I wanted to finish this post before I left India. However, here it is now. It's not even funny, but now, every time I address India, I will be talking in third person. and it will be 'US' (pun intended) and 'them'. It will be there and here...and things like that.
This othering is perhaps what I am here for. Most of us back in India constantly feel irritated with the creation of this 'other'. However, there is no other way in which you can bring out the difference in a cultural perspective.
So,
Landscape as a discipline has mostly been about domesticating the existing environment. Other than its functional uses, the aesthetic of landscape doesnot build itself up from the natural outgrowths that we see across small corners around our cities. These 'outgrowths' not only occupy the otherwise undetailed and ugly edges of the built environment of the city, but in turn smoothen them and give a unique aesthetic. Further, they silently talk of a culture.
To take an example, the cross over bridges over the railway tracks in Mumbai do not really have a ethical city-cleaning mechanism. Non-ethical because dust collected by the sweeper on the edges of each step is never thrown in a dust-bin. Even if it is, some portion of it is always left at the sides. Small heaps of such dust accumulate and become little breeding spaces for a lot of insects. These insects bring in warmth and nutrients to the pile by organic and metabolic activities. They churn, defecate in and thus nurture this dust. Crows and other scavengers shit and make nests in these burrows.
Eventually, the heap becomes charged with nutrients, warmth and humidity. With a little rain or water (piss, or any kind of dampness - discarded liquid), we see the springing of ferns, and shrubs through the hardened heaps of dust. Thus, without pots or people for maintenance, these turn into green edges along the walk over bridge. These are strange ways in which landscape realises itself in the city. The heaps continue to take in spit, betel spits, red refuses, all of that - and turn it into something lovely. They try to camouflage the dirt and give a fresh face to the place.
Such shrubs grow almost at any place where dust gets collected. India being a tropical country where dust flows benevolently, these beautiful patterns of landscapes that grow on their own, thus tell a cultural story - of how things work. They remain parasites, yet help in lifting the image of any place. Such shrubs grow on walls, between paver blocks, within crevices of concrete - making beautiful patterns of green. Can such cultural reading be harnessed to create landscapes around the city? Further, can cultures, instead of landscapes be strategised to achieve newer aesthetics?
Readings of environmental conditions in cultural ways may thus manifest landscapes (and landscape designs) that are compliant with city conditions. They do not become burden on cities (by ways of management plans for landscapes / investment in infrastructure for landscape, etc), but become soft interfaces for human interventions that otherwise leave the city rough edged.
This othering is perhaps what I am here for. Most of us back in India constantly feel irritated with the creation of this 'other'. However, there is no other way in which you can bring out the difference in a cultural perspective.
So,
Landscape as a discipline has mostly been about domesticating the existing environment. Other than its functional uses, the aesthetic of landscape doesnot build itself up from the natural outgrowths that we see across small corners around our cities. These 'outgrowths' not only occupy the otherwise undetailed and ugly edges of the built environment of the city, but in turn smoothen them and give a unique aesthetic. Further, they silently talk of a culture.
To take an example, the cross over bridges over the railway tracks in Mumbai do not really have a ethical city-cleaning mechanism. Non-ethical because dust collected by the sweeper on the edges of each step is never thrown in a dust-bin. Even if it is, some portion of it is always left at the sides. Small heaps of such dust accumulate and become little breeding spaces for a lot of insects. These insects bring in warmth and nutrients to the pile by organic and metabolic activities. They churn, defecate in and thus nurture this dust. Crows and other scavengers shit and make nests in these burrows.
Eventually, the heap becomes charged with nutrients, warmth and humidity. With a little rain or water (piss, or any kind of dampness - discarded liquid), we see the springing of ferns, and shrubs through the hardened heaps of dust. Thus, without pots or people for maintenance, these turn into green edges along the walk over bridge. These are strange ways in which landscape realises itself in the city. The heaps continue to take in spit, betel spits, red refuses, all of that - and turn it into something lovely. They try to camouflage the dirt and give a fresh face to the place.
Such shrubs grow almost at any place where dust gets collected. India being a tropical country where dust flows benevolently, these beautiful patterns of landscapes that grow on their own, thus tell a cultural story - of how things work. They remain parasites, yet help in lifting the image of any place. Such shrubs grow on walls, between paver blocks, within crevices of concrete - making beautiful patterns of green. Can such cultural reading be harnessed to create landscapes around the city? Further, can cultures, instead of landscapes be strategised to achieve newer aesthetics?
Readings of environmental conditions in cultural ways may thus manifest landscapes (and landscape designs) that are compliant with city conditions. They do not become burden on cities (by ways of management plans for landscapes / investment in infrastructure for landscape, etc), but become soft interfaces for human interventions that otherwise leave the city rough edged.
1 comment:
You gave my thoughts words. Lovely.
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