Le toposcope et l’indicateur des alpes

Abstract

The orientation tables produced by the Touring Club de France (TCF) at the beginning of the 20th century display composite representations of the landscape on circular or semicircular platforms made of enamelled lava. As part of our doctoral research into the relationship between landscape and design, we explore the dual dynamics of the orientation table as a device deployed in space and a representation of the landscape. We posit that the orientation table is at the intersection of space and image in the form of an ‘edifice-image’. The aim is to understand how these objects are in situ insertions in a territory and how they simultaneously act in visu by producing a representation of the landscape during a walk. By analysing a body of texts written by members of the TCF and their collaborators between 1903 and 1938, we will focus on two devices which appear to be the prototypes of the orientation tables installed by the TCF. We first focus on the toposcope, a military surveillance device that was particularly popular in the 18th century. We then focus on the Alpine indicator, a device used throughout the 19th century by tourists exploring the peaks at the heart of the Swiss Alps. We will see how these two devices, through the two types of perspectives they construct of the landscape - one military, the other contemplative and instructive – resulted in the orientation tables, which in their own way sought to reach beyond the limits of what is visible.

Keywords

• landscape
• perspective
• viewpoint
• orientation table
• indexer