Back to Integrating Habitats… and the need for graphic representation techniques that are up to the challenges of representing time-based processes in viable ways. There are two polar opposites on the continuum – one is traditional graphic representation techniques, involving the ubiquitous rendered site plan, sketches, and such. The other is the deconstructed graphic that is both illegible and frustrating – or as i just heard – i am paraphrasing: inaccessible because it is essentially visual masturbation that only speaks to a select few in the intellectual realms. (this statement was specifically directed towards Alan Berger, but could nonetheless apply a fair number of folks when it comes down to it).

Representation is also tied closely with writing, which i’m interested in exploring further. I have slogged through some dense reading (and subsequent dense graphics) and am constantly amazed at the intellectual rigor of most writers on the subject of Landscape Urbanism. A part of me also yearns for a complex yet simplified style such a J.B. Jackson. Is the complexity necessary to convey the depth of concepts? Or is it a variant form – verbal masturbation – to elevate the writer to a higher plane of credibility?