This article addresses environmental esthetics in dialog with other non-anthropocentric representations of nature, starting with the Ancient Western philosophy of art as a human expression of nature (φύσις, physis). In the context of this more primary understanding, the consolidation of an anthropocentric representation of nature based on homo mensura is examined, in which the human being emerges as the measure of all things. This interpretation of nature fosters its progressive reification, which coincides with the emergence of esthetics as a modern philosophical discipline, often articulated around the partial and isolated appreciation of the object. It is argued that environmental esthetics emphasizes an immersive and relational experience with the environment, facilitating a certain release from anthropocentric mental habits, and that the notion of hyperobjects also helps to confront them by laying bare phenomena that exceed the human scale. In line with this expansion of space–time coordinates, which challenge perceptive categories in themselves, an ecosuicidological esthetic is presented, one capable of cultivating a renewed, non-anthropocentric sensitivity. The article resorts to Amerindian knowledges for the concept’s potential deployment and discusses artistic expressions that reconfigure the experience of representing nature, transforming perception and inspiring new forms of reciprocity.
Sandra Baquedano Jer (Sat,) studied this question.