Paper short abstract:

Following the notions of taskscape and meshwork, I argue for an interpretation of landscape and environment as entanglements of tasks and activities rather than assemblages of geographical, biological and hydrogeological features.

Paper long abstract:

The Pontine Marshes (Italy), were reclaimed in the 1930s by the fascist regime. It is commonly thought that the Marshes' hydrological regime was modified by human actions only through large scale reclamation projects conducted by the fascist regime. I challenge this view presenting the Marshes as an artefact, rather than a natural phenomenon, resulting from centuries of human and non-human engagement within that particular environment.

My interpretation resonates with Olwig's work retracing the etymology of the term landscape as 'land shaped'. Olwig's interpretation recalls the notion of taskscape, conceptualized by Ingold to point out the array of activities that living beings carry out in the process of inhabiting the environment. Even though, it is arguable that Olwig's understanding of landscape conveys a deeper political dimension, my argument is grounded in the notion of taskscape for three main reasons.

Firstly, taskscape focuses on 'tasks' rather than 'land' or 'shapes', highlighting the idea of the Marshes as a process rather than an outcome of different activities.

Secondly, the notion of task involves the idea of 'care': the inhabitants of the Marshes, accomplishing their tasks, nurture the marshes, keeping them alive.

Thirdly, the notion of taskscape involves a particular understanding of history, conceptualized as 'temporality', which is implicitly social because it emerges through the tasks that living beings perform, resonating with each other in the process of weaving the meshwork.

From this perspective the marshes emerge as tasks themselves, as practices of care aimed at 'keeping the land wet'.