Description
This class will start by discussing Timothy Morton?s theoretical stance to substitute the term ?nature? with the more inclusive ?ecology?. We will use his books, ?Ecology without Nature? and ?The Ecological Thought? as a departure point for understanding how everything is interconnected, what he means by mesh and why hyperobjects are significant to architectural discourse.
We will go back to review the historical sequence expressed by the invention of ?the picturesque? which saw nature as something to frame in a painting or view through a window. We will explore its philosophical and cultural basis that formed the tradition of modern rational thought (Descartes) that separates nature from culture, rationality from emotion, and mind from body. We will then study and analyze some of the 20th century thinkers who looked at the human - nature relationship from different perspectives, such as Norbert Elias, Marylin Strather, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Philippe Descola, Eduardo Kohn, t