riba part ii dissertation

7/30/2019 RIBA Part II Dissertation

1/26

1

A MISSING TOOL:

POETRY AS MAPPING


2/26

2

Abstract

This essay seeks to explain how mapping has come to express our understanding of relationships

that favour rational identification over emotionally subjective and expressive purposes. It analyses

the evolution of Cartesian based mapping and aims to develop thoughts on absorptive mapping

through narrative, songlines and poetry. It suggests that poetry can challenge the limitations of

conventional mapping with its candid observation and ability to stimulate contemplation; advocating

an alternative tool to map and discover place.

Keywords:poetry, mapping, absorptive, narrative, cartography

Preface

I have identified Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces a peer reviewed

Journal published quarterly by SAGE Publications for my extended essay on Poetry as

Mapping

Space and Culture brings together dynamic, critical interdisciplinary research at the

interface of cultural geography, sociology, cultural studies, architectural theory, ethnography,

communications, urban studies, environmental studies and discourse analysis. Space and

Culture's unique focus is on social spaces, such as the home, laboratory, leisure spaces, the

city, and virtual spaces.

Similar essays printed by the journal have included the themes of mapping, cartography,

poetry and interpreting narratives; therefore, I feel it an appropriate choice.


3/26

3

Introduction

Since the earliest maps, human kind has felt compelled to record, analyse and represent the

world (Casey, 2002, p.141). It has fascinated us, as we discover and determine new

relationships within the natural environment and the ever expanding built one we try to

command. The term mapping is applied to document this process, although it is a

reasonably flexible word that encompasses many different disciplines. Today it is strongly

associated with the identity of the cartographic map but is additionally practiced in the

lexicon of computing, genetics, physiology, linguistics and mathematics (Oxford English

Dictionary online, 2010).

Denis Cosgrove sums up what I consider the primary objective of mapping in his

introduction toMappings (1999, p.1), a collection of essays on the topic.

To map is in one way or another to take the measure of the world and more than merely

take it, to figure the measure so taken in such a way that it may be communicated between

people, places or times.

It is this goal that fosters a stimulus to further engagements and as James Corner states

mapping is less to mirror reality than to engender the reshaping of the worlds in which

people livewhich invites us to discover new worlds within past and present ones (1999,

p.213). This makes mapping an incredible tool for engaging with ourselves, other people, the

environment and even different times. In a manipulation of scale, selection (choices and

omissions), framing and coding we can disclose hidden relationships, inspire exploration and

create new trains of thought (Cosgrove, 1999, p.9). Maps can be richly suffused with layers

of information, some trivial, some intrinsic to human thought and progress. Their visual


4/26

4

impact and sense of closure is set in contention to more hidden qualities, as Cosgrove goes

on to say:

their apparent stability and their aesthetics of closure and finality dissolve with but a little

reflection in recognition of partiality and provisionality, their embodiment of intention, their

imaginative and creative capacities, their mythical qualities, their appeal to reverie, their

ability to record and stimulate anxiety, their silences and their powers of deception.

(Cosgrove, 1999, p.2)

The significance of extrapolating to discover meaningful shape organisations (Corner, 1999,

p.229) allows man to orientate and compose himself in reality; composure thus leading to

contentment. It is this practicality combined with an appreciation for the visual beauty of

maps that is conducive to immersing oneself in a map, a map that represents reality. Corner

argues that reality is itself a concept that is not given. We only comprehend this space of

reality through our participation with things: material objects, images, values, cultural

codes, places, cognitive sketches, events and maps (Corner, 1999, p.223). We have an

ability to detach a sense of reality from the map-world (say primarily for reasons of

orientation) and yet they are so intrinsically linked as representations of one another.

As human kind has evolved culturally and technologically, new ideas and techniques

have developed as a result of development; from the pictorial and symbolic Neolithic and

Medieval maps to todays contemporary forms of digital mapping.

Early Cartography

Space for the people of the Neolithic and Mesolithic eras was conceived simply as what

they saw in the small portion of their visually accessible world. Emphasis was put on the

symbolic and pictorial nature of the maps as a means of documenting their environment


5/26

5

(Casey, 2002, p.135). This helped promote communication and a means of navigating their

world which in turn led to a sense of conquering the land. As the number of people and

communities started to grow, new issues arose as people from varying cultures came into

contact.

By the Early Middle Ages, the overlapping of legal obligations, as well as varying

economic, political and dynastic rights, left people with a confused sense of external spatial

organisation (Harvey, 1999, p.240). This uncertainty coupled with mythical and religious

superstition created a new paradigm in which mapping had to represent and attempt to

resolve these issues, primarily the sense of ownership, which for the time was defined by

the qualities of interdependence, obligation, surveillance and control (Harvey, 1991, p.241).

One of the significant effects on mapping was the commissioning of Portolan charts, which

chartered accurate coastal outlines achieving successful nautical navigation and thus more

control for the privileged dynasty in expanding their territory (Casey, 2002, p.175). These

and similar maps of the Medieval era tended to be sensuous, crafted pieces of art that

reflected the quality of the kingdom and the superstitious world of mythical cosmology

(Kaplin, 1984, p.47). The artist felt he/she did not need to represent features from a single

vantage and that [the artist] could render what he/she saw convincingly by representing

what it felt to walk about, experiencing structures from many different sides (Harvey, 1991,

p.241). This subjective process allows for greater insight into the mind of the artist and we

can infer more about the culture, its values and their perceived priorities as a result.

The Renaissance that swept through Europe in the 14-17 th centuries pioneered

mapping techniques and customs that were diametrically opposed to its predecessor,

emphasising the science of optics over the other senses and applied a fixed rigorous

geometry that gave a false (and therefore bias) sense of natural harmony with Gods laws

and the world (Harvey, 1991, p.244). Growth in military and world trade and made the


6/26

6

sense of Place vulnerable to Feudalism and so Renaissance thinkers sought functionality and

practicality to determine navigation, property rights of land, political boundaries, rites of

passage and transportation through a fixed, objective, elevated viewpoint (Harvey, 1991,

p.245). This resulted in geographical knowledge becoming a prized commodity, with wealth,

power and capital making its way to individuals. This led in turn to nationalism and

parliamentary democracy at the expense of dynastic privilege (Harvey, 1991, p.245).

By the 18th century, increased competition between states and other economic units

created pressure to rationalize and co-ordinate the space of transport, communication,

administration, military organization and the more localized spaces of private estates and

municipalities (Harvey, 1991, p.257). The Enlightenment sought a more practically

rationalized world with better human welfare and equality in society that guaranteed

individual liberties. The subsequent classification and purification of the natural world

created a framework for capitalist social relations within which transactions of money-

power could operate smoothly (Harvey, 1991, p.258). It also kick-started the introduction

and rise of the Ordnance Survey maps which would become the standard tool for navigation

and orientation for the next two hundred years!

Changes in mapped space affected the profitability of economic activity, redistributing

wealth and power, such as the production of transport (canals, turnpikes) and thus

communication (Harvey, 1991, p.255). This creation of space involved a conquering of space

which gave the Enlightenment more equality and security but, like the Renaissance, at the

cost of creating an idealised perspective that constructed the world from a set individual

viewpoint. From whose perspective then is the physical landscape shaped and is it truly the

most honest and objective representation? This model is also problematic in that it can

restrict the free flow of human and experience due to its highly rationalized configurations,

creating and promoting, at its worst, a culture of surveillance and control.


7/26

7

If space is always a container for social power then the reorganization of space is always a

reorganization of the framework through which social power is expressed (Harvey, 1991,

p.255 citing Foucault)

These thoughts derive from Michel Foucaults work on power and how social power

distribution is represented; it confirms that maps are an incredibly powerful tool in

addressing and communicating social power. Like Foucault, Henri Lefebvre challenges the

concept of power through forced fragmentation of space into homogeneous Cartesian

parcels. This creates a tension between the power of individual/social space, class/social

space and private/state property (Harvey, 1991, p.254, citing Lefebvre). In tactile terms, the

fragmentation of space was presented to a wider public through more economic and

efficient printing techniques. The popular availability of maps, watches and clocks meant the

Enlightenment period saw the coherent fusing of the concepts of time and space (Harvey,

1991, p.258). The masses could finally hold, see and understand objects that tied pulverized

space-time together.

Cartography through Modernity

With the further compression of space and time, it is difficult to accurately map one without

implying or affecting the other. Even though both used Cartesian subdivision to develop

practical space and practical time, mapping their relationships with human engagement

proved difficult. Conventional cartography could not map time structures: local stories,

histories, events, capital flows, seasonal patterns, artistic movements, migration or human

experiences during the day and the night. The architecture and objects man made were

products of their time, rightly expressing the nature of the world they defined and went on

defining.


8/26

8

If spatial and temporal experiences are primary vehicles for the coding and reproduction of

social relations then a change in the way the former get represented will almost certainly

generate some kind of shift in the latter. (Harvey, 1991, p.247, citing Bourdieu)

Population density is hypothesised when studying an aerial map based on the density of

urban structure. But this can produce false perceptions of reality. For example, the Highland

Crofters used to work the land until the Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries and were

forced to emigrate or move to the Lowlands (Richards, 1985, p.50); bitterness is still felt,

even today (Greig, 2010, p.180; for personal accounts of the Clearances see Mackenzie,

1883). It is possibly the single most significant event in Highland history and yet maps cannot

do it justice. Brochs, crannogs, cairns, crofts and smaller buildings stay marked as misleading

dots that represent civilisation on the map, from the earlier Clan communities to Crofting

settlements. It does not expressly hint at the forced displacement or, for the few that do

live there, at the strength of community or even the Gaelic language and traditions which

were fundamental to their lives. Ignoring these intrinsic values suggests to me that Cartesian

mapping is not as neutral or objective as we like to think; it omits and defines what it wants

us to see like any piece of qualitative mapping.

In contrast to rural life, cities and urban life had become increasingly dependent,

innovative and hugely complicated places to live. The culture, as a result of new cultural

engagements, in the early 20th century had to cope with more and more information and the

difficulty for mapping became knowing which data was relevant and how it should be

mapped and presented. By the mid 20th century, transport technology had compressed

space-time dramatically. From the steam train, to the car to the jet engine, transport made

traversing and communicating larger distances more accessible and attainable. This opened

up economic markets and whole new relationships which would lead to an accretion of


9/26

9

complex cultural engagements, simultaneously making the map an element of material

culture and the representation of it (Cosgrove, 1999, p.9). Boundaries became more and

more permeable as new relationships were formed and hidden ones discovered. Old values

and social conventions of gender and class were flouted and broken.

People do not simply obey rules in their everyday activities but form habits and acquire

views through a complex process of experience and incremental adjustment. (Bordieu cited

in Shields, 1991, p.32)

With the development of mass publication production, photography and the internet, the

start of the twenty first century has become the pinnacle of vision-centred culture. The

focus and reliance on speed and efficiency in our daily lives has put a lot of pressure on

instantaneous impact, no doubt assisted by a healthy consumerist and commodity driven

advertising culture.

The only sense that is fast enough to keep pace with the astounding increase in technology is

sight. But the world of the eye is causing us to live increasingly in a perpetual present,

flattened by speed and simultaneity (Pallasmaa, 2005, p.21)

This flattening of our spatial and temporal worlds has confused how we perceive the space

created by the Internet. It is not a space we can actively inhabit and so spatially it eludes us,

yet it is tied temporally to us as we access, organise and navigate our lives around it like

clockwork. The internet is based on rational rules, scripted algorithms originating from

Cartesian logic and it frees us inasmuch as it makes our lives faster by permeating

boundaries. Yet it also creates its own problems of space, territory and ownership with

issues that require defining, synthesizing and comprehending; the power of the individual has


10/26

10

to share power with the network of individual power. The almost infinite compression of

space-time and how we operate in the world today still presents the timeworn issue: how

to map and present new data.

For a brief part of the mid twentieth century the objective of mapping boiled down

to trying to creatively map hidden data, that is, data that cannot be quantified. Groups such

as the French Situationists and Fluxus attempted to subvert art and acts of mapping through

techniques such as Deriv (or Drift) and Detournment which have influenced the techniques

of Drift, Layering, Gameboard and Rhizome, terms that Corner describes in his essay The

Agency of Mapping(1999, p.234-244). The Situationists were not interested in mapping the

terrain (topography, rivers, roads, buildings) but everything else that may have given an

insight into hidden social structures; studying historical events, local stories,

economic/legislative conditions, political interests, regulatory mechanisms, programmatic

structures, the human psyche, imagination; using mapping devices that manipulated, co-

opted, enhanced or subverted frame, scale, orientation, colour separation, numerical

coordinates, grid measures and indexes (Corner, 1991, p.214).

To distinguish so completely an external, a priori, real world from a constructed and

participatory one would not only deny imagination but also be incongruent with humankinds

innate capacity to structure reciprocal relationships with its surroundings. (Corner, 1991,

p.222)

The Situationists were, in particular, against Modernism and Functionalism. They challenged

the control of urban planners; specifically the homogenization and zoning of Paris, which

they believed prevented necessary gentrification of working class areas. Their opposition

was the rigidity of modernism and the machine age, where mass production and the spaces


11/26

11

of consumption had taken away the freedom of the individual (Sadler, 1999). Modernism,

with the principles of order, discipline and power to society (although which society,

remained an issue), was the natural evolution to the Enlightenments focus on

rationalization.

Discipline proceeds by the organisation of individuals in space, and it therefore requires a

specific enclosure of space. In the hospital, the school, or the military field, we find a reliance

on an orderly grid. Once established, this grid permits the sure distribution of the individuals

to be disciplined and supervised; this procedure facilitates the reduction of dangerous

multitudes or wandering vagabonds to fixed and docile individuals. (Dreyfus and Rabinow,

1982, pp.154-155 cited in Shields, 1991, p39-40)

The Enlightenments legacy was the production of highly permeable free market space which

helped the Western world develop thriving Capitalist economies. The negative effect of

Capitalism was shaped by Modernisms rigid order and strength in its power of control.

This, like the homogeneous space created in the Enlightenment, exaggerated the built

environments sense of surveillance and totalizing vision (Harvey, 1999, p.253). Orwells

1984 pre empted conceptions of a Big Brother Society as a result of this totalizing vision

getting out of hand. Cartography, particularly the Ordnance Survey, could not do this as it

did not deal with the subjective (even though, as I have highlighted, all mapping has t o be

subjective for it is a human representation of spaces defined by humans).

Absorptive Mapping

Paraphrasing Pallasmaas view on the task of architecture (2005, p.46) (which paraphrased

Merleau-Pontys thoughts on the paintings of Czanne) portrays a clear and succinct

impression of mappings function.


12/26

12

In my view the task of [mapping] is to make visible how the world touches us

Today, I feel we conventionally think of distinguishing between the neutral objective forms

of topographical representation from the more bias, subjective forms which we consume in

our visual-centred culture. There is an understanding that these freer, more personal

accounts of representation hold a significantly larger portion of artistic license, and this

seems to have cemented cartographic mapping as the most neutral and largely more

accurate. I cannot contest nor even want to dispute the importance and beauty of

cartography, however, its descriptive powers are not all enveloping and I want to draw

attention to the areas that cannot be expressed by cartography.

Absorptive mapping is a term first introduced in the context of artistic

representation by Casey in Earth Mapping: Artists Reshaping Landscape and is similar in its

philosophy to phenomenological ideas of Genius Loci or Spirit of Place (2005, p.149).

[Absorptive mapping] aims to capture the sense, the feeling, of a certain place or region, not

in terms of its precise configurations, much less its position in striated world-space, but in

terms of how it is concretely experienced by those who live there Absorptive mapping is

a matter of setting forth how it feels to be in a place, and more especially how it feels to be

on the surface of the earth: to be with/in its immediate ambience, (Casey, 2005, p150)

Casey (2005) expresses the limitations and missed opportunities of single perspective, aerial

cartography and illustrates this with an example: the horizon. When we find ourselves lost

in a landscape we need the horizon to orientate ourselves. Mapping with the horizon is an

orientating effort that creates orienting and orientated places, it is integral to knowing

where we are and where we are going (p.164). It gives us a sense of reassurance,

strengthened navigation and offers composure; inhibiting the terrifying feeling of truly being


13/26

13

lost. Despite this, conventional cartographic maps today subscribe to the thousand year old

tradition of single point perspective from above, where there is no horizon. We still use

these maps to orientate ourselves but they do not convey the true essence of what it feels

like to be on the ground, in the area and to feel what the place could be like.

Mapping this feeling is what Casey alludes to through the term Absorptive Mapping.

He talks of how an artist will map out the landscape by perceiving everything, drawing it in

and absorbing it through all the senses, to make it part of an inherent bodily knowledge

(2005, p151). The artists articulation of their expression forms the process of mapping it

back out. The success, as in any piece of art, comes not from the literal expression of the

place but from how well the artists message has been transferred or translated. Artists

attempt to translate this form of expression with varying media and reinterpret it with

media that reflects the time. For example, contemporary artists today such as Richard Long,

Andy Goldsworthy and Chris Drury tend to produce sculptural work primarily with natural,

earth made objects whereas Dan Rice and Eve Ingalls (both mentioned in Casey, 2005) focus

on painting. For Long, his work often centres on or from a walk. Work grows out of the

process of walking, a primitive form of mapping that combines active participation and (with

conscious objective) sensory absorption. His fascination with basic shapes and found

materials is shared and investigated by Drury and Goldsworthy (see Figures 1, 2 and 3).


14/26

14

Figure 1.Walking a Circle on Hoy Along a four Day Walk, Orkney (1992)by Richard Long

Source: The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (2009, p.102)

Figure 2.Ladakh I (1997) by Chris Drury

Source: The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (2009, p.35)


15/26

15

Figure 3.Woven silver birch circle Hampstead Heath, London (13-14 December, 1985)by Andy Goldsworthy

Source: University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus

Goldsworthys association with a Place is determined by acknowledging and embracing the

senses, defining the essence of the space. In his own words:

For me looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting

work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. Place is found by walking,

direction determined by weather and season...When I touch a rock, I am touching and

working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings and the way it sits tells

how it came to be there...Often I can only follow a train of thought while a particular

weather condition persists. When a change comes, the idea must alter or it will, and often

does, fail. - Andy Goldsworthy (Raymond Walter College)

The pieces of work that develop are bound to the nature of the space and are incredibly

site specific. The time frame for absorption for any artist is endless as images, thoughts and

associations accumulate in the mind. However, for Goldsworthy, this persistent absorption


16/26

16

defines the finished artwork and the process is constantly challenged by ever changing

physical conditions. Interventions in the landscape are left to the mercy of the environment

which amplifies their temporality and their charged potential.

The subjective nature of art is implicit in most artists work. To represent an object,

place or abstract feeling is marked by what the artist has seen, done, felt and their capability

to translate this into a piece. Artists representing the landscape through painting, like Rice

and Ingalls, make selections and decisions that illustrate and omit various bits of sensory

information but aim to distil into an image the feeling of that place rather than the literal

representation of it. Stephen Walters Island (see Figures 4 and 5) is another example of

painting to map the extents of a place.

Figure 4.Island by Stephen Walter (2008)

Source: http://www.stephenwalter.co.uk/drawings/drawa1.php


17/26

17

Figure 5.Island detail by Stephen Walter (2008)

Source: http://www.stephenwalter.co.uk/drawings/drawa1h.php

Walter superimposes his own highly personal, autobiographical accounts of London over a

relatively accurate aerial cartographic map of Greater London, cut off from anywhere else in

Britain. It illustrates urban myths, secrets, facts and fictions, through serious and flippant

colloquial language and a subversion of symbols. It is like a medieval map in that it aims to

document key events that intimates a shared history but also illustrates what life is like in

London now, at the start of the twenty first century. It adopts a tourist guide feel but

targets the London resident as an audience that may share similar, vested interests (British

Library, n.d.). In Island we attribute the map to an individual (Walter) which invokes a

notion of healthy bias. Walters attempt to convey his London suggests that we should not

take maps that we see every day for granted. It challenges us to rethink everyday maps that

are so clean-cut and machine-like, is life really as neat? We challenge his map and see the

endearing human idiosyncrasies, which helps to represent how we perceive space, as


18/26

18

humans with conscious abstract thought. The level of detail and emphasis on seemingly

irrelevant information enforces an appreciation for the layers of urban living that go

untraced and unchallenged in conventional mapping.

Narrative Mapping

The notion of telling a story may seem erroneous when suggested that it too is a form a

mapping, but the qualities of telling a story lend themselves to constructing visual

relationships, as Ryan (2006, p.7) explains

Story is a mental image, a cognitive construct that concerns certain types of entities and

relations between these entities. Narrative may be a combination of story and discourse, but

it is its ability to evoke stories to the mind that distinguishes narrative discourse from other

text types

The case for mapping through narrative is incredibly powerful, especially in cultures that do

not rely on more modern technologies to retain and store information. In fact, you could

argue that our obsession with information and globalisation has left us apathetic, whereas

undeveloped cultures without information storage (a data safety net) are more precious.

Our apathy is reflected in the interconnectivity of the Internet and a growing trend to

socialise online; empowering the individual yet ironically diluting individuality. Exploration

and discovery online are not quite the same as the curiosity that inspires a speculative

physical journey from reading or listening to a story. In The Agency of Mapping, Corner

(p.225) asserts that, unlike Renaissance or Enlightenment cartography, Exploratory mapping


19/26

19

[is] less about asserting authority, stability or control and more about searching, disclosing

and engendering new sets of possibilities. Like a nomadic grazer, the exploratory mapper

detours around the obvious so as to engage what remains hidden

In good storytelling, information is selected and disclosed at the skill of the storyteller. True

or false, a story that maps a landscape can stimulate exploration, enabling potential

discovery.

Songlines

Linking acts and footsteps, opening meanings and directions, these words operate in the

name of emptying out and wearing away of their primary role. They become liberated spaces

which can be occupied. A means of a semantic rarefication, rich in determination, the

function of articulating a second, poetic geography on top of the literal, forbidden or

permitted meaning. They insinuate other routes into the functionalist and historical order of

movement. (Turnbull, 1996, p.20)

A variation and an excellent example of the beauty and power of storytelling are songlines

or dreaming tracks which perfectly illustrate a poetic geography on top of the literal.

Songlines are invisible paths entwined in Aborigine tradition with the vast landscape of the

Australian continent. According to Aborigine Creation myths, they were sung into existence

by the Ancestors, totemic beings wandering the continent in the Dreamtime (Chatwin,

1988, p.2). They scattered a trail of words and musical notes along their footprints over the

land, laying a song/map as a means of communication between the most far flung tribes

(p.15). Dreaming-tracks are passed down through each totem (or clan) generation to read

the land like sheet music; singing the songs to navigate the Outback. Without the help of the


20/26

20

Aboriginal people, the European colonisation could not have utilised their culinary,

medicinal, water, resource, hunting, food collecting knowledge or benefitted from the path

finding routes for transportation of goods and knowledge, all of which were enforced by

songlines (Kerwin, 2006, p.1). Sustaining peregrination with songlines strengthens tradition

and marks territory but is also necessary to keep the culture alive.

The structural basis of these songs is temporal; the words and images are

subordinate to the rhythm and meter of each song and so the songs cadence varies as it

reflects the geography and rhythm of the land (Chatwin, 1988, p.16). When descriptive

stories combine with the rhythmic importance of meter, parallels with mapping as a poetic

art are hard to dispute.

By singing the world into existence, the Ancestors had been poets in the original sense of

poesis meaning creation (Chatwin, 1988, p.16)

Poetry as mapping

Ekphrasis stems from the Greekekphrazein (to recount, describe) which in turn is formed

from ek out and phrazeinto speak (Oxford English Dictionary online, 2010) and was a

rhetorical term in Ancient Greece of detailed descriptive writing to evoke the experience of

an object to a listener or reader.

The student of ekphrasis was encouraged to lend their attention not only to the qualities

immediately available in an object, but to make efforts to embody qualities beyond the

physical aspects of the work they were observing. (Welsh, 2007, citing Webb)


21/26

21

Poetry as a tool to map and represent a quality of the world, be it a space, place or event; is

such a device. Through the medium of written word, poetry s descriptive potential resists

physical space (rural or urban), society, nationality, language, time (day or night) and is

capable of straddling these boundaries through each individual poets skill and delivery. A

virtue of poetry lies in the personal response of purely descriptive imagery where lack of

physically visual information benefits the stimulation of the imagination. This non didactic

style of representation is entirely subjective on the poets part but does allow the reader to

infer their own feelings and decisions about the piece of representation. If the essence of

Mapping is, as Cosgrove (1999, p.1) defines, to take the measure of the world...in such a

way that it may be communicated between people, places or times then poetry must be a

powerful tool in representing and communicating visual and non visual measures of the

world.

Another great strength of poetry is that of its ability to prompt reflection and

contemplation, compelling us to reconsider what we thought we already knew. It can

compose an observation so profound, yet so beautifully simple, that it sows a seed of

intrigue, urging us to question many more associations of the observation. The practice of

reading and writing poetry trains the mind to notice, reconsider and correct our frame of

mind (McEntyre). There is a calming gratification in coming to a conclusion personally, as a

result of well crafted poetic discernment.

In poetry we internalise the formal descriptive based imagery and hold it in our

imagination. A poems lexicon, phrasing, structure and rhythm have the potential to reflect

efficiently a complex feeling or idea in a single moment, through candid observation

(McEntyre). Poetry does not rely on observation as its primary asset and is not confined to

just the written word. The written medium is a form of communication we have grown

reliant upon as Pallasmaa quotes in W.J. Ongs essay Orality and Literacy(2005, p.24)


22/26

22

the shift from oral to written speech was essentially a shift from sound to visual space...print

replaced the lingering hearing dominance in the world of thought and expression with the

sight-dominance which had its beginnings in writing

Communication through written speech developed artistically into poetry which Pallasmaa

suggests hasthe capacity of bringing us momentarily back to the oral and enveloping world

(2005, p.25). Here he suggests that poetry can help resist the overwhelming world of the

visual, to pull us out and offer us a chance to concentrate on our other senses. It is

inextricably linked to the aural medium but opens up a whole new sense to explore by

engaging the human mind with any subject (person, place, event, space, object or concept)

to be mapped. Like songlines, the manipulation of the temporal dimension and structure of

the poem can not only reflect the subject but can determine and compliment rhythm and

metre. The aural nature of spoken poetry invests in articulation through enunciation and

intonation that can play a dramatic part in the psychology and atmosphere of a piece; much

like a piece of music.

Lyrical is more a quality of mind than of physical sound: at once quiescent and lively,

bemused and dynamic. (Casey, 2005, p.162)

The intonation and dialect of a spoken poem can, in an instant, transport the listener into a

culture where words and colloquialisms are infused with distinct connotations. Three of the

most famous modern Scottish poets wrote in three very different languages but are all

considered to reflect Scottish characteristics: Sorley Maclean (Gaelic), Hugh MacDiarmid

(Lallans, a form of Modern Scots) and Norman MacCaig (English). MacCaigs style varied

throughout his career but tended to employ allegorical landscapes and descriptive-


23/26

23

symbolical techniques to map relationships of inner and outer landscapes (Frykman, 1977,

p.9). Roderick Watson (1989, p.6-7) examines MacCaigs poetry and quotes him from

Worlds: Seven Modern Poets (1974, p.162)

[there are] miraculous declarations to be found in everyday reality if only we can open

our eyes to them...of course one is influenced by, simply, everything. For the senses, the

five ports of knowledge, are hospitable to everything, and into them sail, with luck, the

most remarkable cargoes

Mapping the senses

Architectural space is lived space rather than physical space, and lived space always

transcends geometry and measurability (Pallasmaa, 2005, p.64)

Pallasmaa expands here on the notion of lived space as the verb-essence of an architectural

experience. The acts of entering, viewing out a window, occupying the sphere of a fires

warmth, are activities that require human interaction with space defined by architecture.

The human element is inherent in living and lived space but different people (for example

children, the mentally ill, the rural dweller, the urban dweller the physically disabled or

oppressed minorities) will undoubtedly perceive and comprehend this space differently

(Harvey, 1991, p.203). Poetry has the potential to express varying points of view as it can

not only map human behaviour and our physical environment but our symbiotic relationship

with it. How we feel it, absorb it and communicate through it are as important as how we

navigate it visually.


24/26

24

Conclusion

Poetry is sometimes seen as quite pretentious and often stereotyped as a high art as many

people find it difficult to relate to, or that they feel they require some kind of higher

education to identify with it. If it is not accessible then it will be unsuccessful, as is true of all

art. The weight of artistic license a poet carries may make a poem harder to validate or

trust and its personal nature (for the poet, as much as the reader) admits that it is a

noticeably subjective medium. However, is poetry any more difficult to grasp than someone

trying to read a cartographic map and not appreciating a religious, economic or dynastic

context? This leads to several more significant questions: is poetry as mapping any less bias

than Cartesian cartography? Has Cartesian based cartography, that informed the

Enlightenment and Modernism, resulting in globalisation and a culture of vision-centred

marketing that fosters a desire for instantaneous impact, blinded the public and architects

from the bigger picture? If mapping through poetry is reliable, is it valuable? And if so, is

poetry underutilised as a tool for examining and understanding our environment and

cultural conditions, to aid the design process for architects?

Circumstances on how a project develops are conditioned by what is selected and

prioritized in mapping the buildings context. The context incorporates environment (built

and natural), economy, legislation, history, sustainability, culture and this is by no means an

exhaustive list. It is the architects job to ask the right questions, from the right sources, to

ascertain their relevance and importance within the overall context. To be considered an

alternative, poetry must offer something that conventional cartography does not, which can

be utilised and applied successfully. Where cartography fails, I believe poetry has the

capacity to illuminate hidden questions as it prompts reflection and contemplation in the

inquirer. It urges us to question many more associations of an observation that we would

not normally consider, which may reveal something new. It may not produce immediate


25/26

25

revelations but poetry can still hint at a new direction, inspiring the inquirer to research and

explore a different train of thought further.

Ideally, the successful synthesis of quantative techniques (topographical analysis) with

qualitative techniques (narrative, poetry) should utilise the positives of both techniques to

question, map and understand place.

References

British Library (n.d.) Stephen Walter The IslandCurator Video [video recording] RetrievedApril 4, 2011 from http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/map4.html

Chatwin, B. (1988) Songlines, 2nd Ed. London: Pan Books Ltd.

Casey, E. S. (2002) Representing Place: Landscape Painting and Maps Minneapolis/London:University of Minnesota Press.

Casey, E. S. (2005) Earth-Mapping: Artists Reshaping Landscape, Minneapolis/London:University of Minnesota Press.

Frykman, E. (1977) Unemphatic Marvels A Study of Norman MacCaigs Poetry, Goteborg,Sweden: Gotab, Kunglv.

Greig, A. (2010)At the Loch of the Green Corrie, London: Quercus Publishing.

Harmon, K. (2009) The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore CartographyNew Jersey:Princeton Architectural Press.

Harvey, D. (1991) The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell

Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space(Donald Nicholson-Smith, Trans.), Oxford: BasilBlackwell. (Originally published 1974)

Kaplan, S. (1984) Understanding popular culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the nineteenthcenturyBerlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co

Kerwin, D (2006)Aboriginal Tracks or Trading Paths (Dissertation)Retrieved April 4, 2011from http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adtQGU20070327.144524/public/02Main.pdf

MacCaig, N. (1985) Norman MacCaig: Collected Poems, London: Chatto & Windus. TheHogarth Press

Mackenzie, A. (1883) A History of the Highland Clearances, Inverness: A. & W. MacKenzie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Nicholson-Smithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Nicholson-Smith


26/26

Retrieved April 13, 2011 fromhttp://www.yourphotocard.com/Ascanius/documents/The%20history%20of%20the%20Highland%20clearances.pdf

McEntyre, M. C. (n.d.) What Poetry Does

RetrievedApril 6, 2011 fromhttp://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/pdfs/WhatPoetryDoes.pdf

Oxford English Dictionary online version (March 2011) Ekphrasis Retrieved April 10, 2011from http://www.oed.com:80/Entry/59412

Oxford English Dictionary online version (March 2011)MappingRetrieved April 10, 2011from http://www.oed.com:80/Entry/113868

Pallasmaa, J. (2005) The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, 2nd ed. New Jersey:Wiley.

Raymond Walter College (n.d.)Andy Goldsworthy PhilosophyRetrieved April 2, 2011 fromhttp://www.rwc.uc.edu/artcomm/web/w2005_2006/maria_Goldsworthy/philosophy.htm

Richards, E. (1985)A History of the Highland Clearances: Emigration, protest, reasons London:Taylor & Francis

Ryan, M.L. (2006)Avatars of Story, Minneapolis/London: University Of Minnesota Press

Sadler, S. (1999) The Situationist City, Massachusetts, MIT Press.

Shields, R. (1992) Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity, London:Routledge

Spiegelman, W. (2005) How Poets See the World: The Art of Description in Contemporary Poetry,New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved April 9, 2011 fromhttp://homepage.mac.com/acaruso/filechute/How.Poets.See.the.World.The.Art.of.Description.in.Contemporary.Poetry.pdf

Turnbull, D. (1996) Games in the Process of Architecture: Architectural Design Profile 121.London: Academy Editions.

University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus (n.d.) Wovensilver birch circleRetrieved April 6, 2011 from http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/image/?tid=1985_142

Watson, R. (1989) Scotnotes: The Poetry of Norman MacCaig, Aberdeen: Association forScottish Literary Studies.

Welsh, R. (2007) University of Chicago, Keyword Glossary: Ekphrasis Retrieved April 11, 2011from http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/ekphrasis.html

Word Count: 6364
http://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/pdfs/WhatPoetryDoes.pdfhttp://www.alphaomegaalpha.org/pdfs/WhatPoetryDoes.pdf

riba part ii dissertation

Documents