Music and Depth in Landscape Experience

Abstract

The estranged relationship with landscape exhibited by contemporary cultures has been well documented by prominent theorists. Design professionals can begin to reconcile culture and landscape by proposing interventions in everyday landscapes which embrace uncertainty, acknowledge the temporal nature of phenomena, and introduce elements of ambiguity while simultaneously creating pleasing, functional environments. Such interventions encourage meaningful, imaginative experience, encourage multiple readings, and suggest renewed ways of dwelling in landscape.

The methodology for this thesis is a two part examination of contemporary approaches to the production of space in significant cultural landscapes. Part one, a position paper, reviews relevant literature and outlines a position to guide design proposals. Part two tests the principals and theories developed in the position paper through proposals for interventions at two sites.

The context for the design component is the Crooked Road Musical Heritage Trail. The Crooked Road is an ideal setting in which to explore the potential of interventions that seek to reconcile culture and landscape. It offers participants a framework for the experience of both regional landscape and culture in the form of traditional music rich in landscape themes. Proposals are developed for an abandoned homestead on Shooting Creek and the Floyd Country Store, both in Floyd County, Virginia, along the Crooked Road. The approach to intervention developed in these proposals is intended to guide the development of additional sites along the Crooked Road with the goals of enriching the landscape experience of participants, strengthening regional sense of place, and reconciling estranged relationships with landscape.