Description

The term 'botanical aesthetics' refers to the visual and embodied modes which inform the perception, understanding, and appreciation of plant life. Green Sense is an interdisciplinary study of human aesthetic relationships to wild plants and the 'cultures of flora' that may characterise a region. The book explores botanical aesthetics through a study of the South-West region of Western Australia; a biodiversity 'hotspot' of international standing. Through a diverse range of materials, approaches, and perspectives, this title points to the interplay of values informing cultures of flora-from visual aesthetics and scientific knowledges, to embodied appreciations and sensory entanglements. The book provides a model for better understanding human relationships to wild plants, and offers an intriguing journey through science, poetry, philosophy, ethnography, Indigenous Australian knowledges, regional tourism, and memory studies. John Charles Ryan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education, and Communications (CREATEC) and the School of Communications and Arts at Edith Cowan University in Mount Lawley, Western Australia. Prior to his appointment, he completed a research doctorate with a focus on ecocultural studies of Australian biodiversity and creative responses to place. In 2003, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Values and the Environment (MAVE) from the University of Lancaster, UK. With the artist Ellen Hickman, he is co-author of Two with Nature, published in 2012. He is also a contributor to a forthcoming collection Fremantle Poets 3: Performance Poets. His ecocultural research has appeared in Continuum; Australian Humanities Review; Australian Garden History; Nature and Culture; New Scholar; and Transformations. Green Sense will appeal to readers interested in the sensory and embodied aspects of human relationships to plants.