The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?

<p>The garden is a place of experimentation, where gardeners try out plants and both see how they grow and explore how to use them to eff ect, but does that make the garden a ‘laboratory’?</p><p><br />Roberio Dias (2008) has described the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx (Roberto Bur...

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Main Author: Julian Raxworthy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Lincoln University 2016-09-01
Series:Landscape Review
Online Access:https://journals.lincoln.ac.nz/index.php/lr/article/view/956
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author Julian Raxworthy
author_facet Julian Raxworthy
author_sort Julian Raxworthy
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description <p>The garden is a place of experimentation, where gardeners try out plants and both see how they grow and explore how to use them to eff ect, but does that make the garden a ‘laboratory’?</p><p><br />Roberio Dias (2008) has described the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx (Roberto Burle<br />Marx personal garden and nursery outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as a ‘landscape<br />laboratory’. Using the Sitio as a case study and Dias’s 2008 essay as a point of<br />departure, this paper asks, if a laboratory is ‘a room or building equipped for<br />scientific experiments, research or teaching’, does the phrase ‘garden as laboratory’ accurately describe how the garden operates as a creative space? If it does not, what would be a more appropriate description?</p><p><br />Considering the garden as an artist’s studio recognises that, even while science is involved in the process of growing plants, its aim is to cultivate plants for aesthetic purposes. If each plant is a test, and the tests interact ecologically, then the art produced in the garden as studio is of a radically diff erent type: a moving work of art. In reconceiving the garden as studio and its art as alive, I aim to help enrich theories of planting design to engage them with growth.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-2fd9754fefc2484fa1bf6c764ab99bac2024-03-03T04:23:12ZengLincoln UniversityLandscape Review1173-38532253-14402016-09-01162779The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?Julian Raxworthy<p>The garden is a place of experimentation, where gardeners try out plants and both see how they grow and explore how to use them to eff ect, but does that make the garden a ‘laboratory’?</p><p><br />Roberio Dias (2008) has described the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx (Roberto Burle<br />Marx personal garden and nursery outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as a ‘landscape<br />laboratory’. Using the Sitio as a case study and Dias’s 2008 essay as a point of<br />departure, this paper asks, if a laboratory is ‘a room or building equipped for<br />scientific experiments, research or teaching’, does the phrase ‘garden as laboratory’ accurately describe how the garden operates as a creative space? If it does not, what would be a more appropriate description?</p><p><br />Considering the garden as an artist’s studio recognises that, even while science is involved in the process of growing plants, its aim is to cultivate plants for aesthetic purposes. If each plant is a test, and the tests interact ecologically, then the art produced in the garden as studio is of a radically diff erent type: a moving work of art. In reconceiving the garden as studio and its art as alive, I aim to help enrich theories of planting design to engage them with growth.</p>https://journals.lincoln.ac.nz/index.php/lr/article/view/956
spellingShingle Julian Raxworthy
The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
Landscape Review
title The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
title_full The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
title_fullStr The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
title_full_unstemmed The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
title_short The Sitio Roberto Burle Marx: A Case Study in the Garden as Scientific Laboratory or Vegetal Studio for a Moving Work of Art?
title_sort sitio roberto burle marx a case study in the garden as scientific laboratory or vegetal studio for a moving work of art
url https://journals.lincoln.ac.nz/index.php/lr/article/view/956
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