Thoughts on a Holographic Aesthetic of Nature

Aesthetics deals with beauty, the nature of beauty and how we relate to beauty. Aesthetics raises questions such as ‘does beauty have an intrinsic nature or do we ascribe beauty to an object or scene? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder or are there specific things or arrangements in nature that project beauty? Elsewhere, I have suggested that training and experience in ecology allows for a multidimensional aesthetic of living systems. I’m increasingly convinced that 'holographic' is a more complete description of what an ecologist sees when he or she views a living system.  The beauty of the vision or perception is not simply two dimensional and what is obvious to the eyes but at least three dimensional. Think about this as if you were looking into a round, clear plastic cylinder, perhaps a cylindrical aquarium stretching floor to ceiling. A crystal tube without distortion. The cylinder descends into the sand of a lagoon. Your eyes move upward passing the roots of aquatic vegetation such as rushes then up the stalks …through the water into the air above the water where a mollusk rests near the top of one of the stalks. All of this in three dimensions with small fish darting about and among the stalks..snails crawling along the stalks, small crustaceans buried in the muck below…Can I see all of those things at a glance? No. But I’ve seen this type of system so many times, in freshwater and salt, over the decades of my professional life that I see them, in my mind’s eye. I am immersed in them. They surround me...envelop me. Ecologists who work in a watery environment, with snorkel and mask or SCUBA, may experience this envelopment more than others. Perhaps learning to look holographically is a good teaching/learning tool. A holographic appreciation of the beauty of the site helps develop an aesthetic appreciation that includes an in depth understanding of nature in in depth and in motion. Holographically, one looks into a living system rather than simply onto a two dimensional representation of the system. Beauty is , indeed, more then skin deep.

Note: Several of us have formed an Environmental Aesthetic Study Group. Contact me at springmountain1@att.net in order to join.

Ecological Restoration

The field of Restoration Ecology began to develop and formalize at about the same time as Environmental Aesthetics. Like Environmental Aesthetics, Restoration Ecology developed organizations, recruited members, established journals, and held conferences, and still does. As an ecologist, I became involved with Restoration Ecology during those years I worked on urban greening and habitat restoration projects. Although my professional work has shifted, I’ve kept track of the restoration folks.

 For example, some interesting restoration is underway with the Los Angeles River in Southern California. From 1914 to 1938 a number of floods caused much devastation and substantial death along the river. In response, in 1940 the US Army Corps of Engineers began to channelize the river pulling it between concrete walls.

Shortly after work began, in 1941 I was born in Los Angeles and for all of my young life frequently drove back and forth across the concrete channel…from homeplace to grandparental place…from the university where I worked to the one where I studied…and finally taking girlfriends to the beautiful beaches (I married one of those lovely California girls 54 years ago).  I’ve watched many films with the cops chasing the cons up and down the concrete channel…actor Arnold Schwarzenegger struggling to save humanity from future machines and, most recently in Fear the Walking Dead as a zombie apocalypse overwhelms Los Angeles.   

I’m now very pleased to see the work underway to restore the Los Angeles River.  And while some may find aesthetic pleasure in a concrete channel I think most of us would rather see rocky rapids, islands of emergent vegetation, and wildlife fill the channel. 


Several of us have formed an Environmental Aesthetics Study Group. Membership is free and by invitation. For an invitation contact springmountain1@att.net.

The Journey

With my artist wife Penny Baugh, I live at Hidden Springs, our home in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We share our neighborhood with bear, bobcat, foxes and coyotes, and a number of species of fascinating bats, birds, and bugs and tolerant human neighbors.

At Hidden Springs we work with dedication to lessen our impact on Earth, each year reducing our draw on the grid and the water supply, replacing exotic plants with species native to our region, and converting vegetable 'waste' into compost and mulch.

I am an Ecologist with 40-plus years experience in various aspects of conservation biology.  My professional work is built on a fascination with life on Earth, the places we find life, and our human interactions with other life. I have hovered above the oceanic abyss, explored flooded caves, wandered deep into interior and coastal wetlands, and climbed high along the ridges of the newest and oldest mountains in North America.  My reports, papers, and lectures have taken me from class rooms to meeting rooms to lecture halls and, very often find their way into magazines and journals. 

My work has not been limited to the physical world but has also delved deeply into aspects of the social sciences and the humanities.  Over the years I have moved away from strict adherence to the 'ologies,' choosing instead to explore interdisciplinary possibilities such as conservation biology, and always moving toward a transdisciplinary perspective.    

                    TIME TRAVEL

I have read that travel into the future is impossible,

but I know that this must be wrong,

for each day, I visit a dozen possible futures.

I taste each one of them as if they were the real stuff of now,

they are the real stuff of now that may happen tomorrow,

I live fully today in anxious and eager anticipation of those possible tomorrows.