Ecological Aesthetics
From ecology, until ecology
Humans began their long journey towards domination by leaving their mark on the world. Not metaphorically, but literally. From cave painting to cave etchings, drawings, sculptures, megaliths, temples, in manuscripts, books and scientific papers, through songs and dances, rhymes, and recitations, we inscribe ourselves in the world around us.
These marks probe our understanding of creation and speculate upon the reason for our existence. Many are fantastical conceptions of how we came to be, of blood spilt and bones broken in existential battles. Many are metaphysical, almost diagrammatic representations of how energy emanates, circulates and transforms through mind, matter and spirit.
These concepts often had nature at its core, as most of our life depended on the natural world that held us in its lap and nursed us into our youth. It accorded nature the status of a goddess, and rightly so as our spirituality emerged from our encounter with the vastness, fierceness and benevolence of creation.
So it followed that nature emerged as the subject of creation stories, and we partook of its bounty in various ways: by ingesting it, by digesting it, by drinking it and by smoking it. It was food, and the food was us, and through that intermingling, nature allowed us to glimpse upon the infinite. In many instances these came as collective revelations or a dream that all the people of the community dreamt together; in other cases some groups were privileged to experience miracles of nature, which resulted in collective enlightenment.
In more than a few instances there was also the lonely poet walking away from the crowd, peering into the future or back into the past or just wandering around in the present eulogising the aesthetic of the sublime. These preoccupations of fi ,ku8767nding one’s place in the vastness of experience became an existential issue for every generation to answer for themselves, leading into the present times.
But as we descend into a future shaped by technological progress, a new nature has emerged, one that threatens our existence and the habitable conditions of this planet. These afflictions of the human race incite creative endeavours that put our connection with nature at the centre, as expressions of core truths, a gestalt of our place in the web of existence.
Why suddenly in this last few hundred years, we have managed to get dislodged from the designs of ecological awareness and its implied aesthetics?
The Pursuit of Beauty
Even when they can’t explain it, many artists and poets are engaged in an effort to capture the essence of this slippery concept of beauty. It is all too elusive and under no one’s command to be summoned at will. What is this thrill seeking streak in the pursuit of beauty that so many people have dedicated their lives to it?
The pursuit of beauty hints at a sublimation of the human mind, body and spirit, where the physical body existing in lived realty, can transcend to the spiritual without changing its true essence, so that the divine can be felt deep in the bones of the physical bodies, and mind can just witness that experience.
If beauty can be measured, what are these markers, and how would we go about measuring them and so on?
Check → Institute of Empirical Aesthetics
EdgeQ: Can there be a reasoning based on what is not beautiful?
One idea: the place for beauty is in acts of utmost love and offerings to the divine. The Moche civilisation from Peru made exquisite pottery and ceramics, and the finest of the pieces became ritual offerings to the Gods. Similarly the most melodious hymns and songs are sung for the beloved, where the beloved could be anyone spiritual or nature, a companion, or a guru. So much love, dedication and effort is put in making works of art beautiful, sometimes even knowing that it is just ephemeral.
But why is the divine a special object of beauty? Who decides what we must worship? Is the rose really more beautiful than any other flower? Even if that may be true, does that make any other flower less beautiful than the rose? Sometimes a poem or a rose is able to offer that trip to the infinite. Sometimes its just the wind moving the clothes on a clothesline that does the trick.
The traditional relationship between subject and object that a still life sets up is false. Citing the art historian Erwin Panofsky’s writings on perspective, Bruno Latour emphasized the artificiality of the construct in which a subject views objects through an imaginary plane with monocular vision. In reality, objects have a trajectory; they are not fixed. Latour suggested that to be aesthetic – in its true etymological sense, meaning “to make oneself sensitive to” – it is better to imagine oneself in motion in the world.
Latour’s suggestion seems to imply that fixation as a concept itself leads to an unaesthetic imagination, even if we are conditioned to ‘view’ images as if from a fixed vantage point. Maybe we ought to appreciate beauty in moving frames of reference. What is this dynamic conception of beauty, and what about it moves us so much?
Is the rose perceived beautiful because it is fixated as such in our collective imagination? Does the pursuit of beauty make sense even when beauty itself is an indefinite notion?
However we may try to define it, if you ask most people there is no absolute understanding of beauty for there’s an undeniably subjective component, relative to one’s capacity to delight. Or it’s a social construct. The interconnectedness of beauty probably offers us the best reason for its ecological imperative, without which things are not in their perfect place. The system is out of whack so to speak. Is it possible that beauty is ecological and the ecological is beautiful, and everything else is just a harmony of this one note samba?
Life is beautiful.
Lets keep it that way!
What has Socratus got to do with beauty?
There is a well-known story in which Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, engaged in a discussion about beauty with his student, Phaedrus.
According to the story, Phaedrus came to Socrates with a speech he had written about love and beauty, which he was planning to deliver at a public gathering. Socrates read the speech and praised it, but also questioned Phaedrus about his understanding of beauty.
Socrates began by asking Phaedrus if he believed that beauty was an objective quality, something that existed independently of our perceptions and judgments. Phaedrus replied that he did, arguing that there were certain things that were universally acknowledged as beautiful, such as the stars or the human form.
Socrates, however, was not convinced. He argued that beauty was not a fixed quality, but rather a matter of perception and interpretation. He pointed out that what one person finds beautiful, another may find ugly or unappealing. Furthermore, he suggested that the perception of beauty could be influenced by a variety of factors, such as culture, education, and personal experience.
To illustrate his point, Socrates told a story about a woman named Diotima, who he claimed had taught him everything he knew about love and beauty. According to Socrates, Diotima had told him that beauty was not something that could be possessed or owned, but rather something that inspired desire and longing in the beholder.
Socrates concluded that the pursuit of beauty and love was not simply a matter of acquiring or possessing a beautiful object, but rather a journey towards self-knowledge and understanding. He suggested that the true beauty was not found in external objects or appearances, but rather in the inner qualities of the soul, such as wisdom, courage, and virtue.
The story of Socrates and beauty illustrates the philosopher's belief in the importance of questioning our assumptions and beliefs, and his emphasis on the pursuit of wisdom and self-knowledge over external appearances or material possessions. It also highlights the complex and subjective nature of beauty, and the role of perception and interpretation in shaping our understanding of the world around us.
As we work with different people and stakeholders on issues of citizenship, food systems, urban flourishing wards, situated local economies and climate change threats that destabilise our lives, we are increasingly finding ourselves in dialogue with aesthetic practices on how to design immersive spaces, experiences, interactions and exchanges. Art as a tool for facilitating these collective experiences speaks directly to this exploration, for creating imaginations that point to a whole beyond its parts, the grand design. We not only need to be embedded in an aesthetic that is ecologically rational, but also let ecology itself allow us to show a vision of the aesthetic.