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Shades of sublime : a design for landscape experiences as an instrument in the making of meaning

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Paul A Roncken at NatureCollege Foundation
Paul A Roncken
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Historically, the idea of the sublime is often associated with grand and astounding natural scenery. This thesis investigates a twenty-first century idea of the sublime that includes dissonant phenomena such as ecosystem disruption and climate change. The subject of the sublime is symbolic of how unprepared the general audience is for dealing with the inherent disorders that arise when confronted with ‘negative’ aesthetic engagement. Landscape design, however, can mediate this experience to facilitate a creative act of imagination and identification with contemporary sublime phenomena. This in turn provides an opportunity to speculate on a future landscape architectural repertoire.
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... Nature-induced spiritual experiences take many forms and are often expressed as a flow that may lead to deeper encounters, self-realization and meaning-making (Van Trigt et al., 2003;De Pater et al., 2008;Terhaar, 2009;Havik et al., 2015;Zylstra, 2019). This process may be pursued, with possible pitfalls along the way (De Pater, 2015;Hedlund-de Witt, 2011;Roncken, 2018). ...
... So far, we can distinguish four specific experiential sub-dimensions 12 . The Experiential-Aesthetic dimension (1a) encompasses the experience of self-transcending awe and sublimity, often through perceiving the beauty, grandeur or even menace emanating from forests and nature (Brady, 2013;Roncken, 2018). Wilderness and forests were found to be conducive to fascinating aesthetic experiences which many visitors described as 'spiritual' or 'transcendent' (Frederickson & Anderson, 1999;Williams & Harvey, 2001). ...
... However, managers can increase the landscape's potential to evoke spiritual experiences, e.g., by enhancing its visual aesthetics or by banning disturbances. In his thesis on "the sublime", Roncken (2018) distinguishes six levels, marking the highest two as 'spiritual'. We adopted his line of thinking in our coding approach. ...
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... The other dimensions arer poorly represented, including, surprisingly, the Experiential-Aesthetic dimension. Forests are among the most aesthetically inspiring forms of nature, and give rise to sublime experiences that can called 'spiritual' (Schama, 1995;Roncken, 2018) and if forest planning and research ever touch upon spirituality at all, it is in connection with experience, aesthetic or other (De Pater et al., 2023). However, most literature focuses on forest visitors or users while our study addresses the managers who are apparently more concerned with the practical dimensions of spirituality. ...
... It's, it's, overcoming, eh.. it happens without searching [for] it" (10:43, 44). It is difficult to find the boundary between the 'non-spiritual' levels of aesthetics and the two highest levels, which qualify as 'spiritual' (Roncken, 2018). One reason is that many foresters were not able to articulate their aesthetic experiences precisely. ...
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... If indeed the aesthetic framework of the sublime fits to describe the landscape design of the game, then the idea of the sublime is in for a drastic contemporary update. In previous research, colleagues and I have already speculated on such an agenda (Roncken 2018, Roncken and Convery 2016, Roncken et al. 2011). Significant changes that are not yet included within the idea of the sublime but are strongly applied in game design are algorithmic simulation, artificial intelligence (A.I.) and audio-visual immersion. ...
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... If indeed the aesthetic framework of the sublime fits to describe the landscape design of the game, then the idea of the sublime is in for a drastic contemporary update. In previous research, colleagues and I have already speculated on such an agenda (Roncken 2018, Roncken and Convery 2016, Roncken et al. 2011). Significant changes that are not yet included within the idea of the sublime but are strongly applied in game design are algorithmic simulation, artificial intelligence (A.I.) and audio-visual immersion. ...
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