Colonial Logic Made Visible: Considering Seasonal Plantation Visibility in 3D ‘Fertile’ Digital Landscapes to Re- Examine Caribbean Panoptic Plantationscapes

Abstract

Landscape approaches utilizing line-of-sight profiles and viewsheds to compute intervisibility are far from new techniques in archaeological research. Various well-known works have described the methods and theory used to map visibility on plantationscapes. However, due to a lack of technological capabilities, most have been forced to utilize incomplete datasets, applying analysis to ‘barren’ landscapes lacking buildings, vegetation, or any temporal and/or cyclical fluctuations, particularly concerning local ecologies. However, as computers and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies expand, more advanced visualizations and analyses have become feasible. One area of GIS technology experiencing rapid advancement is the expansion of geographically accurate 3D data, which allows the development of interactive perspective models. This research uses a ‘fertile’ landscape model to test how a 3D perspective that factors in buildings and sugarcane can alter our understanding of colonial control methodologies and consider whether the Panoptic Plantation model is the most effective to discuss imperial logic and domination on Caribbean sugar estates.