Landscaping and Shaping
Perhaps it is all part of ruling and subduing?
Perhaps so, but that doesn’t answer the question ‘why this form?’
That humanity has been given a a mandate to landscape our surroundings does not relieve the question about the shape to which we’re ‘scaping.
I suppose one answer would be that the Garden of Eden was in fact much like Constable’s Wivenhoe Park or some other English Parkland, and we are all sub-consciously seeking to recreate the earthly paradise.
Tough, if your taste in topiary is of a Japanese clip…
I’m not sure that an argument from creation does more than allow us to smuggle in our own cultural tastes as universal values.
After all, humanity had occupied this continent for thousands of years before European colonisation, and yet there weren’t a lot of English-style gardens.
The shape to which we’re ‘scaping – whether Landscaping or Manscaping – has something to do with the relation between Art and the World…
which in turn has something to do with the power of Cinema…
and lurking in the chaos are idols, likenesses, and The Image.
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see, you should have studied art history.
Sigh. There seems to be theology and reflections of the creator and his good intent everywhere: landscapes, art, cinema, history, politics, health & fitness, even in management. And yet the one place where I fail to see glimpses of my creator is in my own specialisation, namely IT. Try as I might, the closest I can come is that coding is like any creative endeavour, bringing order out of chaos, and thus a little reflection of the Creator. But even there it seems a poor cousin of the arts, architecture, medicine and engineering. Then again, perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.
There's also certainly much to see in the use of blogs and forums to create virtual community in the absence of 'real' community. But even that is more of a byproduct of IT—an observed usage—rather than something essential to its nature.
Perhaps IT is of the devil, or maybe just a theological non-entity. Then again, I suspect I'm just a lazy thinker.