Looking at different conceptualizations of wilderness in environmental aesthetics illustrated how human understandings of the aesthetic engagement construct our judgments and valuing of environments (Cronon, 1996). The dynamic manifestations of wilderness centered around concepts like beauty and sublime do not merely present nature as a classical object of aesthetic experience but they emphasize human perceptual qualities as the determinant of aesthetic experiences. In other words, aesthetic experience is largely human-constructed which shapes the whole idea behind Nature’s aesthetic value. However, the sole focus on the ‘natural’ landscape in aesthetic conceptualizations discriminates between a component of the landscape created by natural processes and one created by human cultural actions. This perhaps marks Arntzen and Brady’s goal, in Humans in the Land, to shift environmental aesthetics and ethics away from ‘wilderness’ or ‘natural landscapes’ towards humanized landscapes (Arntzen & Brady, 2008). In line with this, I will frame Al-Zubarah as a cultural aesthetic subject, an alternative view to nature aesthetics in an attempt to value its landscape.
Al-Zubarah as a cultural landscape produces an aesthetic experience. Environmental aesthetics is largely concerned with the environmental character of natural objects as opposed to the object-centered approach typical of the art of artifacts, where the aesthetic object is conceived as relatively static and bounded. However, lifeless attributes of cultural landscapes stem from human perceptions, thoughts, imaginings, knowledge, and emotion. Simply, we conditioned our minds to think of them as ‘too lifeless’ to be considered an aesthetic experience while we scrutinize naturalness as in value aesthetics. The way nature is admired for its mesmerizing sceneries, converging colors, and addictive touch is all cognitively produced by humans. In the same way we aptly describe nature in terms of its aesthetic appeal could be exactly applied in the presence of culture-created landscapes. We can aesthetically conceive of the al-Zubarah beyond its practical concerns or economic value. Implementing the aesthetic narrative in al-Zubarah archaeological processes allows us to think of destructive archaeology as disruptive to our aesthetic conceptualizations of the site. In this sense, invasive archaeology is not merely physical, as in destroying pure forms of al-zubarah artifacts, but it significantly disturbs our aesthetic appreciation for its pure artifact. Alternatively, the landscape preservation efforts are the preservation of human-created aesthetic meanings.
Although the aesthetic appreciation of the environment is often deemed insignificant in conservation and preservation due to its subjective nature, one must understand its importance in igniting environmental movements. Nature as an aesthetic experience, however, is yet centralized in theoretical and practical discussions of environmentalism. Nonetheless, with the slow shift from environmental aesthetics’ sole focus on the natural environment to human-produced environments, this discipline became inclusive of all non-human entities, including non-living beings. The aesthetics of objects and environments (artificial and natural) are not only appreciated because of how they are produced in human cognitive formulations but they open for non-cognitive components such as scientific knowledge and cultural traditions. In this sense, we do not only conceive of the al-zubarah in our imaginary realm but also how its cultural significance comes into play. Combining cognitive and non-cognitive elements of environmental aesthetics minimizes/eliminates the discipline’s superficiality that critics have pointed out. This presents non-invasive archaeological preservation/excavation as not just necessarily for our aesthetic narratives that I previously talked about, but how it is important due to its cultural symbolism for Qatar.
References:
Arntzen, S., & Brady, E. (2008). Humans in the land: The Ethics and aesthetics of the Cultural Landscape. Google Books. Unipub. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://books.google.com.qa/books?id=quwJAQAAMAAJ&printsec=front_cover&redir_esc=y.
Carlson, A. (2019, April 9). Environmental aesthetics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/environmental-aesthetics/
Cronon, W. (1996). The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. Environmental History, 1(1), 7–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985059
Gardiner, S. M., & Thompson, A. (2019). Aesthetic value, Nature and Environment . In The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics (pp. 186–196). essay, Oxford University Press.
