Diagnosing melancholia
3.5 NEXT STEPS I conclude this chapter with a list of recommendations (based on the findings above) and an indication of how they inform the direction of the thesis. They might also help a community affiliated with glacier retreat to decide if and how to approach engagement.
3.5.1
RECOMMENDATIONS
3.5.2 MELANCHOLY, CONTEMPLATION & SPACE
Address larger external processes: although the conversations were as varied as the people, every person felt connected to the subject matter and expressed some form of concern about the glacier and/or the National Park. The interviews revealed that the retreating Haupapa/Tasman Glacier is more than a monumental piece of ice; it is symptomatic of a much broader issue. It is interwoven with larger processes, like the functioning of the whole Park, including the Māori role in park management, D.O.C.’s management of the National Parks across New Zealand, and global mass tourism.
The findings and recommendations of Chapter 3 linked with the concepts from Chapter 2 inform the subsequent thesis direction. It is summarized as follows:
Address larger internal processes: Environmental melancholia should be addressed. Presently, although every interviewee expressed sadness and most felt powerless, there is no public acknowledgement of the experience. The discussion stagnates at the individual level and usually remains unresolved. Additionally, just as glacier retreat occurs within much broader processes, so melancholia should be considered part of people’s broader reflections, opinions and attitudes. This conclusion underpins the decision to include contemplation.
·· People experience environmental melancholia à confirms the relevance of this theory à asks for a landscape architectural response that acknowledges this experience.
Awareness is needed for concern: the interviewees that were ignorant of the extent of retreat were unconcerned. Jason, a young Canadian visitor, for instance, was disappointed at the lack of acknowledgement towards the glaciers. He said that signposts, like some he has seen in other places, would bring up emotions that he would not have gotten otherwise: “You can really perceive it when there is a signpost, because you look in the distance and see where it is. It brings up a sadness, I think, in me.” The majority of interviewees was aware of the retreat, but did repeatedly refer to the average tourist, who was not and would benefit from information. The conclusion is that knowledge through information is needed for awareness, which is fundamental for concern.
This section concludes that melancholy has to be accompanied by contemplation, a reflection of ones position within the larger whole, in order to address engagement with glacier retreat, a symptom of a much greater disease. The argument presented here is to use landscape to foster melancholic contemplation, defined as a type of contemplation in which the melancholy triggered by an object [retreating glacier in this case] is the focus of contemplation.
·· Retreat of the glacier occurs within a larger system à the Haupapa/Tasman Glacier site is within Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park à asks for a landscape architectural response that addresses context à present a design strategy for the Park.
·· People reflect and ponder the larger system à the experience is broader than melancholia alone à asks for a landscape architectural response that acknowledges this experience.
Melancholia is not needed for engagement: although present and important, environmental melancholia was not a prerequisite for the interviewees to want to engage more meaningfully with the glacial landscape. Every interviewee supported more meaningful engagement, because they recognized the benefit it could have for others, especially tourists.
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