love chicken pox" in the middle of a sentence under etymology. I just removed it.

  -Benjamin  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.59.9.99 (talk) 20:05, 29 May 2009 (UTC) 

history of the term

Regarding the origins and development of the term 'Landscape': An in-depth study of the origins and varying connotations of terms such as 'landschaft', 'landskipe', etc.,has been presented by K.R. Olwig (AAG annals 86,4, (1966), Cultural Geographies12: 19-40 (2005) and Landscape, Nature and the Body Politic, Wisconsin Univ. Press, 2002. The development of the terms from the Middle Ages, through the Renaisssance up to modern times, is explored not just from etymology but through their political implications. I think that a summary of Olwig's work would be a positive contribution to the Landscape page in Wiki; I hesitate to add it though because, even as a summary, is a bit too bulky. Perhaps a separate Section on the origins and evolution of the term 'Landscape'would be in order? Being quite new in Wikipedia, I don't want to rush additions; I thought that a fair procedure would be to post the material in my UserPage for other interested users to look at it and offer suggestions. Would that be OK? Landscapnik (talk) 19:53, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

It sounds good, Ladscapnik. Make sure your contributions have the appropriate references cited and it will work (use <ref></ref> codes). Also make sure you choose the right article were to incude this (see the section 'See also' at the bottom). I will be pleased to help in the edition of your contents if you need. Since you are not much wikiexperienced, it could be a good thing to suggest your additions in this talk page before copying it to the article. Gaianauta (talk) 12:00, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

(:)(:)I have just posted in my User Page a proposal for a new Etymology section of the Landscape main article. I'll leave it there for a while before publishing, awaiting feed-backs from others.Landscapnik (talk) 20:04, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Hi. Why don't you better bring that discussion to this Talk page so that other can participate? Gaianauta (talk) 11:30, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Gaianauta:Thanks for the suggestion. I've just posted it in this page under"Origins and development of the word Landscape"Landscapnik (talk) 13:00, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Origins and development of the word 'landscape'

The following are my suggestions for changes in the Section Etymology of the Wikipedia article on Landscape.I present them here for discussion prior to their insertion in the Landscape page.

Note: Current Wikipedia page in bold type; my suggested additions in common type; suggested deletions in between triple brackets [[[i]]]]; reasons for deleting (RFD) given within ()brackets.

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The question of the various meanings which the word 'Landscape' has acquired from the Middle Ages till present times is not just a question of etymological curiosity; it reflects, amon others, the history of conflicts between local and centralized power in emerging European nation-states ( a subject discussed in depth by Kenneth Olwig in publications listed in the Reference List)and also changing approaches to landscape within Geography and within the Arts. Moreover, the story of the various meanings of the English word landscape makes up an interesting example of dynamic construal of meaning and even of strategic construal.

It is widely accepted in the literature that "in Europe the concept of landscape and the words for it in both Romance and Germanic languages emerged around the turn of the sixteenth century to denote a painting whose primary subject matter was natural scenery (Punter 1982; Cosgrove 1993)". [2]

'It should be noted, in spite of the above,that the Northern European concept of landscape appeared centuries earlier than the 19th and that it carried then, and continues to carry, meanings that go far beyond natural scenery.[1]'It is believed that the words land,landscipe or landscaef entered the English language some time after the 5th century.[2] These terms referred to a system of human-made spaces in the land - [[[spaces such as fields with boundaries though not necessarily defined by fences or walls. It also referred to a natural unit, a region or tract of land such as a river valley or range of hills as occupied by a tribe or later, ruled by a feudal lord.]]] (RFD:merged with text below)

Olwig [2] argues that the substantive importance of the landscape concept is easier to understand when the word is broken down for separate analysis into land and –scape and then reconstituted.

Taking first land: Land(a word from Germanic origin)may be taken in its sense of something to which people belong (as in England being the land of the English ,(likewise Finland, Ireland, Poland). The 'land of a people' was historically divided into smaller lands, which might belong to a communality (e.g. the common lands belonging to the village community) or to a figure seen to represent or embody the land (e.g. the lands of the prince).[1].(Another meaning of the term land refers to a material substance as in "an area of ground" (Oxford English Dictionary, 1971; in the following:OED) (Expand?)

On -scape: 'Landscape' is distinguished from 'land' by the suffix -scape, which is equivalent to the more common English suffix -ship[2]. The roots of –ship are etymologically akin to Old English sceppan, scyppan, meaning 'to shape' (Merriam-Webster dict. 2000). This suffix designates "something showing, exhibiting or embodying a quality or state" As such it generates an abstraction upon the term landscape. -ship thus designates the abstract ‘‘nature’’, ‘‘state’’ or ‘‘constitution’’ of something; these words are interlinked both as abstract essences (e.g. the nature or constitution of something) and as concretized and institutionalized entities (e.g. nature, the state, a constitution). The suffix -shaft and the English -ship are cognate, meaning essentially "creation, creature, constitution, condition). The suffix –schaft is related to the verb schaffen, so -ship and shape are also etymologically linked. (O.E.D.,1971:Shape; O.E.D.,1971: -ship).(In times past, the English language included other words like countryship and folcship, meaning nation; in them the suffix –ship functioned much the same as –schaft (O.E.D. 1971: -ship) (OED as quoted in [2])

As said, the suffixes –scape and –ship (as in landscape and landship) stem ultimately from an ancient Germanic root, spelt 'shape' in modern English. The power of this sense of shape lies in the dynamic relation between the meaning of 'shape' as, on the one hand, an expression of -ship as an underlying nature, state or constitution which manifests itself through an active, creative, shaping process and, on the other, the material form which that process generates – its shape. By representing(see representation) the abstract nature, state or constitution of the land in a more concrete objective form, one concretizes it and makes it easier to both grasp and facilitate the process by which the land is shaped as a social and material phenomenon[2] In addition to nature, state or constitution some dictionaries, like Merriam Webster's, list as meanings of –ship, also art and skill (expand with references?)

"The word Landschaft is common, in various spellings, to the Germanic languages of Northern Europe (Grimm and Grimm 1855: Landschaft,) There is no reason to focus on the Dutch meaning of the term since the word "Dutch" generally meant German or Germanic at the time the word entered the English language (O.E.D. 1971: Dutch). When approached in historical and geographical context, it becomes clear that Landschaft was much more than "a restricted piece of land." It contained meanings of great importance to the construction of personal, political and place identity at the time"[2].

Acccording to Makzhoumi [3]: "the Old High German lantscaf became in Modern German landschaft ; the Middle Dutch lantscap became in Modern Dutch landschap and the Old English landscipe became landskip in the sixteenth century , lantskip in the 17th century and now landscape." Moreover, "In the 16th and 17th century the word in English meant 'a picture representing inland natural scenery' in the 18th its meaning was extended to 'a piece of country scenery', specifically 'a view or prospect of natural inland scenery, such as can be taken in at a glance from one point of view".

To consider landscape with the meanings of land-ship/schaft mentioned above has a number of implications. One is that the English term gets in line with the denotation of the term in Romance languages like the French paysage, the Italian paessagio or the Spanish paisaje etymologically derived from pagus. Another consequence is that it suits better (than scenic landscape) to the use of the term in contemporary Human Geography where the notions of power, conflict, alienation, etc. are associated with that of landscape. If -scape, is taken as resulting from –ship and hence to shape, it makes possible the connection with processes by which a land may be shaped as a result of socio-economic and material processes, a shaping that underlies many contemporary topics of Human Geography.

The modern form of the word landscape with its connotations of scenery appeared in the late 16th century when the term landschap was introduced by Dutch painters when referring to paintings of inland natural or rural scenery. Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were on the verge of becoming masters of the landscape art genre. [[[The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply 'region, tract of land' but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of 'a picture depicting scenery on land.]]] (RFD:redundant, said elsewhere in the page)

According to Jackson: "From 1577 with Harrison's Description of Britain onwards, a new awareness of the aesthetic nature of landscape emerged as a new kind of topographical writing flourished...".[3] Originally the term was translated landskip which the Oxford English Dictionary refers to as the corrupt form of the word, gradually to be replaced by landscape. The word landskip, (from landschippe and landscipe?)is extensively discussed and actualized by Fitter (Poetry Space and Landscape)

Here another sub-title for a new Section should be inserted since we are not dealing with 'origins' in what follows.

Following a lengthy analysis concentrating on the German term landschaft, Richard Hartshorne[5] defined landscape as referring to "the external, visible, (or touchable) surface of the earth. This surface is formed by the outer surfaces, those in immediate contact with the atmosphere, of vegetation, bare earth, snow, ice, or water bodies or the features made by man."

The rest of the article follows untouched. Sorry that the numbering of References is a bit messy; a result of old and new numberings; I'll straighten them up later on.Landscapnik (talk) 11:00, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

==

List of References (only for the above paragraphs)

1. ^Jackson, J.B., 1986, The vernacular landscape, in Penning-Rowsell, E.C. & D. Lowenthal, Landscape Meanings and Values, Allen & Unwin, London, p 65 - 79.

2. ^Olwig K.R., Recovering the Substantive Nature of Landscape, Annals of the A.A.G.,Vol.86, No.4.(Dec.,1996),pp.630-653

3. ^Olwig K.R., Representation and Alienation in the Political Landscape, cultural geographies,12,19-40 (2005)

4. ^Fitter C., Poetry, Space, Landscape. Toward a New Theory, Cambridge Univ. Press,(1995)

5. ^Makhzoumi J. and Pungetti G.,Ecological Landscape Design and Planning, Routledge,(2005)

6. ^Olwig K.R., Landscape, Nature and the Body Politic,From Britain's Renaissance to America's New World, Wisconsin. Univ. Press (2002)

7.Thrift, Nigel: Non-Representational Theory, Space, Politics, Affect. Routledge (2007)

8.Mitchell, Don: New Axioms for Reading the Landscape, in Political Economies of Landscape Change, Springer (2008)

9. Mitchell, W.J.T: Landscape and Power , Chicago Univ. Press (2002) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Landscapnik (talk • contribs) 12:23, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

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Changes into the main Landscape Page

On Jan 20, 2013 I introduced the above changes to the Etymology Section Landscapnik (talk) 19:50, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

On Jan 30, 2o13 I inserted a template on top noting that there are multiple issues. The issues are not properly organized under Sections and sub-titles and some expert work is required Landscapnik (talk) 19:45, 30 January 2013 (UTC)