How Ruins Acquire Aesthetic Value: Modern Ruins, Ruin Porn, and the Ruin Tradition - Hardcover

by Tanya Whitehouse (Author)

Prologue: Ruins, and "Ruin Porn," in American CitiesChapter 1: Fascination with RuinsChapter 2: From Blight to Beauty: The Controversial Creation of the First U.S. Industrial-Heritage ParkChapter 3: Detroit: New Ruins and Old ProblemsChapter 4: Resolving our Judgments: Understanding How Ruins Acquire and Exhibit Aesthetic ValueChapter 5: Assessing Function and the Ruin CategoryChapter 6: Ruins Rising From the Ashes

Back Jacket

This book provides the first recent philosophical account of how ruins acquire aesthetic value. It draws on a variety of sources to explore modern ruins, the ruin tradition, and the phenomenon of "ruin porn." It features an unusual and original combination of philosophical analysis, the author's photography, and reviews of both new and historically influential case studies, including Richard Haag's Gas Works Park, the ruins of Detroit, and remnants of the steel industry of Pennsylvania. Tanya Whitehouse shows how the users of ruins can become architects of a new order, transforming derelict sites into aesthetically significant places we should preserve.

Author Biography

Tanya Whitehouse is a philosophy professor and arts student who has taught a variety of university and college philosophy courses, including Aesthetics and the Philosophy and History of Art. Her research interests include philosophy of music and architecture, environmental aesthetics, and aesthetic judgment and imagination.