Geographical Aesthetics

’Geographical Aesthetics burns and blisters. A startling collection of essays centered on aesthetics and space, the book ignites, showering sparks and little fires of provocation for a more lively aesthetics to take hold. The essays are historically aware and politically attuned, indeed, the book is a thorough treatment of the historical and political, a distribution of space, time and politics in encounters, engagements, movements and creative practices. The chapters engage a variety of topics ranging from cosplay to border activism; landscape art; disability; geologies; science; and agriculture. In this, Hawkins and Straughan have expertly brought together fascinating interrogations of the tissues, textures, tendrils, surfaces, depths, volumes and atmospheres of the imagination, creative expression, and the sensible.’ Peter Adey, Royal Holloway University of London, UK ’This carefully-crafted work interrogates how aesthetics is politicized, spatialized, thought, and felt. Seamlessly, synthetically, Hawkins, Straughan and colleagues critically and creatively analyse elements of the aesthetic in geographical encounters that reinvigorate a geography of surfaces. The effect is to demonstrate the importance and utility of a richly geo-aesthetic understanding of the world.’ Elaine Stratford, University of Tasmania, Australia