Abstract

This abstract was written in English by the author for the original dissertation; it is reproduced here with light editorial polishing.

Aesthetic Problems of Modern Mediation, Representation and Falsity of Nature

The aesthetics of nature, and the appreciation of nature and natural environments, re-emerged in the 1960s. An analysis of the historical moment shows that this can be attributed to the beginning of the era of space flight, which spurred interest both in the aesthetics of nature and in global environmental problems. Further factors included the mass media, transnational television broadcasts and, later, the World Wide Web; but primarily it was the iconic sets of images from outer space. This renewed interest echoes the eighteenth-century origins of the aesthetics of nature, when the Claude glass and landscape painting were widespread. The dissertation claims that the aesthetics of nature evolved as an aesthetics of depictions, reproductions and representations of nature, and not of nature itself. As a consequence, the majority of models for the appreciation of nature are not adequate. Space exploration has brought forth old/new theoretical problems, while the new images from space and their locus of creation clearly show that the notion of nature should be expanded to include space landscapes, since the (earthly) landscape perspective can no longer be the only perspective in the aesthetics of nature. The dissertation examines the following: (a) what reproductions of nature we create, (b) to what extent the aesthetics of nature actually focuses on depicted nature, and (c) how far into “the real thing” the discipline has ventured. It is necessary to complement the notion of nature with the theoretical findings stemming from the beginning of the new era of the Anthropocene. The dissertation brings forward the role of Adorno alongside Hepburn’s seminal article. An extensive analysis of Carlson’s five requirements for an adequate aesthetics of nature helps to examine the depiction-and-representation thesis. Contrary to common sense and intuition, the aesthetics of nature does not possess sufficient argumentative power to promote environmentalism and the conservation of nature. While new (media) technologies have helped to mediate new depictions and representations of nature, the aesthetics of nature has completely failed to recognise that the human body imposes certain limitations on the appreciation of nature. These bodily limitations and responses of appreciation were explored through multiple visits to Postojna Cave and Križna Cave (with the special approval of their management) and through an examination of the renaturation of the Škocjanski zatok nature reserve. In Postojna and Križna caves, the appreciation of nature was examined through the perception of tourists from different ethnic groups. The renaturation project in Škocjanski zatok showed that most renaturation projects falsify nature and give rise to new aesthetic problems, in which the eco-technological restoration of nature is merely a mediation and, again, a depiction of nature. The age of space exploration and the overview of the Earth from space brought knowledge of the overview effect that astronauts and cosmonauts experience in space. Space flights also provided humanity with sets of iconic images and depictions of the Earth and of nature from above and from space; in other words, perceptions and perspectives of nature expanded into space and beyond. Space photography consisting of multiple exposures of the night sky and of space phenomena brings forth the notion that these are depictions of nothingness or, at best, light trails of a non-existent past. This brings the aesthetics of nature back to its origins in landscape painting. At the same time, the dissertation claims that, just as the newspaper introduced Anderson’s imagined communities, so images of the Earth from space introduced environmental imagination, and with it the experience of nature as a hyperobject. Finally, a proposal for a deep aesthetics of nature is sketched after the model of the deep ecology movement.

Keywords: aesthetics, nature, reproduction, representation, Anthropocene, environmentalism, ecology, mediation, falsification, space, overview effect, environmental imagination, hyperobjects, deep aesthetics of nature