This chapter provided further explanation of opportunities to implement strategies for mnemonic response in the landscape. These strategies prompted the observer to notice more for an enhanced remembrance. Film allowed me to combine all the elements discussed in this thesis, draw them together and interpret how they reacted with each other. I analysed memory and culture and examined the complexities of their
relationship. With theory as a platform, film could also be interpreted and
manipulated specifically to the Avon River, as I focused on familiar physical elements of site, such as texture and sensory qualities. I did this in the hopes of sparking a response of remembrance and insight into how Christchurch was before the
earthquakes. This also prompted feelings of nostalgia as film reveals layers of time passing on the landscape’s scarred skin. Overall the application of film as a strategy in my research allowed for interpretive expression through time. This highly personal tool considers how individuals reflect and remember, and how the landscape often becomes a focal point or anchor, projecting remembrance through cognitive and physical dimensions. The significance of this as an interpreter allowed me to evoke remembrance, and its sensitivities through film connecting the reader to not only visual perceptions of site, but also unseen qualities vital to the connection and assertion of remembrance in the landscape.
6.1 An overview
Throughout this research, I have developed an understanding of the highly personal nature of interpretive analysis that I have interwoven through my discussion of theory. As Attoe explains, “the interpretive critic seeks to mould others’ vision to make them see as he does.” (Attoe, 1978, p. 49). I have not forced my views upon the reader, rather proposed new connections through interpretive techniques, allowing the reader to look upon landscape and memory differently. I have sought to interpret metaphoric connections to landscape and memory, which may not have been analysed in-depth in the past. The interpretive method allowed me to position my research in such a way, enabling “a new perspective on the object, a new way of seeing it: usually by
changing the metaphor through which we see the building.” (Attoe, 1978, p. 49) Using landscape, memory, and the implications for society and culture as a basis for research I was able to explore and examine insights from these areas and use film as a method for their interpretation. Through this I illustrated opportunities for
engagement between these bodies of thought, developing landscape and memory narrated through film. Film also allowed the interpretation and emphasis of specific landscape elements, in order to promote active remembrance, through the simple act of ‘noticing’ in the landscape. This strategy allowed me to highlight varying aspects of landscape and memory, connecting obscure areas of these theories for further examination.
The Avon River was a canvas for highlighting techniques and metaphors in a physical setting. Through my research I revealed that site itself was less important, as the main objective of this research was to look at opportunities for connections between
landscapes and memory through remembrance. Limiting the specificity with site, allows this process to be transferable to other landscapes, not just the Avon River. Although this technique is transferable, applying it to landscapes that have
Below I will discuss in more depth the concluding arguments for this thesis. I will reflect on the process, the success of the questions posed to mould the research process, as well as recommending opportunities for future directions for research. Primary –
• How can post-earthquake design responses on the Ōtākaro - Avon River in Christchurch, New Zealand work to evoke processes of remembrance? Secondary –
• How can I utilise interpretive methodologies to connect memory and culture in the landscape?
• What insights does memory theory offer to this project?
• How can cultural and social responses be sensitively interpreted and integrated along the Ōtākaro - Avon River, with particular reference to tāngata whenua? Final –
• How might film be an effective tool for the representation of the active engagement between people, memory and landscape?
The significance of posing these questions allowed an articulation of important
themes and threads to pull through this research. Funneling important questions down, from primary, secondary and final questions linked to the need to circle back and be reflective on the research process, rather than looking upon the research in a linear fashion. Drawing upon important theoretical connections such as the origins of memory, cultural constructs and possible applications in the landscape was important as it posed new possibilities to assert these themes in the landscape and to articulate their presence through film. As designers we can use film as a method for interpreting memory layers in the landscape and consider design responses to aid remembrance in the context of post-earthquake Ōtākaro – Avon River.