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In this interdisciplinary work, philosophers from different specialisms connect with the notion of the wild today and interrogate how it is mediated through the culture of the Anthropocene. They make use of empirical material like specific artworks, films and other cultural works related to the term 'wild' to consider the aesthetic experience of nature, focusing on the untamed, the boundless, the unwieldy, or the unpredictable; in other words, aspects of nature that are mediated by culture.
This book maps out the wide range of ways in which we experience the wildness of nature aesthetically, relating both to immediate experience as well as to experience mediated through cultural expression. A variety of subjects are relevant in this context, including aesthetics, art history, theology, human geography, film studies, and architecture. A theme that is pursued throughout the book is the wild in connection with ecology and its experience of nature as both a constructive and destructive force.
List of contents
Introduction, Solveig Bøe, Hege Charlotte Faber and Eivind Kasa (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
1. Environmental Aesthetics and Rewilding, Jonathan Prior (Cardiff University, UK) and Emily Brady (University of Edinburgh, UK)
2. "Wild Thing" - The Aesthetic Prospects of Wildness, Arto Haapala (University of Helsinki, Finland)
3. A Shelter in the Wilderness, Eivind Kasa (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
4. Of Wolves and Walls: Architecture and the Wild, Andrew Ballantyne (Newcastle University, UK)
5. Wild Being. On Human Animality, Solveig Bøe (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
6. Into the Wild: Aesthetics of the Monstrous, Brit Strandhagen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
7. Compulsions of Wildness: On Grieg's Trolls in Lang's
M, Magnar Breivik (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
8. The
Kalevala and Finnish Rune Songs - Wild Impressions in the Music of Sibelius, Reidar Bakke (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
9. Dangerous and Endangered Nature. Art as a Way of Seeing, Hege Charlotte Faber (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
10. Wild Weather - Modes of Being at the Mercy, Sigurd Bergmann (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
11. Watery Wilds: Pond Swimming and Protest on Hampstead Heath, Jessica J. Lee (Independent Scholar, Germany)
12. The Fallow Land. A Farewell, Jan Brockmann (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany)
Index
About the author
Solveig Bøe is Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. Together with Hege Charlotte Faber, she was one of the editors for Raw: Architectural Engagements with Nature (2014).Hege Charlotte Faber is Senior Research Librarian at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.Eivind Kasa is an architect and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
Summary
In this interdisciplinary work, philosophers from different specialisms connect with the notion of the wild today and interrogate how it is mediated through the culture of the Anthropocene. They make use of empirical material like specific artworks, films and other cultural works related to the term ‘wild’ to consider the aesthetic experience of nature, focusing on the untamed, the boundless, the unwieldy, or the unpredictable; in other words, aspects of nature that are mediated by culture.
This book maps out the wide range of ways in which we experience the wildness of nature aesthetically, relating both to immediate experience as well as to experience mediated through cultural expression. A variety of subjects are relevant in this context, including aesthetics, art history, theology, human geography, film studies, and architecture. A theme that is pursued throughout the book is the wild in connection with ecology and its experience of nature as both a constructive and destructive force.
Foreword
Considering the aesthetic experience of nature, this book evaluates how our understandings of wildness and wilderness are culturally mediated through the arts.
Additional text
This engaging collection is an indispensable and delightful introduction to a topic as relevant as ever. Understanding how “wild" has been conceptualized will help us understand the contemporary human condition better, especially its deep entanglements with the more-than-human world.
