DEEP GEOGRAPHY

How is Landscape "inspirational"?

Landscape inspires people in many different ways. Landscape inspires creative work in artists, poets, composers. It inspires curiosity and exploration in scientists. In many people it can inspire strong emotion or a spiritual response. It inspires political action in conservationists and environmentalists. It can inspire great feats of engineering in response to hazards or potential resources... here are some examples:

Science
Music
Art
Andrew Goudie has argued that:
“the main stimulus to an interest in geomorphology is an interest in visually appealing landscapes… many became geomorphologists rather than soldiers, historians, engineers or accountants because they were fascinated by such phenomena as karst, dunes, reefs, glaciers or gorges.”
(Goudie, A.S., 2001. Geomorphology, Vol.47 p.245)
Edward Elgar was inspired by the landscape of the area around the Malvern Hills where he lived. He is reported to have said:
"My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require".
(quoted in R J Buckley, R.J., 1905. Sir Edward Elgar. London: Bodley Head).
Robert Smithson was part of the "Land Art" movement that involved the creation of art from and within a landscape, for example constructing a hill or a ravine. Smithson referred to it as:
"the direct organic manipulation of the land"
(Flam, J. D., ed., 1996. Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Berkeley: University of California Press).


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