Iconographical landscape warfare

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 Landscape Research Group Ltd. Iconographical landscape warfare is one example of conflict that refers to a broad spectrum of encounters between opposing social groups who share a common reading of cultural landscapes. This 'warfare' ranges from expressions of violent force to seemingly banal everyday practices. Iconographical landscape warfare works through a dual process of denaturalising/renaturalising landscapes, where the interpretations of certain features are either erased or reinforced. I offer an overview of three examples: firstly, the case of a palimpsest in Seoul, where the dispute over a particular cultural land scape icon revealed tensions between two social groups; secondly, the deployment of symbolically antagonistic landscape objects in Hong Kong within a single social group with a unified reading of the cultural landscape; finally, a conflict surrounding an iconic landmark in Auckland. Taken together, these examples reveal the way objects can be deployed in a landscape to affect change, and how these actions are often resisted and subverted.