Refereed Full-Papers May 2012– Emergent Placemaking 29 ‘Fieldwork’: Pedagogic Approaches to the Experience of Travel and Place Peter Butler, peter.butler@mail.wvu.edu (West Virginia University) Abstract Travel and the road are central to the American cul- tural imagination (Kerouac, Miller, Steinbeck, Dylan, Least Heat Moon, etc). The ‘father’ of landscape archi- tecture as a profession, F.L. Olmsted, Sr. traveled exten- sively in southwest England and the southern states of America, informing and developing design sensibilities; and contemporary practitioners espouse the beneits of travel to their work and professional identity. Pedagogic approaches to travel in contemporary design educa- tion, speciically landscape architecture, may be drawn from multiple literatures converging, cross-pollinating and creating a necessarily trans-disciplinary approach. Cultural geography, ethnography, literary theory and criticism, anthropology, tourism analysis, history, ecol- ogy, geomorphology, landscape architecture, architec- ture, city and regional planning, etc. all present methods for site interpretation and analysis at various scales and in varying contexts. Hermeneutics (Corner 1991) has grown to become a core process in conceptualizing place from context in design process. Expanding curriculum in landscape architecture to include experiential learning (Spradley- McCurdy 1988) extends to critical pedagogy (McLaren 2007); critical landscape literacy (Shor 1992); radi- cal dislocation and immersion; and situated learning (Lave & Wegner 1991). To delve more deeply towards a multi-layered comprehension of landscape through experience, analysis, and interpretation allows the acknowledgment of the counter-cultural, cross-cultural, multi-cultural, trans-cultural nature of landscape. Travel facilitates training the students’ eyes (Lewis 2003) to see near-hidden layers in the palimpsest of place and allows direct response to the social and cultural aspects of space. These are the goals of roadwork, moving towards not a sense of mastery but a sense of wonder in and critical questioning of the built world. Building conidence in methods of observation and conceptu- alization through the process of informed travel and experience of place cultivates a holistic designer. As a trained reader of the text of place, the individual may then become a writer of place through design. While the pedagogic basis of the ‘ield trip’ has reached profound depth, mechanisms and mechanics for recording the experience of travel are necessarily ru- dimentary when on the road for weeks at a time. Travel- ing lightly with individual sketchbooks, cameras, pencil boxes, paints, charcoal sticks, etc.; remains the practi- cal approach. Text, sketch, frottage, and the drawing conventions of elevation, plan, section, and perspective are the primary modes of recordation, while the level of sophistication in framing activities expands expo- nentially. Through the revelation and experimentation with practices speciic to environmental analysis and interpretation, strategies for exercises with the primary goal of critical interpretation it the following contexts and draw from literature of listed authors: the road at speed (McPhee, Corner, Tschumi, etc); urban transect (Duany, Jackson, Clay, etc); urban pattern (Millanes, Kostof, Gandelsonas, etc); rural town (Engler, Lippard, Condon, Stilgoe, Lewis, Sayre, etc); and natural areas (Gould, Brown, Sams, Black Elk, etc). The framed ex- perience of place, seated in critical pedagogy, ingrains deeply the conscience of students and prepares them for critical practice. Sample framed experiences drawn from travel courses reveal complex responses to the politics of place. Introduction In developing curriculum for travel courses in design ields, multiple literatures converge and cross-pollinate, creating a necessarily trans-disciplinary approach. Cultural geography, literary theory and criticism, an- thropology, tourism analysis, history, ecology, geomor- phology, landscape architecture, architecture, city and regional planning, etc. all present methods for inter- pretation and analysis in experiential learning. Design ields are a dynamic of cultural inluences drawing from multiple traditions beyond the particular disci- pline under study. Expanding curriculum in landscape architecture to include experiential learning extends potentially to critical pedagogy, or the questioning of representation of place for supericial consumption. To delve more deeply towards a multi-layered conceptual- ization of landscape through experience, analysis, and interpretation allows the acknowledgment of the cross- cultural, multi-cultural, trans-cultural nature of land- scape. Hermeneutics as an active mode of inquiry in situ reveals the sometimes absurdity, sometimes genius of place. Seeing near hidden layers in the palimpsest of place; and ingesting, whether delicious or despicable, the social and cultural aspects of space; these are the goals of roadwork in the education of a young design student towards not a sense of mastery, but a sense of wonder in and critical questioning of the built world.