Comments for The Human Landscape http://www.montcocher.com Tracing mankind's presence in the landscape - from megalthic monuments to today Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:10:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 Comment on A sense of mystery by Doug Selway http://www.montcocher.com/2009/04/25/a-sense-of-mystery/comment-page-1/#comment-1289 Doug Selway Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:10:55 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=26#comment-1289 Thanks for the thoughtful observations and mostly for the company on that amazing few days working in Normandy. Like in all the most interesting subjects for work the resonances are small and big at the same time. Big ones are about the place and the things there, small about the moments of my own life. My dad and his generation held a story that is shredding away into the past. I can hear and see that process happening. My childhood London was still broken by the second world war, buildings etched by shrapnel the intimate details of wallpaper, fireplaces and staircases hanging in the open air. You still find those marks of you know where to look, but as you'd expect, nobody looks. I've just posted a new blog about the Shared Horizons project - Bill Brody and I will be working on the Isle of Skye in September - making paintings, drawings and prints about one of the oldest landscapes in the world. Somebody told me the Cuillins have the oldest surface rock anywhere. Thanks for the thoughtful observations and mostly for the company on that amazing few days working in Normandy.

Like in all the most interesting subjects for work the resonances are small and big at the same time. Big ones are about the place and the things there, small about the moments of my own life. My dad and his generation held a story that is shredding away into the past. I can hear and see that process happening. My childhood London was still broken by the second world war, buildings etched by shrapnel the intimate details of wallpaper, fireplaces and staircases hanging in the open air. You still find those marks of you know where to look, but as you’d expect, nobody looks.

I’ve just posted a new blog about the Shared Horizons project – Bill Brody and I will be working on the Isle of Skye in September – making paintings, drawings and prints about one of the oldest landscapes in the world. Somebody told me the Cuillins have the oldest surface rock anywhere.

]]> Comment on Le Menhir de la Roche by sheila hilton http://www.montcocher.com/2007/10/28/gorron/comment-page-1/#comment-1228 sheila hilton Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:45:41 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=5#comment-1228 Hi,we lived in gorron for 3 years ,in fact i went to language classes in gorron with Carol who I guess is related to you. We tried to find the roche several times but were always confronted by cows or electric fences. We will print off your instructions and try again next time we come to gorron. We sold up and came back to uk 18 months ago but my heart will always be in that lovely peaceful area of France. We visit as often as we can and meet up with all our friends both english and french who made us so welcome. Your photography is really good you capture the true essence of the view. Hi,we lived in gorron for 3 years ,in fact i went to language classes in gorron with Carol who I guess is related to you.
We tried to find the roche several times but were always confronted by cows or electric fences.
We will print off your instructions and try again next time we come to gorron.
We sold up and came back to uk 18 months ago but my heart will always be in that lovely peaceful area of France. We visit as often as we can and meet up with all our friends both english and french who made us so welcome.
Your photography is really good you capture the true essence of the view.

]]> Comment on The right approach by Panoramas : the difference between DNA and a love letter | Signapse http://www.montcocher.com/2007/12/01/the-right-approach/comment-page-1/#comment-290 Panoramas : the difference between DNA and a love letter | Signapse Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:37:22 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=20#comment-290 [...] Mansfield-Devine. He’s working on a landscape photography project he’s calling called Modern Megaliths.  His work is also about 20th century residual stuff but facing the opposite way on the French [...] [...] Mansfield-Devine. He’s working on a landscape photography project he’s calling called Modern Megaliths.  His work is also about 20th century residual stuff but facing the opposite way on the French [...]

]]> Comment on The right approach by doug selway http://www.montcocher.com/2007/12/01/the-right-approach/comment-page-1/#comment-12 doug selway Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:44:26 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=20#comment-12 Spot on with the references - this project of yours has seriously revived my interest in this landscape work. ALso prompted a memory that as a really young child I remember them building a regional seat of government (ie a nuke proof bunker for the brass in the event they really did get round to that last bit in their job descriptions). It was a long and noisy excavation in some allotments by the sewage farm which was at the back of our flat in Manor Park. It frightened me - I had nightmares about it even though none of us knew what it was. Would like to go back there and do some drawing ... Spot on with the references – this project of yours has seriously revived my interest in this landscape work. ALso prompted a memory that as a really young child I remember them building a regional seat of government (ie a nuke proof bunker for the brass in the event they really did get round to that last bit in their job descriptions). It was a long and noisy excavation in some allotments by the sewage farm which was at the back of our flat in Manor Park. It frightened me – I had nightmares about it even though none of us knew what it was. Would like to go back there and do some drawing …

]]> Comment on Part of the landscape by Andy Burnham http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/30/part-of-the-landscape/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Andy Burnham Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:08:27 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=10#comment-11 The NT are such crashing snobs. It's probably because it was a Ford Sierra, if it had been a Mercedes you'd have been OK :) Great article and blog. Andy The NT are such crashing snobs. It’s probably because it was a Ford Sierra, if it had been a Mercedes you’d have been OK :) Great article and blog.
Andy

]]> Comment on Carnac day 5: the best alignment by Catherine Wilson http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/27/carnac_5/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Catherine Wilson Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:25:40 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=15#comment-10 Hi there! Congratulations for this beautiful page. I have been to Carnac, and your photos really capture the magic of the place. If you follow the link, you will see a link to your page in good place on our Morbihan page. Thanks for sharing this visit. And I have to say I am 100% with you on guide books. I am a long time Michelin guide fan. Hi there!

Congratulations for this beautiful page. I have been to Carnac, and your photos really capture the magic of the place. If you follow the link, you will see a link to your page in good place on our Morbihan page. Thanks for sharing this visit. And I have to say I am 100% with you on guide books. I am a long time Michelin guide fan.

]]> Comment on Carnac day 4: Locmariaquer and Kerlescan by steve http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/24/carnac_4/comment-page-1/#comment-8 steve Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:09:54 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=14#comment-8 The alignments are not close to the shore, and in neolithic times would have been even further away from it (sea level has risen about 6 metres since then). Another (to me) interesting aspect of the Carnac alignments is that they don't really 'join up'. If you look at them on a map, you will see that: a) most of the lines curve, as opposed to being straight; and b) each set of alignments seems to 'point' in a slightly different direction. These characteristics would cause problems, I believe, for people trying to see them as astronomical instruments of some kind. My own, purely instinctive response to these sites is that their function was ceremonial. There is a sense of ritual that one gets from progressing down the lines of stones from the smallest to the largest. But who knows? One idea is as good as another with these enigmatic monuments. The alignments are not close to the shore, and in neolithic times would have been even further away from it (sea level has risen about 6 metres since then).
Another (to me) interesting aspect of the Carnac alignments is that they don’t really ‘join up’. If you look at them on a map, you will see that: a) most of the lines curve, as opposed to being straight; and b) each set of alignments seems to ‘point’ in a slightly different direction. These characteristics would cause problems, I believe, for people trying to see them as astronomical instruments of some kind.
My own, purely instinctive response to these sites is that their function was ceremonial. There is a sense of ritual that one gets from progressing down the lines of stones from the smallest to the largest. But who knows? One idea is as good as another with these enigmatic monuments.

]]> Comment on Carnac day 4: Locmariaquer and Kerlescan by Fern Shoemaker http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/24/carnac_4/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Fern Shoemaker Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:52:57 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=14#comment-7 I'm no scientist, but whenever I stumble upon a blog or site that discusses megaliths, I'm instantly entranced. I think it is very much because I can't help but try and come up with something - anything - that moves us all towards solving the mysteries of these stones, their origins, purpose, and (subtly) their effect on us in modern times. SO, that is why I take the risk of suggesting something that is probably totally obvious - as in, everyone else already figured this one out. You mentioned that some have tried to see the rows of stones (descending in size from west to east, and seeming to have meaningful shapes) as hieroglyphs or something. But I imagined myself as one of the people who lived back then (because you evoked that feeling so eloquently). If this location is along the seashore, does this shore run at all north-south? Do the east-west lines of stones lead towards the shore? Wouldn't the settlements be inland, so that anyone approaching the stones for a ceremony or just a walk would see first the smallest stones, then progressively larger ones. Well, no. If they are in any sort of a line, you might see them all at once, or quite a few of them at once, making distinctive (or even meaningful?) shapes in the way they line up? Of course, we could never know because it doesn't take much for the landscape near the sea to shift, causing the stones to lose their alignment and relevance to each other... Well, anyway, to make a short story long, that's my idea. Maybe you could comment on others who have already pursued this idea, and what they concluded? I’m no scientist, but whenever I stumble upon a blog or site that discusses megaliths, I’m instantly entranced. I think it is very much because I can’t help but try and come up with something – anything – that moves us all towards solving the mysteries of these stones, their origins, purpose, and (subtly) their effect on us in modern times.

SO, that is why I take the risk of suggesting something that is probably totally obvious – as in, everyone else already figured this one out. You mentioned that some have tried to see the rows of stones (descending in size from west to east, and seeming to have meaningful shapes) as hieroglyphs or something. But I imagined myself as one of the people who lived back then (because you evoked that feeling so eloquently). If this location is along the seashore, does this shore run at all north-south? Do the east-west lines of stones lead towards the shore? Wouldn’t the settlements be inland, so that anyone approaching the stones for a ceremony or just a walk would see first the smallest stones, then progressively larger ones. Well, no. If they are in any sort of a line, you might see them all at once, or quite a few of them at once, making distinctive (or even meaningful?) shapes in the way they line up?

Of course, we could never know because it doesn’t take much for the landscape near the sea to shift, causing the stones to lose their alignment and relevance to each other…

Well, anyway, to make a short story long, that’s my idea. Maybe you could comment on others who have already pursued this idea, and what they concluded?

]]> Comment on Carnac day 2: Mané Kerioned and Quiberon by steve http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/23/carnac_2/comment-page-1/#comment-5 steve Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:19:25 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=12#comment-5 >> Intrigued to know what happened a day or two later, after Zola’s reluctance to enter the dolmen with the carvings! It's coming - day 4. Just waiting to get to the Mac to process some more pictures. >> Intrigued to know what happened a day or two later, after Zola’s reluctance to enter the dolmen with the carvings!

It’s coming – day 4. Just waiting to get to the Mac to process some more pictures.

]]> Comment on Carnac day 2: Mané Kerioned and Quiberon by Angie http://www.montcocher.com/2007/11/23/carnac_2/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Angie Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:06:02 +0000 http://www.montcocher.com/?p=12#comment-4 Intrigued to know what happened a day or two later, after Zola's reluctance to enter the dolmen with the carvings! Intrigued to know what happened a day or two later, after Zola’s reluctance to enter the dolmen with the carvings!

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