Landscape as a Mask of Nature: The Aesthetics of Subversion versus the Aesthetics of Conformity

http://aesthetics.ff.cuni.cz/archive/69/landscape-as-a-mask-of-nature-the-aesthetics-of-subversion-versus-the-aesthetics-of-conformity

The article considers the possibilities of the function and constitution of aesthetic value in the contemporary, ambivalent notion of landscape. It begins with a preliminary analysis of three key concepts central to current discussions – namely, nature, landscape, and environment. It presents one of the dominant models of contemporary ideas about the aesthetics of landscape – the natural environmental model –, and in particular its ambition to accommodate both the true character of today’s relationship between man and his habitat and our aesthetic experience and understanding of it. Mainly, the essay points out the theoretical difficulties implied in this. In conclusion, the article suggests the hidden ethical dimension of our possible relationship to our environment (that is, nature-in-landscape).