Abstract
Reviewed by: Claus-Christian Carbon, University of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
480 pages! Full of pictures of landscapes, most of them photographed by the author himself. But even more: a cookbook for starting research and conducting very broad scientific surveys on the aesthetics of sceneries. At the end of the book, Andrew Lothian ultimately provides extensive data, analyses and conclusions on his enduring path to gain insights into the aesthetics of landscapes. Lothian is one of the rare cases who devoted his entire life – at least his last 45 years! – very much to this very interesting field of scientific, cultural and philosophical enterprise. And he invites the reader to take part on his inspiring journey which took him across the world with a focus on Australia and Great Britain.
His approach is unique as he is able to play very different roles within the book: the role of a philosopher of aesthetics who disputes the meaning of aesthetics in an abstracted way, the beholder who contemplates about the beauty of scenery in everyday life, the role as a research-based marketer of scenic regions who uses insightful data on the distribution of beauty across a region and finally the scientist who scrapes out the basic features and typical drivers for beauty via statistical analysis. It does not matter which role you take, you will find a great variety of inspirational ideas and information for all of them.
Lothian structures his book into four major sections: Part 1 is about the question how we perceive scenic beauty, Part 2 is about the link between different beauty aspects and Part 3 is about the possibilities and strategies of how we can measure the beauty of sceneries. Final Part 4 is the shortest one and reflects on the future of scenic beauty.
The author follows a rigorous empirical approach on beauty in his work – his entire oeuvre in the last five decades is empowered by his major interest to gain data on beauty aspects. Therefore, he developed sophisticated and thought-out strategies to compile photographs of a region and to conduct studies on the basis of such pictures. This alone makes it worthwhile to read the whole book, from the first page to the last, but of course most important is the outcome of this precise and truly scientific approach of systematically photographing the sceneries of a region: hundreds of great pictures of beautiful landscapes! As he wants to depict the distribution and the variety of beauty aspects across several locations, his major ambition is not to beautify or bias the depicted landscapes but to objectively portray sceneries. Although we will never reach this goal entirely, Lothian asymptotically reaches this major aim. Over the years, he has developed a clearly defined procedure which he terms ‘Community preference method’ that comprises all required steps to reach such a high level of objective material and to gain high-quality data out of it. For instance, to assure relatively constant photographic conditions, he provides helpful and practical information on the proper usage of camera equipment including selection of focal length, the right format, the composition of depictions and when photographs should be taken regarding sun elevation and weather conditions. He even defines which features should be left out of photographs and how post-processing should be executed if distracting information is still observable. To provide insightful relations between several variables and the distribution of beauty across regions, he shows a long series of figures and data-enriched geographic maps – a kind of aesthetic mapping which makes the complex data package readable and so usable for non-statisticians.
The data on their own are a treasure for vision scientists working in the field of empirical aesthetics. Up to now, most research is conducted in labs with material mostly recruited from art history or everyday life, but natural beauty is rarely addressed at all – and if so, not in a very systematic way. As the conclusions are clear-cut and graphically displayed, the data might also be an inspiration source for landscape architects and planners, for photographers and people who just want to enjoy sceneries. The detailed description of Lothian’s procedure with all differentiated steps can also be utilized as a kind of cookbook for conducting own studies, for example, by scientific, regional or touristic institutions.
On every page, you feel the spirit behind this lifetime motivation to elevate simple assessments of landscape quality to a higher and more scientific level. It would be highly appreciated if all the photographs included in this compendium were available in very high resolution. Another aspect which could be addressed in further editions is the inclusion of more general works on empirical aesthetics from more recent years including works from neuroscience and on the adaptability and change of aesthetic appeal through familiarisation, elaboration and time, also to find out how stable aesthetic assessments are in the face of Zeitgeist. In sum, if you’re going to get insights and knowledge on landscape quality, especially beauty aspects, or if you just want to look at the diversity of natural beauty, you are perfectly advised to read and enjoy this book!