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THE USEFULNESS OF THE USELESS IN THE LANDSCAPE-CULTURAL MOSAIC

Conference Paper · July 2014

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1493.7120

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Paesaggio e risorse L IVIO C. PICCININI, T. F. MARGHERITA CHANG
Agribusiness Paesaggio & Ambiente -- Vol. XVII- n. 2, Marzo 2014

The Usefulness of the Useless in the

Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Liveability,
Typicality, Biodiversity

LIVIO C. PICCININI, TING FA MARGHERITA CHANG

The Usefulness of the Useless in the Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Liveability, Typicality, Biodiversity. The title of
2014 IPSAPA conference was inspired by Ordine’s book L’utilité de l’inutile (2013, Paris, Les belles lettres). Cultural
freedom is opposed to the slavery of immediate interest, with consequences that in the short term make life less rich and
in the long run result in the drying up of creative ability also scientifically. The conference suggested to apply these
concepts to the world of landscape-cultural mosaic.
Keywords: Cultural-landscape mosaic, IPSAPA, Usefulness versus Useless, Liveability, Typicality.

As usual, the Call for papers asked the

participants to critically reflect on certain
fundamental concepts, by encouraging, on the
one hand, methodological analysis, and on the
other, their application in the field. The
fundamental concepts for this year were the
true, the beautiful, the good and their
counterpoints (false, ugly, bad) viewed in their
relationship with the two ambiguous
parameters of useful and useless. The last two
conferences were decidedly oriented towards
the “useless”, as they were titled Wonderland
and Utopia, while in this edition the orientation
was directed towards the equilibrium between
the two worlds of the useful and the useless
with the operative corollaries of biodiversity
and of typicality, in a frame of liveability.
Nuccio Ordine in his essay on the utility of
LIVIO C. PICCININI the useless shows how the obsession with
President of IPSAPA/ISPALEM ownership and the cult of usefulness ends up

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The Usefulness of the Useless in the Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Liveability, Typicality, Biodiversity
sapping the spirit, endangering not only schools
and universities, art and creativity, but also
certain fundamental values such as dignitas
hominis (human dignity), love, and truth.
Abraham Flexner in his fascinating essay
(presented in Ordine’s book) recalls that even
the sciences teach us about the usefulness of
the useless. By eliminating the gratuitous and
unnecessary, by killing those luxuries deemed to
be superfluous, homo sapiens can hardly make
humanity more human. These conclusions may
appear one-sided as the testimonies originate
from thinkers and artists, but Flexner with the
intuition of the Centre for Advanced Studies in
Princeton should be above all suspicion, even in
his ruthless analysis that seems to despise any
possible application of the science itself. We want
to add to the debate the synthesis position held
by Herbert Simon, Nobel laureate in economics
and a great protagonist of the foundations of
artificial intelligence, who in his long academic
career never wanted to separate the economic
and technological components from human
knowledge, behaviour and psychology.
In many cases, the choice is conditioned by
the economic perspective: in the face of a
demanding potentiality (e.g. a better house),
but achievable, it is possible that the budget
allocated to food, clothing and even culture is
reduced, compared to that of a family which
does not believe that they can ever aspire to a
higher standard of home. This may also apply
at the aggregate level or even at the level of
the public budget.
There may be a temptation to consider as
useless what cannot be measured in monetary
terms, as is often the case for the health of the
environment and of the landscape, with the
ensuing hyper-reactions that attach an infinite
value to such assets, blocking even balanced
activities.
With regards to the highest and most noble
part, such as for example charity, honesty,
science, art, which refine each other the more
they are shared, there is the opinion that as
long as they are indivisible and non ap-
propriable assets, they lack value, as already
noted by Dante (in his otherworldly dialogue
with Virgil)
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“How can each one of many who divide
a single good have more of it, so shared,
than if a few had kept it?” He replied:
“Because within the habit of mankind
you set your whole interest on earthly things,
the true light falls as darkness on your mind…”
Purgatorio, 15, 61-66 , Ciardi’s translation
The systems of patents, copyrights,
protection of signatures, indexing of scientific
articles, have gradually reduced the arts and
science to divisible goods. For the moral virtues
there are indirect ways to publicise and valorise
them, also through the mass media and social
networks, in which, to some extent, they too
can become divisible goods and therefore fall
into the much esteemed category of useful.
At this point in the post-industrial era, the
conservation of typicality and of biodiversity,
which first appeared to be niche luxuries
inadmissible globally, have returned to being
possible at a reasonable cost; this is true not
only in the economic context, but extends, with
minor adjustments, to the typicality of
processes and to cultural, scientific, and artistic
biodiversity. In correspondence there is a
growing demand from a large group of people,
by now fed up of being subjected to an
economic standardisation that is no longer
necessary. Everyone knows that differentiation
in industrial production is a fiction, as in the
technological framework formal external
gadgets are simply modified, or even in urban
design accessories made in series are used as if
they were characteristic of the place, or we
resort to series of nurseries producing plants
identical and of the same age, capable of
imitating in a few days the natural development
of years. However, the end user lets himself be
carried away by the image he perceives, and he
feels satisfied.
Industrial globalisation, on the other hand,
has produced the beneficial effect of creating
sufficiently large niche markets so that even
authentic typical products can be economically
sustainable, as foreseen by Sylos Labini’s
model of oligopoly. It is also becoming possible
to once again create areas of high biodiversity,
modernising the ancient biodiversity research,
Paesaggio e risorse
which has previously been made by botanical
gardens and zoos. Since the time of Hadrian’s
Villa in Tivoli, through Monaco of Bavaria, the
Madurodam in Den Haag, the Italy in Minia-
ture park in Viserba, to the artificial Venices of
Las Vegas and of San Dona di Piave with its
retail outlet, the reproduction of the world’s
most important monuments have been realised
and loved.
The conservation of our roots, real or
presumed, is now considered to be a duty, even
if economic sustainability makes restorative
intervention difficult in a land as rich in beauty
as Italy. Failing even to adequately protect
archaeological assets (also due to a certain
excessive rigidity of regulations and of the
interpretation of the laws), it is difficult to think
that they can fully develop the industrial
archaeology, the archaeology of tourism and its
infrastructure, and the geographical archaeology
of the roads. In respect to the latter, the
dismantling of the minor railways is saddening,
A comparison with the United Kingdom is due,
especially with regards to the tourist network
of north Wales.
The attitude towards the infrastructure of
the territory is wavering. On the one hand there
is the quest for a masking to lower or even
nullify impact on the environment and
landscape, on the other the lowlands are
furrowed by the spectacular infrastructure
designed by great architects or even their
intelligent imitators, such as the Church of San
Giovanni Battista (St. John the Baptist) on the
Autostrada del sole (“motorway of the sun”) near
Florence, or the bridge and station of the high-
speed railway in Reggio Emilia. The 2015 Expo
will be a new occasion of definite interest, as it
was at the time of the exposition in Rome in
1942 (despite the fact it did not proceed, it
left its imprint in EUR) and of the Rome
Olympics in 1960.
The conference was held in Catania, July
3 and 4th, 2014 at Benedictines Cluster of
rd
San Nicolò l’Arena. It was divided in four
plenary sections (A, B, C, D) of 6 lectures each
and three synthesis plenary sections (P, Q, R)
of 9 communications each. Also written
communications were foreseen. According to
94
L IVIO C. PICCININI, T. F. MARGHERITA CHANG
the topics and the desire of participants, some
lectures are to be published in a specific book
dedicated the conference, while many others
are presented in the numbers of this journal.
The list of the sections of the conference
and the themes suggested to the participants
(in italics) give the reader some idea of the
development of the works. However, we found
it useful to add a comment (or counter-
comment) next to each theme that can clarify
the intention that was the basis of the offered
title.
Beautiful, good, useful: a problematic
coexistence
A1 Culture and memory for liveability You do not
live by bread alone
A2 Natural biodiversity and cultural biodiversity
in the formation of the landscape The landscape
is the coexistence of nature and cultural history.
What balance?
A3 The beauty between representations of scenery
and identity The scenario takes a foundation of
reality
A4 Values of identity in global contexts Defense
of the real or re-creation?
A5 From the city of utopia to the smart city From
the Renaissance abstract city to the virtual
abstract (or hyperrealistic?) city
A6 Salvaging and protection of past Which past
are we going to save?
The pleasure of the useless
B1 The creation of rarity The tools to build and
recognize the rarity
B2 The liveable landscape and its rhythms
Landscape of the fairy world or of the hell?
B3 The new monumental emergencies Impress the
bourgeois
B4 Researching projects for biodiversity in vast
areas Can biodiversity be built?
B5 Networks and information between
fragmentation and synthesis Fragments of
information to be glued together through
networks
B6 Construction and invention of typicality Who
decides what is typical?
In search of the hidden profit
C1 Long-term values of projects of evolution What
comes next?
C2 Synergies and multifunctionality: typicality or
The Usefulness of the Useless in the Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Liveability, Typicality, Biodiversity

biodiversity? Central places or reticular theory?
C3 Hedonic values and methods of estimation The
subtle price of pleasure
C4 Visual arts between identity and evolution The
shape of time
C5 The archeology of the recent past The bad
fathers, the great grandparents
C6 The potential of brownfield sites and interstitial
areas Wild re-naturalization
Cycles of transition between useful and useless
D1 Liveability and the role of the peri-urban
territory Exploration and memory
D2 Complexity in the coexistence of urban networks
and of global networks The case and its control
D3 The guided and spontaneous evolution of
biodiversity The labyrinth between pleasure and
fear
D4 Emblematic values of typicality The
trademark
D5 The structural and perceptive transformation
of the urban scene The long shadow of memories
D6 From fragments of the past to landmark of fu-
ture landscapes Old and new compasses
Liveability
P1 Rites and places of aggregation: square, stadium,
theater, disco I was there
P2 The reconquest of the “great beauty” of the cities
and their rivers When the rivers were within the
city
P3 The resistible attraction of non-places All of
us must go through there
P4 The places of silence, of recollection, and of
meditation The sea shore at sunset
Typicality
Q1 Let’s give a future to our past A picture, a
story, a song
Q2 Thematic networks and distributed identity The
same quality over the world
Q3 Effect of identity created by the means of mass
communication Did you see that trailer?
Q4 The mosaic landscape-art-oenogastronomy
Like eating salmon with view on Niagara Falls
Natural and cultural biodiversity
R1 Let’s give a future to our past. Imagination at
work
R2 Demystification of the “sacred monsters” Read
between the lines
R3 Enter into the secrets of the professionals
Initiation and taboos
R4 Reconstruction of slow travel itineraries Along
the abandoned railways
Sommario L’utilità dell’inutile nel mosaico paesistico-
culturale: vivibilità, tipicità, biodiversità. Il titolo del
Convegno IPSAPA del 2014 è stato ispirato dal libro
di Ordine L’utilité de l’inutile (2013). La libertà
culturale si oppone alla schiavitù dell’interesse
immediato, che nel breve termine rende la vita meno
piacevole e nel lungo periodo isterilisce la capacità
creativa anche nell’ambito della scienza. Il Convegno
ha suggerito di applicare questi concetti al mondo del
mosaico paesistico-culturale.

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