Landscape Perspective

I’m very intrigued by how people of different cultures can view the same landscape in very different terms. The wilderness can be as seen as something to be feared and something to be awed by to something that should be celebrated. A College campus can be viewed as a place of positive by education by some or a breeding place of corrupt American values.

 It is interesting to note the context we place on the landscape as individuals. For example when I go backpacking in the mountains with my father I can’t help to view the forest as a playground. I imagine all the lines through the trees I could ski if they were piled high with snow. Meanwhile my father views the same trees and glades as an ecosystem, identifying the variety of plant species and listening to birdcalls. Neither perspective is “incorrect” they are just taken in vastly different context.  I feel these two views eerily mirror the differences in culture between American and Pueblo society. American’s view the potential of what a space can become and the Pueblo viewed what a space already is. Both my father and I, and the Pueblos and Americans, are trying to bring some sort order to the wilderness, but in vastly different ways. (there is also an interesting similarity in age: Father-Me, Pueblo-USA)