Jenny Woods to Niall Hobhouse
…mais qui va desherber?
Re: John Kennedy’s note - I was also quite offended by the designer/plantsman statement when I first read my way through this website - and also quite surprised by it given the project background. Now with better knowledge of the people and processes I can separate the architects from the Architect and realise that the statement is not your own belief. However John then falls into the same trap himself in his list of requirements for the project. I’m sure there must be people who are as offended by the splitting of ecologist and philosopher/ poet into separate bodies (Noel?) as John and I were by the splitting of designer/planstman. I note he hasn’t listed gardener as a required team member….
Of course you will need more than one person to complete the whole creative project, but I still think the aim of the competition to find someone who can lead it by living in, working with and loving the space for several years is the right one. As the website now states, the winner will be given the support they need and will be interesting to see how the required skill-set evolves - it may be that the shortlisting process thows up candidates with complementary skills who are able to work together - or you may find a paragon who can undertake all the tasks. I think you need gardening’s equivalent of a William Morris - one who can develop a new design style, yet who obtains pleasure from working with their hands and living with the results of their labour.
I’m afraid I saw the FOA essay ‘On Landscape’ as too dire to take very seriously. I look forward to reading the Keywords essay on Nature when it arrives on the site. Having read Tim’s essay on Psychotopia last week five pages shouldn’t be too much of a challenge!
Perhaps indeed in the absence of a discourse they are in paradise.
This brought back a long-lost memory. When I was a child my grandparents had a series of books entitled “The Children’s Book of the World” which were full of educational essays and such things as photos of babies floating on leaves of Victoria amazonica and instructions for making origami water-bombs - some of this stood me in good stead as I grew up! I remember one particular picture illustrating the saying “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise” with a boy dismantling his sister’s doll to prove to her that it was just material stuffed with straw and not a living thing. The girl was not appreciating this. I think it’s an illustration of the responses to this project and the discussions around it. There are people who are very happy with their dolls/gardens and don’t see the point of dismantling them; there are those who like to be deliberately, almost destructively, challenging to the precious object not caring who they upset; but I see the aims as attempting to take a middle way - being intrigued by taking things apart in order to find out how they work - not meaning to upset anyone with these enquiries - and aiming for a higher state of bliss when its all put back together again.