A Picturesque vertical montage: auditory and visual sequences at Rousham garden

Abstract

This article examines the under-researched relationship between the auditory and visual sequences of spatial experience at Rousham garden, a highly regarded Picturesque landscape. It examines historic sources and broader literature against contemporary data collected on-site, arguing that conventional readings of the Picturesque underplay the multisensory nature of spatial experience of these landscapes. It then argues that this relationship could be productively analysed and represented by vertical montage as defined by Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), and in re-evaluating this auditory and visual experience, provides a new understanding of the Picturesque that moves beyond the conventional notions of the pleasures of seeing. Finally, in examining how this experience is related to time, movement, tempo and sound, it creates a new method for reading and representing design features from the senses of sound and vision.