Esteettinen Kokemus Metissä (Aesthetics in the Swamps) - Finnish, Sepänmaa, 2003

Esteettinen Kokemus Metissä, in Sepänmaa, Yrjö, ed., Metsään Mieleni 31-47. Helsinki: Maahenski, 2003. Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/37123

Forests are aesthetically challenging because of the sense of deep time, experiencing an archetype of creation. Forests are both perennial and dynamic. Appropriate aesthetic encounter requires knowledge of scientific natural history, necessary though not sufficient for intense, multisensory, participatory engagement when persons, immersed in forests, live their aesthetic experiences. Forests, although naturalized, are experienced as sublime, evoking the sense of the sacred. Aesthetic appreciation in forests radically differs from that appropriate for artworks.