8 Underwater Landscapes in Comic Books
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8.2 The History of Landscape Models
The perception of landscapes is the result of an interaction between what is offered
to our senses by the territory (object) and the interpretation we are able to make via
our sensitivity (subject). This sensitivity is modelled by global level filters (history
of landscape models), local level filters (built in the memory of social relations) and
individual filters (from individual experiences).
Landscape models give a general framework to the perception of landscapes in
a given geographical and historical context: in Europe, considerable research has
shown the evolution of models from the 16th century to the present day
2 , from the
pastoral model of fertile countryside, to models of the magnificence of mountains
and coastline, then the picturesque model of natural curiosities, and finally the model
of the wilderness (Le Du-Blayo 2007). This wilderness model stands out very clearly
in contemporary interviews with populations in Europe, whatever the age and social
category of the person interviewed, as a counterpoint to agricultural, urban or industrial landscapes, often perceived as degraded by mankind. “It will be observed that
the reference to the virginity of the landscape is presented more precisely according
to two major models:
• The stereotype of paradise [. . .]
• The model of unpopulated wide open spaces (deserts, the high Arctic) which exalt
the passion of the pioneer, the confrontation with danger, the search for solitude,
and which comes back to the model of the sublime” (Luginbühl 2012).
Underwater landscapes come fully within the framework of the natural wilderness
model, forming a concentration of its principal criteria: the permanent absence of
human beings makes it a territory of exploration, and the strangeness of the surroundings and the difficulty of access associated with the underwater environment
result in a hazardous, even perilous landscape, where the excitement of discovery
and curiosity about the unknown are mingled with the thrill of fear.
The historian Alain Corbin has explained in detail why at a certain period (1750–
1840) the coastline, once considered to be ugly and repulsive, became in a few
decades the perfect setting for holidays (Corbin 1988). The history of the underwater
landscape has still to be written.
8.3 The Emergence of Underwater Landscapes
Like desert landscapes or those in regions of extreme cold, underwater landscapes
are constructed over the course of time by the combination of scientific explorations,
their economic development, and their use in the arts and leisure.
2 Landscapes and Modernity, Texts collected and presented by Aline Bergé and Michel Collot, 2007,
Ed. Ousia, p 393. Landscapes in the plural, An ethnological approach to landscapes, 1995, Ed. de
la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Ethnology of France Collection, Book 9, p 240.
121
8.2 The History of Landscape Models
The perception of landscapes is the result of an interaction between what is offered
to our senses by the territory (object) and the interpretation we are able to make via
our sensitivity (subject). This sensitivity is modelled by global level filters (history
of landscape models), local level filters (built in the memory of social relations) and
individual filters (from individual experiences).
Landscape models give a general framework to the perception of landscapes in
a given geographical and historical context: in Europe, considerable research has
shown the evolution of models from the 16th century to the present day
2 , from the
pastoral model of fertile countryside, to models of the magnificence of mountains
and coastline, then the picturesque model of natural curiosities, and finally the model
of the wilderness (Le Du-Blayo 2007). This wilderness model stands out very clearly
in contemporary interviews with populations in Europe, whatever the age and social
category of the person interviewed, as a counterpoint to agricultural, urban or industrial landscapes, often perceived as degraded by mankind. “It will be observed that
the reference to the virginity of the landscape is presented more precisely according
to two major models:
• The stereotype of paradise [. . .]
• The model of unpopulated wide open spaces (deserts, the high Arctic) which exalt
the passion of the pioneer, the confrontation with danger, the search for solitude,
and which comes back to the model of the sublime” (Luginbühl 2012).
Underwater landscapes come fully within the framework of the natural wilderness
model, forming a concentration of its principal criteria: the permanent absence of
human beings makes it a territory of exploration, and the strangeness of the surroundings and the difficulty of access associated with the underwater environment
result in a hazardous, even perilous landscape, where the excitement of discovery
and curiosity about the unknown are mingled with the thrill of fear.
The historian Alain Corbin has explained in detail why at a certain period (1750–
1840) the coastline, once considered to be ugly and repulsive, became in a few
decades the perfect setting for holidays (Corbin 1988). The history of the underwater
landscape has still to be written.
8.3 The Emergence of Underwater Landscapes
Like desert landscapes or those in regions of extreme cold, underwater landscapes
are constructed over the course of time by the combination of scientific explorations,
their economic development, and their use in the arts and leisure.
2 Landscapes and Modernity, Texts collected and presented by Aline Bergé and Michel Collot, 2007,
Ed. Ousia, p 393. Landscapes in the plural, An ethnological approach to landscapes, 1995, Ed. de
la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Ethnology of France Collection, Book 9, p 240.