The title of the final thesis is Filmic landscapes – film as representation, tool and practice in landscape architecture.
The aim of the final thesis is to investigate how film as a medium can be used to describe, interpret and manipulate the understanding of a place and its design. What kind of aspects of landscape architecture can film as a medium in a design-process emphasize or create? How can filming, as a self-standing act, contribute to the understanding of the landscape and a landscape-related design-process?
The thesis is divided into two parts, one theoretical part that consists of an essay, and one practical part that consists of a 11minute long filmic reflection of the ‘Glass-houses’in Kosta, Sweden, created by the Swedish designer and architect Bruno Mathsson. The thesis is to be understood as a whole, where the two parts refer to each other. The thesis is also to be understood as an experiment, where the process has been as important as the end result.
During the autumn of 2004 I got in contact with Inger Åhlin and Benjamin Bankhead, who work as project-leaders for the project “Bruno Mathssons’Glass Houses in Kosta” (a project for renewal and restoration of the Houses). I thought this building and its specific context would serve well as a suitable and provocative starting point for a filmic investigation.
The theoretical part is disposed as a wide study of the film medium, of modernity and landscape. Instead of limiting my study to one of these areas, my aim has been to make a connection between the three aspects, and this through a comparative analysis of selected works of Ingmar Bergman and Bruno Mathsson. In the text, I discuss the characteristics of film as a medium, as well as its relation to architectural modernism. I also explore the role of film as a mediator and representation of landscape views. In order to achieve a deeper understanding for the filmic language and narrative logic, I discuss how film has been used both to reinforce and problematize the traditional Swedish look upon nature and lansdscape.
The discussion leads forward to the section about Bruno Mathsson, and his special interpretation of the relation between modernism, human and nature-landscape.
His ‘Glass Houses’in Kosta constitutes the foundation for the practical film-work, which is also discussed and described in the final part of the essay. This section mainly discusses the possibilities and problems in the practical film-work and techniques, as well as in the active reflecting upon film as representation.
Thepractical part, finally, consists of the production of a film, where I explore how film can be used as a tool and as a self-standing act in the understanding, analysis and future design of a physical environment. This investigation aims to increase my own understanding of landscape as representation, and of how film can be used to change and develop this understanding. The aim of the practical investigation is also to learn more about the technical possibilities of film through a conscious work with montage, selecting process, sound and picture. Thus, the film is a reflection on subjectivity and on the power of representation. The choice of film as medium potentially unveils new aspects of the interpretation of the ‘Glass Houses’in Kosta, and the result is a filmic interpretation of a modernistic building and its relation to the surrounding landscape and to the human being.
Through this wide comparison between film, landscape and modernity, I will in this thesis argue that film is an excellent tool for developing one’s knowledge and understanding of the landscape. As tool and practice, film contribute...
