Here we have another possible representation of a landscape. It’s taken from Google Maps shows the south west part of Sheffield. What have we here? This view is actually quite alien to us even if we recognise what it shows. Apart from being up in a place we never really get to see something like this, a high cliff will generally give us an oblique view of the majority of the vista and only small area will be truly vertical.
How does this differ from the other depictions that are on ShELP? Answers on a postcard, or purely for your ease, you can write them below, go on!
If you’re from Sheffield do you recognise this area? Does this sort of image seem ‘colder’ or more distanced than the other pictures? Can you imagine yourself strolling about here or can this view only be for navigation? Is it just a matter of scale as to how you can picture yourself moving within it? Or is this something else entirely? A capitalist response to questions of ownership that only really matters in the post industial West?
I don’t know, so please help me!!
There appears to be a distinct difference between the way in which the land in this photograph is used. At the top right we see terraced houses, in the centre a large open space and in the bottom left an area of spaced out buildings. Those in the top right are presumably residential and those in the bottom left maybe more commercial. Here the function of buildings dictates their layout and where they are situated in the Landscape. As well as the function, the period in which they are built and therefore the fashions of architecture and planning will play a role.
When viewing the landscape from above certain limitations are instantly brought to light. The first of these is the difficulty in identifying objects, such as the style of buildings and their use as well as their age (although presumptions have been made about these above!). The second is a sense of scale, although we maybe able to pick out a reference point such as a car or a person.
This view also has its advantages, in this case one of the defining features of the landscape is that it has been created by man rather than nature. This is evident in the way trees and roads have been used as (and perhaps become) boundaries. The different approaches to planning can also be seen easily from above, an example being the roads rigid grid pattern of the top right in comparison to the curving roads in the bottom left, once again dependent on period and function.
A capitalist response to questions of ownership that only really matter in the post industrial West? Its Norfolk Park, a public open space containing 5 listed structures…gifted to the people of Sheffield by the Duke of Norfolk. A title created by Richard II in 1397 for close relatives of his (all descended from Edward I). Maybe a superficially philanthropic act disposing of unwanted land in what had become a backwater holding in one of the major peerages in England, but hardly the product of the leading lights of a modern capitalist economy struggling with their role in a post industrial society…the real crisis here with all these aerial views and sat nav lead mindlessness is the loss of the romance of the map, the divorce of the self from the land and the death of poetic inspiration. Does Google Earth inspire you to write poetry? I suspect not. Try going and lying face down on the grass in Norfolk Park for an hour, then turn over and watch the clouds for a while…more poetry will come of that than from endless hours of searching Google Earth or watching Lidar fly-throughs. Go on, try it…go on, you know you want to (just try and choose a time when the park keepers don’t throw you off or local yobs mug you…possible poetic events in themselves however one might say, but keep those for next time).