The aesthetics of artificial environments: a phenomenological perspective on environmental appreciation

• Main Author: Wong, Canice Li Xin
• Other Authors: Melvin Chen
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; Environmental aesthetics; Phenomenology; Environments; Artificial
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174491
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper argues that the age of rapid human development has birthed a new kind of environment; an artificial environment consisting of both natural and man-made elements interwoven into each other, whose aesthetic value has yet to be carefully considered. The goal of this project is to reassess the applicability of existing accounts against this unfamiliar environment, and to find a way to evaluate the aesthetic value of environments more accurately. I consult the works of environmental aesthetics appreciation by influential thinkers like Ronald Hepburn, Arnold Berleant and Allen Carlson, as I attempt to propose a new focus-horizon angle to fully appreciate emerging environments of the 21st century.