In the current panorama of urban growth and planning in many urban territories of western societies; open spaces are residual spaces of urban occupation or are reserved for eventual occupation. Open spaces have been viewed in this manner in the earlier stages of the compact city and especially now; in a time of the dispersed territories characterized by discontinuity; heterogeneity; and fragmentation.The disciplinary perspectives of ecology; geology; landscape architecture; and urbanism; but also public opinion; have for some time promoted the conservation and protection of the most valuable natural spaces; and efforts have been made to remove such spaces from the real estate market. However; such positions; usually radical; are insufficient for territorial equilibrium and inevitably lead to the progressive disappearance of valuable natural spaces.
2012-08-11 2012-08-11File Name: B00A9YGY5W
Review
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Seismic catapultBy simon harveyterra Infirma mercillessly assails the fortifications that are built up around geography and art and their epistemelogical certainties. Yet there is so much more to this book than a long and noisy siege of old Jerichos. It refuses to be infiltrated by art that merely illustrates its arguments and goes beyond mapping out a ground for understanding identity; belonging and cultural geography. What makes for its content is what Rogoff calls an "interlocution" with a type of art that "constitutes" the viewing subject and engages with "geography in crisis". For me; the chapter on luggage and its attendant sign systems is the most brilliantly argued and the journalistic approach to Ana Mendietas silueta series; in a chapter on borders; the most evocative of the violence inherent in contemporary art. There are also a ruthless deconstruction of mapping and a sensitive historicisation of bodies in Palestine/Israel. One can tell from this that terra infirma does not neglect politics and is particularly attentive to feminist discourses. The terra firma of this work is its skillful deployment of critical theory and art historical analyses amongst the chaos and devastation of the geographies that she has undone. But this is a love-hate affair with geography. One senses that she has chosen a "geographical arena" in which to play out her games of "unlearning" and "unframing" because geography is such a fascinating and multifaceted spectacle but also because as an estabished old gladiator school of traditional learning it is ripe to be torn apart and remade over and over. As a journey it never arrives; which is as the author intends; but get shaken up by it along the way; it is a seismic trip.