8. Art and the Altered Earth: Landscape Practices in a Changing Climate (FULL DAY)
Anthropogenic climate change has fundamentally transformed both the physical environment and the cultural imaginaries that shape our understanding of landscape. As a result, the tradition of landscape representation is undergoing significant redefinition. This panel investigates how landscape art across different regions and historical periods both responds to and records environmental crisis, foregrounding the genre’s evolving role as witness and agent amid ecological precarity.
Rejecting the notion of nature as a passive backdrop, the session invites papers and artist presentations that examine landscape practices negotiating human-induced environmental change. Topics may include contemporary uses of satellite imagery, data-driven digital mapping, eco-critical installations, AI-generated geographies, as well as reinterpretations of plein-air painting, printmaking, and early industrial photography. By bringing together scholars and practitioners, the panel fosters interdisciplinary dialogue that bridges historical, artistic, and technological approaches.
Rather than imposing a single theoretical framework, the session encourages diverse analytical perspectives, including eco-criticism, spatial history, and postcolonial geography. By highlighting multiple regional and temporal viewpoints, the discussion aims to reveal how landscape art reflects, critiques, and anticipates shifting ecological realities.
This session is designed for scholars, artists, curators, and educators working at the intersection of art history and environmental studies. By generating new dialogue and sharing innovative research and practice, “Art and the Altered Earth” seeks to expand the boundaries of landscape art and reimagine its functions in the context of global environmental crisis.
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Themes: Landscape Art, Anthropocene, Ecocriticism
Additional format comment: The convenor introduces the key theme. and the speakers respond to that. Full day session.
Lead Convenor: Sadia Pasha Kamran, Forman Christian College, Pakistan
To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.