Environmental Aesthetics and Art Education

National Art Education Association

Environmental Aesthetics and Art EducationAuthor(s): Heta KauppinenSource: Art Education, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Jul., 1990), pp. 12-21Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193211 .

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Environmental Aesthetics

and Art Education

Heta Kauppinen

Building our environment is an inevitable element in the process of making our- selves at home in the world. Learning about environmental aesthetics is of the essence in harmonizing the human habitat with nature and in creating beautiful, healthy environments. Environmental aesthetics concerns the natural environment and the built environment. Both can be studied as visual and nonvisual environments. In this article the sensory, formal, and symbolic orientations for studying environmental aesthetics are explored.

Foundations for Studying Environmental Aesthetics The idea that we may look at anything from the point of view of aesthetics is as old as aesthetics itself. Kant, who preferred real flowers to painted flowers, discussed in his Critique of Judgment the beautiful as that which pleases universally. For Kant aesthetic judgement was nothing arbitrary in human capacities, but a consequence of rationality, a bridge between the sensuous and the intellectual, and an indispensable means of access to the world of ideas.

'Kant, Immanuel (1952). The Critique of Judg- ment). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original German edition Die Kritik der Urteilskraft, 1790.)

These ideas of Kant are reflected in Santayana's (1896) philosophy of values which is of particular interest in studying environmental aesthetics. Santayana distinguishes between sensory values, formal values, and expressive values. For Santayana, a beautiful environment is one that gives pleasure to its beholder. The concept of "the pleasant environment" in contemporary environmental aesthetics derives from Kant's and Santayana's thought. The ecological orientation to perception follows largely Santayana's philosophy (Gibson, 1979). The inclusion of ethical, social, psychological, and ecological theory as well as utilitarian and political aspects have shaped contemporary environmental aesthetics.2

2See Altman, I. (1975). Environment and social behavior. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole; Blake, P. (1974). Form follows fiasco. Boston: Atlantic-Little; Brown, Ewald, W.R. (1967). Environment for man, the next fifty years. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press; Evans, G.W. (Ed.) Environmental stress. New York: Cambridge University Press; Lang, J. (1987). Creating architectural theory. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold; Rapoport. A. (1982). The meaning of built environment: A non-verbal communication approach. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Methuen, and Yi-Fu Tuan (1974). Topophilian- a study of environmental perception, attitudes and values. London: Prentice Hall.

12 Art Education/July 1990



In the summer, foliage creates volume, screens, shade, sound, and movement in an interplay with water. In the winter, yellow, brown, and purple hues play against the backdrop of blue mountains. The bare trees with their shadows and reflections create an intricate display of lines. Recording a scene through the change of the seasons helps in understanding changes in its aesthetic qualities.

Art Education/July 1990 13



Earth shapes, material, and color of Amercan Indian Pueblo buildings exist in perfect aesthetic harmony with nature. Recent technology with its TV antennas and telephone wires and poles violates this harmony. For this reason, they could be better placed under- ground. (Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico)

"There is nothing permanent except change," as Heraclitus stated c. 500 B.C.3 This is true in any environmental study. Change is a major factor in environment and must be considered in an aesthetic study of it. The geological change of more than a billion years formed the natural environment as we see it today. More momentary natural forces such as the change of seasons, weather, and times of day affect the visual qualities of the environment and our perception of it. Moonlight creates a different mood in the landscape

3Diogenes Laertius, 3rd century A.D., included thoughts of Heraclitus in the volume IX of his work Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Published in English in 1959-65, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

than sunshine. A frozen lake or sea does not have the auditory, movement, or texture qualities of free water. Fall colors around buildings or in nature create a display different from any other season. Nature's flora and fauna react to changes in the environment, and their presence and absence affect an environment's aesthetic qualities. Man-made change can be subtle, adjusting gently to the natural environment. The heavy machinery of contemporary technology radically transforms the environment.

The history of the environment is another important aspect in environmental aesthetics. The history of geological change reveals how particular forms, shapes, and colors in a landscape

14 Art EducationJuly 1990

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Early African American housing (photo at top) represents an imposed habitat with weak concern either for human needs or for beauty in the environment. The buildings offer poor shelter in the winters cold, and in hot and humid summers. Early African American housing (photo at bottom) demonstrates the builders' understanding of harmony between nature and the man-made environment. Gently located on a river slope, these buildings provide shade and passages for cooling summer breezes. Fire-wood storage and two- story construction help in the winter. (Athens, Georgia)


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Giant cottonwood trees were removed in order to widen a street. Two years later, saplings suffer from drought, scorching sun, and pollution. In 30-40 years, some of the saplings may have become full-grown trees.

16 Art Educaton/July 1990

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Environmental vandalism may involve excessive use of physical force as in breaking a concrete picnic table, or cutting 56 young trees along a pathway. Vandalism is not a whim but a strong expression of anger, frustration, and alienation toward the place and community. An understanding of the beauty of a place can evoke the feeling of belonging, love, and care.

emerged. For instance, the Valle Grande Caldera in New Mexico, now a great bowl of grass and a summer pasture, is a crater created when a volcano collapsed into itself. The optical effect of circular rims of this landscape is heightened by the transparent high-altitude air which robs the scene of dim blue distance, haze, and softness. The history of the built environment shows the artistic, social, economic, and political forces, and the views of the people that shaped the environment. For instance, each historical style created new environments, shaped old ones, and now continues to influence the design of the environment.

The third important aspect in environmental aesthetics is the sequential experiencing of the environment. Dewey (1934) was particularly interested in the time- space relations in the environment and sequential character of perception. Envi- ronments, which present sequences of

vistas, hold our attention when we move through them.4 We tend to scan sequences in varying temporal and spatial units. For instance, we may observe an ornament in a building, a display window, the facade of a building, or the view of a street. Thus the sequential experience is divided in units. What one notices first, depends on one's interests or on the impact of the view.

The change, history, and sequential experiencing of the environment provide contexts for the sensory, formal, and symbolic orientations in studying environmental aesthetics. An environment may be aesthetically appealing if it provides pleasurable sensory experiences, has an enjoyable formal structure, and if it evokes pleasing symbolic associations.

4The role of movement in environmental perception and appreciation is explored in Cullen, G. (1962). Townscape. London: Architectural Press, and Martienssen, R. D. (1956). The idea of space in Greek architecture. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

Art EducationJuly 1990 17



Why have people adopted these places? Downtown areas in Fort Collins, Colorado, (above) and in Athens, Georgia, (below) have a variety of old and new buildings, trees and flowers, vendors, street cafeterias, galleries, bookstores, craft shops, and other small stores in an urban setting of appealing clarity. This variety attracts people from all walks of life which, in turn, adds to the variety of the place. A street musician enhances the auditory environment; humid air and strong spices intensify the olfactory appeal of the Athens scene.

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18 Art Educaton/July 1990



Aesthetic Orientations in Environmental Study The sensory orientation is based on sensations obtained from the environment through touches, smells, tastes, sounds, sights, and movement. These sensations affect our experience of the environment. Our knowledge of the environment, memories of earlier experiences, and imagination contribute to the sensations. For instance, when we look at a lake, our memories of other lakes we have seen prompt compari- sons. We may recognize why the lake pleases us or disappoints us aesthetically. Knowing that the lake was created to replace a unhealthy, littered, and swampy spot may add to its value and our appreciation of it. Fish, muskrats, turtles, frogs, birds, and other wildlife in the lake may excite our imagination, and the lake becomes even more attractive. Where the excitement of wildlife is lacking, people attempt to create it artificially. A pink plastic flamingo in the front lawn of a house intends to effect as wildlife -to excite imagination.

Shape, proportion, scale, rhythm, color, illumination, shadowing, and the degree of complexity in the natural and built environment are the subject matter of the formal orientation. An order of these is required for an aesthetic experience. When a mother asks the child to arrange toys and tidy the room, she is aiming for an unso- phisticated aesthetic order. Historic styles in the built environment represent sophisti- cated aesthetic order. Town and city plans, or an agricultural landscape display aesthetic order which is highly functional. Some continuity in the view is necessary for the perception of order. In sequential experiencing of the environment, a continu- ation of order makes orientation and way- finding easier. Understanding the aesthetic order of the environment involves learning. Aesthetic canons such as The Golden Section and aesthetic principles originate

from nature and are applied in the built environment.

Clarity5 is another quality in the environment required in aesthetic experience. Clarity is the reduction of uncertainty, and our perception seeks until it finds clarity. Clarity is an outcome of well-ordered juxtapositions of illumination, shadowing, color, and texture. A complex environment of low levels of order, partially obscured by bright or low illumination lacks clarity and is perceived as unpleasant. Similarly an environment obscured by an excessive number of signs, moving objects, traffic, and randomly juxtaposed colors, textures, and shapes is not perceived as aesthetically pleasing. The viewer prefers complexity with order and clarity in the environment but dislikes a chaotically complex environment. (Rapoport, 1977).

Symbolism in the environment is the field of study in the symbolic orientation. The symbolic meaning of landscape designs, buildings, furniture, clothing, artifacts, automobiles, and even pets is a nonverbal mechanism people use to communicate about themselves, their backgrounds, social status, and world views (Beinart, 1985; Rapoport, 1982). Identification with the symbolic meanings of the environment is an important way for people to attain a feeling of belonging to a group of people or a place. When people decorate their offices and work places with their own belongings, they attempt to change a stereotyped environment into one symbolic of themselves. Similarly a house is symbolic.6 The front represents

5For clarity and perceptual systems, see Gibson, J. J. (1966). The senses considered as perceptual system. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Clarity in urban design, see Lynch, K. (1981). Good city form. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

6The house as a symbol of self is based on Jung's theories. For relations between identity and environment, see Cooper, C. (1974). The house as symbol of self. In J. Lang (Ed.) Designing for human behavior (pp. 130-146). Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross.




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Carole Henry, Morning. A soft morning mist gently veils a quiet scene where pigeons bathe and coo. A representation of an aesthetic experience, as in this photo, requires knowledge of artistic means in photography. Without this, a photo of a beautiful place may convey aesthetic impressions only to the photographer. Those not familiar with the scene may find the photo uninteresting.

20 Art Education/July 1990



the public image presented to society and the interior private image revealed only to special individuals. Sometimes the interior or part of it is designated for public display. Symbolic values affect the image of residential areas. People choose residential areas consciously or unconsciously according to the area's image. In many capitals, government buildings have formal landscape design and sweeping vistas around them. These arrangements symbol- ize the importance and power of the government.

The broader symbolic values are, the more easily they are accepted. National values reflected in the Lincoln Memorial enhance its aesthetic appreciation. Simi- larly historic values of a place contribute to its aesthetic appeal. The more narrow or personal symbolic values are, the less they are commonly accepted. Ethnic and particularly local environments represent these. Personal environments, objects, or keepsakes may reflect a multitude of emotions, meanings, and cherished memories for an individual. Even though those things have little or no formal aesthetic qualities, the individual may consider those things as beautiful because of their symbolic values.

Art Educational Implications A goal for the study of environmental aesthetics is to develop aesthetic orientation. Aesthetically oriented individuals would not only seek for, enjoy, and contemplate aesthetic values but would include aesthetics as a basis for their judgments and actions about the environment. To induce aesthetic orientation it is necessary to develop environmental awareness through senses, to learn skills in perceiving aesthetic order in the environment, and to acquire an understanding of symbolic values in the environment.

The relativity of sensory, formal, and symbolic qualities makes a judgmental

approach difficult. The study of environmental aesthetics might rather involve exploring, interpreting, and reflecting aesthetic qualities. In the course of those activities the ability for aesthetic judgment and action may grow.

As activities, field trips, interviews, photographing, and sketching are useful. Suggestions for the improvement of an environment's aesthetic qualities may reflect sensory, formal, and symbolic aspects. Each aspect can be analyzed in the context of the change, history, and sequential experiencing of the environment. Interdisciplinary studies are useful in exploring ethical, social, economic, ecological, or political requirements for the aesthetic improvement of the environment. To learn something in environmental aesthetics is to learn how to go on -what and how to change, or what not to change.

References Beinart, J. (1975). Patterns of change in an African

housing environment. In P. Oliver (Ed.) Shelter, sign and symbol (pp. 160-182). London: Barrie and Jenkins.

Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: Putnam.

Gibson, J. J. (1979). An ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton and Mifflin.

Rapoport, A. (1982): The meaning of built environment: A non-verbal communication approach. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Rapoport, A. (1977). Human aspects of urban form. New York: Pergamon.

Santayana, G. (1896). The sense of beauty, re- printed (1955) New York: Dover.

Heta Kauppinen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.




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Environmental Aesthetics and Art Education