The Sublime in the Anthropocene: the Artist's Response

The era of the Anthropocene presents a new aesthetic of the landscape; altering understanding of, and affecting, an established relationship to the environment, therefore forming a new kind of sublime experience for the individual. How is the sublime of the Anthropocene defined and how does the artist respond to this?

Research will address:
- How might painting and other types of research through practice address the sublime of the Anthropocene?
- In the making of the artwork, how will adopting processes based on processes that have formed the landscape influence the visual results?
- How is the natural world defined in the Anthropocene?
- What is the value of the sublime experience, today?
- To what degree are visuals responsible in the sublime experience today?
- The impact of current responses to the Anthropocene from the artworld, compared to responses produced in other areas of culture. What, if any, influence does the artworld's response to the Anthropocene have on culture at large?

This project will interrogate the developing landscape aesthetic unique to the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is a time of shifting boundaries, during which the relationship between humankind and the environment is called into question more than ever. To look at our relationship to the environment en masse, this project will incorporate artistic, cultural and philosophical responses to the Anthropocene in relation to the sublime - the artistic response will be the focus of this study. Over the duration of a practice based PhD, the symbiotic nature of my research and creative practice will develop towards a new landscape aesthetic and therefore a redefined sublime, which will be presented in the artwork.