What the Hills Are Alive with: In Defense of the Sounds of Nature

Fisher, John Andrew

doi:10.2307/432255

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…Importantly, that perception is not limited to vision and, potentially, it draws on all of the senses. Many scholars emphasize the range of senses that ground aesthetic experience and judgment, and thus how the various senses shape aesthetic valuing of the natural world (Fisher, 1998; Prior, 2017; Thompson & Travlou, 2009). The work of Arnold Berleant is key here, having advanced a phenomenological account of environmental aesthetics, which emphasizes the importance of ‘sensory immersion’ within a given environment that creates close intimacy (Berleant uses the term ‘unity’) between perceiver and environment (1992, p. 170) .…”

Section: Contemporary Theories In Environmental Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental aesthetics: A synthetic review

Brady

Prior

2020

People and Nature

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Environmental aesthetics has emerged in the last 50 years from the philosophical fields of aesthetics and environmental philosophy. The questions and issues which shape this subfield have been drawn principally from the Western philosophical tradition. Other disciplinary perspectives have also shaped environmental aesthetics, including landscape architecture, human geography, restoration ecology and empirical studies on landscape preferences in developmental and environmental psychology. This review and synthesis mainly addresses the theoretical approaches and concepts that provide a framework to the key debates in the field, but also considers, to some extent, how empirical approaches have shaped recent developments, and how conceptual issues arise with respect to empirical cases. We note that our expertize and, thus, the expertize of this review, is primarily confined to UK, European and North American scholarship. Abstract 1. The main aim of the article is to provide up-to-date knowledge of environmental aesthetics for an interdisciplinary audience, and to signal the importance of research in this area for studying people-nature relationships. 2. Environmental aesthetics has emerged in the last 50 years from the philosophical fields of aesthetics and environmental philosophy. Other disciplinary perspectives have also shaped environmental aesthetics, including landscape architecture, human geography, restoration ecology and empirical studies on landscape preferences in developmental and environmental psychology.3. This review and synthesis mainly addresses the theoretical approaches and concepts that provide a framework to the key debates in the field, but also considers how empirical approaches have shaped recent developments, and how conceptual issues arise with respect to empirical cases. 4. We outline the background and context of environmental aesthetics, its key concepts, and provide a critical review of contemporary theories in the field. We then consider how aesthetics features in issues pertaining to the conservation, preservation, and restoration of nature.5. Finally, we identify some new directions for environmental aesthetics scholarship that can productively contribute to ongoing debates regarding various relationships between people and nature.

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Section: Contemporary Theories In Environmental Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental aesthetics: A synthetic review

Brady

Prior

2020

People and Nature

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“…NPS defines natural soundscapes as "all the natural sounds that occur in parks, including the physical capacity for transmitting those natural sounds and the interrelationships among park natural sounds of different frequencies and volumes" (2006, p. 56). The importance of park soundscapes as a resource have been addressed in research on park visitor experience (NPS 1995), landscape perception (Carles et al 1999), natural soundscape values (Fisher 1998). Unimpaired or high-fidelity soundscapes have been found to provide several benefits to humans, such as improved health (Stansfeld and Matheson 2003), cultural and historical connections (Torigoe 1995;O'Connor 2008), sense of place (Schafer 1994), and aesthetics (Fisher 1998).…”

Section: Soundscapes As Natural Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The importance of park soundscapes as a resource have been addressed in research on park visitor experience (NPS 1995), landscape perception (Carles et al 1999), natural soundscape values (Fisher 1998). Unimpaired or high-fidelity soundscapes have been found to provide several benefits to humans, such as improved health (Stansfeld and Matheson 2003), cultural and historical connections (Torigoe 1995;O'Connor 2008), sense of place (Schafer 1994), and aesthetics (Fisher 1998). Researchers and NPS are also interested in soundscapes reflecting of environmental quality (Pijanowski et al in press; in review).…”

Section: Soundscapes As Natural Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond noise mitigation: managing soundscapes as common-pool resources

Dumyahn

Pijanowski

2011

Landscape Ecol

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Noise has been regulated as a negative externality of human industry and transportation networks that affect human health and quality of life. The United States enacted the Noise Control Act in 1972 to regulate noise impacts; however, the funding and enactment of this law ceased in 1981. Noise continues to grow and is impacting once quiet locations, such as U.S. National Parks. Following the government control approach to managing resources, the National Park Service (NPS) has supported and created many policies to protect park acoustic environments, or soundscapes. We conducted a survey of NPS managers to determine how noise impacts park soundscapes. The survey showed that a variety of human produced sounds have serious impacts on the quality of visitor experiences and potentially impacts wildlife communication. Using a common pool resource (CPR) model, we describe the multiple soundscape users, difficulty of exclusion and subtractability and degradation of soundscapes. Soundscapes offer a flow of benefits to many people: natural sounds, ecosystem function, cultural and historical heritage, silence or natural quiet, ability to communicate with one another, creating a sense of place, and wellbeing. Rather than viewing noise as only a negative externality to be regulated, we pose the normative argument that the right to a quality soundscape is a right belonging to all. The national parks hold in trust the resources, including soundscapes for this and future generations. We posit that a new institutional approach is needed to manage soundscapes where the norms of all soundscape users are recognized and respected.

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“…John Fisher (1998) has provided the most sustained theoretical exploration of the sonic aesthetic qualities of landscapes. Here, he focuses primarily on the extent to which the sounds of (non-human) nature have been routinely ignored within landscape aesthetics research, through examining what he considers to be 'the most significant impediments to including sound in accounts of the aesthetics of nature' (Fisher, 1998, p. 167).…”

Section: Sonic Aesthetic Theory In Philosophical Landscape Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sonic environmental aesthetics and landscape research

Prior

2016

Landscape Research

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The environmental aesthetics literature has primarily focused on the aesthetic qualities and values of landscapes. Within this scholarship, there has been a modest but steady advancement towards explicitly attending to the aesthetic experience of landscape sounds. In this paper, I review the theoretical and applied sonic aesthetics literature pertinent to landscape research, and identify some existing weaknesses. In particular, I demonstrate that there is an ongoing tendency to limit discussions to what is sonically pleasing or displeasing within a given landscape, which, I argue, provides a limited point of entry through which to consider the full scope of landscape sounds. I then turn to offer some ways to address these weaknesses-notably through what I term the development of a 'sensitive ear' , and through field recording strategies-in the hope that this will allow scholars to better enfold sonic environmental aesthetics within future theoretical and applied landscape research.

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What the Hills Are Alive with: In Defense of the Sounds of Nature

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Environmental aesthetics: A synthetic review

Environmental aesthetics: A synthetic review

Beyond noise mitigation: managing soundscapes as common-pool resources

Sonic environmental aesthetics and landscape research

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