Contents  
 
Title 
 
Abstract and research question 
 
Rationale and aims  
 
Research Methodology  
 
Project Development  
-Phase 1 Syncretism Studies 
-Phase 2 Extraction Studies  
-Phase 3 Proposition Development  
-Phase 4 Conclusions and Discussion 
 
Appendix  
 
Bibliography  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Abstract  
 
Changing the channel on ?TV? is a landscape architecture research project which 
interrogates the concept of terrain vague through the practises of the formless, a theory 
developed by Georges Bataille in the late 1920?s. The course of this project demonstrates 
with emphasis both on graphic and written explorations how the formless can be 
approached and appropriated into a landscape architecture context. The stages of the 
research explore notions such as syncretism and extraction which developed into possible 
propositions for a chosen site within Auckland?s CBD. The findings within this project 
have relevance to the discussion on the formless and terrain vague and their future within 
landscape architecture. 
 
 
 
 
 
Research Question 
 
How can the formless be explored through landscape design? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RATIONALE AND AIMS  
 
Due in part to the de-industrialization of cities an altered type of landscape is 
proliferating in the urban environment and is causing much discussion. These spaces 
have theoretical and practical currency in contemporary landscape architecture, 
which is ideally positioned to engage with them. In the mid 1990s Sola Morales 
termed these landscapes terrain vague, a French expression which in English has a 
triple signification of wave, vacant, and vague. Morales saw in these landscapes ?the 
most solvent sign of what cities are and what our experience of them is? (Morales 
1996, p. 119). Since then the debate has continued and according to Luc Levesque; a 
lecturer of landscape architecture at the University of Montreal, has become a static 
and sterile argument between order and disorder in the urban environment which 
loses the potential of what Morales? original vision.  
 
Levesque places importance on the qualities associated with terrain vague which he 
clarifies as high (emancipation) or low (debasement), and posits a move from a factual 
observation of the vacant lot to a more abstracted concept of interstitial space which 
has the ability to both add to and move on from the terrain vague discussion. This 
research project aligns itself with Levesque?s position in order to approach the issues 
relevant to terrain vague from a different point of view. This point of view will be 
guided by the practice of the formless a theory developed by Georges Bataille 
between 1929 and 1931 during which time he was editor of the art journal 
Documents. The formless was part of Bataille?s ongoing work in what he called 
theoretical heterology which can be described as  
 
what escapes, or what flows in and through homogeneity. The dissipative, anti-
productive, ?other?, element in the heart of production 
 (Nielsen 2002, p. 55) 
 
The formless is about a re-evaluation of things that have been repressed or forgotten, 
things that homogeneity obscures. In relation to the above quote it takes on the 
repression of the ?anti-productive other?, and collapses the 
homogenous/heterogeneous hierarchy by claiming their interdependence on each 
other. This has relevance for landscape design for it claims that the formless could be 
something right in front of us that we cannot quite see.  
 
Art historians Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss employed the formless to carry on 
Bataille?s critique of art in a contemporary setting. Their book Formless a User?s Guide 
divides the formless into four operations; base materialism, horizontality, pulse, and 
entropy. These categories are thought of as operations in order to avoid thematic 
restrictions; accordingly the categories are permeable with respect to each other. The 
above categories which Bois and Krauss have extrapolated from Bataille?s writing are 
useful to me because they present pre-packaged interpretations and applications of 
Bataille?s formless.  
 
Another relevant discourse in contemporary critical theory is the abject. Unlike the 
formless the abject is positioned within a thematic horizon; the body. Abject art is 
utilized to perform an assault on ?totalizing notions of identity, system, and order? 
notions which predominantly relate to the body or are played out through 
representations of the body. More conceptually the abject exists ?between the concept 
of an object and the concept of the subject? (Taylor, 1993) therefore there is a 
displaced connection between the subject and the object. A canonical example is the 
excretion of substances from the body, which once outside the body enter an abject 
state. Moving this into the context of the landscape terrain vague can be seen as a 
discharged entity which does not qualify as an object because of its disassociation to 
the designed landscape (the subject). Yet as Morales points out, terrain vague?s ability 
to ?visualize the urban in some primordial way? (Morales 1996, p.120) gives it a strong 
association to a possibly more authentic idea of landscape.  
 
The formless and the abject have significance for terrain vague for they legitimise it as 
a necessary part of production, whilst offering an interesting direction from which to 
approach it, which Morales identifies is one of the main obstacles for a designer 
where historically such attempts have led to turning the ?uncivilized into the 
cultivated, the fallow into the productive, and the void into the built? (Morales 1996, 
p.122). Strangely this obstacle for the designer is not really tackled in a recent article 
about terrain vague by the landscape architect Krystallia Kamvasinou in Architectural 
Research Quarterly. Kamvasinou discusses current projects that she says are informed 
by Morales notion of terrain vague however referring back to Levesque these projects 
all side with adding order back to the urban environment. This ultimately dilutes the 
notion of terrain vague with discourse and as a physical space within the city. 
Engaging with the practices of the formless and abject theory in connection with 
terrain vague is much more appropriate to their condition than more conventional 
practices of landscape architecture.  
 
This research project aims to engage with concepts outside of landscape architecture. 
It is hoped that this engagement will enable a re-evaluation of ideas associated with 
terrain vague and it destiny within landscape architecture.  
 
 
 
 
 
RESEARCH METHODS  
 
Select a category of the formless as a focus of the research project  
 
Base Materialism: 
Horizontality: 
Pulse: 
Entropy:  
 
Conflate or formulate with the Abject 
 
Bois and Krauss? book Formless a User?s Guide has as one of its agendas to make the 
distinction between art that can be thought of as formless and that as abject. However 
the authors say that the abject does cross over into the formless. This crossover will be 
explored.  
 
Site Selection 
 
Collect a series of terrain vague?s from around the city and select one as a case study 
for the research project which will work appropriately with the above chooses. The 
basic criteria for the selected site was that it have enough richness and complexity to 
sustain my interest throughout the project and that I was able to see some 
connections to the formless research I was undertaking. 
 
Phase 1 ? Syncretism Studies 
 
Develop a series of graphic studies to understand aspects of the formless in terms of 
difference. These studies are formulated initially through investigations of the 
existing site conditions. Reflect on the studies and make conclusions from each that 
can be complied to create a general conclusion from the phase.   
 
Phase 2 ? Extraction Studies  
 
Develop a series of graphic studies to explore the possibility of designing the formless 
within the context of the landscape. Reflect on the studies and make conclusions from 
each that can be complied to create a general conclusion from the phase.   
Phase 3 ? Proposition Development  
 
Using the material developed in phases 1 and 2 explore a series of design propositions 
which are based on the agency of raw materiality. Reflect on the studies and make 
conclusions from each that can be complied to create a general conclusion from the 
phase.   
 
Phase 4 ? Conclusions and discussion  
 
 
General Notes on the Methodology 
 
Through these phases the representation of the site depends on the particular 
study/proposition and what is to be achieved. However, conventional landscape 
architecture representations are used (i.e. sections, elevations, plans, and maps) to 
communicate the study/proposition being explored.   
 
The method of this research project is inquiry based and heuristic in nature, with the 
aim that each phase accumulates new knowledge that can then be used or tested and 
thus developed through the process as a whole.    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Descriptions of Bois and Krauss? formless categories  
 
Base Materialism  
 
Base Materialism is a major category for Bataille, its aim is to create or form non-
idealised matter. Bataille saw matter as being ?non-logical difference?  
 
Horizontality  
 
Horizontality is a reaction to the dominance of verticality within the modern art 
world and general society, the horizontal is about expressing the form of the fall from 
high to low.   
 
Pulse 
 
Pulse acknowledges the temporal qualities that are often repressed within art. The 
pulse is related to change and time and repetition which are fetishized in landscape 
architecture  
 
Entropy 
 
Entropy describes a process which moves from order to disorder. Like pulse it has 
landscape attributes such as growth and deterioration that are inherent to any 
landscape.      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Category Selection 
 
The decision which of Bois and Krauss? formless category to use was not deliberated 
on. Firstly at the time of selection I did not completely understand the fundamentals 
of the categories; also the fact that the categories interact with each other meant that 
all could be drawn on if necessary.  
 
Entropy was ruled out for its frequent use in contemporary art and land art already.  
 
Horizontality is totally applicable to landscape but I felt from my interpretation of the 
way Bois and Krauss used it was too reliant on the practise of art.  
 
Base materialism is closest to Bataille?s overall work in heterology and is therefore an 
aspect of all the categories. 
 
Therefore the pulse was selected in a way by elimination but also because it seemed 
applicable to landscape architecture, for it deals with time and change, and it?s 
dynamic. And even though these ideas have strong connections to the landscape they 
are not fully employed within landscape architecture. In hindsight the pulse also has 
enviable connections to the abject.   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Conflate or formulate with the Abject 
 
The abject can be thought of as a state of being cast off: ?it exists in between the 
concept of an object and the concept of the subject; something alive yet not? (Taylor, 
1993)  
 
For the purposes of this project  
Object = terrain vague  
Subject = landscape architecture  
 
Ultimately there is a state of detachment that exists between the two concepts where 
the object does not fit into the realm of the subject. The idea is not to make the two 
compatible but to look and ask why there is this detachment. Theoretically terrain 
vague is part of the realm of landscape architecture but the threads that connect the 
two are very much dependent on the base subject, which is the general landscape.   
 
?repetition?formal identity and regularity-must somehow be vested in a matrix 
object?the pulse?s aim is to collapse such regularities?  
(Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 32)  
 
From this statement we can see that the pulse has a close connection to formal 
identity and regularity and therefore to form itself. Simply it can be seen as being 
something yet not, like the abject is alive yet not. Again in the quote below the role of 
form in relation to the pulse is illustrated: ?its (pulse?s) importance within the context 
of the formless is its vector, which is to say its reaching upward toward the 
sublimated condition of form in order to undo that order, and to desublimate that 
vision through the shock effect of the beat? (Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 165) Bois and 
Krauss make it clear that within the realm of the formless the abject needs to be seen 
as an operation; ?Excess is the abject as operation and thus as formless? (Lauran, 1996), 
the importance of this is the distinction it makes with respect to the abject being 
treated and held within thematic restrictions which tend to solely relate to the body 
and its substances. Thus when Krauss says ?Excess is the abject as operation? she is 
purposely not only referring to excessive (abject) substances but also the excessive 
operation which exceeds the ?abject? thus establishing the abject as an operation of the 
formless.    
 
 
 
 
 
 
Site Selection 
 
A collection of sites was collated through an on-going process at the beginning of the 
project. Found by walking around Central Auckland and looking for what I 
considered to be terrain vague. In relation to Peter Connolly?s article ?T.V. Guide? 
which discusses a typology of terrain vague?s, the ?type? of terrain vague I was 
interested in is what he describes as the most common and understood type, which is 
de-industrialised space (Connolly 1996). The main criteria were that the sites had 
qualities that came from not being designed as Morales says ?possessing some 
definition to which we are external? (Morales 1995 p. 120). It was this notion of being 
?external? to us and yet internal to the city that really sparked the initial connection 
between terrain vague and the formless, for aforementioned the formless is what 
flows in and through homogeneity (Nielsen 2002), thus the two share the similar 
paradoxical situation in which they appear or are produced from ?effective circuits? to 
borrow a phrase form Morales.         
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Selected Site 
 
The selected site is positioned in between Beach Rd and Anzac Ave in Central 
Auckland. The site is dominantly used as a connective/transitional space between two 
architectural nodes within the area. The old train station building now a hostel for 
Auckland University students, (predominantly overseas students) and the Auckland 
University buildings located on Symonds St which Anzac Ave veers into. The site is 
used by students as a short cut between the two destinations; it is the middle point 
within this everyday journey. The transitional space is bounded by Beach Rd and 
Anzac Ave respectively framing its eastern and western edges and two substantial 
building creating its northern and southern edges. The northern structure is an 
apartment building 13 floors high and the southern building which also holds a Thai 
restaurant and a student bar. Thus the connective piece of the journey is surrounded 
by road infrastructure and dominant architecture. The connective space itself is 
divided down its western/eastern axis creating a southern side and a northern side. 
The southern side is composed of a stair and pathway configuration which enables 
access up and down the 16 meter difference in gradient between the two roads. The 
path cuts through the gradient creating a zigzag form which is stabilised with 
retaining walls. The retained spaces that divide the paths are planted mainly with 
Pohutukawa tress which is characteristic of the area, being that it is inline with the 
original shoreline before a series of reclamations, other native tress such as Cabbage 
tress and Coprosma are also present. The northern side of the site is the part that first 
attracted me to this location when I was looking for terrain vague?s. Thus this side 
forms a juxtaposition to the adjacent side. It is not connected to the described 
transition. Moreover the formal elements that are found within it are disconnected 
from each, other for example a set of stairs that no longer lead anywhere, an isolated 
concrete pad, a four meter retaining wall running parallel to Anzac Ave where 
between each vertical support structures a different pallet of material is exhibited 
from stone, to concrete to wooden panels to wooden horizontal piles to a irregular 
concrete rough cast finish. The wall has one unifying surface character; this is graffiti 
which is intrinsically heterogeneous itself. The vegetation here is predominantly 
ruderal, or infested with weeds. Vegetation plays an important role in creating the 
division between the two sides of the connective space. Depending on which side you 
are in the vegetation screen has two aesthetics, one planned and maintained the other 
left to its own devices, the function to screen visually keeps the two sides apart. 
Another notable difference here is that the northern side has a large (dimension) 
flattened area which previously was cemented and used as a car park servicing a 
previous building on the northern edge.     
 
 
After reading more about the formless the relationship between the notions formed 
and unformed became important. Thus it was this relationship between the southern 
side (formed) and the northern side (unformed) that drew me to the particular site 
which encapsulates this more potently than the other sites that were looked at. The 
decision was made to utilise names for the two sides of this landscape that were 
neutral in terms of the value-judgements inherent to words such as formed and 
unformed this is a significant aspect of the formless which is to avoid a servitude to 
semantics (Bois and Krauss 1997), thus the titles terrain 1 and terrain 2 were 
employed respectively referring to the designed side and the un-designed side.  
 
My first experience of the connective space was walking home from photographing 
another site found behind the fine art department at Auckland University, thus I was 
on the hunt for possible terrains. As I entered terrain 1 from Anzac Ave I saw a stray 
path within the configuration which led into terrain 2. This path was slightly 
overgrown with vegetation but still well visible but no one was using it, when I 
walked down it I realised that it was a dead end it led to an empty zone. This was the 
?letting lost? part that is always present within shortcuts. I found connections from my 
experience that related to my reading about the formless, specifically the notion of 
slippage which Bois and Krauss describe as a notion running throughout all of their 
categories. Bataille identifies and describes the notion of slippage in a discussion of 
Manet?s Olympia where he says it is a half-hidden operation that has the goal to 
?disappoint expectation? (Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 15). Thus a slippage causes a 
disruption, like the disruption I experienced the first time I entered both terrain 1 and 
2  however I was not disappointed for I had found my subject.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Syncretism Studies  
 
The first investigative studies looked at differences found within the chosen terrain. This 
was carried out to gain a better understanding of the form and materialality of the two 
terrains as well as explore aspects of the formless that related to ideas of difference such 
as those I identified in the notion of the pulse.  
 
Within the context of the formless the pulse is something that is never fixed to an exact 
location. Thus the Syncretism study explored the idea of movement- not physical 
movement but movement through an alteration of a representation of the site.  
 
Within the terrain there are two differing landscapes. In general terms one is formed and 
the other deformed, which creates a relationship of juxtaposition; the two terrains are 
very much separated in terms of their basic materiality and the ways in which they are 
used. I sought to push this spatial relationship towards one of syncretism, the more 
common definition of syncretism is the reconciliation of opposites or differences that 
combine to become something as a result, the definition I came across however is a 
fusion of ?differing systems of belief?especially when success is partial or the result is 
heterogeneous? (www.dictionary.com), thus it is a sort of failed syncretism. Syncretism 
was chosen because in this context it would actively engage and explore the tension 
between an attempted reconciliation between terrain 1 and 2.      
 
 
 
Syncretism Study  
#1Grid Shake Up  
 
Using an aerial photograph of the site (figure 1a) and superimposing a grid over the 
image I used PhotoShop to place each square on an independent layer. The next move 
was to re-position the individual squares within the frame of the image  
(figures 1b, c, and d). In terms of the formless what is essentially being investigated here 
is the idea that in a very ordered and geometrical manner the image of the site can be 
rearranged within a homogeneous grid to create a heterogeneous image. The process of 
the study highlights the relationship between order and disorder in placing more emphasis 
on the grid rather than the image gives the study a very structured beginning and an 
unstructured outcome. In relation to syncretism the altered images depict a fragmented 
field where each unit invents four edges for itself which only rarely can be reconciled 
with neighboring units, for example where fragments of road or vegetation meet.  
 
 
The study explores the relationship between form and formless which is not one of 
opposition, however more ordered and precise the form is of a landscape or an image is 
the further it has to fall to reach disorder, the formless is this fall. To reinforce this 
observation from the Grid study a description of the formless operation horizontality will 
help reinforce my conclusions, which is the ?lowering from the vertical to the horizontal? 
(Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 26). In the respect to the formless the vertical is always held 
both figuratively and literally, as something that is higher than the horizontal. Thus 
returning to my studies figures 1c and d which try to give coherence back to the picture 
plane figure 1c aligning vegetation and figure 1d aligning materiality in columns, is an 
attempt to return the image to some sort of ?verticality? which in this example 
corresponds to putting the pieces back together to unify and recoup the image. Thus 
along with finding out through experimentation that the more formed something is the 
more formless it can be, I also have observed myself trying to give form back to the 
image thus trying to reform it, which is obviously not the intention of these studies and 
something I will continue to be aware of.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Syncretic Sections  
 
The syncretic sections were done to identify the differences that exist in the site. Two 
sections were taken, one through the terrain 1 (figure 2a) and the other through terrain 2 
(figure 2d). Different components from each section were isolated (figures 2b, c, e, and f) 
and then mixed together (figures 2g and f) in an effort to syncretise the two areas.  
 
The attempt to syncretise the terrain 1 and terrain 2 only formed further juxtapositions 
through the site. The sections were worth doing to see the landform of the site and to 
establish the basic materiality of the two areas. Although only creating further 
juxtapositions these are now being represented as happening within the individual sides 
of the site which is exploring the notion of syncretism. Through the exchange of material 
context the identity or character that makes the two terrains different from each other is 
called into question. Is it materiality that creates difference or is it something else? Luc 
Levesque (discussed earlier in the ?Rationale?) talks about making the waste-ground 
accessible to the public so they can encounter more un-controlled terrains, taking this into 
consideration I can interpret the Syncretic Sections as studies which explore Levesque?s 
position through bringing materiality from terrain 2 (waste-land) into terrain 1 and vice 
versa. Thus this study explores the move to give greater accessibility to terrain 2?s  
materiality.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Symmetry/slippage 
 
This study explored the symmetry within the configuration of terrain 1 with the back and 
forth direction of the path as seen in figure 3a. 
 
The first exploration imagines a vertical axis down the middle of terrain 1 and uses it as 
an edge to reflect from. The two outcomes (figures 3b and 3c) in relation to each other 
are not overly different; this simply illustrates the near symmetry already existing within 
the path configuration.  
 
The result of these two images reveals an intermittence between the oval pathways and 
the vegetated areas. The fact that the paths no longer connect to each other denies the 
principle use of the site; an access way between Anzac Ave and Beach Rd. Assuming 
people did still try and use the terrain, they would have to make their way through areas 
of vegetation in between finding the paths, also once the path is found an option is 
presented for the path goes both left and right and loops up with itself.  
 
Adding options to the pathway in terms of route is a move that is explored within the 
Concrete investigation in the Proposition Development stage of the project. Apart from 
the top and bottom of terrain 1 giving minor differences to the ways in which the 
pathway can be entered and exited, the over all configuration is very controlled.  
 
Figures 3d -3k explored the notion of intermittence identified above; which again is an 
intermittence of functioning both properly and improperly. In these images (figures 3d-
3k) the axis down the middle of terrain 1 is now used as a point from which the two sides 
can slide away from each other which again alters the role of the path within the terrain. 
Intermittence is introduced as a disruptive agency, to puncture the homogeneity of terrain 
1.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Phase 2 
Extraction Studies  
 
Where Phase 1 looked at the ways in which syncretism could be used to disrupt the image 
of the site by heightening existing tensions between use and materiality, Phase 2 builds 
on the notion of disruption, a key facet of the formless, being a tool used to ?declass and 
declassify??(add more)  
 
The operation ?extraction? was chosen specifically because the job of extraction is to 
remove and reveal.  A removal process had already occurred within terrain 2 which in 
the past was designated as a car park that serviced the adjacent building. It was this 
alteration that ultimately set up the spatial binary that attracted me to the site in the first 
place. I identified on a basic level that it is an important part of the formless. Phase 2 is 
dedicated to exploring the operation of extraction through a series of graphic studies.  
 
A passage from ?Formless A User?s Guide? that motivated this phase of the project is ?  
 
?Once the unified visual field is agitated by a shake-up that irremediably punctures the 
screen of its formality and populates it with organs, there is pulsation.?  
(Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 32)   
 
I interpreted this passage as meaning that the ?unified visual field? was the urban 
landscape and that the agitation that punctures the screen of formality was a physical 
agitation that punctured the surface of the landscape; such as the alteration of terrain 2 
from being a car park to its current position. The second part of the quote ?populates with 
organs? I see as then offering people (organs) to inhabit the punctured screen and thus 
entering an um-mediated experience.  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Physical Extraction ? Perforation  
Figure 4a 
 
A Black and white printout of the site is manipulated with a hole punch. The paper is 
folded in half and quarters to create holes in the body of the image. I saw that the holes 
were creating a disorganized pattern over the image; the repetition of the same circular 
shape formed the most homogenous element in the image. I find it interesting that 
through extraction (a study to disrupt the image) the image starts to take on an alternative 
rhythm or pulse. The pieces of paper removed in this study maintain a materiality which 
gets displaced to the catcher of the hole punch and thus becomes a waste product. Bataille 
claimed that all systems produced waste as part of their production; he was interested in 
what that waste does to the system, and how it relates back to the thing that produced it.  
 
Conventionally a hole punch is used to put two holes in the margin of a page so it can 
then be systematically ordered with other pieces of paper, thus it has a function in which 
the extraction of the two circles is fundamental. This illustrates the necessity of what is 
called waste in the event of creating a system.  
 
 
Digital Extraction - Deletion  
Figure 4b 
 
An aerial photograph of the site is manipulated in PhotoShop. Areas from the image are 
selected with the ?marquee? tool and deleted. As with the perforation operation repetitive 
deletion of ?image? creates a ?white space? rhythm, however chaotic.  
 
The fact that the pieces that are taken away from the image can be deleted lies outside 
Bataille?s theoretical heterology where deletion is impossible because Bataille?s theory is 
dealing with the physical world not the virtual. But bringing this thought into the context 
of the physical world the idea that unwanted matter such as waste can be deleted (and 
conveniently stored in a ?history? window) is the type of ?black and white? thinking that 
Bataille observed in Western society and that his work including the formless attempts to 
undo or alter.  
 
What I found out  
 
Concluding on these studies comes from reflecting on the two in relation to each other, 
which is that society tends to create physical systems that are based on virtual logic. In 
other words waste such as the leftover paper in a hole-punch is seen as being equivalent 
to that of the waste that is virtual and therefore actually deletable. This works on an out of 
sight out of mind logic. The formless in relation to this is to bring what is out of sight 
which is the excluded back into sight and therefore back into mind.   
 
 
 
 

Total Extraction 
 
Working with the idea that extraction punctures the urban environment I decided to 
experiment with the existing ?puncture? in the site (terrain 2) by increasing its scale to 
consume the whole site through the removal of the formal elements that exist i.e. the 
pathways and the larger existing vegetation which are not a part of opposite side. The 
intent here is to investigate the relationship between formlessness and the notion of 
terrain vague.    
 
The operations involved copying areas of terrain 2 and repeating it in the adjacent area as 
seen in figure 5b. Through this study the whole site becomes undifferentiated, which 
heightens the edge condition between the undifferentiated and the differentiated 
landscapes, i.e. Anzac Ave and beach road and the space in between.  
 
Through the process of highlighting the edge condition of terrain vague offers the insight 
that terrain vague requires the surrounding form of the landscape in order to construct 
itself as being different. However to look back at figure 5a  the fact that the edge 
condition between terrain 1 and 2 is not as obvious as figure 5b is what makes the 
existing relationship between the two terrains and their surrounding landscape unique.   
 
 
Total Extraction 2 
 
I thought it would be beneficial to repeat the above study but more as an operation rather 
than simply a change. This time the production of images at intervals between the 
represented ?start? and ?finish? gave the study the implication of time and duration.  
 
Thinking about it like this led me to consider the ways in which the increasing in size of 
terrain 2 could be conceptualised. Taking the notion of extraction as an operation; a 
series of events rather than an event (figures 5c -5g) allowed the notion of extraction to 
be explored through different guises (see Haemorrhage and Parasite).   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Haemorrhage  
 
Haemorrhaging Definition  
 
?Profuse discharge of blood from a ruptured blood vessel?. 
www.dictionary.com 
 
In this study the ruptured vessel is terrain 2, therefore the ?bleeding? will stem from there. 
Watercolour paint was allowed to run from the paintbrush down the surface of the image 
starting from the unformed area. The general idea was to watch the liquid spread over the 
surface of the image and observe how it altered the image as a result. Gravity was at play 
in the study as well as the consistency of the paint mix. The dripping was done in stages 
and recorded by scanning it into the computer. The page was rotated 90 degrees and 45 
degrees to create a widespread discharge.  
 
In hindsight performing this study in plan view is denying the gradient of the site. 
However the studies that make up Phase 2 are an exploration of certain aspects of the 
formless without restricting them to the pragmatics of site. I am aware of abstractness of 
these studies but believe they will set me up for the next phase.  
 
What I found out  
 
This operation has a strong connection to the abject in terms of this excretion flowing 
from terrain 2. The representation of the hemorrhage is fluid and is controlled by gravity. 
The hemorrhage enables terrain 2 to grow, going back to the description of the abject as 
?something alive yet not? (Taylor, 1993) I started to see what this could mean for this 
study. Through ?hemorrhaging? the size Terrain 2 grows, yet we can say that terrain 2 
which represents terrain vague is ?not alive? compared to the system that produced it the 
productive city. Therefore it is not alive yet growing. Observing this helped me realise 
that this description of the abject is based on the collapsing of the binary opposition of 
life/death, for something to be dead the characteristics of life must be repressed; for 
example growth.   
 
Thus the Haemorrhage study illustrates the disruption of terrain 1 through the almost 
organic proliferation of terrain 2 seen in figures 6a ? d).  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Parasite 
 
Conceptualising terrain 2 as the parasite and terrain 1 as the host, I carried out studies to 
explore this relationship in terms of the parasite disrupting the host.  
 
These studies were done with coloured pencil and watercolour paint. The idea was for the 
parasite to grow out of the corner of terrain 2 because it already acts like a parasite 
within the urban environment. 
 
What I found out  
  
The main insights to occur from the parasite study are associated with the boundary or 
edge condition that I see as separating the two sides of the site. Where does one side of 
the site end and the other begin? When does the parasite enter the host? This is really 
interesting because it relates back to Phase 1, where difference was investigated through 
syncretism. What the parasite study reveals is that when the boundary is not known or not 
stable it has the ability to disrupt what separates difference within a spatial relationship, 
thus to disrupt the mediation that controls it.  
 
The notion of the mediated is important to the formless because it is what it is reacting 
against. To mediate is to come in and reconcile which relates back to the more common 
definition of syncretism. These Parasite explorations are of course mediations themselves 
carried out by me.  
 
Thus the obvious but essential conclusion can be made that within design mediation is 
impossible to escape. In fact the very notion of design presupposes the event of mediation. 
Thus in relation to Parasite studies the extraction of formal elements which I originally 
saw as creating an unmediated terrain is simply establishing another guise or screen of 
mediation and therefore of formality. Puncturing the conceptual screen of formality is 
explored in the next study.       
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Puncturing with Formality 
 
In the final extraction study I moved my focus to the terrain 1 and began to think about 
extraction not as a taking away of form, but of extracting formal qualities and repeating 
them, becoming more a process of addition.  
 
I thought about the concrete steps (found in terrain 1) as beginning as a solid then having 
material carved or extracted out to create the function of the stair, in a similar way that 
the path requires the extraction of earth.  
 
I decided to extract the formal qualities of the staircase and to add or repeat them within 
the site. The first way I explored this was in connecting the two staircases (Anzac Ave 
and Beach Rd) together in an efficient curve. 
 
Figure 8b shows the top and bottom staircases connected, figure 8c examines how the 
path could still be functional when the new sets of steps become out of reach from the 
path and become elements of the gardens between the paths.   
 
This study is attempting to puncture the visual field in a different way to the previous 
extraction studies. Here the puncturing comes from the de-stabilising of the functional 
meaning of the stairs, not the puncturing or disrupting of the form itself in such a physical 
way. Thus the ?screen of formality? that the pulse attempts to puncture must be thought 
about and explored through not only physically undoing form but also in terms of a 
conceptual extraction which is explored here.  
 
 

Question Examination  
 
 
How can the formless to explored through landscape design? 
 
?The problem for all those who seek to show, bring or let be the formless, is 
transposition. For something to stay outside the world of form requires that an object 
remain a process, disabling the imposition of form at all stages. Arguably this is 
impossible, and that is its interest: the attempt can only ever fail, and this failing is 
formless/informe (the same could be said of attempts to theorise or demonstrate the 
formless).? (Hearty 1999)  
 
Transposition is an act of mediation; it is to form the formless. Thus the problem for 
the formless is how it be worked with it in an unmediated way? Bataille moved on 
from using art as a medium to investigate the formless because of this problem, he 
came to the conclusion that art is by definition a transposition. That is all attempts to 
?show, bring or let be the formless? could not escape being brought into form. Bois 
and Krauss however believe that Bataille?s notions of the formless can be worked with 
in art. They attempt to avoid the problem of transposition through a process of 
alteration which they define as an operation ?which has no essentialised of fixed 
terms? (Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 245) and therefore the act of alteration does not 
transpose the formless. 
 
 
Morales notion of terrain vague evokes many aspects of the formless but as was 
realised in the Extraction studies the notion of terrain vague is formed conceptually. 
Thus exploring the formless within terrain vague is an attempt to undo that 
conceptualisation through an alteration of terrain vague not a transposition. Terrain 
vague it is a space within the city (a mediated environment) that is physically 
unmediated; it is a waste product of its environment, thus in this sense is not 
transposed. Morales recognises this and foregrounds the tricky situation to then 
engage with terrain vague without transposing it, for example where he says ?we 
should treat the residual city with a contradictory complicity that will not shatter the 
elements that maintain in continuity in time and space? (Morales 1995, p. 123). This 
parallels with Bois and Krauss? notion of an alteration in which the formless will not 
be transposed because there are no fixed terms. However the appropriation of terrain 
vague within landscape design has had mixed outcomes as discussed below.  
 
 
 
Levesque attempts to perform alterations within the terrain vague which make them 
accessible to the public. He simply inserts generic picnic tables into terrain vague 
spaces to encourage people to enter and spend time in such terrains. This is a form of 
mediation but the intention is to have an encounter with an unmediated terrain, thus 
I see this as an alteration rather than a transposition, however I think it can be pushed 
further. 
 
Kamvasinou?s article Vague Parks discusses projects which she says 
?celebrate?Morales? idea of terrain vague? (Kamvasinou 2006, 255) these include the 
redevelopment of the High Line in New York, Fresh Kills Lifescape, and Duisburg-
Nord Landscape Park. What is evident in all these projects through her article is that 
they do not interrogate or even deal with the issue of transposition identified here as 
a key aspect, on this issue she says ?Is terrain vague something we should avoid?? 
(Kamvasinou 2006, p. 257) but does not then carry this thought through to what it 
means to then focus on it.  
  
Thus the difference between Levesque?s and Kamvasinou?s interpretation of terrain 
vague is due to the extent in which transposition is seen as a problem and this is 
highlighted in how Kamvasinou accepts the conceptualisation of terrain vague to 
work with rather than using it to perform an alteration in the way Levesque does. For 
my project transposition cannot be avoided. My position on transposition keys into 
Bois and Krauss? notion of alteration where the inescapable act of mediation should be 
an attempt to visualise the formless without restricting it to form. For example 
referring back to Hegarty, he says that ?for something to remain outside the world of 
forms requires it remain a process? (Hegarty 1999). This sparked an initial thought 
that material processes could be employed to perform alterations within the landscape 
that would utilise practices of the formless if the material were to remain in a process. 
The move to start working with materials is appropriate to landscape design; the very 
things that landscapes are made of, and to the formless where base materialism was an 
important notion to Bataille. It is intended that through this position the formless will 
be explored as a means to undo the conceptualisation of terrain vague.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Phase 3 
Proposition Development   
 
These drawing propositions aim to explore the possibility of visualising the formless 
as an unmediated design move within the site through engaging with landscape 
materials. This phase of the project drew form both phases 1 and 2 and the above 
theoretical examination of the formless in art and the formless in landscape 
architecture, to construct a series of material propositions. 
 
Material over idea  
 
The first move in investigating possible propositions with respect to the site was to 
select a material to work with. As said this was a deliberate move, rather than 
constructing an idea for a proposition and then allocating materials to it, the material 
would were drive the development of the propositions.  
 
Material: Sand  
 
Sand was chosen as the first material to work because it has protean qualities (readily 
assuming different forms, extremely variable). It is a material that has the ability to 
?remain a process? (Hegarty 1999) which is according to Hegarty the thing that 
removes the problem of with transposition. It has an interdependent relationship 
with natural processes such as the ocean, wind, and vegetation which have the ability 
to alter its form. There is also the aspect of human interaction such as being able to 
sink into it because it is an unstable surface. Thus the materials form is influenced by 
both natural and human processes.   
 
The way in which sand can build up to create form, and be dispersed to undo is also 
very relevant to the formless. The first proposition is that through investigating sand 
with respect to the site that the formless will be visualised, and will offer conclusions 
on how the formless can be explored through landscape design. 
 
To initiate the proposition development the scenario was constructed to observe what 
would happen if a truck load of sand was unloaded in terrain 2. 
 
A motivated site visit to Te Henga on the West coast of Auckland was undertaken to 
observe the materialality of sand in this unique environment. The notion of process 
was also built into the proposition as a means of adding complexity to the exploration 
of the material (these two documents are located in appendix). 
 
 
Introduction to Drawings  
 
To further explore the material of sand within the site I did a series of sections which 
went through terrain 2. I started working on grid paper because it represented a 
mediated space; a homogeneous page which already was formed (abstractly 
representing the ordered landscape or more precisely the way the landscape is 
ordered). I saw the section line as another form of mediation within the page because 
it can be measured from the physical landscape and represented here in scale. Thus 
within the realm of representation it can be controlled even though it is only an 
abstraction of the original landscape. This setting up of the image within which I 
investigated the propositions is important because the idea is that the material of the 
proposition (sand) is the heterogeneous element which opposes the homogeneous 
parts, thus attempting to create a tension between the mediated and the unmediated. 
The setting up of the drawing for the investigation is backed up where Hegarty says 
?form has to be somewhere in the vicinity of formlessness for there to be any 
informe/formless? (Hegarty 1999). Thus through setting up the formed parts; the grid 
and the site representation, the intention was that the formless parts would work 
their way through, in a similar way that the formless would work its way through the 
materials.    
 
Drawing 1 
 
In this drawing I am privileging a type of form which is sand dune-like. However 
there are many other possibilities the form of the sand could take which all need to be 
explored. Images B and C look at variations on this form. B is the opposite of A where 
material is instead taken out of terrain 2 to create a void and the surface of the 
landscape is no longer flat but becomes a steep gradient and C explores the 
combination of the two where a void is created and then filled with sand.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Representational 
 
I had idea of incorporating pointillism (individual dots the make up an image) as a 
technique within the drawing to represent sand. This gives the representation of sand 
the very sand-like quality of being individual pieces which make up a greater whole. 
It also gives the image a sense of falling apart or collapsing which offsets the 
repetition of the stable grid, and also crosses over into the conceptual importance of 
sand within this proposition exploration. 
 
Another interesting aspect of pointillism within the context of this project is the 
paradox between carefully representing the proposition (which could be done in quite 
a beautiful and controlled manner) whilst the content of the proposition remaining 
completely abject and formless. Thus setting up a representation which displaces both 
form (pointillism) and content (sand) an operation of the formless which Bataille 
called a slippage.        
 
Conceptual  
 
The three images are all giving terrain 2 a new surface in terms of materiality and 
gradient. The situation in image A is that a truck would unload an amount of sand 
into terrain 2 which over time and by means of both human and natural processes the 
material would/might disperse through the surrounding landscape, slipping down the 
slope, blowing onto Anzac Ave, blowing into terrain 1 and sticking to peoples? shoes 
which would then carry the material to other unknown places.  
 
In these ways the material that was unloaded in terrain 2, which at that point had a 
certain form, loses that form through a process in which its form is continually 
undone. Once the sand attaches itself to some body?s shoe or leg it becomes a parasite 
(refer to phase 2 Parasite) where it seems that the tiny particles are impossible to get 
rid of. The sand becomes a waste product, (when you return home from the beach 
and sand seems to be everywhere between your toes, in your hair yet when you 
where at the beach surrounded by sand it seems less of an issue). Thus it is this 
removal of context, when things become out of place that they take on formless 
notions such as excessiveness. Krauss says ?excess is the abject as operation and thus as 
informe? (Sedofsky 1996) therefore this proposition makes the material excessive 
through the act of taking it out of its ?natural? context whilst the material retaining its 
operational properties. In conclusion formlessness requires an alteration to occur that 
disrupts context but does not lose sight or connection to the context thus the material 
remains excessive because it is out of place which connects back to what was learnt in 
the Syncretism Study.    
 

Drawing 2 
 
Drawing 2 explores a formal starting point for the sand compared to Drawing 4?s 
more organic form. It should be said both are as contrived as each other as both are 
drawings. In this scenario the amount of sand corresponds to an angle that connects 
the height of street level and Anzac Ave and the gradient of the slope within terrain 2 
which possibly could have been something similar a previous landform before the 
area was excavated.  
 
The seven section images show the operation of the sand being displaced from terrain 
2 where it was unloaded and slipping down the slope, spreading out and eventually 
revealing terrain 2 which conceptually is like a re-revealing of the waste-ground. 
 
Conceptually  
 
As I was doing the sections it reminded me of two things, one which I illustrated: the 
process of deciduous tress losing their leaves, and the process of deindustrialistion 
which creates urban landscapes like terrain 2. It was at the moment when I caught 
myself drawing the trees and thinking about the revealing of the naked tree and the 
revealing of the naked landscape and the connection I could find to deindustrialistion, 
the undoing of buildings. I understood exactly why metaphors and signifiers are not 
aspects you can use when working with the formless. In fact they are a type of 
opposite design move. Firstly metaphors are about meaning, which is something the 
formless tries to escape, secondly that meaning is imported from another time or 
place or both, thus taking emphasis away from what you are actually seeing or 
experiencing.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 3  
 
Drawing 3 shows the same scenario as Drawing 2 but through a section line which 
shows both terrain 1 and terrain 2. The central image is a series of five sections; it 
shows that as the sand is displaced from terrain 2 a possible place it would go to is 
terrain 1. Although this proposition is about not having control over the material, not 
being able to plan what will happen to it and where it will go, nevertheless while I 
am representing it in terrain 1 (just one location) it may be displaced to any number 
of places like a parasite completely unmediated,   
 
The two images on the left hand side of this drawing are looking at the way in which 
the sand may reveal the surface of the landscape as it is dispersing.    
 
 
The next two drawing experiments use different media to represent sand. The main 
points to come out of these drawings were related to the representational and 
conceptual issues that are becoming part of this project.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 5 
 
The next two drawing experiments use different media to represent sand. The main 
points to come out of these drawings were related to the representational and 
conceptual issues that are becoming part of this project.  
 
 
In using sand to ?represent? sand, the element of time enters the original drawing. 
Over time the sand will piece by piece fall off the page and thus the drawing form is 
changed. It becomes stripped of the proposition therefore all that is left is the 
homogeneous parts of the drawing; the grid and section line. In hindsight this is a 
metaphor for the way in which the act of forming the world requires that its formless 
parts are either brought into form or completely excluded from the world. What is 
left is the homogeneous.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 6 
 
In the top section of Drawing 6 the liquid used to represent sand does not obey the 
normal conventions of a section line. One way I reflected on this is that it exaggerates 
the abstraction that is representation; the section line is an abstraction of the actual 
landscape terrain 2 and the liquid is an abstraction of the sand that it represents. The 
fact that the two abstractions are not playing by the same rules disrupts the notion of 
representation. This exploration extends on the previous phases of the project which 
at times neglected the levels in which the formless needs to be thought which are on 
representational, material, and conceptual. 
 
This interrogation of this first section in Drawing 6 has implications which relate 
back to the syncretism studies. These embraced difference for its disruptive agency, 
which is also being utilised here with the representation of the proposition in section.  
 
The drawings in phase 3 have been set up to connect to the notion of syncretism in 
the fundamental way of bringing two opposed ideas together in the same space; the 
homogeneous and the heterogeneous. A new aspect of the formless which relates to 
syncretism is the operation of scission which within the formless is the basis of it not 
being a dialectic practice but one of duality. Syncretism and scission are closely 
related to each other. The distinction between the two is that where syncretism 
brings differing elements together, scission is the operation which firstly isolates the 
different elements or causes a division within an element that makes any 
reconciliation impossible. 
 
 
Scission Defined  
 
 ?the division of everything in two each having its high and its low part?not only 
through scission does heterogeneity dissociate itself form homogeneity, but the 
heterogeneous itself is divided into two: there is the high heterogeneous ?God, for 
example ?and a low, excremental one? 
(Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 67)   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Applying Scission to the Drawing   
 
The materiality of the liquid gives it a quality of consistency in colour and 
transparency, yet the outline/edge is jagged and erratic. Bringing this observation of 
the media into the context of the formless I can say that the media possesses a dual 
characteristic of having a consistent body with an inconsistent edge. Where the liquid 
layer comes to an end, there is a conflict between the transition, from liquid on paper 
to paper, the jagged line looks like little crooked coffee stained teeth, and at the very 
edge where the liquid stops there is an excess that does not have the momentum to 
flow further, this builds up in a very thin line and reveals a darker shade of coffee, 
which also offsets the consistency of colour of the greater area.  
 
Applying the operation of scission to the section in Drawing 6 we see that the grid 
background of the drawing and the section line become the homogeneous parts 
which are dissociated from the heterogeneous ?blob? representing a proposition. 
Within this there is the dual character of the ?blob? where we can also see the 
operation of scission occurring in the heterogeneous material, where the body can be 
thought of as the high heterogeneous having consistency in colour and the grip 
showing through, and the edge the low heterogeneous which has an irregular form, a 
different and darker shade of colour and is disturbing the proportions of the grip; 
adding incompletion to completion, and therefore un-forming the grid itself.  
 
Therefore within the drawing which is an example of an attempted syncretism, we 
can say that the parts involved in that syncretism are the homogenous part, the grid 
and the section line, which is dissociated from the propositional part the blob 
representing sand. Within this the heterogeneous part there is the high 
heterogeneous which here corresponds to the body or inside area and the edge or 
surface as the low heterogeneous.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 7 
 
Having reflected on Drawing 6 and applied it first to landscape in general, I them 
formulated a relationship where the exposed surface of the landscape (typical 
abandoned terrain; terrain vague) is the low heterogeneous (the excremental one) 
because it is seen to be lacking something. Because it is what is always being covered 
up so that it can be used functionally and given meaning, therefore in the urban 
environment I see it as the low heterogeneous. The ?body? or what is under the 
surface becomes the high heterogeneous (God) in this relationship not by default but 
because it is an accepted space that does not have to be dealt with directly everyday. 
It is also a place of significance having important nutrients and minerals. Thus within 
this operation the designed terrain is the homogeneous, that which the high and low 
heterogeneous are dissociated from. (This is not to say that all designed landscapes are 
homogeneous, but for the purposes of exploring the notion of scission within the 
context of the landscape such initial over-simplifications have to be made)   
 
 
 
Summary  
 
Homogeneous = designed landscape  
 
Heterogeneous = un-designed landscape  
 
High heterogeneous = underground ? assimilated because it is not dealt with directly 
everyday 
 
Low Heterogeneous = edge/surface ? needs to be formed/designed upon to be useful 
in the urban context 
 
 
Before further exploring this landscape inflected notion of scission I have 
appropriated. I had the thought that scission could be used to interrogate the notion 
of edge condition which is usually thought of a something that occurs on a horizontal 
field, something you pass over. The edge condition that I am thinking of occurs in a 
vertical field the surface of the landscape being an edge itself. This is bound to give 
greater currency to the Extraction studies that where acting on similar impulses but 
without such motivated purpose. Scission is further explored in Drawing 8.    
 
 
 
Drawing 8 
 
This drawing illustrates the edge between the low heterogeneous (red) and the high 
heterogeneous (green) shown here in the section line which is the division between 
the two. Where that boundary is crossed, where for example the low and the high 
come into contact a short circuiting occurs. What I mean by this is that when the low 
and the high are brought into contact the idea is that formlessness will occur, like 
connecting two wires together which blows a fuse, it aims to disrupt the notion of 
surface.   
 
Representational  
 
Pointillism is again looked at this time using colour and a paintbrush; paintings done 
using this technique are called Divisionism because all the colours are divided from 
each other which differ from techniques where two or more colours of paint are 
mixed to create other colours. Thus not only is the pointillism/divisionism technique 
relevant for the reasons discussed in Drawing 1 but also in the conceptual terms of 
scission where there is this division of parts that do not reconcile with each other. 
Thus this technique is both relevant on physical, conceptual and representational 
levels.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 9 
 
Restricting this drawing to only geometrical forms forces the exploration to go 
beyond superficial ideas of the formless (what I?ll call formal formlessness by which I 
mean thinking about formlessness as a type of form) and tries to expand on the notion 
of scission that I identified in a landscape context.  
 
This drawing was produced as a series of movements in which a rectangular area 
representing a material is uniformly offset at 8 different positions which overlap each 
other (the movement is from left/terrain 2 to right/terrain 1 and down the page/site). 
While I was doing the drawing I was still thinking about sand moving through the 
site but obviously in a very impossibly geometrical manner. It was after the last 
rectangle was filled in that I began to consider the drawing in terms scission between 
surface and body.  
 
The restriction of the edge condition to the moving material (created using masking 
tape) creates a more controlled edge in comparison to the ?blob? sections shown in the 
top left of this drawing (From Drawing 6). Still seeing the ?body? as the high and the 
edge/surface as the low, in this drawing the difference between the high and the low 
is less obvious, and at times the relationship is reversed; with the smooth ordered 
edge and the textured and changeable ?body?. In areas the edge is in fact no longer 
identifiable; therefore the boundary between body and surface has been disrupted, 
the body has punctured the surface, through the high heterogeneous being brought 
into the space of the low forcing a syncretism to occur.  
 
Differences dissolve. Not the differences that create conventional edge conditions, but 
the fundamental difference between the unseen and the seen. These are differences 
that do not create meaning but upon which meaning has its platform, where it is 
played out. The body puncturing the surface is a way in which the surface is unable to 
establish meaning.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 10 
 
I acknowledged during phase 3 that the names I was using to refer to the sides of the 
site came with inherent value judgments. such as calling the right hand side of the 
site ?deformed? suggests that it is closer to being formless than the ?formed? side of the 
site, which it is not necessary true. This point is illustrated where Bataille says ?the 
more equilibrium an object has, the more complete it is?the greater the 
disequilibrium of sacrifice that can result? (Biles 2000). This really expresses the 
importance of this site within the overall project. In phase 2, I was still seeing the 
formless as a tool that would allow me to work as a designer within the notion of 
terrain vague which is a type of contradiction. As Morales says, as soon as the space is 
designed terrain vague is gone. However I thought the formless would offer a more 
rationale to the condition of terrain vague than more conventional practice of 
landscape architecture. My simple mistake here was that the formless is not empathic. 
The appreciation of this followed through to gaining an understanding that the 
concept of terrain vague is formed and thus the physical space of the terrain vague is 
formed and following this line of thinking every landscape is formed.  
 
Hence the names for the sides of the site changed to terrain 1 left side and terrain 
2?for the right hand side, in an attempt to see them on the same level.  
 
The division between the terrain 1 and terrain 2 is still important but as the early 
studies from Phase 1 and 2 have suggested it is not a matter of making terrain 1 look 
like terrain 2 to access the notion of the formless.  
 
Visually this point is further seen in the way that each side of the site is represented 
in Drawing 10 where terrain 1?s images are ordered and terrain 2 where the images 
are eschewed and fixed to the page with tape thus under the possible threat of erasure. 
This kind of representing echoes the words ?formed/ordered? and 
?deformed/disordered? that were being used as names for the sides of the site. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Material: Water  
 
Drawing 1 
 
After having used different forms of liquid in previous drawings as a representation 
medium I decided to investigate using liquid in the form of a proposition. This idea 
involves a situation where water from a hypothetical storm water pipe running along 
Anzac Ave is pierced at the point of terrain 1 and 2; the water gushes down the 
terrain and is then collected at the bottom on Beach Rd and at that point taken 
underground again. The water is driven by gravity over the slope, thus it is the 
formlessness of water that transforms the terrain.  
 
This proposition invokes the formless through the fact that it reveals something that 
is never seen thus creating an unexpected encounter. It is connected to metaphor 
which avoids thinking about what something actually is because it always refers to 
something else in doing so it elevates materiality to something representing meaning, 
thus forming it both materially and conceptually.  
 
It may seem completely contradictory that for this formless scenario to occur two 
points of mediation at Anzac Ave and Beach Rd are necessary. But this further 
illustrates the relationship between form and formless which is reinforced by Hegarty 
where he says that ?form has to be somewhere in the vicinity of formlessness for 
there to be any informe/formless? (Hegarty 1999) what he means by formlessness is a 
lack of form not the formless. This proposition also reminds me of the Perforation 
study from the Extraction phase; figure 4a, where the hole punch is used to create 
holes so that paper can be ordered and contained together creating a system. Here the 
holes created undo the system through material flowing out of the holes and over the 
terrain. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Material: Vegetation 
 
Drawing 1 
 
The Vegetation investigation started from thinking about a way the existing condition 
of terrain 2 could be maintained and yet elevated in height; basically extruded several 
meters high. I first imagined it as grass (which inflects what is existing) that over a 
period of time would grow in height to around street level. One intention behind this 
is simply working with the idea of the difference between ?blind spot? and ?eye sore? 
i.e. at what point terrain 2 crosses over from being ignored to being noticed. The 
sound and visual of the vegetation in the wind is also a consideration.  
 
This proposition is based around the themes that resulted from in phase 2, where 
growth began to be explored through the notion of extraction.   
 
Along with the exploration of the base condition of terrain 2 being extruded through 
the growth of ruderal vegetation I had the insight that cloud formations visualise the 
formless as an operation, in the double sense the word. Clouds are formally formless 
(in terms of their shape) yet when they come close to something that resembles form 
they enter into the notion of the formless, because they are always coming apart, 
moving towards formlessness. As with meaning that undoes itself, this becomes an 
ongoing game in which the forming and un-forming of the clouds is the operation. 
All attempts to project meaning end in it dissolving into something unrecognisable or 
something recognisable but different to the previous form.  
 
This example of the formless again reinforces the connection and the relationship 
between form and the formless, where the formless undoes form and all that goes 
along with it, such as the meaning found through  resemblance; the formless undoes 
the projection of ideas. Incorporating this observation into the development of the 
vegetation investigations aimed to add complexity to the way in which the material 
was engaged.  
 
Drawing 2   
 
Through this investigation I observed that the only way that terrain 2 can be viewed 
is by looking down into it from Anzac Ave and from the surrounding apartment and 
office buildings. It cannot be seen from terrain 1. This is an important aspect for all 
the propositions to take into account; it gives terrain 2 connotations of being like a 
Petri dish, a place of experimentation and observation.  
 
 
Drawing 3 
 
How could the formless operation I identified in clouds be used in the context of the 
landscape and with vegetation? A certain pattern or motif is designed and 
implemented in terrain 2 using vegetation as the material. Over time the vegetation 
may disperse seeds causing other unplanned vegetation to grow; other planned 
plants/tress would continue to grow thus move on from the intended motif. Over a 
period of time the original form of the motif would become blurred and obscured.   
 
 
The proposition draws on aspects of the Extraction studies in relation to extraction of 
form; however this is only one aspect of the tension between form and formless. 
There needs also to be the moment where form comes back into the process as 
illustrated in the cloud formation example. Otherwise there is the risk of reducing the 
formless to simply being the opposite of form.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 4   
 
The Proposition here sets up a more literal relationship between vegetation and sky 
which is moving away from the metaphorical aspects of the previous drawing (even 
though it was about undoing a metaphor/symbol). 
 
Drawing 4 illustrates the installation of a plane of mirror into terrain 2 that would be 
elevated half a meter off the ground.  
 
In the first variation of this proposition (1) holes are made in the surface of the mirror 
which allows the existing vegetation to grow through the mirrors surface and 
entering a visual relationship with whatever the sky?s doing that day i.e. raining, 
overcast, sunny, cloudy.    
 
In image (2) the second variation of this proposition, the treatment of the mirrors 
surface is thought about differently. Here the surface (mirror) is not only used as a 
means to set up this relationship between the vegetation and the sky, but the surface 
itself becomes more a part of the operation which reveals the relationship over time, 
through the mirror layer on the glass dissolving and becoming see through.   
 
Material: Concrete  
 
 
The drawing propositions found in this section are a continuation from the Sand 
drawings where the material was explored through its more subtle and banal use 
within landscape architecture. 
 
Drawing 1 and 2  
 
The above sand propositions (where sand is unloaded into terrain 2 and from there 
possibly getting dispersed within the rest of the site) led me to begin thinking about 
sand as a construction material, a sort of base material, a preparation material laid 
down before the base surface of the terrain (low heterogeneous) is designed upon 
(made homogeneous). I had the insight of thinking about sand as a repressed material 
that inhabits the space under and in the surface. This developed into thinking about 
the spaces that exist between the elements which are used to bring the terrain into 
form, such as pavers and tiles.  
 
Drawing 1 explores the significance of such a proposition where pavers are extracted 
from the ground plane revealing the material which is used to create the overall 
structure. The interesting aspects of this proposition in the context of the formless is 
that after the pavers are extracted the surface could become unusable i.e. no longer 
walkable. However the configuration of the revealed spaces between the pavers could 
get broken up and collapse if people did attempt to walk over it, thus continuing the 
operation of undoing the form. On a conceptual level, paving as a surface is often used 
within landscape architecture to express meaning and significance through 
metaphorical and symbolic references being conveyed by means of the colour and the 
shape of the pavers. Within this proposition such references would not be able to be 
read, therefore denying the delivery of meaning.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drawing 3  
 
Drawing 3 shows an example of syncretism within the site where the homogenous 
path interacts with the base surface of the terrain 2 in its delving into the high 
heterogeneous, the body of the terrain.    
Drawing 4 
 
The development of this proposition started with exploring ways in which the paving 
intervention could be worked into the configuration of the terrain, therefore putting 
it into a position where people who use the site would interact with it in a direct way.  
 
This move led to the consideration of many aspects of the terrain, such as disrupting 
the even flow that exists with the existing path system (which was explored in both 
the Syncretism and Extraction studies), just as the paving proposition is attempting to 
disrupt the notion of surface.  
 
The drawing proposes to add an additional pathway into the existing configuration 
which passes through forms a connection with terrain 2. The paving part of the 
proposition would be located inside the path?s curve giving it a direct relationship 
both to the path and the user.  
 
Although the proposition is very formal and symmetrical this does not weaken its 
notion of the formless. The seeming repetition of the intervention in proposing a new 
path made of the same materials attempts to disrupt the experience of the site through 
the possible syncretism of terrain 1 and terrain 2. Thus the proposed elements in 
terrain 2 are reacting to the solid condition of form found in terrain 1 as a means to 
disrupt and undo that condition.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Conclusions/Discussion 
 
Through my research I have identified and utilised practices of the formless to work 
with as a designer within the space of terrain vague. I have explored the formless 
through landscape design and the media and materials intrinsic to landscape 
formation.  
 
The formless in landscape design explores the possibility of designing and thinking 
about design in an unmediated way with the intent to undo both physical and 
conceptual form.  
 
The focus of this research has been on terrain vague, although it is not so much 
physically mediated, terrain vague is conceptually mediated within landscape 
architecture discourse and many other discourses. This was an important realisation, 
that terrain vague is a type of form.  
 
Thus the propositions developed for terrain 2 identified as an example of terrain 
vague attempted to undo the conceptualisation of terrain vague is some small way. Of 
course it needs to be acknowledged and what I need to be constantly aware of is that 
through the process of this project I am forming and conceptualising the formless. 
However the difference is that through out my project I am not attempting to design 
the formless but to utilise certain notions of the formless such as its disruptive agency. 
 
As a result of working with the formless, the propositions explored do not respect the 
notion of terrain vague as much as writers on the subject believe we should, or for 
example as much as Levesque does with his interventions, this realisation enforces the 
assimilation of terrain vague within discourse. The propositions in hindsight are quite 
aggressive, not the homogeneous aggressiveness Morales refers to that is opposed to 
terrain vague, but aggressive moves which insert operations into terrain 2. However 
this research project is speculative and attempts to add something different to the 
discussion on terrain vague, not necessarily slide comfortably into it. In terms of the 
projects duration the time between acknowledging that terrain vague is formed and 
the critique of that through the formless was a very productive. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I can see the value in turning terrain vague into a subject (forming it) within the 
discourse which Kamvasinou says has led to ?recent work of landscape architects who 
are seeking to promote principles of indeterminacy, emptiness and open-ended 
occupation? (Kamvasinou, 261). However the formless has taught me that it is 
important to remain conscious of the transposition involved in the process of 
discourse turning something into a subject: terrain vague and that flowing through to 
practice where arguably it becomes an object. The problem of transposition in the 
context of terrain vague is that it reconnects it back to what constituted its difference; 
the designed city.   
 
My positioned on transposition was guided by Bois and Krauss? notion of alteration 
which as discussed earlier is a form of mediation that attempts to have the opposite 
effect of transposition, thus where transposition is a form of mediation which has the 
aim of assimilation, an alteration seeks out indeterminacy (Hegarty 1999).  
 
I learnt from my inquiry into the formless that the notion of design presupposes a 
repression of both materiality and the notion of time in order to establish itself. An 
example of this would be a motif within a landscape that represents some past 
historical event. Thus for the motif to be recognised not only is the present time 
repressed through referring to the past but also the materials which form the 
reference must ward of the effects of the present to express the past, thus the design 
mediates materials and time to deliver meaning.  
 
Thus to explore the formless in landscape design is to attempt through a process of 
alteration to think about design as something that leaves the realm of mediation 
through becoming excessive. If materials and time are excessive it means that they are 
not assimilated, this position utilises practices of the formless to interrogate the 
formation and terrain vague and its assimilation within discourse.  
 
Therefore in comparison to a transposition which ultimately reconnects terrain vague 
back to the designed city my position reconnects terrain vague back to the operation 
of being an excessive landscape.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As demonstrated in the material propositions one way to achieve excessiveness is 
through taking a material out of context, for example sand being brought into terrain 
2, stormwater gushing down terrain 1, and pavers removed from their surface 
position are all examples which transform materials into excessive operations of the 
formless which I believe disrupts the conceptualisation of terrain vague. The design 
propositions invoke the explored notions from earlier in the project such as 
syncretism and scission where then materials do not reconcile with the terrain and 
certain ideas explored in the extraction phase such as attempting to puncture the 
surface of the terrain in the vegetation and concrete investigations. 
 
I acknowledge that the formless has limitations within the field of landscape design 
specifically due of issues of suitability, thus it was appropriate as my first investigation 
of the formless be carried out in relation to terrain vague because of the associations 
between the two. I feel there are still a vast number of issues to be addressed between 
landscape design and the formless and an even greater number if the formless were to 
be incorporated within practice. However if I were to undertake further research 
with the formless I think it would be very interesting to experiment more with the 
physical world like Levesque does with his picnic tables whether I continued to focus 
on terrain vague or not. I think this would offer more precise insights in relation to 
notions such as transposition and alteration which have been established here as key 
aspects for the formless. I believe I have established a way in which the formless can 
be understood within landscape design and that further research undertaken myself 
or by other landscape architecture students or professionals could utilise this research 
project.      
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 
 
 
       
 
      Biles, J., (2000). Five Footnotes to an Essay Conceived While Lying on a     
      Philosophers Couch.  
      viewed via www.mariekranebergman.com/Rupturing  Beauty1.html).  
 
 
Bois, Y-A, and R, Krauss, (1997). Formless a user?s Guide. Zone Books, New York. 
 
 
Hearty, P., (1999). Formal Insistence, viewed via 
www.univie.ac.at/Wissenschaftstheories/srb/srb/formalinsistence.pdf  
 
 
      Kamvasinou, K. (2006). Vague Parks: the politics of late twentieth-century  
      urban landscapes. Architectural Research Quarterly, vol 10, pp. 225-262. 
 
 
L?vesque, L ?The ?terrain vague? as material ? some observations? (2002), 
http://www.amarrages.com/textes_terrain.html. 
 
 
Morales, S., (1996). Terrain Vague, in Anyplace. C. Davidson, The MIT Press, 
London, pp. 118-123. 
 
 
Nielsen, T., February (2002). Superfluous Landscapes: the return of the excessive. 
Space and Culture, 5, pp. 53-62.  
 
 
 
Sedofsky, L., (1996). Down and Dirty ? form in modernist art ? interview with 
curators Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois ? interview viewed via 
http://findarticles.com/downanddirty  
 
 
Taylor, M., (1993). The Phobic Object: Abjection in Contemporary Art in Abject art: 
repulsion and desire in American art. New York. The Museum. 
Appendix 
 
1, Te Henga, Bethels Beach: Motivated Research   
2, Introducing process to the proposition  
 
 
1, Te Henga, Bethels Beach: Motivated Research   
 
The proposition is to deposit sand into the ?waste-ground? of the site terrain 2, the 
purpose of this is to allow certain effects to act on the material which may change 
over time due to both natural and human forces.  
 
The trip to Te Henga showed me how sand as a material is under the influence of 
many forces that manipulate it over long periods of time. It can accumulate, or 
disperse, be pushed and pulled.  
 
The way sand accumulates and covers other elements was very interesting. 
Discovering a group of trees that had become extremely obscured by mounting sand 
dunes is a simple yet powerful example of the formless as operation. In this example 
we have two natural materials; sand, and trees. In this situation both have the 
potential of growth and shrinkage. Sand can easily be displaced by wind and the 
changing tides (and thus releases the trees from suffocation) or it could continue to 
build up in this area (and completely take the trees over). The trees are growing but if 
the sand does continue to mount then they may get completely covered. Basically it is 
a sort of race between the sand dunes and the group of trees. 
 
The way such a situation is discovered is also crucial. This fight for survival is not 
found following the main walking tracks or by walking along the beach, it is 
stumbled upon, somewhere you get lost, (find something out) and then find your way 
out of. This is important because it takes you by surprise. Unlike the beach, which is 
mediated, a place like this is totally uncontrolled by human systems, and therefore 
when people enter they are at the devices of the material and the situation. It is not, 
however, a dangerous place, but a place of difference. The bodily experience of the 
material is unmediated and thus heightens the relationship between what you see and 
the implications that has for the body. This is where the relevance of these dunes is 
important. The work now involves how to use this stuff on purpose as design material 
and in the context of the urban environment.      
 
?One day or another, given it persistence?dust will probably begin to gain the upper 
hand over the servants, pouring immense amounts of rubbish into abandoned 
buildings and deserted dockyards? (Bois and Krauss 1997, p. 226)  
2, Process: 
 
At the time of deciding to work with sand within the site I also started to think about 
process; not only what happens to the sand and the site once it is there but also the 
process of how it got to the site and where the sand itself came from.  
 
When I chose to work with sand I had a hunch that as a material it would be able to 
develop my understanding of the formless within a landscape. The practice of 
introducing the process of the whole situation is a way to bring complexity to the 
proposition.  
 
The first part of the process I considered was where the sand would come from. 
Obviously all sand comes from the beach or dredged up from under the ocean, but 
what I wanted to consider in terms of the formless and this proposition was what the 
differences and implications are if the sand was to be taken from a beach and unload 
in ?terrain 2? or alternatively brought from a sand wholesaler.   
 
 
Where is sand coming from? 
 
Beach: 
 
Taking a large amount of sand from a local beach and moving it into the landscape I 
am using, would be adhering to some inherent aspects of the formless such as causing 
a ?low blow? (which is irrational and illogical) in this case to the local ecology and 
community that the sand came from. Thinking about the abject as operation and 
therefore as formless Bois and Krauss say such an operation is found in the notion of 
excess which is a form of overproduction or expenditure. Generally I see ?excess? as 
being abject because through process/operation it becomes unwanted and unneeded 
but flows through what is wanted and needed. This is relevant to one of Bataille?s 
man interests of informe which is what waste does to the system. What happens 
when something is in excess? Looking at the inland sand dunes at Te Henga which 
have been blown over many years and continue to move, the result is a landscape 
which is celebrated for its difference. It makes you think about the operation of time, 
and movement of material. You are in what are sand dunes and you can hear the sea 
but not see it the horizon beyond the sand is rolling farm land. This material is in 
excess but it is assimilated for its uniqueness. 
 
 
 
 
An Example  
 
Oriental Bay in Wellington is a man made beach which got its sand shipped in from 
Golden Bay in the South Island. An artificial reef was constructed at Oriental Bay to 
help mitigate the removal of the sand from the sea. There was obviously an excess of 
sand in Golden Bay. 
 
Taking sand from a beach where it was not in excess does as mentioned have formless 
associations, thinking about such an act in the context of the practice of landscape 
architecture it cannot be rationalised through social, economic, political, or ecological 
processes of thought (the sand being moved from Golden Bay was being moved to 
create an urban beach in Wellington thus a new public space, this process could be 
rationalised under all the above categories). Such an operation would never be 
permitted and would in fact be completely shunned (especially by landscape 
architects). Thus as the operation works its work is undone as Hegarty would say, in 
relation to the operation of informe. In other words as the process/operation of the 
proposition unfolds it continually becomes thought of as wrong or unwanted, as 
Bataille said of the informe in his dictionary entry. ?What it designates has no rights 
in any sense and gets itself squashed everywhere? (Bois and Krauss 1997) but 
remember as Bois and Krauss make clear the informe has only operational existence. 
A pile of sand is not informe but the process (history) of the proposition where the 
operation is found is where the work of the informe is and where the (proposition) 
informe gets ?squashed?.     
 
 
Bought  
 
Buying an amount of sand and moving it to the site is a completely different tactic 
from taking it from an existing beach. What springs to mind in buying sand from a 
building depot is the idea of value: how much money should be spent? And how 
much material will that give? Also the idea of giving an amount of material which 
corresponds to an amount of money to a landscape which can be thought of as dually 
having no value at all (debasement) and being priceless (emancipation can?t be 
brought) is an interesting idea. Inserting something measurable in physical and 
monetary dimensions into a landscape as Luc Levesque says scrambles normative 
representation (which has its own value as well).  
 
 
Sand is used in the construction of landscapes as a beneath-the-surface material (base 
course) on top of which the design ?frock coat? is applied. It?s a material that is leveled 
and compacted before a harder surface is laid, such as concrete, tiles. It is also used as 
a material to sprinkle over surface tiles to fill in the cracks and it is also a permeable 
material.  
 
Buying an amount of sand and placing it in the site is a step taken in the construction 
of a new landscape, altering the scale or amount of sand placed in the ?construction 
zone? starts to enter into the conflict of the formless in landscape architecture (in 
perhaps a more playful way that the previous way of getting sand into the site). For 
example as the large amount of sand starts to get leveled out it falls down the slope of 
the landscape or gets blown away thus the abject as operation is at play (excess).