Wild Aesthetics of the Dangerous and Endangered

About this book

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.

Wild 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.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction / Solveig Bøe, Hege Charlotte Faber, and Eivind Kasa
1. The Beauty of the Beast: Aesthetics of the Monstrous / Brit Strandhagen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
2. The Mountain King and Hans Beckert: On Grieg's trolls and Lang's M / Magnar Breivik, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
3. Encountering the Ancient World. Mythical Creatures in Current Norwegian Cinema / Christer Bakke Andresen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
4. Touching the Monstrous in Art / Hege Charlotte Faber, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
5. The Call of the Wild / Andrew Ballantyne, Newcastle University, UK
6. Wild Being and the Human Animality / Solveig Bøe, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
7. The Economy of the Wild. Freud, Irigaray, Cixous and Merleau-Ponty about Desire and Nature / Ingebjørg Seip, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
8. In the Wilderness of Meaning. Of Meaning and Making Sense of Architecture / Eivind Kasa, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
9. Wild weather – Modes of Being at the Mercy /  Sigurd Bergmann, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
10. The Fallow Land / Jan Brockmann, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
11. Watery Wilds: Pond Swimming and Protest on Hampstead Heath / Jessica J. Lee, independent scholar, Germany
12. Environmental Aesthetics and Rewilding / Jonathan Prior, Cardiff University, UK and Emily Brady, University of Edinburgh, UK
13. Wilderness as the Eternally Uncontrollable / Arto Haapala, University of Helsinki, Finland
14. Wild Chromatics / Alex Booker, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway and Kine Angelo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Notes
Literature/ bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Solveig Bøe is a 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.