Viewing, Presence and Public Visual Ethics Influence: On Theatricality of Contemporary Landscape Architecture Space

When landscape architecture is associated with the dramatic art, it is not confined to the figurative, empty formal language, but refers to richer, deeper relationship. The analysis and revelation of such deep correlation will help us carry out subject cognition and design practice from multiple perspectives. When we put “theatricality” in the context of landscape architecture, we may interpret it from the perspectives of “presence” and “viewing”: in the dimension of form, it takes the presence of the viewer’s body as a premise. At the dimension of connotation, it emphasizes the intention and idea behind the viewing behavior. Moreover, in the historical background featuring the rise of industry and technology, and the transformation of social relations, the public spatial relationship has also changed accordingly. The construction and communication of public visions have become an important means to realize the influence of social ethics. Accordingly, the public landscape space, as a theatrical space carrying the “presence” of the general public to have a “view”, needs to consider how to guide public consciousness by means of purposeful design. Based on the above connotation correlation, we cut in with the “theatricality” perspective and find that social justice, aesthetic guidance and potential information dissemination can be refined into three key words marking the turn of public visual ethics in contemporary landscape architecture practice. Their values are embodied in the form of visual discourse in the material spaces, while the declaration of civil rights and the education as well as guidance of natural ethics hidden behind them are spread in an invisible way to further places.