This article has been subjected to review by the editors of the issue or by the Editorial board

This article has been published in: Ocula 5, Spazio e spazialità

author: Mario Neve

Sensorium communis geographie. Some introductory steps to a geoaesthetics

language: italian

abstract: There is no doubt that space and signs are matches for a geographer, not only, as it could be expected, in the form of cartographic production and analysis, but also in the case of the interpretation of landscapes or the study of urban forms and development. Therefore, an invitation by a semiotic on line journal for an issue devoted to space could not be more welcome to me.
The following text tries to sketch the preliminary steps of a research programme to be developed in the long run, favourably in a inter-disciplinary interplay. Each step, as it will result evident, is a branch of the mainstream, connecting with other branches available to diverse disciplinary contributions, namely by semiotics. Besides endnotes, some hints in this view are to be found clicking the hyperlinks placed here and there in the text. Being a compromise between the systematicness needed by a research programme and the relatively limited space here granted, the text may result a bit assertive and unfinished, but I hope such a trait won’t be an obstacle to the understanding of its fundamental questioning character.
In brief, the main topic of my essay is the elaboration of a geographically based concept of aesthetics, which, in line with recent developments in phenomenology and art criticism, should retrieve the original meaning of the Greek term aisthesis (primarily concerning the sensuous knowledge of the world). In this sense, it would be possible to see cartography as a common ground for art and science throughout its history, trying to outline a possible overcoming of this traditional approach to the world already brought to a crisis by humanistic geography

citation information: Mario Neve, Sensorium communis geographie. Some introductory steps to a geoaesthetics, "Ocula", vol.5, n.5, September 2004.

Ocula.it publishes articles and essays in semiotic research, with a particular eye on communication and culture; it is open to dialogue with other research fields and welcomes contributions from all the areas of the social and human sciences. See the Editorial Board and the Editorial Board.