11297 Landscape Narratives

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Architecture
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level:

Undergraduate

Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10004 Bachelor of Design Architecture OR 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10325 Bachelor of Design Architecture Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation OR 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10413 Bachelor of Design Architecture Master of Architecture OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10423 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of Languages and Cultures OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C09079 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10271 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10272 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of International Studies OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10322 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.

Description

Travelling Geographies and Narrative Fields explores mobile landscapes through a framework of speculative cartography and narrative fabulation. Working with a range of experimental mapping and writing exercises that respond to contemporary ecological and atmospheric conditions of dust storms, smoke clouds, oil plumes and meteor showers, students develop projects in the form of speculative cartographies and narrative writing. This elective looks at ‘fieldwork’ as a dynamic process of charting shifting material, social, and spatial arrangements to create a reimagining of landscapes through their instabilities.

During this class, students are taken through a variety of analytical and sensory approaches to writing and mapping, where narrative offers both a method of observing changing landscape conditions and also a model for producing landscape imaginaries through text and image. This approach is supplemented with deep scientific and ecological research of each geography. From a list of specific case-studies – e.g. smoke from 2019-2020 fires landing on Aotearoa glacier, Geminids meteor shower, 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil plumes – students choose a ‘travelling geography’ to focus their projects on. Through a combination of independent research and class-based writing and mapping exercises, students develop a multifaceted project that investigates the complex conditions of mobile landscapes through the ecological, social, and spatial configurations they produce. The first half of this elective focuses on speculative writing practices as a method of narrating shifting landscapes. The second half of this elective engages experimental mapping processes in order to imagine new possibilities of ‘fieldwork’ in a changing world. The individual bodies of writing and mappings produced by each student is collated into a collective publication developed by the class as a whole.

At the conclusion of the elective students have an understanding of practical and theoretical approaches to narrative writing and critical spatial research – including scientific and interdisciplinary inquiry – and new skills in communication and design.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1.	Contribute constructively to the creation of collaborative and critically informed positions on topics relevant to landscape architecture, including their relationship to Colonisation and the climate emergency
2.	Communicate landscape ideas through a combination of representational forms and techniques, including drawings, verbal presentation and written text
3.	Use a conceptual framework and related methods to identify, describe and respond to the specificities of site and context
4.	Explore and articulate relational thinking of space, material, system and process at multiple scales

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

Critically employ specialised knowledge of ethical Indigenous research protocols when working with and for Indigenous peoples and communities. (A.1)
Advocate for landscape values to specialist and non-specialist audiences. (A.2)
Present critical arguments about how research informs and drives design practice. (C.1)
Innovate using emergent forms of landscape architectural practice, methods and technologies. (I.1)
Independently formulate and test complex ideas, arguments and rationales through designs. (R.2)
Challenge design conventions through scholarly research and investigative practice. (R.3)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:

C = communication and groupwork

A = attitudes and values

P = practical and professional

R = research and critique

I = innovation and creativity

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).

Teaching and learning strategies

In this course, students will explore analytical and sensory approaches to writing and mapping, using narrative to observe changing landscape conditions. The method will be enhanced by deep scientific and ecological research for each geography. Case studies, like the 2019-2020 fires' smoke on the Aotearoa glacier and the Geminids meteor shower, will guide students in choosing a 'travelling geography' for projects. Through independent research and class exercises, students will create projects investigating mobile landscapes, emphasising ecological, social, and spatial aspects. The first half focuses on speculative writing, while the second half engages in experimental mapping. Individual works will culminate in a collective publication.

Content (topics)

Independent Research

Analytical and Sensory Approaches

Narrative as a Tool

Narrative as a Model

Integration of Scientific and Ecological Research

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Narrative Fields

Intent:

Assessments involve the development of narrative writing and speculative mapping projects, which will culminate in the production and presentation of text and image-based webpages. Each student will develop their projects in response to a chosen ‘travelling geography’ case study: e.g. smoke from 2019-2020 fires, Geminids meteor shower, 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil plumes. Assessments are to be completed both in class and autonomously. Each class will engage creative writing and mapping exercises that will contribute to the development of work for assessment. Students will combine daily classwork with independent research to produce final outcomes for assessment.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2, 3 and 4

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

A.2, C.1, I.1 and R.2

Type:

Journal

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

50%

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical dimensions of creative and narrative practices, and engage a critical approach to complex social, environmental, and historical dimensions of landscapes	25	1	A.2
Ability to present creative material and contribute to class dynamic through oral, written and visual presentations in class (	25	2	C.1
Ability to demonstrate understanding of complex ideas related to mobile geographies through creative practice	25	4	I.1
Engage iterative research methods related to speculative landscape practice, in order to formulate new creative responses to geographies that move, through independent reading, writing, and material analysis	25	3	R.2

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Speculative Cartographies

Intent:

Task Description

Assessment 02 expands on the narrative writing and research techniques learnt in Assessment01 to develop an experimental cartography of each student’s chosen ‘travelling geography’. Students will conduct independent research into their case-study, which will be transformed through in-class mapping exercises and workshops. The final outputs produced may take the form of sound-maps, material gestures, archival arrangements, films or drawings.

Work will be presented as works-in-progress in class, and online on the class’s collective Travelling Geographies and Narrative Fields publication.

On completion of both assessments students will have developed new narrative and cartographic methods for understanding and communicating complex and dynamic landscapes, as well as technical skills in writing and design.

Task Deliverables

- Speculative cartography responding to chosen ‘travelling geography’, presented in class publication

- Developmental support work, notes, images, collected research etc.

- Class presentation of work by student