1 Landscape, embodiment and visual impairment: an exploration of the limits of landscape knowledge HANNAH MACPHERSON and CLAUDIO MINCA* Newcastle University UK h.m.macpherson@ncl.ac.uk Paper Presented at the Forum UNESCO University and Heritage 10th International Seminar “Cultural Landscapes in the 21st Century” NewcastleuponTyne, 1116 April 2005 Revised: June 2006 * Departments of Architecture, Planning and Landscape and Geography, Politics and Sociology (respectively) Introduction Landscape has a whole range of meanings and associations. For researchers the uptake of these meanings can depend on disciplinary and professional affiliations as well as on research goals. In this paper we question some of the ways in which landscape has been thought about and conceptualized, with a focus on recent theoretical developments in the social sciences. In particular we scrutinize ideas of landscape as a territorial unit, a form of visualization and of interaction. We will then proceed to show how a combination of landscape concepts has aided research with visually impaired walkers in the Peak District and Lake District Landscapes of Britain, enabling an exploration of the diverse processes through which the material landscape is made relevant. Landscape as a ‘territorial unit’ For some scholars landscape is to be conceived as an object, as ‘a material thing’. It is something quantifiable and visible, unquestionably real since its existence does not depend on the presence of an observer: it may then be a measurable territorial unit or a particular ecological scale. The International Association of Landscape Ecologists adopts this concept of landscape and on their website under the heading “What is Landscape Ecology?” they explain: ‘Landscape ecology is the study of spatial variation in landscapes at a variety of scales’. Some of the core themes of landscape ecology are identified as: ‘the relationship between pattern and process in landscapes’ and ‘the effect of scale and disturbance on the landscape’ (http://www.landscapeecology.org ). According to this explanation, the landscape is an area or a territorial ‘container’ within which ecological patterns and processes might be identified. The idea of landscape as a territorial unit can be traced to the term’s use in Germanic languages and older forms of English (Mikesell 1968; Olwig 2002). Recently it has represented a common starting point for a range of crossdisciplinary approaches to landscape (Fry 2001; Scott 2002). Gary Fry, a key figure within landscape studies, argues that there has been an ‘emergence of landscape as a level of organisation in countryside management’ and goes on to suggest ‘landscape ecology in its broadest sense would appear to be the most promising candidate for the development of interdisciplinary theory applicable to multifunctional landscapes’ (Fry 2001, 160163,