Aesthetics of Nature Blog
- The Elves of Iceland and the Evil in the Woods
In Twin Peaks something evil lives in the woods. The guests from Iceland come from a land with hardly any trees, and they spend the whole party singing.
- Dwarves in the Whirlwind: Slovenian Nature Spirits, Old and New
People in the Slovenian countryside once offered bread to the wind, imagined as a giant or a dwarf hiding in a whirlwind. Today the spirits of the landscape no longer demand offerings. They ask for help.
- Towards a Deep Aesthetics of Nature
Deep ecology asked us to think on behalf of the biosphere. A deep aesthetics of nature would ask us to go outside.
- The Smartphone, a Claude Glass in Every Pocket
The tinted mirror of eighteenth-century tourists never quite disappeared. It learned to take pictures.
- Can Space Be Sublime?
Hubble’s deep images gather light for days and show galaxies that may no longer exist. What exactly are we admiring?
- Earthrise and the Imagined Planet
In December 1968 a photograph turned the Earth from a landscape into an object. We have been imagining it ever since.
- Faking Nature at Škocjanski Zatok
A bird reserve beside the Port of Koper was built from nothing. Is it nature, a forgery, or something else?
- Two Caves, Both Curated
One cave is a show, the other a closely guarded wilderness. In both, there is nothing to see until someone lights it.
- America’s Most Wanted Painting
Two artists asked people in ten countries what they wanted to see in a painting. Nearly all of them asked for the same landscape.
- Bliss: The Hill a Billion People Remember
The most familiar landscape of our time was not found on a walk. It came with the computer.
- The Claude Glass: Admiring Nature with One’s Back to It
Eighteenth-century lovers of landscape carried a small dark mirror and turned away from the view in order to enjoy it.
