Geographical Aesthetics

Harriet Hawkins is a Senior Lecturer in Historical and Cultural Geography at Royal Holloway University of London, UK and Elizabeth Straughan is an Honorary Research Associate in Geography at the University of Glasgow, UK.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: for geographical aesthetics, Harriet Hawkins and Elizabeth Straughan. Section 1 Towards a Lively Aesthetics: On aisthA*sis, 'inner touch' and the aesthetics of the moving body, Mark Paterson; Anime cosplay as love-sublimation, Paul Kingsbury; Activist pedagogies through Ranciere's aesthetic lens, Naomi Millner; Relational urban interventions, Ashley Dawkins and Alex Loftus. Section 2 Aesthetic Encounters: Comforting others: sociality and the ethical aesthetics of being-together, Danny McNally; The artifice of landscape: photomontage in the work of Beate GA tschow, Alex Vasudevan; Biostratigraphy and disability art: an introduction to the work of Jon Adams, Hannah Macpherson (with Jon Adams); Death drive: final tracings, James Riding; Aesthetic regard for nature in environmental and land art, Emily Brady. Section 3 Tissues and Textures: Reimagining the Surficial: The mantle of the Earth: surfaces, landscape and aesthetics, Veronica della Dora; Thinking with/as a frog: art, science and the performative image, Deborah Dixon; The contested aesthetics of farmed animals: visual and genetic views of the body, Lewis Holloway and Carol Morris; Conclusion: reimagining geoaesthetics, Harriet Hawkins and Elizabeth Straughan. Index.

’Geographical Aesthetics burns and blisters. A startling collection of essays centered on aesthetics and space, the book ignites, showering sparks and little fires of provocation for a more lively aesthetics to take hold. The essays are historically aware and politically attuned, indeed, the book is a thorough treatment of the historical and political, a distribution of space, time and politics in encounters, engagements, movements and creative practices. The chapters engage a variety of topics ranging from cosplay to border activism; landscape art; disability; geologies; science; and agriculture. In this, Hawkins and Straughan have expertly brought together fascinating interrogations of the tissues, textures, tendrils, surfaces, depths, volumes and atmospheres of the imagination, creative expression, and the sensible.’ Peter Adey, Royal Holloway University of London, UK ’This carefully-crafted work interrogates how aesthetics is politicized, spatialized, thought, and felt. Seamlessly, synthetically, Hawkins, Straughan and colleagues critically and creatively analyse elements of the aesthetic in geographical encounters that reinvigorate a geography of surfaces. The effect is to demonstrate the importance and utility of a richly geo-aesthetic understanding of the world.’ Elaine Stratford, University of Tasmania, Australia