Representation Project of Impermanence

Marisa Fernandes

The project Representation project of impermanence: in between Nazaré and the Lagoa da Pederneira explores the theme of impermanence as formed in the specificity of the place selected. The understanding of the place is associated with the author Orlando Ribeiro, through which the three main approach principles are founded: the rótula concept, used by the geographer, is unfolded in the approximation to the place, revealing the interconnections between sites and concepts; the in situ analysis explores the field notes research revealing what is found in it; the impermanence theme is apprehended in the investigation time frame, transforming and creating a new representation system which is both a transdisciplinary and a trans-scale interpretation of the place. On the established approach, the concept of vision is reformulated through the impermanence theme. Perception and territory change, originating new methodologies and multiple understandings. These are dynamic and unstable in which even the must apparently “static” layer changes: the physical materiality of the place. Impermanence is found through the relationship between land-water, which in the selected sample is in constant change. The “liquids” are studied rendering complex movements and flows made visible through the experimental process of their representation. The transience of this relationship is unfolded through three chapters, based on three time approaches: linear, relational and lived. Through these, the transformation process of the place is decoded on its geomorphic characteristics, intrinsically related to the old Lagoa da Pederneira and the administrative limits of the Coutos de Alcobaça, revealing that impermanence is much more than a simple cause-effect, to become a relational inter-action between land-water in the impermanent tendency of the place to become water again and again. Finally, the lived impermanence unfolds how the dynamics of its formation are related to the present ones, uncovering the themes that shape the defined representation. The investigation project is intended to be an exploratory representation essay, which not only maps impermanency but what is more it faces the change of its own construction which flows through its process of experimentation during its own development. This inherent impermanence is exposed through the Impermanent Process (in yellow pages) unfolding its relational complexity, and revealing the main shifting moments.