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Abstract
The focus here is on a functional approach to landscape aesthetics. People's reactions are viewed in terms of what sense they are able to make of the scene and what interest they are able to find in it. This analysis applies first to the two-dimensional space of the "picture plane," where the assessment is in terms of coherence and complexity. In addition to this "surface" analysis, there is a rapid and unconscious assessment of what one would experience if one were to proceed "deeper" into the scene. In this way inferences about the nature of the three-dimensional environment lead to conclusions concerning how legible it is likely to be and how much additional information is likely to be provided. These four informational elements -- coherence, complexity, legibility, and mystery -- provide means of assessing landscape quality that are empirically based while at the same time intuitively meaningful.
Parent Publication
Citation
Kaplan, Stephen. 1979. Perception and landscape: conceptions and misconceptions. In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 241-248
