Routes and roads make their way into and across the landscape; defining it as landscape and making it accessible for many kinds of uses and perceptions. Bringing together outstanding scholars from cultural history; geography; philosophy; and a host of other disciplines; this collection examines the complex entanglement between routes and landscapes. It traces the changing conceptions of the landscape from the Enlightenment to the present day; looking at how movement has been facilitated; imagined and represented and how such movement; in turn; has conditioned understandings of the landscape. A particular focus is on the modern transportation landscape as it came into being with the canal; the railway; and the automobile. These modes of transport have had a profound impact on the perception and conceptualization of the modern landscape; a relationship investigated in detail by authors such as Gernot BAtilde;para;hme; Sarah Bonnemaison; Tim Cresswell; Finola OKane; Charlotte Klonk; Peter Merriman; Christine Macy; David Nye; Vittoria Di Palma; Charles Withers; and Thomas Zeller.
#714506 in eBooks 2016-11-10 2016-11-10File Name: B01MXDIXG8
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Crying for a VisionBy Gord WilsonI picked this book up in a bookstore. and got so engrossed reading it that I bought it. As I write. three people have given it five stars. Five people could give it three stars. One of the blurbs in the front of the book notes that the author has read a lot of books. What he takes from them is fascinating. but what is more fascinating is what he takes from his life. as lived at the collision of faith and art. Books like this always raise questions for me. Who is this book for? Ill answer that myself. id say its for younger people who did not grow up in what he calls the post WW II Evangelical subculture. To the degree that he tells his own story. its quite interesting. Where. in my opinion. books like this overreach is in cutting far too wide swaths and taking too great leaps of history. I think it is a mistake to be talking about modernism and then bring in postmodernism (without defining it). not bothering to note they are 100 years apart. Or to mention Walt Whitman and Jack Kerouac in the same sentence (who are also 100 years apart).It was inevitable that the author would resort to shop talk either on the Evangelical front or about the art scene. In this case. its the latter. I wondered when he would bring in Marshall McLuhan. the Catholic Canadian media guru who coined phrases like "The medium is the message". But when he did mention him. it was one sentence in passing. as if we all knew who he was (Im guessing some of us dont). Perhaps he makes an appearance later on. but the first meeting is the best time for introductions. If you ask me why this book is like that. its a problem of editing. which all recent books seem to have. and also because this book. like most good books is a series of essays. Publishers dont like essays. so they insist that the authors pad them and pass them off as a book. For myself. Id rather the padding was pulled out and I could read the terse. gripping essays. however brief (and brief does not bother me-- would that this book was half as long).If someone were to stand in a store and read this (like I did). Id suggest the chapter. "People of the Book and the Image" and probably the finale chapter. Now I play my hand. Im a recent Catholic convert. The tortured tone that Evangelicals always have in writing about art is because they have no theology to support them. Catholics have sacramental theology. The seven sacraments are the primary means of grace. but they also view the entire universe and the realm of Creation sacramentally. Man may be fallen. but creation is still good. We are physical beings. Thus the candles. incense. stained glass windows. carved cruciifxes. and bouquets of flowers in Catholic worship.A book like this cannot help but retread ground. and I list a few companion books below. But what it offers is an exploration. There are numerous black and white photos of artworks. and a few color plates. not exactly to support a thesis by the author. but to bring the reader into the discussion on the same page. as it were. Also copious footnotes. both to reference works cited. and provide a helpful gloss to the text. Theres a very good quote from Jaroslav Pelikan. for instance. in a footnote. The author is at his best in presenting us with an artwork or artist. and helping us to consider it or them from his own viewpoint or experience. The fire is strongest in this book when the artist in the author takes hold of the pen and beats down the academic (who he likely has to wrest it from).The subtitle of this book greatly resembles an excellent (and rather simpler) book by Steve Turner entitled "Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts" also published by InterVarsity Press. My title for this review is the title of a book by British artist and musician. Steve Scott (who is also or has been a member of CIVA). As for the sacramental aesthetic. the very best writer on the topic was an Evangelical and became a Catholic. so his writing displays the best of both worlds. I refer to the inimitable Thomas Howard. author of many apologetics books. but I here refer to "Chance or the Dance" and "On Being Catholic".0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Working Creatively in the Tension Between Art and FaithBy Robert C. TrubeThe world of modern art. and the world of faith. particularly evangelical Christian faith have often been at odds with. or not even in conversation with each other. This is the challenge the author has wrestled with since his teenage years as an aspiring artist who embraced the evangelical faith in which he was raised. In the introduction. he describes his own struggle with the absence of mentors. the disregard of his church for the visual arts. and the parallel hostility toward religious faith he encountered in the art world.Much of this work explores the tensions between evangelical faith and modern art. Anderson contends that these collisions of faith and art may ldquo;reveal a third way. a great vista where biblical and theological reflectionndash;especially the doctrines of creation and incarnationndash;become the wellspring of inspiration.rdquo; Each of his chapters includes models of this kind of biblical and theological reflection that serve. not to give definitive answers. but to point other artists who wrestle with the same tensions toward this ldquo;third wayrdquo; in the practice of their art. Indeed. his conclusion is an invitation to both the church and artists to embrace this work. and for artists to give themselves as called people to the work of culture-making and good studio practice. He writes.ldquo;hellip;the artists whom most of us deem to be successful share a common traitndash;they do the work. At some point they set romantic ideas about being an artist to the side and commenced doing the artistrsquo;s work. Arriving at this place requires one to accept delayed gratification. the awkwardness that is sure to come from making bad art and the reality of negative cash flow. Pushing beyond distraction and discouragement. they accomplished something Herculeanndash;they pushed beyond musing and imagining to establish regular studio practices. to take on habits of makingrdquo; (p. 252).Cameron Anderson is executive director of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) and what he offers in this book is nothing less than an analysis of the recent history of the visual arts and the challenges and opportunities for Christians who are called to work in this field._______________________________Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher . I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An Exploration of Culture and the Visual ArtsBy Scott WilsonThe Faithful Artist is far more than an exploration of issues Christians have encountered as they have intersected the visual art world in the last 50 years ndash; although it is that. It is a tour de force of Western cultural in the late 20th and early 21st century. Anderson writes with insight and uses his broad knowledge of art and writing to raise thought provoking questions about taste. truth. beauty. faith. and the place artists have in shaping/making our world. Irsquo;m personally thankful for challenges the book had for me.
