Presidio as Aesthetic

Through observation of the Presidio landscape and reflection of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, my understanding of D. W. Meinig’s description of Landscape as Aesthetic has transformed and expanded. Landscape as Aesthetic initially stood out and resonated with me the most; I felt that all the landscapes described in the article were encompassed by this lens. Meinig explains that “within the realm of landscape painting we will find examples which express many of the views of landscape discussed... all specific forms are dissolved into the basic language of art.” I felt that art holds all interpretations at once, which resonated with how I view landscapes to encompass all meanings that is projected onto ker. Now, I still resonate with Landscape as Aesthetic, but for very different reasons. I see Landscape as Aesthetic, because I see it as something that we cannot understand due to its intricacies. Therefore, I believe that we mustn’t try to assign nature a purpose as the other ‘ways of seeing’ do; instead, we must accept nature to be more complex than humans can comprehend and allow it to simply coexist.

As I observed the Willow tree that we sat beneath, I noticed its intertwining branches that created patterns against the bright grey sky above. These branches seemed irregular, but I then considered that the patterns may just be too complicated for humans to comprehend and too burdening to accept that we don’t know. In school we are taught math, where numbers always seem to fit together using algorithms and geometric shapes. Given this precedent of education, when we don’t see a recognizable pattern of gridded lines amongst a matrix of Willow branches, it becomes easy to view the tree’s structure and process of growth as chaotic and unpredictable. In reality, I think that nature is more organized than we could imagine. It follows more rules than we could ever capture using algorithms. Therefore when we try to control nature, there is backlash.

We as humans feel a need for control and order. Throughout our lives, we are taught what nature is, what its purpose is, and its scientific processes. Walter Whitman seems to question what he thinks he knows about the identity of nature and begins to understand the impossibility of explaining something as simple as grass. Whitman explains his attempts to put “creeds and schools in abeyance” to uncover a truer understanding of nature. Humans feel a need to fit everything into boxes which delimits the way we interact and treat them. Whitman in some ways is arguing that schools and creeds have repressed the childlike curiosity where grass could be “the beautiful uncut hair of graves” among an infinite number of other things. By putting aside these institutions, he is resparking curiosity and returning to his human nature. Ultimately, Song of Myself is a call to accept that we don’t know everything and that is okay. Similarly, the Willow tree reminded that it is okay to accept lack of understanding of all things while still maintaining curiosity. 

With this new perspective, our definition of “order” is all wrong. Humans seem to have a simplistic view of nature, and therefore our attempt to bring order to nature is in reality a disruption of a more orderly system. Landscape as Aesthetic then took on more meaning for me. Art is a way of encompassing not only the many different ‘ways of seeing’ that we already acknowledge, but also the complexities that we cannot comprehend. D.W. Meinig beautifully describes this: “It [nature] seeks a meaning which is not explicit in the ordinary forms… Landscape becomes a mystery holding meanings we strive to grasp but cannot reach… In this view, landscape lies utterly beyond science, holding meanings which link us as individual souls and psyches to an ineffable and infinite world.”