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Preliminary remarks (Dieter D. Genske and Susanne Hauser)
Waste is a matter of concern for all of us. In this lecture we will try to analyse the different dimensions of this complex topic with special regards to its semiotic implications. We will address the topic from two different perspectives in line with the disciplines that we represent: the view of a cultural scientist (Susanne Hauser) and the view of a natural scientist (Dieter D. Genske). This makes the following analysis a transdisciplinary one. We have tried to stage this lecture in the form of a classical dialogue, giving every side enough room to expand and to develop a line of argumentation typical for the discipline represented.
We have chosen this topic since we have been dealing with waste and derelict land throughout our own biographies, be it from the consulting side to process and recycle waste, be it as land redeveloper for the International Building Exhibition IBA Emscherpark (Germany), or as historian and semiotician interested in symbolic and material practices related to refuse of different qualities. We met the first time in the mid 1990s, when we prepared a workshop to take place at the International Congress on Semiotics in Dresden Germany. This workshop brought together architects and engineers, geographers and philosophers, artists and planers to discuss the semiotics of derelict land (Genske and Hauser 2002). We learned during this workshop that there is much more to say about the semiotics of waste and wasteland, and we consequently decided to launch this initiative. It is a first essay, which will mature with every feedback that we receive from you. This aspect makes this project both innovative and exiting.
The course is structured in eight lectures. The first lecture addresses the codes of waste and the codes of degradation. Lecture two explains how signs of degradation are interpreted in order to investigate derelict terrain. The third lecture focuses on the integration of signs of former use and degradation into future use. A conceptual frame for semiotic approaches to redevelopment is discussed in the fourth lecture, which is further developed in the fifth lecture by making a turn to history. Lecture six provides some examples for this approach whereas lecture seven presents the turn to nature, with examples given in the eighth lecture.
References:
Genske DD, Hauser S (2002) A transdisciplinary approach to rehabilitate urban land (Die Brache als Chance. Ein transdisziplinärer Dialog über verbrauchte Flächen). Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York , 250p.
1 Introduction
1.1 Preliminary remarks
Aim of the course and its structure. Prerequisites. Course material and preparatory readings.
1.2 Codes of waste
Sources and types of wastes, historical perspective, waste characterisation, waste statistics, modelling of waste production and waste flows. Transformation of waste into goods. From waste production to land degradation.
1.3 Codes of degradation
Impacts of resource exploitation on the resource land. Impact of resource transformation on the resource land. Impacts of waste production on the resource land. Signs of impacts: maps, aerial photos, building permits, accident reports, contamination surveys, faunal diversion, etc.
2 Interpretation of signs of degradation for site investigation
Historical analysis, field reconnaissance, field investigation. Crisp signs and fuzzy signs. Hazard analysis.
3 Integration of signs of former use and degradation into future use
Types of future use. Rehabilitation approaches. Ways of integrating signs of former use and degradation into future use.
4 Semiotic approaches to redevelopment - a conceptual frame
Concepts of dereliction. Structural relations between order and dereliction, waste and garbage. Concepts of frames, borders and transgressions.
5 Redevelopment I: The turn to history
5.1 Industrial archaeology and its impact
The first semiotic approach to derelict land: Industrial Archaeology. A short account of its history, its methods and concepts. Its relation to concepts of memory, tradition and identity.
5.2 Museology
The transformation of industrial relics into valuable objects: a sign-process. Its characteristics and its complexity. On how to invent a museum of industry and define its contents. The (re)creation of industrial sites as places of attraction.
5.3 Interpretations
Creating new contexts: Ways of embedding the (industrial) history and its remains into present day developments and structures. Marketing and the turn to history: Ways of presenting the history of derelict sites as attraction.
6 Examples: The turn to history
Three case-studies from the United States of America and from Western European countries.
7 Redevelopment II: The turn to nature
7.1 The aesthetics of postindustrial nature
Rereading the Book of Nature. The discovery of (post)industrial nature and its impact on the idea and the aesthetics of nature. Legal and other consequences.
7.2 Consequences for postindustrial design
The semiotic concept of the environmental model. Planning and design for derelict sites as a process of rereading nature. The impact of ecological studies on post-industrial design. Post-industrial nature and its relation technology.
7.3 Postindustrial Landscapes
The traditional notion of landscape. The semiotic and aesthetic impacts of the traditional concept of landscape. Landscape today: The rediscovery of landscape as a methodological concept. Its application to derelict land in the arts and in planning.
8 Examples: The turn to nature
Three case-studies from the United States of America and from Western European countries.
Preparatory readings in English:
- Genske DD 2002Urban land - Degradation-Investigation-Remediation. Springer, Heidelberg (to be published September 2002).
- Hauser S (2001/2) Derelict Land in European Cities. Concepts and Designs 1960-2000, in: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte 2001/2, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 55-64.
Preparatory readings in German:
- Genske DD & S Hauser 2002 (eds) S, Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York (in print). Die Brache als Chance (Derelict land as a chance). Proceedings of the workshop Consumed spaces - on the semiotics of abandoned land, 7. International Congress of the IASS-AIS, Dresden, 1999 (in print).
- Hauser S 2001, Metamorphosen des Abfalls. Konzepte für alte Industrieareale. Frankfurt/New York: Campus
Preparatory readings in French:
- Augustin Berque et al 1994, Cinq positions pour une théorie du paysage. Seyssel: Éditions Champs Vallon.
- Maystre LY & V Duflon 1994. Déchets urbains. Presses polytechniques et universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 219p.
Send comments or questions to Dieter Genske:
dgenske@swissonline.ch
Send comments or questions to Susanne Hauser:
susanne.hauser@rz.hu-berlin.de