By: phil smith

phil smith — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:18:34 +0000

Having now visited Fountains I would agree with the idea that it bears the marks of an 18th century theatricalisation, a narrative of unfolding views, of stripped down sublime ruins and geometrical-symbolic plantings and excavations and halting of flow (reflections as impossible stages) – BUT, what also struck me was that there is almost nothing in the way of a script provided. The modern paths down to the ‘site’ from the Visitors Centre are misleadingly efficient and non-preparatory. Signs and written materials provide hints, but no coherence narrative of the drama of moving through the site. Perhaps what dominates is a kind of democratised-picturesque in which the visitor gets too close to the geometrical shapings and too enctangled in the ruins of scared/restricted chancels and backstages – is this what generates an encounter that some of saw on the edge of the deer park; a stag alternating between grazing and staring at the visitors gathering a few feet away to photograph it. Too welcoming, too empathetic, too sentimental. Little sense of ruin, ruined, ruining.

Comments on: Theatricalized microclimate

By: phil smith