Environmental Aesthetics

Modern industrial societies mostly respond to the threat of climate breakdown with denial and neglect. In this paper, I argue that one of the causes of this is a superficial view of nature, including a shallow conception of natural beauty, and propose a deep aesthetic appreciation consisting of embodied participation, multisensorial perception, naturalist knowledge, and admiration without dominion. This appreciation focuses on following animal stories within the environment, an approach that will reveal how nature is not merely scenery but a network of interrelated stories that weaves the web of life and can be seriously damaged by climate chaos.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The landscape is a complex cultural phenomenon — not merely an object of contemplation or a backdrop to daily life but an active element that interacts with communities and helps shape their identity. Following an introduction to the concept of landscape and “cultural landscape,” along with a brief overview of aesthetic perspectives developed in the United States and Europe, this essay focuses on the German philosopher Gernot Böhme’s theory of atmospheres. An atmosphere is not only the result of synesthetic perception; it can also be artificially created, not only through natural and architectural elements — as landscape architects do — but also through media such as literature, photography, and cinema. In its final section, the essay examines, through the lens of “atmospherography” — the study of how media construct atmospheres — some Sicilian atmospheres shaped by cinematic and television imaginaries. Through this exploration, the essay aims to demonstrate how films and TV series do more than merely represent Sicily; they stage it, generating atmospheres that shape collective imagination and influence the very relationship with the landscape.
ITALIAN ABSTRACT:
Il paesaggio è un complesso fenomeno culturale — non semplicemente un oggetto di contemplazione o uno sfondo della vita quotidiana, ma un elemento attivo che interagisce con le comunità e contribuisce a plasmarne l’identità. Dopo un’introduzione al concetto di paesaggio e di “paesaggio culturale”, insieme a una breve panoramica delle prospettive estetiche sviluppatesi negli Stati Uniti e in Europa, il saggio si concentra sulla teoria delle atmosfere del filosofo tedesco Gernot Böhme. L’atmosfera non è soltanto il risultato di una percezione sinestetica; può essere anche artificialmente creata, non solo attraverso elementi naturali e architettonici — come fanno i paesaggisti — ma anche tramite media quali la letteratura, la fotografia e il cinema. Nella sezione conclusiva, il saggio esamina, attraverso la lente dell’“atmosferografia” — lo studio di come i media costruiscono le atmosfere — alcune atmosfere siciliane modellate dagli immaginari cinematografici e televisivi. Questa esplorazione intende mostrare come film e serie TV non si limitino a rappresentare la Sicilia, ma la mettano in scena, generando atmosfere che plasmano l’immaginario collettivo e influenzano il rapporto stesso con il paesaggio.

This paper is an attempt to develop categories of the pedestrian's tactile and kinaesthetic experience of the city. The beginning emphasizes the haptic qualities of surfaces and textures, which can be "palpated" visually or experienced by walking. Also the lived city is three-dimensional; its corporeal depth is discussed here in relation to the invisible sewers, protuberant profiles, and the formal diversity of roofscapes. A central role is ascribed in the present analysis to the formal similarities between the representation of the city by walking through it and the representation of the tactile form of objects. Additional aspects of the "tactile" experience of the city in a broad sense concern the feeling of their rhythms and the exposure to weather conditions. Finally, several aspects of contingency converge in the visible age of architectural works, which record traces of individual and collective histories.

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York a porcelain urinal under the title Fountain, which was resituated in a position ninety degrees from the usual and bore the signature "R. Mutt." Although this work was rejected, its photograph together with a short note was published in the journal The Blind Man in the same year, and provoked a controversy surrounding the definition of artwork. The esteem accorded to art since modern times came under challenge. There is no record concerning whether Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was aware of Duchamp's works. Yet in the beginning of "The Origin of the Work of Art," Heidegger pays attention to the fact that "works are as naturally present [vorhanden] as things," and offers the following examples:

What if language didn’t just describe art — but scarred it?

In this piercing treatise, Dorian Vale introduces Hauntmark Theory, a philosophical framework that confronts the violence embedded in language when used to name, contain, or explain a work of art. The theory proposes that every word leaves a residue, a trace that either preserves presence or disfigures it — and that careless interpretation is not neutral, but haunting.

Drawing on post-linguistic philosophy, trauma theory, and Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC), this work reframes criticism as a moral event, where each act of description leaves behind a mark: some delicate, some damaging, all irreversible. It introduces key concepts such as Hauntmarks, Linguistic Overreach, Descriptive Violence, and the Silent Custodian, arguing that the deepest form of reverence lies not in what we say about art — but in what we choose not to say.

Where previous treatises in the Post-Interpretive Movement reimagined the role of the viewer and the critic, Hauntmark Theory addresses the unspoken aftermath of critique: how words linger in the air around the work, often louder than the work itself.

This is not a call for silence. It is a call for sacred restraint — for a new vocabulary of witness, where words do not eclipse the art, but kneel beside it.

What role, if any, does aesthetics play in the development of biological conservation strategies? Should we consider beauty-and, more broadly, the aesthetic dimension of human experience-as a source of bias that risks distorting scientific judgments (and, therefore, something to be carefully managed or even eliminated in the pursuit of objective scientific truth)? Or, conversely, might beauty be seen as a legitimate and powerful motivator-an emotional and perceptual force capable of promoting conservation efforts? The interplay between aesthetics, beauty, and scientific inquiry has long been a subject of relevant debate within the philosophy of science. In this paper, I aim to investigate the role that aesthetic values and perceptions play in the context of conservation biology-particularly in light of a growing and renewed interest among conservationists in the aesthetic aspects of nature and environmental engagement. The argument I will make is that eliminativist approaches-which frame the aesthetic mostly and primarily as a source of potential distortion-are based on an overly simplistic and impoverished conception of what "aesthetic" means.

This essay explores the relationship between biodiversity and the art of living through the lens of food, understood as both an aesthetic and environmental experience. It begins by examining the current biodiversity crisis and the proliferation of industrial food systems, which contribute to unsustainable and unhealthy lifestyles. The aesthetic dimension of eating is then analyzed in light of "aesthetic capitalism" (Böhme) and the greenwashing practices it often entails. Within the theoretical framework of Everyday Aesthetics (Berleant, Saito), the essay proposes an alternative food culture and experience grounded in the concepts of engagement and care. Drawing on the Greek notion of diaita-understood not simply as a dietary regimen but as a harmonious and mindful way of life-the essay reinterprets gastronomic experience as an embodied and situated aesthetic practice, capable of integrating sensoriality, ethics, and sustainability. In this sense, nourishment is no longer reduced to a consumable object but is redefined as a form of aisthesis: a mode of sensitive knowledge that respects and fosters both natural and cultural biodiversity.

The volume Aesthetics of Biodiversity, edited by Elisabetta Di Stefano, Valeria Maggiore, and Salvatore Tedesco, offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between aesthetics and biodiversity in the context of the current ecological crisis. Structured into four sections – theoretical roots and models, dialogue with science and ecology, artistic practices and ecological imaginaries, culture and communication – the book investigates the historical and philosophical genealogies of the aesthetic experience of biological diversity, introduces new paradigms linking aesthetics with the life sciences, and highlights the role of the arts, design, and everyday practices in fostering a more attentive and responsible relationship with the living world.
Far from considering biodiversity as a mere naturalistic datum, the contributions collected here show how it constitutes a sensitive and relational field of experience, capable of reshaping the perception, imagination, and language through which we inhabit the world. The volume thus positions itself as an operational manifesto for an ecological aesthetics of biodiversity, acknowledging biological diversity not only as a scientific and ecological value, but also as an aesthetic, political, and cultural condition of our being-in-the-world.

ITALIAN: Il volume Estetica della biodiversità, curato da Elisabetta Di Stefano, Valeria Maggiore e Salvatore Tedesco, esplora in prospettiva interdisciplinare il rapporto tra estetica e biodiversità, affrontando le sfide poste dall’attuale crisi ecologica. Articolato in quattro sezioni – radici e modelli teorici, dialogo con le scienze e l’ecologia, pratiche artistiche e immaginari ecologici, cultura e comunicazione – il volume indaga le genealogie storiche e filosofiche dell’esperienza estetica della diversità biologica, apre a nuovi paradigmi di riflessione tra estetica e scienze della vita, e mette in luce il ruolo delle arti, del design e delle pratiche quotidiane nella costruzione di un rapporto più consapevole e responsabile con il vivente.
Lungi dal concepire la biodiversità come semplice dato naturalistico, i contributi raccolti mostrano come essa costituisca un campo di esperienza sensibile e relazionale, capace di trasformare la percezione, l’immaginazione e il linguaggio con cui abitiamo il mondo. Il volume si propone così come un manifesto operativo per un’estetica ecologica della biodiversità, che riconosce nella biological diversity non solo un valore scientifico ed ecologico, ma anche una condizione estetica, politica e culturale del nostro essere al mondo

In this article, I examine recent artistic projects that provide critical frameworks for reflecting on the relations between the geology of capitalism and the abstractions of exchange value, particularly in relation to gold mining. I concentrate on two Venezuelan artists whose works address the socio-ecological impacts of the Orinoco Mining Arc (Arco Minero del Orinoco), a controversial mining project in southern Venezuela. Esperanza Mayobre's ongoing series of mixed-media installations, featuring gold-gilded cement bricks and drawings, critiques the abstractions of value while integrating Indigenous cosmologies of the Guiana region, where the Orinoco Mining Arc is located. Ana Alenso's multimedia installation, which includes a machine-like sculpture replicating the tame or sluice used in artisanal gold mining, engages with the socio-technical mediations that underpin nature extraction. Responding to the need to study extraction ecologies from a cultural perspective, I contend that Mayobre and Alenso, in drawing from Amazonian Indigenous perspectives, provide insights into the value-centric ontology of capital and introduce alternative perspectives for envisioning the human-nature metabolism. In doing so, I underscore the crucial role of examining the geology of value as a central issue in understanding the Capitalocene.

Geoscience communication is next to international geological heritage protection and link up geo-topics with natural and cultural including intangible heritage, a core of UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) objectives. At the end of the 20th century, it started with the format of geo-trails with interpretation panels plus printed books and leaflets as well as guided tours. Even if at that time some geoparks have developed „geo-cartoons i.b.s.” (i.b.s.: in the broadest since (Frey, M.-L., Ciobanu, C., Rodrigues, J. & C. Toma 2024)), they have achieved a new blooming during the last years: 1st and 2nd decade of 21st century, especially in geoparks of the Asia-Pacific Global Geoparks Network. Main action fields seem to be tourism and education. However, detailed data and systematic information is lacking on e.g. which categories of “geo-cartoons i.b.s.” exist, when did UGGps create them, why were they created, which results shows the existence of “geo-mascots i.b.s.” in education and or tourism and which topics are being transmitted to the broad audience with “geo-mascots” or are they used in schools and if when, for which age and in which format? The information on “geo-mascots i.b.s.” in e.g. European Geoparks is scarce, even though many geoparks employ them. Therefore a group of scientists working in UGGps and on science communication started to tackle this topic as it seems to bring in a new perspective in modern IT-related education and tourism activities including „gamification i.b.s.“. The scientific background of this approach is „anthropomorphism“, the attribution of human characteristics to animals, gods, or natural elements, assuming they have human-like features or behaviors. It is interesting to note that characters like this have been used since ancient greek time! Modern versions can be found in the 1970s, such as Olympic Games mascots or in sports, e.g. National Football League mascots like e.g. San Francisco 49ers called: Sourdough Sam. The anthropomorphic characters, ”mascots” are mainly animals, except a few that are human-like. Even if they, in this context, seem to serve for promotion and sale of merchandise like souvenirs, they can also represent meaningful concepts, as seen with mascots for events like the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris. Recent publications indicate that “mascots, cartoons” or “comic figures” can support the communication of complex topics, such as in the field of medical explanations to general audiences. Very few examples exist connected with landscape or geology of a territory in the broadest sense, as so-called geo-mascots? This type has also been used for the 20th anniversary of the Global Geoparks Network in 2024, Figure 1.

     

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This article examines the intersection of aesthetics, memory, and technopolitics through a critical analysis of the Vajont disaster and Giovanni Michelucci’s Chiesa Monumentale di Santa Maria Immacolata in Longarone. It explores how Michelucci’s controversial project, built on the site of a village church destroyed by the 1963 Vajont disaster, responds to the physical, environmental, and symbolic violence of the nearby Vajont dam, an emblem of the Italian technosphere and extractivist modernity. The disaster, caused by the collapse of Monte Toc into the dam’s reservoir, represents a catastrophic failure rooted in the technocratic disregard for local and environmental semiotics in favor of technological abstraction. Drawing on the works of Marco Armiero, Peter K. Haff, and Gilles Deleuze, the article analyzes two competing semio-epistemic regimes: one grounded in dominance and blindness to natural and local signs; the other, in contemplative attention to presence and absence. The latter regime, exemplified by Michelucci’s church, represents a new aesthetic paradigm for post-disaster remembrance through architecture. Accordingly, the article proposes a radical alternative to the aesthetics of epistemic control, reimagining community as a shared openness to loss rather than as a monument that recreates a fixed past.

This  article  explores  the  historical  roots  of  the  aesthetic  experience  of  biodiversity,  focusing  on  a  formative  period  of  modern aesthetics between the mid-17th and late 18th centuries. Drawing on the works of Balthasar Gracián, Joseph Addison, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the paper argues that the diversity and multitude of living species – what we now call biodiversity – were already central to proto-aesthetic and early aesthetic reflections on nature. Although lacking modern  ecological  awareness,  these  authors  attributed  profound  emotional,  philosophical,  and  symbolic  value  to  the  variety of life. Gracián’s concept of the innocent gaze, Addison’s aesthetic of novelty and fullness of being, and Goethe’s morphological insights into metamorphosis each exemplify a distinct mode of aesthetically engaging with biodiversity. The  study  concludes  with  critical  reflections  on  the  limits  of  linking  aesthetic  appreciation  to  ethical  responsibility  in  contemporary debates on conservation, warning against instrumental or scientistic appropriations of aesthetic experience.

In this article, we describe and examine the process and outcomes of collaborative and multidisciplinary dialogue and field course project, the aim of which was to study, develop, and test multidisciplinary dialogue as a design method for nature-based tourism. We aim to increase collaboration between architecture and tourism, and thus, develop more interactive planning methods that enable us to sensitize ourselves to the relationship between human and nature. In so doing, we work towards creating a supportive environment for a design method that enhances human-nature interaction. We want to provide a basis for developing tourism concepts that focus on experiencing localities and the natural environment, and are driven by them, rather than just the needs of the tourism industry. The concept of dwelling, as interpreted by Norberg-Schulz, plays a central role in this article. It guides our examination of the process and the stages required for creating an experience-based understanding...

Arnold Berleant's valuable analysis of 'negative aesthetics' in his 2010 book Sensibility and Sense: The Aesthetic Transformation of the Human World provides an analytic framework not only for general investigation of negative aesthetics but for their extension into daily life and literature. It illuminates the work of Japanese novelist Natsuo Kirino (1951-, 桐野夏生), just as her novels illustrate Berleant's negative aesthetics. In Kirino's narratives, negatively aesthetic landscapes determine characters' mindsets, even as they mirror the moral and aesthetic bleakness of society at large, revealing characters' internal dynamics and the larger social world, with the same destructive e cacy Berleant points out-an e cacy we ignore to our peril.

The Italian term biodiversità (a translation from the English biodiversity, itself an abbreviation of the term biological diversity) was coined in 1988 by the American entomologist Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) by juxtaposing the Greek term bios (which indicates the linear life of living beings, i.e. life that has a beginning and an end and is opposed to zoè, cyclical life) with the Latin diversitas (diversity). By juxtaposing terms from different historical and cultural backgrounds, the intention is also etymologically to emphasise the value of variety, considering it a wealth to be preserved. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), adopted in Nairobi (Kenya) in 1992 and now ratified by 192 countries, defines biodiversity as the diversity and variability of living organisms and the ecological systems in which they live, emphasising that the loss of biodiversity represents a global environmental threat, and that diversity must be protected:

- at the genetic level, meaning genetic diversity within a single species.
- at the species level, thus explicitly referring to the importance of preserving the richness of species living on our planet, a richness that can be measured either in terms of numbers (quantifying the number of species present in each area) or species frequency (i.e. their rarity or abundance in a given territory).
- at the ecosystem level, i.e., defining the number and abundance of habitats, communities, and ecosystems within which different organisms live and evolve.

Today, safeguarding biodiversity is a crucial issue. It should be a moral imperative for capitalist and industrialised countries that often put the reasons for profit before those of the planet’s health. In Italy, the centrality of this issue is confirmed by the establishment of the National Biodiversity Future Centre (NBFC - https://www.nbfc.it/). This interdisciplinary centre aims to combine national scientific research excellence and modern technologies to monitor, conserve, restore and enhance Italian and Mediterranean biodiversity. However, the dialogue that the hard sciences have initiated with the humanities could be deeper and more productive than the one currently underway.
With the conviction that only the overcoming of the ‘two cultures’ paradigm will allow the ecological challenges of our time to be tackled adequately from a
conceptual and operational point of view, we propose to open a complete and authentic interdisciplinary dialogue between humanistic knowledge and the natural sciences. Specifically, we propose to investigate the capacity of Aesthetics to dialogue with disciplines that study the environment, living beings and human beings (natural and biological sciences, literature, art history, historical, political, social and economic sciences), also promoting their reciprocal
relationship from a methodological point of view given a rethinking of green thinking, which is now more urgent than ever. A dialogue that does not represent the outcome of a linear conceptual path but the point of arrival of a work of ‘etymological-conceptual rediscovery’ that, in the last decades of the 20th century, has made it possible to return once again to the 18th-century roots of the discipline of aesthetics, affirming its status as a non-specialist philosophy. Indeed, if, as Gernot Böhme suggests, ‘we approach the field of aesthetics by appealing to the questions of an extended ecology, the door is opened to another aesthetics, very different from the previous one’ (G. Böhme, Für eine ökologische Naturästhetik, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am M. 1999, p. 7), a Natural Aesthetics that allows us to grasp the innovative impulses for the present, bringing this philosophical discipline ever closer to ecological issues.
The conference is therefore dedicated to analysing the relationship between Aesthetics and Biodiversity, attempting to make a conceptual clarification and a reflection on method, and weaving a dense dialogue with scientific, philosophical and artistic-literary disciplines.

The philosophical novel Thomas et le Voyageur: Esquisse du jardin planétaire, written in 1996 by the French landscape architect and agronomist Gilles Clément, is an essential medium for understanding the aesthetic reflections of its author centred on the delicate relationship between environment and landscape, but also (and above all) between landscape "perceived" and "co-created" by human beings. Here, Clément proposes the idea of a garden in motion, qualified as a "laboratory of human-nature relationship", where the gardener participates in the vital flux of the territory and defends biodiversity without forcing nature but letting it evolve according to the biological cycles. In the garden in motion, the landscape, rather than being "managed" or exploited, is thus observed and accompanied by a kind dialogue. Starting from these premises, Clément promotes, without any internal theoretical contradiction, the idea of the Planetary Garden that, operating an "enlargement of scale", proposes a responsible approach to the Earth.

The New European Bauhaus makes Aesthetics, along with Sustainability and Inclusion, one of the three values on which to base the society of the future; a role that is also reiterated in Ar-ticulation 3 of the PNRR dedicated to the Great Field of Research and Innovation “Humanistic culture, creativity, social transformation, socie-ty of inclusion” and in the UN 2030 Agenda. Building on the awareness that the environ-mental crisis indicates a rupture in our percep-tual/emotional relationship with Nature, this paper aims to show the central role of Aesthet-ics in promoting green culture in our society. We will highlight the potential of Aesthetics to inspire and motivate, as it can help address ecological issues related to the current envi-ronmental crisis. Secondly, we will explore how Aesthetics may contribute to affirming not the superiority of human beings over Nature but their being an integral part of it. In this edito-rial contribution, we will try to answer these questions, exploring not only the contribution that contemporary Environmental Aesthetics can make at the academic/theoretical level but also the vital role it can play at the community level, or, in other words, what is the concrete impact it can have, particularly at the high school level.

I argue for a Kantian proto-environmental aesthetics by focusing primarily on §42 of the Critique of the Power of Judgement. I propose an alternative interpretation of this section, which reveals a latent morally normative aesthetic theory regarding the aesthetic appreciation of nature per se. When it comes to the appreciation of nature, Kant is decidedly not a pure formalist; rather, he implicitly recommends intellectually interested and cognitively laden appreciation, albeit of a rather specific kind. What he implicitly recommends in the aesthetic appreciation of nature qua nature lays the ground for a proto-environmental aesthetics in the third Critique.

Karrabing Film Collective is a group of over 50 Indigenous members based in Australia’s Northern Territory, as well as one non-Indigenous member, the American anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli. The name “karrabing” means “tide out” in the Emmiyengal language and represents the northwest coastline of Australia, where most of the Collective reside. The Collective creates films and media projects as a form of grassroots collective organizing that harnesses film, media, and art installations as a critique of the lasting impact of settler colonialism and capitalism on the lives of occupied Indigenous communities. The Collective’s work is not easily categorized as documentary or fiction, but rather a hybrid form that invokes ancestors, animals, dreaming, and everyday life to challenge state institutions and the exploitation of Indigenous people. Their approach is one they call “improvisational realism” that fosters a loose filmmaking atmosphere and non-linear narratives, where members of the collective develop the plot and dialogue as they go, based on their every- day experiences. This essay explores several films from the Collective, arguing that their work is a form of Fourth Cinema that is made by Indigenous filmmakers that represents and engenders radical ecologies of solidarity. The essay first analyzes several of the Collective’s films exploring how they intervene in forms of oppression and state violence such as harassment, environmental destruction from mining, and the levying of substantial fines. The essay then examines the idea and development of Fourth Cinema in relation to Third Cinema. Finally, the essay explores how the Collective’s film practices, as forms of Fourth Cinema, are created through and work toward engendering larger radical ecologies of Indigenous solidarity more broadly as well as the ability of Indigenous communities to speak adjacently to one another.

Based on the works of Mendelssohn and Kant, this article defines the sublime as a response to the experience of evil through the concept of aesthetic distance. After providing a general definition of the main concepts discussed here-the sublime, evil, and distance-I argue in the second section that the theory of the sublime embodies a key aspect of theodicy; namely, distance from evil. In the third section, I turn to Mendelssohn's aesthetic reflections on the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Section 4 delves into Mendelssohn's theory of mixed sentiments, thus providing a basis for examining the role of distance in the experience of the sublime. In the fifth section, I argue that the notion of distance comes to light in Mendelssohn's concept of Frohsein, which he takes as the best translation for Burke's concept of delight, and in section 6, I turn to Kant's reading of the concept of Frohsein in the Analytic of the Sublime, arguing that his theory of the sublime is also an aesthetic response to the existence of evil. In the conclusion, I outline two sceptical arguments regarding environmental aesthetics of the sublime, questioning the inherent connection between the sublime and moral attitudes towards nature and advocating for a redefinition of environmental aesthetics of the sublime as the aesthetics of evil.

Rooted in the growing discourse on the applications of cultural ecosystem services in attaining sustainable development, this study evaluates artists’ sense of place from environmental aesthetic experiences as an approach to natural resources conservation planning in Masbate City, the Philippines. Given that sense of place strengthens environmental values and influences support for conservation, this research investigates how artists’ perceptions shaped by environmental aesthetics can inform conservation efforts, not only through their art, but also their potential roles as key actors in conservation planning. This study specifically aimed to 1) explain artists’ sense of place, 2) examine how environmental aesthetics contribute to making a place aesthetically remarkable, 3) assess environmental factors influencing artists’ sense of place, 4) analyze the relationship between artists’ sense of place and involvement in conservation, and 5) explore institutional arrangements for integrating artists’ sense of place from environmental aesthetic experiences into natural resources conservation planning.

Using a mixed methods approach, findings reveal that artists possess a strong sense of place grounded in Masbate City’s natural environment, which inspires not only their artistic expression but also their participation in community and cultural endeavors, especially local festivals. Elements of environmental aesthetics, particularly diversity and richness, visual interest and exploration, and spatial characteristics, are significantly associated with local aesthetically remarkable natural sites. Notably, a pattern emerged, wherein more accessible natural sites were significantly associated with at least one element, while those less accessible showed no significant associations, indicating an accessibility distinction in shaping artists’ aesthetic experiences. In terms of environmental factors influencing artists’ sense of place, only the Bantigue Coast showed a significant influence. However, despite being the origin of Masbate City’s main cultural asset, the Lapay Bantigue folk dance, it was found to diminish place attachment instead. Nevertheless, sites such as Masbate Social Park and Bugsayon Marine Sanctuary were suggestively linked to place identity and dependence. Meanwhile, unregulated land use change was significantly identified as a major threat to local artists’ sense of place. Furthermore, artists’ place identity, attachment, and dependence were significantly associated with their support for conservation to protect their artist identity, for using their art for conservation, and for using conservation to protect sites that inspire their art. Lastly, the study underscores how local government autonomy and cultural policies can facilitate institutional arrangements that include and empower artists in conservation planning.

This study advocates for natural resources conservation grounded in place-based and cultural values. It recommends enhancing access to aesthetically remarkable natural sites without causing ecological harm, protecting key habitats, promoting art-based biodiversity education, and recognizing natural sites with cultural value in land use plans. It also emphasizes the need for multi-agency collaboration, institutionalized artist participation, and integration of environmental aesthetics into local planning instruments, ensuring that conservation strategies are both ecologically sound and culturally resonant. This research contributes empirical insights into creative place-making and affirms the value of integrating environmental aesthetics and cultural perspectives into natural resources conservation.

In the study, it was aimed to develop a mathematical method on the visual
assessment of streetscapes, which could be used in evaluating Adana Atatürk
Boulevard sample.
In the created method for visual assessment, the importance value of each
streetscape elements in relation with belonging design elements (color, texture, size,
shape) and their associations in terms of similarity and diversity determined, based
on expert opinions. The "Weighted Criteria Method" is used for determination of
criteria's indexation. The resulting numeric values of spatial streetscape element's
levels were classified with in a 0-100 classification system.
According to the results of the study methods that applied in the research area
of visual assessment, the most effective elements have been identified as presence of
plant material, equipment and widths. According to the suitability levels of research
interests a variation from 23.53 to 80.04 % could be seen. The suitability classes are
mainly in the form of moderate fitness level. According to the possibility of
improving all the elements in the region with their optimized status level promotion
and an increase of 14.40% is expected across the. By improving all the elements in
the region with their optimized status at least one level of promotion and across the
boulevard an increase of 14.40% is expected.
Key Words: Visual analysis, Streetscape, Design principals and elements, Urban
aesthetics, Public place

Ilmastonmuutoksen ja luontokadon kiihtyminen haastavat yhdyskuntasuunnittelun vallitsevat käytännöt. Vastauksena näihin haasteisiin artikkelissa hahmotellaan sosioekologisen yhdyskuntasuunnittelun käsitteellisiä ja metodologisia lähtökohtia ekologisen lokeron rakentamisen, kumulatiivisen kulttuurievoluution ja tarjouman käsitteiden avulla. Artikkelin keskeinen argumentti on, että tarjouman käsite ja siihen liittyvät ideat ovat hyödyllisiä välineitä sosiaalista ja ekologista kestävyyttä tavoittelevassa yhdyskuntasuunnittelussa. Artikkelissa kehitellään ekologiset, kognitiiviset ja sosiaaliset ulottuvuudet huomioiva tulkinta tarjouman käsitteestä. Lisäksi artikkelissa hahmotellaan tutkimuskirjallisuuden pohjalta käsitteellisiä ja metodologisia työkaluja, joilla tarjoumia on mahdollista analysoida ja käyttää osana sosioekologista yhdyskuntasuunnittelua.

Drawing on Forrest Clingerman’s work in environmental hermeneutics, I explore the technological mediation of nature apps and social media, particularly as they shape experiences of place and memory. I argue that in significantly undermining one’s capacity to experience the natural environment aesthetically, one’s memory of place is similarly undermined. Losing this trace of place in memory, one’s sense of being in the world is transformed. That is, by using digital technologies to navigate nature, we shift modalities from aesthetic engagement to displacement, or in Tim Ingold’s words, from “wayfaring” to “transport.” In the final section, I suggest a shift to dancing in nature as a means by which to recapture an aesthetics of place.

O artigo consiste em um relato de pesquisa que analisou, entre 2020 e 2024, a implementação da educação ambiental nas escolas públicas do Paraná, Brasil, situadas no Núcleo Regional de Ensino (NRE) de Toledo. A pesquisa faz parte de um projeto maior, sobre o envolvimento da sustentabilidade na educação formal da rede estadual. Visto isso, o relato divide-se em três fases de pesquisa, realizadas em 2020 (fase 1), 2023 (fase 2) e 2024 (fase 3). As escolas investigadas são atravessadas por valores estéticos-éticos-políticos, capazes de influenciar sua própria atuação, nos micros contextos que permeiam a escola-natureza onde estão imbricados, assim como a educação e as políticas públicas em educação ambiental.

Paper written for a graduate-level proseminar, which involved different philosophy professors introducing us to a subject in their field and having us write a paper on it throughout the semester. PHIL 600: Proseminar. Fall 2015.

https://philosophy.gmu.edu/courses/phil600/course_sections/25056

ABSTRACT:

Allen Carlson’s characterization of positive aesthetics can perhaps be best understood against what Aarne Kinnunen terms critical aesthetics. The difference between critical and positive aesthetics on this account pertains primarily to a difference in the scope of their applicability. The former “allows for negative aesthetic criticism and is appropriate for art, and for nature only when it has been affected by man,” as opposed to positive aesthetics, which conversely “does not involve negative aesthetic judgment, but only the acceptance and aesthetic appreciation of something for what it is.” Carlson states that according to Kinnunen, “the aesthetics of nature is essentially positive in that all virgin nature is beautiful” (10), and this summarization is precisely the positive aesthetic position under consideration throughout the article. More explicitly, positive aesthetics is the view that “the natural environment, insofar as it is unaffected by man, has only positive aesthetic qualities and value—that virgin nature is essentially beautiful” (5). This is a position which Carlson initially finds untenable, insofar as the grounds by which traditional apologists have attempted to defend it “neither justify the position nor explain its acceptance” (5).

Although Carlson’s argument for this position is somewhat oblique, he intimates a direction for it in the beginning of the article: “In order to account for positive aesthetics, we must note the intimate connection between nature appreciation and the development of natural science,” a connection which “not only sheds light on the acceptance of the positive aesthetics position, but also suggests a means by which to justify it” (5). Made more explicit in Sections VII and VIII, he provides a clearer path for grounding this argument. That is, in order to appreciate nature appropriately and in an aesthetic manner, we must appreciate it for what it is. As Carlson notes, “The suggestion here is that in order to appreciate what aesthetic qualities a work has, it is necessary to know how it is to be seen.” More specifically, he states that “[i]n the aesthetic appreciation of art, it may be assumed that relevant knowledge is essential to such appreciation.” In other words, “knowing how it is to be seen is a function of knowing what it is and something about it” (25). The means to this appreciation of nature, according to Carlson, is found by way of science, as it provides us with the conceptual apparatus and categorical framework required for this account of aesthetic appreciation.  Not only do we require “the kinds of knowledge given by art history and criticism” (25) to understand the contextual background and impetus, as it were, for such an appreciation; but we additionally require scientific knowledge as a kind of regulative and categorical aesthetic informer.

International Workshop held at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) in the framework of the project "HERMEX& | Understanding Sixth Extinction as a Hermeneutical Challenge", funded by the European Union under (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, grant number: 101105444)

Kabupaten Samosir di Provinsi Sumatera Utara merupakan salah satu kabupaten yang menjadi jantung tujuan wisata di Kawasan Danau Toba. Dari sejak ditetapkannya Kawasan Danau Toba menjadi target destinasi prioritas, Kawasan Danau Toba dan sekitarnya terus memperoleh dukungan infrastruktur yang sangat luas dari pemerintah pusat untuk mendorong percepatan pembangunan dalam mendukung kepariwisataan.

Kemudahan akses tersebut tentunya akan berimbas kepada peningkatan aktivitas dan pembangunan fisik yang pesat, sehingga dengan demikian diperlukan konsep perencanaan yang baik untuk dapat mengantisipasi pertumbuhan dan mengintegrasikan pengembangan, agar tercipta lingkungan perkotaan pariwisata yang dapat tetap mempertahankan keindahan keunikan bentang alam serta kearifan lokal budaya BatakToba.

This paper aims to open up new analytical perspectives on some understated or neglected areas of the ordinary aesthetic life: the nightly aesthetic phenomena, activities, experiences and objects. While Everyday Aesthetics (EdA) employ the “everyday” as a key concept for understanding the characteristics of our daily aesthetic life, I use the concept of “everynight” for offering insights into the complementary area of our nightly aesthetic life, and exploring the possibility of a genuine subfield called Everynight Aesthetics (EnA). I argue for EnA as an equivalent of EdA but complementary to it, aiming to map out, explore and account for different areas of the ordinary nightly aesthetic life: the world of night work; the regular, ordinary social nightlife and the private nightlife, seen as practices of self-expression, self-fashioning and well-being; the dreams, from wakeful dreams or reveries to nighttime dreams; the night objects. These are familiar to everyone yet remains largely unnoticed and not addressed systematically until now. The main questions concern how everynight or nightly activities are enacted by people and how this nightness affect their aesthetic life as well as the status of nightly objects compared to daily ordinary objects. In answering these questions, the paper is not only promoting a more inclusive and diverse understanding of our aesthetic life but it also seizes a current major mutation in understanding “aesthetics” and the “aesthetic”.

This study aimed to investigate the multisensory experiences of workers from the school community of Pinheiros (Espírito Santo) with~in 4 nature. The research is based on ecophenomenological references, which consider the ecological and philosophical dimensions of the human being in the different interactions with the more-than-human. Data was produced from participant observation and walks with four participants from the school community. Records consisted of photos, videos, and descriptions, supported by the methodological movement known as sensory ethnography, of/in the multisensory dives into the aesthetic experiences of the research participants. The experiences of each participant gave rise to (eco)narratives, which were analyzed in accordance with the phenomenological references. The emerging aspects came from the (eco)narratives triangulation and answered our research question. Therefore, the emerging aspects are conceived as the multisensory experiences that emerged during the walks with the school community's workers: 1) Finitude of human existence in relation to the Atlantic Forest; 2) Protagonism of the more-than-human; 3) Fluidity of the microclimates of the Atlantic Forest; 4) Correspondence between bodies. Although this study did not aim to prescribe nature walks as a manual to be followed for less anthropocentric environmental education practices, we advocate that this form of occupation of nature can imply environmental education practices in which more-than-humans are in symmetrical conditions in the process and also awaken ethical feelings of respect for the otherness of other elements, beyond human beings.

This essay begins with some observations concerning the interaction between nature and art. Relying on these reflections, in the second part experience of landscape will be interpreted as a model for the human stance within the natural as well as the historical world. In the third part some consequences for an ethics and politics of saving the conditions for individual as well as social well-being will be drawn.

Whilst the phenomenon of 'plant blindness' is often problematised, conceived of as a negative phenomenon, whereby plants are overlooked in favour of animal kin, I would like to make the case for a kind of positive plant blindness, which takes into account the necessary blind spots requisite for our aesthetic appreciation of plants. Namely, I shall demonstrate that the phenomenality of growth and the elusiveness of what I shall call 'plant emergence', qua plant movement, necessarily involves certain 'blind spots' in our perception, which moreover shape our aesthetic appreciation of plants. By looking at plant blindness phenomenologically, we can begin to recover what Merleau-Ponty calls the 'perceptual sense' of our aesthetic appreciation of plants, as to eventually cultivate this appreciation. Accordingly, we shall demonstrate that the perceptual sense of our appreciation of plant 'movement' is a plant's growth. Whilst perceptual aids such as time-lapse photography might well help to accentuate the movement of plant growth, I shall argue that it is the unfolding nature of plant emergence, which stretches out over time, that underpins our aesthetic appreciation. With emphasis on the movement of vegetal growth, I shall explore the ways that this phenomenon shapes our aesthetic appreciation of our environments in general. In turn, I hope to illustrate how environmental aesthetics will benefit from a richer analysis of plant life.

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人的社会认知的基本能力与其所嵌入的社会网络的复杂性是相连续的。这意味着第二人称交互关系所构成的社会单元本身即构成了界定该视角内涵的严格约束条件。 对第二人称视角内涵的界定可以引入形式社会学中对两种最基本社会单元——二元体和三元体——的形式分析。 在第一重含义中， 第二人称视角被嵌入二元体中， 第二人称关系即为纯粹的 “我—你关系”， “我” 的感知对象只是纯粹的“你”， “你” 的感知对象也只是纯粹的 “我”。 在第二重含义中， 第二人称视角被嵌入三元体中， 原来的二元体中的双方直接受第二人称视角的引导同时注意第三方对象。

Your yen two wol slee me sodenly; I may the beautee of hem not sustene, So woundeth hit thourghout my herte kene. 1 Thus Geoffrey Chaucer on the beauty of his lady's eyes, their power so great that she is 'of [his] lyf and deeth the quene' (9). Her beauty has chased pity from her heart and purchased him his death. These lines play on the medieval convention of love as illness that only the beloved can cure, and conceive of female beauty as an ambiguous force, enthralling in both positive and negative terms. In romance, the dominant fictional genre of the medieval period, female beauty is an imperative, signalling virtue and nobility, opening the way to the divine and inspiring the highest ideals, but at the same time dangerous, destructive, treacherous. Its powers can be magical and life-enhancing, literally wish-fulfilling, but also corrosive, imprisoning and deathdealing. Secular literary texts engage with the difficulties of interpreting beauty, of making sense of its affect. At the same time, beauty is strangely unelaborated in romance texts: interpretation cannot rest on detailed description of beauty, but must probe its often concealed valences, its collocations, and especially, the actions and consequences that attend beauty. Beauty proves virtue not only in those who possess it, but also in those who experience its power, both within and beyond the text. The fraught relation of physical beauty to the mind and soul has a long history. Mark McIntosh's essay in this volume shows compellingly the enduring relation of beauty to the divine. The idea of beauty is crucial to the Platonic concept of ideal forms underlying nature: in the Phaedrus, Plato depicts beauty as shining out in the