The ordinary and everyday landscape

January 29, 2014 - 12:45pm by Amy Su

In Frameworks for Cultural Landscape Study, Paul Groth stresses the importance of cultural landscape studies to be all-inclusive, especially of the everyday spaces. He states, “How can we better understand ordinary environments as crucibles of cultural meaning and environmental experience. A critical word in this formulation is ordinary. Everyday experience is essential to the formation of human meaning…” Is it possible to capture the ordinary or every day if these are unique to each person? In the essay, Groth starts by defining the ordinary as the rural landscape but later claims that what’s most important is the all-inclusive study of cultural landscapes. Ordinary can be defined as whichever segment of society has been overlooked at a particular time. But again, is it possible to be complete when studying cultural landscapes and be sure that all landscapes are represented?