Handmade relief models as matters of concern: Maintaining, restoring, and repairing mountains?

Area of Science:

• Science and Technology Studies
• Material Culture Studies
• Environmental Humanities

Background:

• Representational objects, like relief models, are often studied for their capacity to represent, overlooking the practices involved in their creation and upkeep.
• The ontological security of these objects relies on unacknowledged activities, particularly their maintenance, which forms a crucial, yet under-examined, aspect of their existence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze representational objects as practice by focusing on the multiplicity of activities involved in their maintenance.
• To investigate how the maintenance of relief models, as a semiotic-material ecology, challenges traditional understandings of representation.
• To explore the potential for practices of care and maintenance to foster a re-visioning of our relationship with representations of nature.

Main Methods:

• A case study approach focusing on relief models of landscapes.
• Analysis of the 'semiotic-material ecology' of relief model maintenance, including craftsperson's tact, material properties, and meaning-making.
• Examination of the divergence between production (metric distance) and maintenance (temporalities) of representational objects.

Main Results:

• Relief model maintenance involves a complex interplay of craft, materials, and narratives, highlighting its existence as a 'semiotic-material ecology'.
• Maintenance practices accommodate multiple temporalities—material-specific time, idealized past, worn present, and repaired future—contrasting with production's focus on metric distance.
• The study reveals that the 'doing' of maintenance offers insights into the object's relationship with what it represents.

Conclusions:

• The maintenance of representational objects, particularly relief models, is a critical practice that shapes their ontological status and our engagement with them.
• Practices of care and repair associated with these objects provide a unique lens for rethinking our connection to the natural world they represent.
• This research advocates for a deeper appreciation of the ongoing activities that sustain representational objects, moving beyond a sole focus on their representational accuracy.