Signs of Place: A Visual Interpretation of Landscape

all rights reserved by D C M Britton

The concepts of place and space are basic elements of landscape studies that need to be continually challenged at different scales of analysis and in varying contexts if we are to fully grasp their meaning. This is especially true for studies into prehistoric and non-literate societies, where being able to decipher the interaction between people and landscape still poses methodological challenges.

In this conference we aim to address these challenges by going beyond the limits of seeing place as small, culturally significant locales within a specific temporal setting. Instead we explore how place has been subject to temporal, social and ideological changes brought upon by the appropriation of visual signs by specific cultures that prevailed in different regions at different times. The rather broad term “visual signs” is consciously chosen to include every means of visual marking or transformation of the environment that includes but is not limited to rock art, modified and anomalous natural features, and architecture. To achieve these aims we encourage participants to envisage how these different kinds of visual signs were positioned within the physical and morphological features of the landscape; how the landscape was chosen or modified to accommodate them; what value or information these signs provided for the place in which they were created, and how they have been socially, culturally and spiritually appropriated through time.

Ultimately, our concern is to provide a platform for interested researchers from all disciplines to contribute new methodologies and interpretative approaches to the understanding of places and place-making. We envisage that the interdisciplinary nature of this conference will provide a stimulating setting for enriching discussions and helping promote studies of visual signs, place and landscape within a multidisciplinary research arena. This will, in turn, allow for interesting heuristics that can help challenge and transcend many of the common regional and conceptual departmentalisations plaguing academic discourse.

Program