Canberra: ideal city, imagined city

Abstract

Canberra is now a century old, and locals are recovering from a year of centenary celebrations. One of the factors that emerged during this year was the gap between its two states of being: Canberra is both the national capit[al] – the ‘head’ of the nation; and at the same time a community's hometown. The centenary celebrations also generated discussion about its history, and the process of its development from territory, through ‘sheep paddock’, to at once a federal capital and a small regional city. To a large extent, this history is story: a set of possibilities and lines of thought that have coalesced in the idea of a capital. Expounding sometimes ideals and sometimes practicalities, and complying with policy, legislation and aesthetic theories, the initiators of Canberra established a way of living in, and thinking through, what it is to be within a landscape, within discourse and within particular ideas of history. We draw on insights from Jean Baudrillard, and Deleuze and Guattari, and reference the work of landscape architects and of historians, we discuss this history and explore the tension between the lived and the imagined Canberra.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. ‘1 the act of criticising the Australian federal government and its bureaucracy. 2 the act of criticising the city of Canberra or its inhabitants.’ (Oxford University Press, Oxford Australia Word of the Month, February 2013. http://andc.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/WOTM%20Canberra%20bashing.pdf, accessed 14 February 2014).

^3. Bryson has since changed his mind about the national capital, as reported by Bianca Hall for the Canberra Times, March 14, 2014.

^4. For an extensive discussion of the philosophical context and Leibniz's contributions, see Adams (1994).

^5. For a comprehensive history of the selection of the location, see Pegrum's (1989).

^6. Mahon (1911, 26), instructions to Charles Scrivener December 1908.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jen Webb

Jen Webb is distinguished Professor of creative practice, and inaugural Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on the relationship between the field of artistic production and the wider social domain. Her most recent book is Understanding Foucault: a critical introduction (2012; Allen & Unwin; with T Schirato and G Danaher).

Jordan Williams

Jordan Williams is Associate Dean Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. She produces animated poems that are usually focused on the city of Canberra and its history. Her research focuses on the ACT community, and issues related to community and cultural well-being.