Dynamic nation-states and encrypted landscapes: Canberra
Tanya King, Deakin University
The world in which individuals imagine themselves consists of both those elements encountered tangibly and those that are imagined, or inferred in response to elements encountered tangibly. Individuals and groups imagine their place in the orchestrating system of the state partly in response to the spatial and physical representation of the state, and their relationship to that representation. This paper will consider how in the physical spaces of Canberra a concentric cosmology is inscribed upon the environment, and how human movement through these spaces accords with this sense of how the world is structured. The examination occurs in two sections or, rather, on two scales. The first focuses on Canberra as seen from above, or as a map. Individuals move about in these large spaces, imagining their location in relation to landmarks that they may not be able to see from the street. The second section, and scale, relates to those spaces that individuals encounter directly. The negotiation of these spaces often entails a corporeal element, as individuals encounter footpaths, corridors, trees and other individuals. In particular, I consider the way ‘nature’, or non-human organic life, is organised and encountered in the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
