Social media and deep learning capture the aesthetic quality of the landscape

Peoples’ recreation and well-being are closely related to their aesthetic enjoyment of the landscape. Ecosystem service (ES) assessments record the aesthetic contributions of landscapes to peoples’ well-being in support of sustainable policy goals. However, the survey methods available to measure these contributions restrict modelling at large scales. As a result, most studies rely on environmental indicator models but these do not incorporate peoples’ actual use of the landscape. Now, social media has emerged as a rich new source of information to understand human-nature interactions while advances in deep learning have enabled large-scale analysis of the imagery uploaded to these platforms. In this study, we test the accuracy of Flickr and deep learning-based models of landscape quality using a crowdsourced survey in Great Britain. We find that this novel modelling approach generates a strong and comparable level of accuracy versus an indicator model and, in combination, captures additional aesthetic information. At the same time, social media provides a direct measure of individuals’ aesthetic enjoyment, a point of view inaccessible to indicator models, as well as a greater independence of the scale of measurement and insights into how peoples’ appreciation of the landscape changes over time. Our results show how social media and deep learning can support significant advances in modelling the aesthetic contributions of ecosystems for ES assessments.

Can we still be at home? Agnes Heller and China

This paper offers a short history of Agnes Heller’s relationship to China through three aspects: imaginative aesthetic enjoyment, real encounters with Chinese cultural spectacles and actual audiences, and the construction of an academic community through creative dialogue. These discussions suggest that Heller felt at home in China. Although Heller has passed away, a home for us remains in her work through remembering her and engaging further with her writings.

Ecosystem and Ecological Services; Need for Biodiversity Conservation-A Critical Review

Biodiversity and ecosystems are closely related concepts. Biodiversity provides numerous ecosystem services that are crucial and important to human well-being at present and in the future. The review aim to explain the Ecosystem services, and need for conservation of biodiversity. Ecosystem services (also called environmental services or nature’s services) are benefits provided by ecosystems to humans, which contribute to making human life both possible and worth living. Human kind fully depends on the earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide, such as food, water, disease management, climate regulation, spiritual fulfillment and aesthetic enjoyment. Over the past 50 years, humans have changed these ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than ever before, so that growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel can be met. Pollution through the discharge of municipal and industrial wastewater and solid waste (e.g. plastics) exacerbates the related problems. Environmental pollution results from mishandling, deliberate disposal, spilling and leakage of waste products, such as gasoline, lubricating oils, diesel fuel, heating oil’s, used or spent engine oils, animal wastes, human excreta, certain dissolved organic compound (e.g. urea, carbohydrate etc.), and organic salts such as nitrates, soap, phosphates of detergent, sodium, potassium, calcium and chloride ions. Under natural process most of the biodegradable pollutants of sewage are rapidly decomposed, but when they accumulate in large quantities, they create problems, i.e., when their input into environment exceeds the decomposition or disposal capacity. Ecosystem health is inherently linked to water management, sanitation and agriculture as these aspects influence water availability and quality. The loss of biodiversity can reduce the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being. Therefore, sustainable sanitation and water management is crucial for a more sustainable ecosystem management in the future.

Visitor’s willingness to pay for cultural ecosystem services in Bangladesh: an assessment for Lawachara National Park, a biodiversity hotspot

The valuation of natural ecosystems helps policymakers in allocate adequate resources for the provision of ecosystem services they provide. Cultural ecosystem services are the non-material benefits we obtain from nature, which include but are not limited to recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, physical and mental health benefits. They are essential for a proper sense of a place, human health, and wellbeing. We quantified the recreational and other non-material benefits of Lawachara National Park (LNP), one of the oldest and most diverse forest protected area and touristic attractions in northeast Bangladesh. A Modified Travel Cost Method (MTCM) was applied for quantifying the recreational and other non-material values of LNP. Altogether 309 respondents were interviewed, covering both peak season and slack season. In our MTCM, we considered several additional factors, unlike the commonly used Travel Cost Method (TCM). The value of cultural ecosystem services of LNP was estimated to be Taka 1 476.70 million and Taka 476.44 million per annum using MTCM and TCM, respectively. The value estimated using MTCM was marginally higher than the value estimated using TCM and was due to the additional variables we considered in our modified approach. We believe our estimates using MTCM will guide policymakers to properly value natural ecosystems and facilitate adequate resource allocation for ecotourism in LNP and elsewhere.

Hikes and Levadas in Madeira: Characterizing Visitors and their experience

Recent research indicates that more and more often tourists use the Madeira Natural Park (MNP) area to develop their physical activity, through mountain hiking and Levada walks. This study aims at identifying tourists’ characteristics and to understand how visitors live their experience. A survey was carried out at the end of two different activities and the sample was divided into two groups (G1: Levada Walks in the Laurissilva; G2: Walks outside the Laurissilva). The data was collected immediately after the activity ended (total: 293; male: 124; female: 169) and people were asked about: 1. Information available at the start of the activity; 2. Interaction and attention demand; 3. Natural area visited. The data indicates that the Madeira tourists have higher education, many are students and teachers, the majority being European. Our tourists are well informed about the natural environment and more than 90% agreed that it was ideal for aesthetic enjoyment and inspiring exploration. Our findings can help the tourist agents to improve their products, encourage the agencies to attract new markets outside Europe and can work as a basis for providing more guidance in the MNP, promoting a higher ‘flow experience’.

The absence of literature in the National Curricular Common Base for high school

Is there a place for teaching literature on the National Common Curriculum Base for High School? Is its presence important to the formation of humanization in individuals? The paper answers that, although it plays a founding role in the process of appropriation of the humanities, the teaching of literature is absent in the new document proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The starting point is the exacerbated pragmatism and spontaneity that pushes away school content to the detriment of an immediate teaching based on the development of skills and abilities as responses to the problems generated in this society. The analysis is made from a literary education perspective that enables the aesthetic enjoyment and the process of human objectification. It is argued that literature, as classical knowledge, should be in schools and, above all, converge with its learning objectives, which enable the construction of humanization and lead the individual to aesthetic catharsis. To this end, a documental analysis is carried out, establishing relationships between the theory of Marxist aesthetics and the approach to literature in the new regulatory document, highlighting points considered relevant for the formation of an emancipatory education.

Environmental Benefits and Economical Sustainability of Urban Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation—A Cost-Benefit Analysis of an Existing Reuse Project in Puglia, Italy

Besides benefits associated to increased water availability for irrigation, reuse projects of urban water can also provide positive environmental impacts, as they contribute to improve water quality of the receiving bodies by diverting wastewater from their outlet. This represents a typical win-win situation where significant synergies can be achieved between urban and agricultural sector, and the environment. These favorable conditions, however, do not necessarily imply that water reuse is either feasible from an economic perspective nor that the underlying supply chain is going to be triggered, if certain conditions are not met. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is considered a sound, theoretically well-grounded tool to analyze the financial and economical sustainability of an investment. The paper presents the CBA of an existing reuse scheme in Puglia, in southern Italy, reclaiming wastewater for irrigation from a coastal area with growing recreational, beach-related activities. Supported by operational data, official statistics and sector documents, the CBA reveals that in almost all scenarios the existence of environmental benefits must be invoked in order to consider the project economically sustainable. Coherent screening of the different impacts, isolating the ones that are applicable to the specific case-study, shows that these benefits are mainly non-use benefits related to the aesthetic enjoyment of clean water in the reclaimed stretch of coastline where wastewater discharge may no longer take place or take place in a way that significantly reduce seawater pollution.

Vulgar Pleasures

This essay examines Richard Francis Burton’s The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885–1888), an English translation of the Arabic Alf Laylah wa-Laylah stories that was enormously popular in its own time and continues to be widely admired today – despite the fact that Burton plagiarized extensively from the work of another translator. I argue that Burton’s Nights is neither a faithful nor an original translation of the Arabic stories, but rather an English text whose aesthetic enjoyment is proffered as an affective engagement with the literary aesthetics of the source text, translated through Burton’s own pleasurable experiences of Arabic literary language. Framing the reception of Burton’s Nights, through the Arabic concept of ṭarab, as a process of iterative cycles of pleasure that move between the translator and his readers, I contend that what makes Burton’s Nights enjoyable to read also makes it scandalous to the world literary system within which it has circulated.

Participatory Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Madrid: Insights for Landscape Planning

Cultural ecosystem services are gaining increasing attention in the scientific literature, despite the conceptual and methodological difficulties associated with their assessment. We used a participatory GIS method to map and assess three cultural ecosystem services, namely, (a) outdoor recreation, (b) aesthetic enjoyment, and (c) sense of place, in the Madrid region (Spain). The main goal of the study was to identify cultural ecosystem service hotspots in the region and to explore the relationships among the three ecosystem services mapped. We developed a Maptionnaire online questionnaire asking participants to locate places that they associate with these three ecosystem services and their main reasons for choosing those places on a map. We collected 580 complete questionnaires with 1710 location points (807 for outdoor recreation, 506 for aesthetic enjoyment and 397 for sense of place). We found that the three ecosystem services analysed were spatially correlated, with similar hotspots appearing across the region. Most of the identified hotspots were located in the northern part of the region, which is characterised by mountains and forests. Other hotspots appeared within the city of Madrid, highlighting the importance of urban green areas. Natural protected areas supplied significantly more cultural ecosystem services than non-protected areas. Among CORINE land-use types, forested areas, mountain shrubs and rocky landscapes were more relevant than arable lands for the supply of cultural ecosystem services. Our results highlight the utmost importance of including ecosystem services mapping within land-use planning and policy-making agendas to ensure the conservation of areas supplying cultural services that are critical for societal wellbeing.

ИКОНА В МУЗЕЕ: ВИЗУАЛЬНЫЙ ПОРЯДОК ЭКСПОНИРОВАНИЯ КАК ФОРМА ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ

В статье рассматривается история способов показа иконы на протяжении всего периода её музейного бытования, которое началось около полутора веков назад. Всё это время методы демонстрации иконы в музее проявляли отношения между музеем, обществом и властью, а также отражали изменение понимания самого феномена музейного предмета. Начиная с первых экспозиций и до сегодняшнего дня ведутся дискуссии о статусе иконы в музейном пространстве, её интерпретации и разнообразных способах показа. Уникальность иконы заключается в том, что на её примере особенно ярко прослеживается изменение значения объекта при превращении его в музейный предмет, т. е. при его перемещении из одного контекста в другой. Современная музейная аналитика утверждает, что музей не является и никогда не являлся нейтральной средой сохранения памятников или информации. Он активно формирует рамки зрительского восприятия, наделяя экспонируемые предметы смыслом и превращая их в художественные или исторические памятники. Музей также придаёт им статус нормы и очевидности, активно формируя культурную идентичность. Когда объект изымается из аутентичной среды и помещается в музейную экспозицию, он теряет первоначальный смысл, но приобретает другое, новое прочтение. К инструментам, с помощью которых музей всегда формировал новые смыслы, относятся способы показа или музейный дизайн. Применительно к иконе представляет интерес возможность проследить, как с помощью способов показа меняется её значение: как икона изымается из сакрального контекста и обретает светские значения, как создаётся имитация сакрального в профанном пространстве музейной экспозиции. В истории музейного бытования иконы можно выделить несколько этапов. В экспозиции XIX века она теряет связь со своим сакральным пространством и рассматривается как один из объектов коллекционирования или научного изучения, подтверждая ценность рационального познания. К началу ХХ века относятся первые попытки музеев вернуть иконе священный контекст, но не ритуально-обрядовый, а философско- эстетический. Экспозиции 1930-х гг. максимально нивелировали и связь иконы с родным для неё сакральным контекстом, и понимание иконы в качестве философско-этетического феномена. Она превратилась в исторический документ, иллюстрацию к обучающему рассказу или идеологическому тезису. К концу ХХ века древнерусская живопись понималась как художественный шедевр, дающий возможность эстетического наслаждения. Современный подход синтезирует все используемые ранее способы показа. При этом стала достаточно распространённой практика помещения иконы в сакральный контекст, имитацию которого создают различные экспозиционные приёмы. Таким образом, рассмотренные в статье способы показа иконы, несмотря на всю их разнообразность, имеют сходные черты, обладающие некоторой повторяемостью. Они интерпретируют икону то как сакральный объект, то как профанный. Обоснования приёмов, с помощью которых происходит сакрализация/десакрализация иконы в музейных экспозициях, на разных этапах её музейного существования совершенно различны. Тем не менее можно обнаружить типологические сходства общих стратегий. На сами же способы показа влияют ценностные ориентиры и культурные нормы, формирующие те стратегии визуальности, которые превалируют в конкретный исторический период.The article examines the historical trends in icons display throughout the entire period of its existence as a museum object. Museum display of icons which started about a century and a half ago has always reflected relations between museum, society and power as well as changes in understanding of the phenomenon of a museum item as such. Throughout all this time, the status of an icon in a museum space, its interpretation and various ways of display have always been under discussion. The uniqueness of an icon lies in the fact that it gives a vivid opportunity to trace the transformation of meaning of an object when it becomes a museum item, i.e. is transferred from one context to another. The present museum analysis declares that museum is not a neutral storage space for monuments or information. It actively shapes the frames of perception, endows the exhibits with meaning and even grants them the status of the norm and obviousness, actively forming cultural identity. When an object is removed from its initial environment and included in a museum exhibition as a museum item it loses its original meaning, thus acquiring a new, different interpretation. The display policies and museum design have always been the tools with which a museum developed new meanings. As for icons, the opportunity to trace the change of their meaning depending on the ways of display is of interest. For example, how an icon is removed from the sacral context and acquires its secular meaning, how the sacral context is recreated within the secular space of a museum exhibition. Several periods can be distinguished in the history of museum existence of icons. In the 19th-century display the icon detached itself from its sacral space and was regarded as an object for collecting or academic research, thus confirming the value of rational perception. In the early 20th century, museums made first attempts to return to icons their sacral context, but not the ceremonial one, but the philosophic and esthetic. In the 1930s, the exhibitions maximally levelled both the connection of an icon with its native sacral context and its interpretation as a philosophic and esthetic phenomenon. It turned into a historical document, an illustration for educational stories or ideological thesis. By the end of the 20th century, Old Russian Painting items were perceived as masterpieces of art affording an opportunity of aesthetic enjoyment. The current approach synthesizes all previously used ways of display. Nevertheless, placement of icons into their sacral contexts recreated by means of various exhibition methods has become common practice. Thus, all the above mentioned ways of display of icons at different stages of their museum existence show, nevertheless, certain recurrence. Under their impact, an icon is perceived either as a sacral or a profane object. Explanations underlying the exhibition methods of sacralization/desacralization of icons were certainly absolutely different, though they don’t hamper the ability to see typological similarities between common strategies. For all that, only the values forming predominant visual strategies of particular time can influence display practices.