Environmental Aesthetics

The area of environmental aesthetics comprises part of environmental philosophy more broadly. Like a course in environmental ethics where there is some pressure to cover the basics of normative ethics to provide a background against which to engage in environmental ethics specifically, to best engage in environmental aesthetics, some basis in aesthetics more generally is certainly helpful; to this end, we read Aesthetic Life and Why it Matters by Dominic Lopes, Bence Nanay, and Nick Riggle, which served to introduce students to the importance of aesthetics while engaging the area in ways significantly separate from that of formal art, thus making ample space for the project of environmental aesthetics. Next, with classic essays in the field of environmental aesthetics, we also read Between Nature and Culture: The Aesthetics of Modified Environments by Emily Brady, Isis Brook, and Jonathan Prior, which allowed students to grapple with both the aesthetics of nature and the metaphysical intricacies of the natural and the artifactual. Finally, to engage with environmental art we discussed the work of Andy Goldsworthy and the mixed/modified environments present in the eco-political aesthetic of solarpunk.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching environmental aesthetics, especially since it taps into elements of nature experience, environmental metaphysics, and history. It was a rewarding class to teach that I’d love to teach again with more hands-on, experiential components.