Review of articles

"The Machine in the Garden" by Leo Marx

      This article investigates the divorce between man and nature, which was most evident in the wake of the Industrial Revolution.  The widespread use of manufacturing, expedited by the steam engine, improved production facilities, advanced tools and machines, and complete disregard to their affects on the landscape, all contributed to the this separation.  This divorce was prompted by man's attempt to dominate nature.  Marx cites several authors of this time, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, in order to illustrate this point.  In several of Hawthorne's works, fervent Puritanism is associated with iron; the Industrial Revolution might also have been dubbed the age of iron.  In "Moby Dick," Melville personifies the characters Ahab and Ishmael as agents of industry.  While Ahab becomes consumed by it, Ishmael is saved like Jonah in the Old Testament, to warn others not to share Ahab's fate.  "The natural sun" references an association with God and all things natural.  By embracing and respecting the natural forces, salvation is attained.

      Marx's writing is logical, enjoyable, and easy to digest.  His navigation of the subject matter combined with the clear and direct language allow his thoughts to be easily accessible to the reader unfamiliar with history or literary criticism.  Marx's intent is to inform the reader rather than pontificate from an academic soapbox.  Bravo.

"The Concept of Transparency" by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky

      Authors Rowe and Slutzky examine the concept of transparency as an artistic and design element in art and architecture.  Transparency, as defined by Grygory Kepes, is a conundrum or paradox.  When the viewer is confronted with two overlapping objects occupying the same place, the objects simultaneously share the space and meld to become one without the destroying one another.  In this process, they become transparent.  Examination of the cubist paintings, literature, and modern architecture further expound this idea, specifically Picasso's "The Clarinet Player," Barque's "The Portuguese," writings by James Joyce, as well as the Bauhaus and League of Nations buildings.  A dichotomy between an implied sense of transparency, cubism and Joyce's writings that are full of double and triple entendre, and a real or more apparent transparency, such as glazed or reflective building materials, creates a rich scenic feast for the viewer to consume.

      Within the context of landscape architecture, the title of this article alone is enticing.  However, a neophyte in the fields of heady architectural and artistic criticism quickly finds themselves out of their league when reading Rowe and Slutzky's work.  The discussion of the Bauhaus and League of Nations buildings is easier to follow and visualize than the examination of the cubist paintings.  This is due to the inherent differences of the two media.  Architecture, at some point, must become real and tangible in three dimensions.  A painting, while it too is real, may be so steeped in layers of concept, metaphor, obscure symbolism, double entendre, etc. that it is accessible only to the elite of the art world and completely incomprehensible to the layperson.  Perhaps if this article was in the format of a lecture accompanied with multiple images of the works cited, a reader with little to no exposure to art and architecture would better glean the knowledge imparted by Rowe and Slutzky.

"Challenging the Pictorial: Recent Landscape Practice" by Julia Czerniak

      Czerniak begins this article by looking at the established conventions of landscape architecture, especially the eighteenth century English garden.  What is lacking in most cases is a deficit of transition from the existing landscape to the contrived landscape of the garden.  Almost all of the tried and true practices to execute and define a space are exhausted and weak.  This succinct, scathing, and sweeping judgement sets the tone for the rest of the review.  Czerniak evaluates the merit of the three books, "Taking Measures Across the American Landscape," "Hargreaves: Landscape Works," and "Adriann Geuze: WEST 8 Landscape Architecture."   In "Taking Measures Across the American Landscape," James Corner presents multiple representations of the same subject in aerial photographs and various maps, sometimes successfully, other times distractingly.  Hargreave's book showcases his works, landscapes that have a commitment to the historical and ecological implications that are specific to each site.  Czerniak is complimentary of the work itself, but not of the layout of the book.  Her examination of "Adriann Geuze: WEST 8 Landscape Architecture" reveals an abandonment on Geuze's behalf to explain and correlate the diagrams, maps, and photographs of his Dutch landscape architecture.  While the work itself is thorough and excellent, she is displeased with the work of Geuze as an author, rather than Geuze the landscape architect.

      A reader that has only read Czerniak's review to determine whether they should spend their time reading the books cited would speculate that her criticism is valid but harsh.  While she does acknowledge credit when it is due, Czerniak's criticisms far outweigh her praise.  The jabs at Geuze's character, while they may be accurate, are off-putting to the reader.  This mudslinging accomplishes nothing, as it makes the reader reluctant to read Geuze's work and and reduces Czerniak's credibility as a unbiased judge.  Her analysis of these works raises the question, Ms. Julia Czerniak, how many books cataloging your own work have you published and is your work without flaws?