Drawing on Experience: Somatic Representations of Moving Through the Landscape

This investigation explores the transactional experience of moving through the landscape at speed. More specifically, the use of the continuous open skills involved in nature-sport activities to negotiate terrain and weather in order to experience the environment as part of rather than apart from. The representation of moving through a landscape is differentiated from traditional representations based on the paradigms of looking at or being in the environment. Richard Shusterman’s concept of embodied ‘somaesthetic perception’ and Arnold Berleant’s notion of ‘aesthetic engagement’ are presented as alternatives to the Kantian view of ‘aesthetic disinterest’ that informs traditional European landscape art. Studio outcomes synthesize GPS data and expressive drawing techniques to represent specific nature-sport experiences such as the 243 km alpine traverse of the Kathmandu Coast to Coast. The methodology draws upon the graphic precedents of Iannis Xenakis and Jorinde Voigt, and aesthetic strategies of contemporary infographics, to modify statistical data for the purpose of representing non-visual experiences