Plastic Eternities and the Mosaic of Landscape

Abstract

In recent years nonrepresentational theory has been applied with increasing frequency to landscape studies. This paper responds to this trend in two ways. First, through a close reading of John Wylie and Mitch Rose's writings, I critique the application of nonrepresentational theory to landscape interpretation. While nonrepresentational theory has, crucially, highlighted the importance of performativity, affect, excess, and relationality, it has been imperfectly translated to landscape studies. Landscape studies grounded in nonrepresentational theory overburden the landscape with philosophical and theoretical propositions, which has the effect of exonerating landscapes from their temporal, spatial, and visual circumstances. Second, drawing mainly on the work of Catherine Malabou and Bruno Latour, I suggest that different metaphors and concepts are needed to improve landscape studies: plasticity and a revamped, historical account of relationality. The aim of this paper is to establish a means of visualizing the dynamics of landscape and their historical mutability, with the intention of producing readings that are more ecumenical, and avoid the theoretical reductionism found in current nonrepresentational accounts of landscape.