Cultivated Wildness: Technodiversity and Wildness in Machines

This paper investigates the idea of cultivated wildness at the intersection of landscape design and artificial intelligence. The paper posits that contemporary landscape practices should overcome the potentially single understanding on wilderness, and instead explore landscape strategies to cultivate new forms of wild places via ideas and concerns in contemporary Environmental Humanities, Science and Technology Studies, Ecological Sciences, and Landscape Architecture. Drawing cases in environmental engineering, computer science, and landscape architecture research, this paper explores a framework to construct wild places with intelligent machines. In this framework, machines are not understood a layer of “digital infrastructure” that is used to extent localized human intelligence and agency. Rather machines are conceptualized as active agents who can participate in the intelligence of co-production. Recent developments in cybernetic technologies such as sensing networks, artificial intelligence, and cyberphysical systems can also contribute to establishing the framework. At the heart of this framework is “technodiversity,” in parallel with biodiversity, since a singular vision on technological development driven by optimization and efficiency reinforces a monocultural approach that eliminates other possible relationships to construct with the environment. Thus, cultivated wildness is also about recognizing “wildness” in machines.     

The “Change” and the “Constancy” of Landscapes

Scientifically recognizing and wisely intervening the evolution of landscape is an important topic in Landscape Architecture, since evolution (change) is absolute. For human, landscape changes, however, can be measured in a relative sense. Upon such an understanding, the concept “persistent landscape” highlights the landscape’s continuity and stability over time, as well as the stable variety of physical environment. The key to understand this concept lies in landscape architects’ observation of not only the stability of natural ecosystems but also the harmony of cultural-social contexts. However, the rapid urbanization has caused many pressing problems such as the loss of characteristics in urban and rural area, environmental pollution, ecological fragmentation, and cultural fracture, which calls for landscape architects who can re-recognize the man-land relationship and formulate scientific strategies for sustainable development. In this issue, LA Frontiers hopes to offer landscape architects with insights to meet contemporary needs by embracing new landscape forms and implications, so as to create healthier and more poetic-quality living environments with cultural and spatial characteristics.     

图绘与现实——历代兰亭图像中的“曲水流觞”山水意象研究

"曲水流觞"是中国历代文人心中理想山水环境的代名词。分析历代传世兰亭图像演变,并结合兰亭考古研究,进一步探讨兰亭图中不同于现实世界的"曲水流觞"山水意象特征。研究发现:(1)历代兰亭图的图绘重心从人物转移到山水,其构图在四段落图式基础上进行传承和创新;(2)现实世界中的兰亭几经变迁,从毫无人为干扰的自然环境演变成人工意味浓厚的纪念性园林。在历代兰亭图中,曲水流觞之地始终都处在自然山水之间,通过一或两座亭阁增添人工意趣,保持了在自然山水环境中进行极为有限人工建设的基本思想。从绘画的角度为以"曲水流觞"山水意象为代表的中国传统文化语境下理想游憩山水环境研究进行了有益补充。     

Seeing from Above: Observation of Contemporary Dike-Pond Landsca pe

A dike-pond landscape is characterized by asymbiotic and interacted relationship between water and land and considered an integration of human settlements with an aquacultureagriculture system. The Pearl River Delta has historically enjoyed a rich river network and been shaped by the mosaic-like constructed ponds with the meandering natural river systems, where the boundary of the constructed and the natural blurred and a resilient dike-pond landscape prevailed. However, the increasing demand for land resource during urbanization and industrial development has made such a landscape shrunk and surrounded by urban sprawl. The expansion of human settlements has not only changed the water-land symbiosis but also reshaped the pattern of the dike-pond landscape. This article, as an ongoing work, intends to observe and document the changes of such water-related landscapes from a different perspective, “seeing from above,” with historical satellite photos, Google Map images, and contemporary aerial drone photography. It discovered three important transformations: the settlement sprawl and transformation, the shrinking dike surfaces and imbalanced ratio of dike to pond, and the disappearance of the organic pond pattern. These findings can evoke critical studies on the dialectical relation between urbanization and ecology, and offer possibilities of re-creating a sustainable landscape in the Pearl River Delta.     

A DISCUSSION ON INSTITUTIONAL IMPROVEMENT FOR ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION AND LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE IN CHINA

With the development of landscape discipline and governance theories, “landscape governance” has become a new frontier of inter-disciplinary research, and is considered a sub-topic and extension of “environmental governance.” Institution is an important factor to the development of landscape governance theory and practice. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the construction of Ecological Civilization has marked itself a new milestone for its systematic top-down design and institution-oriented efforts. At the same time, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2013 proposed to improve the contemporary national governance system and capacity, and took governance as a new means to evaluate state capacities and state-society relations. Both of them will significantly impact landscape planning, design, protection, and management in China. This article reviews the evolution of western landscape governance theories driven by 1) the emphasis on the spatial scale effect of landscape; 2) the exploration of the regional variety of cultural and collective identities of local landscapes; and 3) the emphasis on the practice of landscape governance. It also examines the opportunities in China’s landscape governance brought by the institutional improvement of Ecological Civilization, which might help: resolve the inherent conflicts that cause the existing environmental and ecological problems; enhance China’s capacity on landscape governance; establish a new land-use management system with a greater ecological security and broader ecosystem services; endow landscapes with more public benefits; cultivate a civil society and democracy in landscape governance; and, influence the education and research of Landscape Architecture in multiple dimensions. Finally, the article proposes roadmaps for China’s landscape governance at both global and national scales.     

“透明性”视阈下景观空间矛盾内涵辨析

“透明性”从一种空间美学,演变为一种用以描述事物深层组织关系的空间性质,因兼具“秩序性”与“多义性”而衍生出“矛盾性”特质。这种矛盾性源于“现代性”共时态与历时态的对立统一——共时态的理性逻辑追求“秩序性“,历时态的流动观念则导向“多义性”。“透明性”的“矛盾性”以图示语言为载体,通过语素“词义扭曲”、语体“结构重组”和语义“语涉双关”3个层面予以呈现。不同层面的矛盾在绘画、建筑、景观3种艺术形式中存在差异化外在表征,且在“绘画-建筑-景观”的演进顺序中,呈现出逐步综合与复杂的态势。景观空间中的“透明性”矛盾,可以归纳为“动态生长”“尺度嵌套”和“时空层叠”3种表达形式。针对上述3种特性,当代景观设计可分别通过“形式动态与过程设计”“分级渗透、抽象隐喻与视廊建构”“异质拼贴与厚性共融”等多种基于“透明性”的设计手法,来充分挖掘设计场地的“矛盾”潜力,并创造新型景观设计范式。     

Development trend of urban design in “digital age”: Pan-dimensionality and individual-ubiquity

The wave of “digital age” featuring digital information is coming. Digital technology is profoundly changing the societal development direction and evolution paths. It also has significant bearing on production modes, social interactions and lifestyles. With regard to urban design, a system of knowledge about the creation and adaptation of material space forms that integrate humanities, art, technology and materials, digital technology has provided it with a brand-new and revolutionary scientific impetus for its evolution. The result of this evolution is “digital urban design paradigm based on human-computer interaction”, i.e., the urban development is moving toward “pan-dimensionality” and “individual ubiquity”. The future of urban design will construct a new approach to urban research and engineering, which is more complex, capable of accommodating and compatible with multiple goals of “instrumental rationality” and “value rationality”. Such a new approach shall be led by the probabilistic theory of “gray scale thinking”, reflecting quaternary synergetic view of “scientific rationality, ecological rationality, cultural rationality and technical rationality” to realize the cognitive progress of “engineering for the benefit of mankind”.     

Making spirits,making art,Nat carving and contemporary painting in pre-transition Myanmar (Burma)

ABSTRACT

Embodiment, materiality, and technology intersect in the production of sacred images where tools, media, and intangible studio protocols inform the production of efficacious things. In Myanmar nat spirits appear in the bodies of costumed spirit mediums and in the intimately tended statues that adorn their altars. Prior to the recent democratic transition, nats appeared as the subjects of paintings, sometimes offering sociopolitical commentaries. This article explores the resonances between technologies of nat making in workshops that produce images for mediums and the techniques deployed by contemporary artists who have made nats the subjects of their paintings. In the Burmese religious world view, nats are lesser entities than the Buddha; their troubled histories of injustice account for their continuing agency as spirits in the human world. Appropriately, nat images are cruder than Buddha images; carvers are less likely to use precious wood or to observe Buddhist precepts and aesthetic guidelines while carving. A similar sense of the unrefined, unsettled nat is conveyed through the daring representational techniques and liberties of artists. We argue that connections between media, technique, and object agency can have resonance when sacred subjects are deployed in secular art.     

深远未来: 2200,爱尔兰与北爱尔兰边境的设计幻想

The long-term effects of climate change will supersede the implications of political demarcations and divisions. Within this context, “Fantastical Borderlands” proposes a rewilded territory, a landscape of slowness, for the Irish Northwest that encapsulates the northern borderlands between Ireland and Northern Ireland. This landscape emerges as a result of the significant reduction of grazing and the anticipated flooding of low-lying lands between Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly. The narrative process considers how flood risk might be managed in conjunction with the initiation of an ambitious rewilding scheme, while remaining sensitive to landscapes of deep cultural connection. By the “reverse time capsule” with performance and exhibition, “Fantastical Borderlands” is narrated from 2200 via a series of vignettes that reflect actions taken during the two centuries prior; the years surrounding Brexit serve as a catalyst for landscape change for the border landscape. The project is liberated from its constraints to near-term planning propositions, instead enabling a focus on landscape impacts that are revealed only at extended timeframes. Ultimately, the project asks: What is the role of storytelling and mythmaking in illuminating current realities and distant futures?     

古典园林叠山蓝本之杭州飞来峰历史视觉形象研究

杭州飞来峰与中国园林叠石假山(简称叠山)的发展演变密切相关,南宋文献记载中多次出现了皇家园林以"西湖第一山林"飞来峰作为园林叠山的写仿蓝本。在文献不清晰、考古材料不足的情况下,依靠飞来峰的历史图像整理与分析,从图考园林的角度和方法解读古人眼中的杭州飞来峰视觉形象特征:山体露骨、洞窟玲珑、奇石累累,并不是从字面上认识的置石立峰,而是把飞来峰作为一个整体。结合飞来峰相关文献、实物遗存等资料,探究古人是如何具体参照杭州飞来峰叠山造园,进一步揭示其在中国园林叠山史上的重要价值。     

“Landscape Prompts” Awaiting Attendance: Uncovering the Persistent Factors That Shape the Drowned Lands

The Black Dirt Region in the State of New York has been well-known for the unique taste of its onions, which is attributed to the organic matter that weighs over 80% in the soil. In recent years, however, the rigid economic pattern restrains the development of this area. In the meantime, local agricultural production is more and more vulnerable to flooding. When this region is labeled as “highly productive of crops,” the persistent factors that have been shaping the black-dirt landscape are omitted. The other name of the place, “the Drowned Lands,” may better capture its entangled relationship with water. In this article, hydrogeological dynamics and human desire are regarded as the factors that sustain landscape continuity and stability. Based on the research on historical sedimentation in the Drowned Lands, this article attempts to delineate a local scenario of covert landscape evolution since the Last Glacial Maximum. The proposal initiates a composite pathway of ecological functions and touristic values in the agricultural region. Within a series of “landscape prompts,” a lesser-known tale of local geology and prehistoric culture is told. Through design interventions, alternative possibilities of rural landscape are tested, embedded meaning of the agricultural land becomes tangible, and a more adaptive human–land relationship is restored.     

In-Between Waters /Intercepting Wetness: Inventing Rain in the Mining Landscape of Shanxi Province,China

Under the background of imposing engineered structures, including reservoirs and inter-basin water transfer infrastructures, being applied to solve drought caused by coal mining in Shanxi Province of China and floods caused by mineral mining in Western Ghats of India, the author reviews the intrinsic reason of water problems and recommends a water management solution that is design on “rain before floods” and “fields of wetness before flows of water.” Most magnificent engineered infrastructures are designed upon an idea of separating water from its milieu, thus becoming contained flows in pipes, channels, and reservoirs to solve water problems. To compensate for the shortage of existing water infrastructures, the author suggests gathering a regional-level landscape capacity for building “wetness” of resilience when facing problems of “water” in extremities. This is a radical shift compared with a problem-solving approach, as engineering does, to one that is grounded in landscape and uncovers opportunities. The landscape research and design project introduced in this article aims to provide an alternative future for Shanxi Province, China, which seems arid and is challenged by monodevelopment mode. The research and design within the project are across four nested scales. A landscape infrastructure of intercepting wetness is taken as an underlying thread which initiates intertwined ecological, programmatic, temporal and material trajectories. On the other hand, the project demonstrates research, representation, design, and planning can actually inform one another, and the design remains open and adaptive to its changing environments.     

单核苷酸多态性(SNP)分子标记在小麦遗传育种中的研究进展

为了了解单核苷酸多态性(SNP)标记在小麦遗传育种中的研究进展并为下一步在面粉制品中的应用奠定基础,本研究归纳了SNP分子标记所具有的特点以及应用比较普遍的检测方法,包括DNA构象法、高分辨溶解曲线法及直接测序法等检测方法;总结了近几年SNP标记在小麦遗传图谱的构建、作物育种、全基因组关联分析、遗传多样性和物种进化等方面的研究进展;最后提出可开发不同作物的高通量SNP芯片使SNP的研究向高通量化、全基因组发展,以及培育具有良好面制品感官特性的小麦新品种。     

The impact of including images in a conjoint measurement task: evidence from two small-scale studies

In the Netherlands, a large ongoing study seeks to provide insight into the process behind preferences and choices with regard to moving and housing. As part of the development of the survey instrument that was used in this study, we examined whether visual images (such as photographs) should be included, since they may clarify particular attributes (e.g., architectural style) and make the choice task more realistic for the respondents. However, images may disturb the results as respondents may evaluate accidental details on the photographs such as the color of the window frames. This paper presents the results of two subsequent pilot studies on the impact of including images in a web-based questionnaire. In the first study, eight dwelling profiles were presented in three different ways (“text only”, “text and color photo” and “text and black-and-white impression”) to 28 respondents. In the second study two different instruments were used: one with written information and directly shown photo-collages; the other with written information and photo-collages on request only. Both studies showed that the inclusion of images led to a number of differences between the results obtained with the various presentation methods. These differences may be explained by accidental details on the images. Furthermore, dwelling characteristics appear to be more important to the respondents’ overall evaluation of a dwelling when shown with photos than when presented in written format. However, since including images also has a substantial number of benefits, it may not be advisable to leave out images completely from the measurement task. Should images be included in a survey instrument, it is of utmost importance to make sure that all potentially disturbing details are cleared away. Furthermore, it may be better to show a collage of pictures than only one in order to decrease the specific impact of accidental details.     

SLOWING DOWN FAST CITIES WITH DESIGNED EXPERIENCES

To challenge the stupefying homogeneities produced by dense and fast urban environments, designers should offer a range of experiences to create a “slowing city,” which first relies on the understanding of the character and range of “slow experiences,” then requires an empiricallydriven approach to attain it. Phenomenologically, slow experiences can be social or solitary; both are discussed. The former comes from “event” experiences that facilitate meaningful interactions among people, while the latter promotes a shift into “being mode” which can help replenish human’s attention. Using findings in psychology and neurocognition, this article suggests that architects, landscape designers, and urbanists adopt a scientifically-grounded phenomenological approach to designing healthy urban environments where people can flourish. More attention is required to investigate people’s experience of surfaces and textures, and of compositions with varying levels of patterned complexity, as well as the changeability of design features and approaches to combat habituation.     

The architecture of the (post) studio: Jackson Pollock’s barn and Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory

This article will discuss a false dichotomy between two models, the modern art studio and the post-studio, which oppose the private and the public, the individual and the collective, hiding and the revealing. We will begin by analysing Daniel Buren’s position in his canonical text “Fonction de l’Atelier” and his practice, where the artist defines the foundations of post-studio work. As the text also describes a New York studio type that must be left behind, we will analyse Jackson Pollock’s and Andy Warhol’s workspaces through drawing reconstructions to demonstrate that these meet the defining characteristics of both models. It will be shown that the artists have used design strategies to retain certain aspects of studio culture while exploring others of the post-studio. This turning point reveals that the current belief about the obsolescence of the studio in a global era defined by communication, networking and mobility ignores its emerging post-studio qualities. This work aims to acknowledge this shift, obtaining a critical vision that will allow us to design contemporary workspaces avoiding stereotypical and reductionist approaches.     

温和的参照——浅析先锋艺术对当代景观设计的影响

先锋艺术和当代景观设计之间的关系可概括为一种温和的参照关系,具体表现为实验性元素在景观设计中的运用,主要手法是对新材料的运用和对传统材料及整体构图的创新。笔者通过分析相关景观设计实例论证了先锋艺术对当代景观设计的影响,以期为当代景观设计寻求新的思路。     

清代信江书院园林图式语言研究

清代信江书院园林是一种典型的山地园林与传统文化景观,其园林景观中存在一种程式化、类型化的特征。本文先对清同治《信江书院图》中园林文化景观进行分析完成传统图绘的转译,以求还原古代信江书院文化景观形态。其次基于图式语言理论,以字、词、词组、句式的方式进行景观图式语言提取,剖析其图式中所含的文化寓意、空间关系和结构逻辑,寻找其中蕴含的文化原型与景观范式。再通过分析信江书院园林景观语法规则诠释古人景观营造意图和设计方法。最后并通过分析信江书院园林景观语境表达研究书院所蕴含的文化结构。该研究对于传统文化景观的传承借鉴以及当代的景观设计具有重要的意义,亦为当代的传统地方文化景观研究提供新的方法与研究思路。     

Designing Aesthetic Experiences for the Cultural Sustainability of Ecological Health

Ensuring human wellbeing and promoting ecological health are two central objectives in contemporary landscape architecture practice and adaption to climate change. Cognitive sciences recognize that affect and emotion play a critical role in human decision-making. This article describes how aesthetic experiences could affect decisions that support or undermine ecological health. While the wellbeing benefits of pleasant landscape experiences have been demonstrated empirically, aesthetic experiences may or may not promote ecological health. The question of how to better align the two remains under debate and investigation. Building on the concept of cultural sustainability, this article elucidates how aesthetic experiences can be used in design tactics to encourage societal acceptance for highly functioning ecosystems that otherwise may be destroyed or resisted for their unappealing or unfamiliar appearance. With examples from China and the United States, this article illuminates how fine-scale, immediately noticeable landscape characteristics, such as “cues to care,” can change perceptual and affective responses to promote ecological health. This article invites readers to reflect on what role aesthetic experiences may play in conserving, restoring, and creating ecologically sound landscapes as we face new challenges in the urban era of climate change, and how design can help construct aesthetic experiences with immediately noticeable landscape characteristics.