7 Gaze into the Landscape: Can Sensory Immersion, Landscape Reading and . . .
105
and discovering every facet, from every angle. The cavities of the largest taffoni can
be as big as houses. A taffonu located at a depth of 10 m is a direct evocation of the
changing sea level: this is terrestrial landscape now underwater. Like an Atlantis of
geological time, these shapes render underwater landscapes readable by suggesting
what they were when the taffoni formed (Fig. 7.5). A similar situation can be found
off the shores of Marseille where submerged karstic reliefs render major eustatic
movements perceptible.
Before the recent, sophisticated technical processes that museums and interpretive
centres now use (3D, virtual panoramas and other interactive “streaming” simulations) and describe as “museographical immersion”, and following the era of museum
furnishings (frames, stands and display cases), only underwater landscape offers
quality museographical conditions. Water is a very good, natural picture frame. The
equivalent of what air would be if museum walls were made of gas that could bear
paintings without being seen
32 . Conversely, when exhibited in air, in museums or
interpretive centres, the question of moving freely around an aquatic object arises
33 .
Displaying the underwater object is also a challenge we address in documents and
interpretation media relative to a specific underwater landscape.
7.4.4 Developing Underwater Block Diagrams:
“Bird’s Eye” or “Fish Eye” View?
There is no doubt in the profession that the block diagram is one of the best instruments for representing landscape in volume. A three-dimensional drawing of
an area, it shows the topographic contours crowned with the elements covering the
surface (vegetation, constructions, hydrography, etc.) and relevant to the perception
that makes it a landscape. It is “sensory”, as this is neither axonometry nor digital
modelling, no projections calculated according to laws of perspective and a rigorously exact scale. It is a subjective representation of an objective space, just like the
landscape it reveals. A block diagram combines the real measure of shapes, distances
and scales with subjective quantities. Without being exact, it can be precise, through
the attention paid to detail. It can be true to the atmospheres experienced on site.
And exhaustive? It is not designed to be: although reproducing the actual relief in
broad outline, this is to bring out the character of a given landscape and represent
the characteristic components. For example, while the tall, mast-like posidonia sea
grass is an indicator and a characteristic feature of the Mediterranean underwater
landscape, there is obviously no need to represent the entire population in the area
drawn. In landscape design, a block diagram does not claim or aim to have scientific
32 The managers of the Isla Muejeres National Marine Park in Mexico made no mistake in deciding to
work with artist Jason de Caires Taylor: he submerges sculptures which become gradually covered
with coral. They can be visited by snorkelling and the profits co-fund the nature reserve.
33 This aspect was carefully addressed at the Ozeanum sea museum in Stralsund, Germany: the
architecture was designed after the scenography, so that full-scale sculptures of whales could be
hung in a huge area ideal for acoustics and visitor flows via a network of walkways.
105
and discovering every facet, from every angle. The cavities of the largest taffoni can
be as big as houses. A taffonu located at a depth of 10 m is a direct evocation of the
changing sea level: this is terrestrial landscape now underwater. Like an Atlantis of
geological time, these shapes render underwater landscapes readable by suggesting
what they were when the taffoni formed (Fig. 7.5). A similar situation can be found
off the shores of Marseille where submerged karstic reliefs render major eustatic
movements perceptible.
Before the recent, sophisticated technical processes that museums and interpretive
centres now use (3D, virtual panoramas and other interactive “streaming” simulations) and describe as “museographical immersion”, and following the era of museum
furnishings (frames, stands and display cases), only underwater landscape offers
quality museographical conditions. Water is a very good, natural picture frame. The
equivalent of what air would be if museum walls were made of gas that could bear
paintings without being seen
32 . Conversely, when exhibited in air, in museums or
interpretive centres, the question of moving freely around an aquatic object arises
33 .
Displaying the underwater object is also a challenge we address in documents and
interpretation media relative to a specific underwater landscape.
7.4.4 Developing Underwater Block Diagrams:
“Bird’s Eye” or “Fish Eye” View?
There is no doubt in the profession that the block diagram is one of the best instruments for representing landscape in volume. A three-dimensional drawing of
an area, it shows the topographic contours crowned with the elements covering the
surface (vegetation, constructions, hydrography, etc.) and relevant to the perception
that makes it a landscape. It is “sensory”, as this is neither axonometry nor digital
modelling, no projections calculated according to laws of perspective and a rigorously exact scale. It is a subjective representation of an objective space, just like the
landscape it reveals. A block diagram combines the real measure of shapes, distances
and scales with subjective quantities. Without being exact, it can be precise, through
the attention paid to detail. It can be true to the atmospheres experienced on site.
And exhaustive? It is not designed to be: although reproducing the actual relief in
broad outline, this is to bring out the character of a given landscape and represent
the characteristic components. For example, while the tall, mast-like posidonia sea
grass is an indicator and a characteristic feature of the Mediterranean underwater
landscape, there is obviously no need to represent the entire population in the area
drawn. In landscape design, a block diagram does not claim or aim to have scientific
32 The managers of the Isla Muejeres National Marine Park in Mexico made no mistake in deciding to
work with artist Jason de Caires Taylor: he submerges sculptures which become gradually covered
with coral. They can be visited by snorkelling and the profits co-fund the nature reserve.
33 This aspect was carefully addressed at the Ozeanum sea museum in Stralsund, Germany: the
architecture was designed after the scenography, so that full-scale sculptures of whales could be
hung in a huge area ideal for acoustics and visitor flows via a network of walkways.