Abstract
In The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, James Gibson argues that we see the world not just through our eyes but with the eyes in the head on the body moving on the ground. We “see” the world through a body fully engaged with the world. Gibson’s view aligns with embodied cognition in cognitive science and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the lived body in phenomenology. These perspectives expand the understanding of spatial experience — arguing that our perception of space is formed upon assumptions through bodily engagement with constantly changing contextual clues. In response to the unfolding and indeterminate nature of the perceptual process, designers of built environments can devise features that can effectively attend to our deep perceptual capabilities to keep us present and engaged in our experiences. This paper examines two design strategies often used in landscape designs: framing and sequence, to understand how they heighten our spatial experiences through our engaged body and bewildered eyes. Using Gibson’s ecological framework on perception, the study evaluates visitors’ experiences in two gardens: the Bloedel Reserve in the US and the Suzhou Lingering Garden in China. The analysis demonstrates that both gardens initiate dialogues between vision and motion by emphasizing their interdependences through framing and sequence, even though they differ in style and scale. By applying the theories of embodiment in phenomenology and cognitive science to landscape design practices, this paper establishes an analytical method that accounts for visitors’ perceptual experiences when examining landscape design strategies.
Presenters
Hongfei LiStudent, Interdisciplinary PhD in Built Environments, University of Washington, Washington, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Embodied Experience, Landscape Architecture, Design Theory, Cognitive Science, Visual Perception
