Conference: ECHO - Civilised Nature / Aesthetics in Theory and Practice
On 2-3 February 2024, the second ECHO conference will be organised by the RCANE Environmental Aesthetics Research Group at the Department of Aesthetics, ELTE BTK.
Schedule
The event will be a follow-up to the 2021 e-Conference on Wilderness - City - Virtual Reality: environmental aesthetics and the 2022 conference on ECHO - Aesthetics of Nature held at Trafó in autumn 2022. Its aim is to promote environmental aesthetics, an internationally dominant and progressive aesthetic field, in the country. Among its endeavours, this year's ECHO conference will focus on issues surrounding civilised and civilising approaches to nature, such as rethinking the natural beauty on the basis of post-anthropocentric aesthetics of nature and an ethical approach to the environment. Lectures will explore the validity of historical landscape readings and human-environment concepts, as well as new ways of thinking about the role of nature from a contemporary perspective. The focus will be on the formative power of the human gaze on nature, the conditions for a socially mature attitude towards nature, and the possibility of decolonizing ecocriticism in the face of ecologically harmful practices and hierarchizing tendencies.
Our constructed images, myths, theories and even the ways of speaking about the relationship between nature and the man-made environment have undergone significant changes over the past centuries. Where has the human desire to shape, conquer and dominate our environment and those who live in it led us? How did nature, dominated by demonic forces that threaten our existence, become an object of pleasure? What approaches, theories and practices can help us to open up the perspective of a more liveable environment? These are just some of the possible themes that can help us to look at our present situation and take stock of contemporary responses offered by environmental aesthetics and its co-disciplines.
The second day of the conference will conclude with a round table discussion on the melancholic aspects of a vision of nature that goes beyond a humanist worldview.
Participation in the conference is free of charge.
The event is supported by the research programme Environmental Aesthetics Perspectives (OTKA K-143294) and the ELTE BTK HÖK Scientific Committee.
Cooperating partner: Trafó Gallery.
Organizers of the conference Luca Cserhalmi and Kinga Lendeczki.
Trafó House of Contemporary Arts
The Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest is a unique venue in Hungary, embedded in the international contemporary scene, where different genres - theatre, dance, new circus, music and visual arts - are presented in a unique and authentic way.
