Landscape syncope: desire, power and the presence–absence of landscape

ABSTRACT

The article conceptualises the notion of the landscape syncope: a political landscape performance generated by desire, which affects landscape perception. The syncopal mode involves a core of absence that pertains to a topographical gap mediated by suspension, movement and revelation. The article explores three case studies that address designed and seemingly natural landscapes – the ‘ha-ha’ in the English landscape garden, the Baroque gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte, and the landscape of Israel’s eastern border. These case studies point to the scope of the landscape syncope, which operates as a counterpoint in the landscape. The analysis builds on an interdisciplinary inquiry that addresses the critical discourse on landscape, garden and art history, as well as critical psychoanalysis and cultural discourse. The discussion links the Lacanian notion of objet (petit) a and the structure of (partially satisfied) desire with the ambiguity and elusiveness of landscape, and its ontology of lack and absence. The article suggests the syncopal mode as an interpretation of landscape, as a manifestation of power and a political performance of desire.

KEYWORDS:

• Landscape syncope
• desire
• political landscape
• power
• present-absent
• objet (petit) a

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Shlomo Glass & Phany Balaban-Glass Foundation, the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion - IIT. Part of this work draws on the author's PhD thesis conducted in the Azrieli School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University. The author wishes to thank Prof. Arch. Eran Neuman for his guidance and support. Some arguments concerning the notion of the landscape syncope were also developed as part of the Lexicon for Political Theory, at the Minerva Humanities Center, Tel Aviv University. The author also wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editorial team for their thorough reading and valuable suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript. Any errors are the responsibility of the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 On landscape perceptions concerning conflictual and territorial disputes, see also Abramson (2009); Weizman (2007); Hochberg (2015).

2 https://www.lexico.com/definition/parallax

3 On the political aspect of landscape, see also Gailing and Leibenath (2017: 338); Till (2007); Stobbelaar and Pedroli (2011); Agnew, Mitchell and Toal (2003).

4 Italics and apostrophes appear in the original text.

5 The implementation of these notions in the context of the landscape discourse should be viewed within the wider discussion over the use of psychoanalysis in geography. See for example Sibley (2003); Thomas (2010); Kingsbury (2007); Philo and Parr (2003); Callard (2003).

6 Hunts (2012: 169) notes that the French term for the ha-ha, saut de loup (leap of the wolf) was first used by the French gardener Guillaume Beaumont in 1690 while designing the gardens of Levens Hall, England.

7 The border along the West Bank was set as part of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty signed in October 1994. Running from the Dead Sea to the northern checkpoint of the Green Line (1949 armistice agreement line). It has been defined as an administrative border with Jordan and has no international status, awaiting a trilateral agreement between Israel, Jordan and The Palestinian Authority that is yet to come (Srebro 2014).

8 With the exception of a 35-kilometre-long border fence north of Eilat.

9 For a further discussion of border landscapes, see Rumley and Minghi (1991); Rajaram and Grundy-Warr (2007); Brambilla (2015); Delle'agnese and Amilaht Szary (2015); Schimanski and Wolfe (2017).

10 For a further discussion of roads, movement, and national-ideological perceptions of landscape, see Dimendberg (1995); Merriman (2007); Merriman et al. (2008); Cresswell (2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Efrat Hildesheim

Efrat Hildesheim, PhD, is a landscape architect and a postdoctoral research fellow (2019–2021) at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. After several years of practice in the field, she graduated from the Young Artists Study Program in Arts, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. She holds an M.A. in arts and environment from Tel Aviv University, where she also earned her PhD. She specialised in Israeli landscape architecture as a research fellow at the Azrieli Architectural Archive, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2018–2019). Her interdisciplinary interests include Israeli landscape architecture, land art and conceptual art; critical landscape studies and critical theories; the theoretical discourse on roads, and critical border studies.