From the Mountains to the City to the Ocean. How Interaction with Landscape Creates Meaningful Experiences in Alpinism, Skateboarding and Surfing
- Alpinism, skateboarding and surfing are activities related to specific landscapes—I will explore how in these three activities, engagement with landscapes is experienced as meaningful. This essay is guided by the assumption that analyzing playful engagement with landscapes can contribute to our understanding of socially widespread landscape preferences, as play and recreation are important factors in socialization. Thinking about play generally promises to bring us closer to the question of the good life. How do we want to live and what role does landscape play in this? Mountaineers and surfers certainly have answers to such questions. I argue that specific skills and knowledge are developed in the confrontation with landscape. Based on these expert skills and knowledge, interpretations of landscape become possible that do not occur in an everyday perspective on landscape. Alpinism corresponds most directly to the mythical structure of the hero’s journey—in other words, the archetype of adventure. In surfing and skateboarding,Alpinism, skateboarding and surfing are activities related to specific landscapes—I will explore how in these three activities, engagement with landscapes is experienced as meaningful. This essay is guided by the assumption that analyzing playful engagement with landscapes can contribute to our understanding of socially widespread landscape preferences, as play and recreation are important factors in socialization. Thinking about play generally promises to bring us closer to the question of the good life. How do we want to live and what role does landscape play in this? Mountaineers and surfers certainly have answers to such questions. I argue that specific skills and knowledge are developed in the confrontation with landscape. Based on these expert skills and knowledge, interpretations of landscape become possible that do not occur in an everyday perspective on landscape. Alpinism corresponds most directly to the mythical structure of the hero’s journey—in other words, the archetype of adventure. In surfing and skateboarding, playfulness is cultivated more, but all three enable self-efficacy. Learning and improving through these experiences further develops landscape interpretations and landscape-related skills.…
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