Anticipating Aesthetic Transformations in the Face of Climate Change

María José Alcaráz León

doi:10.25038/am.v0i28.593

Authors

María José Alcaráz León Department of Philosophy, University of Murcia, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i28.593

Keywords:

environmental aesthetic appreciation; GCC; irrevocability; solastalgia; environmental ruin.

Abstract

Recently, within the field of Environmental Aesthetics, there has been some attention paid to how taking into consideration the environmental impact of Global Climate Change (GCC) generates new problems and issues. Among different questions that Environmental Aesthetics needs to face under the impact of GCC, we can distinguish, at least methodologically, those which address the impact of GCC in the aesthetic experience of the environment we currently inhabit and those concerned with the possible aesthetic character that future environments might possess as a result of GCC. In this article, I would like to focus on how to characterize the possible impact that the awareness of GCC may have on the aesthetic experience of current environments. In particular, I would like to clarify this issue by exploring the roles that knowledge, forward-looking emotions, and imagination play in this experience.

Author Biography

María José Alcaráz León, Department of Philosophy, University of Murcia, Spain

María José Alcaráz León is Senior Lecturer in Aesthetics at the Universidad de Murcia, Spain and an active member or the Research group ARESMUR. Her research focuses on aesthetic normativity, art’s cognitive value, emotional responses to fictional artworks, art theory, and environmental aesthetics. Recently, she has published on whether fictional artworks afford a specific cognitive experience (2023) and on the possible aesthetic value of damaged or deteriorated environments (2022). She has been a visiting post-doc fellow at the University of Sheffield, Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona, Università della Calabria, and the University of Uppsala. She is currently the co-editor, together with Francisca Pérez-Carreño, of the Aesthetics section of the SEFA online encyclopedia and subject editor (Aesthetics) of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

References

Albrecht, Gleen. “Solastalgia: A New Concept in Human Health and Identity.” Philosophy, Activism, Nature 3 (2005): 41–55.

Albrecht, Gleen. “Negating Solastalgia: An Emotional Revolution from the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene.” American Imago 77, 1 (2020): 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2020.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2020.0001

Alcaraz León, María José. “Morally Wrong Beauty as a Source of Value.” The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 40–41 (2011): 37–52. https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5198 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5198

Alcaraz León, María José. “On the Aesthetic Appreciation of Damaged Environments.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 80, 4 (2022): 420–31. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpac037 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpac037

Auer, Matthew R. “Environmental Aesthetics in the Age of Climate Change.” Sustainability 11, 18 (2019): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185001

Brady, Emily. Aesthetics of the Natural Environment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474465380

Brady, Emily. “The Aesthetics of Agricultural Landscapes and the Relationship between Humans and Nature.” Ethics, Place and Environment 9 (2006): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668790500518024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668790500518024

Brady, Emily. The Sublime in Modern Philosophy. Aesthetics, Ethics, and Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018098

Brady, Emily. “Aesthetic Value, Ethics, and Climate Change.” Environmental Values 23 (2014): 551–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327114X13947900181112

Brady, Emily. “Global Climate Change and Aesthetics.” Environmental Values, Special Issue:

Philosophical Aesthetics and the Global Environmental Emergency, edited by Jukka Mikkonen and Sanna Lehtinen, 31, 1 (2022): 27–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327122X16386102423949

Brady, Emily. “Environmental Aesthetics and Climate Change.” In Handbook on the Philosophy of Climate Change, vol. 1, edited by Gianfranco Pellegrino and Marcello Di Paola, 95–414. Cham: Springer, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07002-0_103

Brady, Emily, Iris Brook and Jonathan Prior. Between Nature and Culture: The Aesthetics of Modified Environments. New York, London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2018.

Carlson, Allen. “Appreciation and the Natural Environment.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 37 (1979): 267–76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540_6245.jaac37.3.0267

Carlson, Allen. Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture, London: Routledge, 2000.

Clayton, Susan, Christie Manning, Kirra Krygsman and Meighen Speiser. Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica, 2017. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf

Clayton, Susan and Christie Manning, eds. Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts, and Responses. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2018.

Clewis, Robert. “Why the Sublime Is Aesthetic Awe.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79, 3 (2021): 301–14. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab023

Capdevila-Werning, Remei and Sann Lehtinen. “Intergenerational Aesthetics: A Future-Oriented Approach to Aesthetic Theory and Practice.” Philosophical Inquiries 9, 2 (2021): 175–98.

Drehten, Martin. “Rewilding in Cultural Layered Landscapes.” Environmental Values 27, 4 (2018): 325–30. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327118x15251686827697 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327118X15251686827697

Fingerhut, Joerg and Jeese J. Prinz. “Aesthetic Emotions Reconsidered.” The Monist 103, 2 (2020): 223–39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onz037

Fudge, Robert S. “Aesthetic Consolation in the Age of Extinction.” Philosophical Papers 50, 1–2 (2021): 141–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2021.1952105 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2021.1952105

Haapala, Arto. “Aesthetics, Ethics, and the Meaning of Place.” Filozofski vestnik (Special Issue: XIV International Congress of Aesthetics, “Aesthetics as Philosophy”, Proceedings, Part I) 20, 2 (1999): 253–64.

Haapala, Arto. “On the Aesthetics of the Everyday – Familiarity, Strangeness and the Meaning of a Place.” In The Aesthetics of Everyday Life, edited by Andrew Light and Jonathan M. Smith, 39–55. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.

Haapala, Arto and Brady, Emily. “Melancholy as an Aesthetic Emotion.” Contemporary Aesthetics 1 (2003): Article 6. https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/liberalarts_contempaesthetics/vol1/iss1/6/

Harris, Karsten. “What Need is There for an Environmental Aesthetics?” Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 22, 40–41 (2011): 7–22. https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5186 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5186

Haught, Paul. “An Impossible Peace: the Aesthetic Disruptiveness of Climate Change.” In The Poesis of Peace: Narratives, Cultures, and Philosophies, edited by Klaus-Gerd Giesen, Carool Kersten and Lenart Škof, 202–20. London and New York: Routledge, 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315554617-18

Hoggett, Paul, ed. Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11741-2

IPCC 2023. “Summary for Policymakers.” In Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by The Core Writing Team, Hoesung Lee and José Romero, 1–34. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 2023. https://doi.org/10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001

Jarosz, Nanda. “Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Aesthetics: Towards an Intergenerational Aesthetics of Nature.” Environmental Values 32, 2 (2023): 151–68. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327122x16491521047053 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327122X16491521047053

Lorimer, Jamier and Clemens Driessen. “Wild Experiments at the Oostvaardersplassen: Rethinking Environmentalism in the Anthropocene”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 39, 2 (April 2014): 169–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12030

Maes, Hans. “Aesthetic Melancholy” Contemporary Aesthetics 21 (2023). https://contempaesthetics.org/2023/06/20/aesthetic-melancholy/

Matthes, Erich Hatala. “Environmental Heritage and the Ruins of the Future.” In Philosophical Perspectives on Ruins, Monuments, and Memorials, edited by Jeanette Bicknell, Jennifer Judkins and Carolyn Korsmeyer, 175–86. New York: Routledge, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315146133-16

Mikkonen, Jukka. “Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature and the Global Environmental Crisis.” Environmental Values 31, 1 (2022): 47–66. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327121X16245253346567 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327121X16245253346567

Morton, Timothy. “This is Not My Beautiful Biosphere.” In The Cultural History of Climate Change, edited by Tom Bristow and Thomas Ford, 229–38. London: Routledge, 2018.

Nomikos, Ariane. “Place Matters.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76, 4 (2018): 453–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12598 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12598

Pérez Carreño, Francisca. “Aesthetic Normativity and the Expressive Perception of Nature.” Studi di estetica 4, 1 (2021): 133–51. https://doi.org/10.7413/18258646153

Prior, Jonathan and Emily Brady. “Environmental Aesthetics and Rewilding.” Environmental Values 26, 1 (2017): 31–51. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327117X14809634978519 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327117X14809634978519

Richardson, Benjamin J. The Art of Environmental Law: Governing with Aesthetics. Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2021.

Robinson, Jenefer. “Aesthetic Emotions.” The Monist 103, 2 (2020): 205–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onz036 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onz036

Schneider, Birgit and Thomas Nocke, eds. Image Politics of Climate Change. Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/transcript.9783839426104

Schneider, Tamara. “Aestheticizing Catastrophes. A Comparison of the Western and Japanese Approaches to Art Creation in View of the Climate Emergency.” In Degrowth Decolonization and Development. When Culture Meets the Environment, edited by Milica Kočović De Santo and Stéphanie Eileen Domptail, 149–71. Cham: Springer, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25945-6_7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25945-6_7

Stecker, Robert. Intersections of Value, Art, Nature, and the Everyday. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198789956.001.0001

Somhegyi, Zoltán. “The Aesthetic Attraction of Decay. From the Nature of Ruins to the Ruins of Nature.” In Aesthetics in Action. International Yearbook of Aesthetics. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Aesthetics, Kraków, 2013, edited by Krystyna Wilkoszewska, 319–26. Kraków: Libron, 2015.

Tokarski, Mateusz. Hermeneutics of Human-Animal Relations in the Wake of Rewilding: The Ethical Guide to Ecological Discomforts. Cham: Springer International Publishing,

White, Justin. “Revelatory Regret and the Standpoint of the Agent.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy 41 (2017): 225–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/misp.12077

Wollheim, Richard. Painting as an Art. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Wollheim, Richard. On the Emotions. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1999.

Anticipating Aesthetic Transformations in the Face of Climate Change

Authors

DOI:

Keywords:

Abstract

Author Biography

María José Alcaráz León, Department of Philosophy, University of Murcia, Spain

References

Downloads

Published

How to Cite

Issue

Section

License