The Center for Integrative Studies, or CIS, provides an avenue for students to intentionally integrate diverse educational experiences in pursuit of their educational goals, and to discover connections among experiences within a liberal arts education. It combines courses from a wide variety of departments to form a well rounded understanding of multiple disciplines and how they interact. This educational path will help me to explore interactions between the disciplines of Art and Science and to form an understanding of human thought about these interactions. This major will help me to explore these connections in the real world and to help others understand the importance of these connections. It is connections between disciplines that allow a St. Olaf student to seek truth and to become a knowledgeable and responsible citizen of the world.
In his book, Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud muses,
“We may go on from here to consider the interesting case in which happiness in life is predominantly sought in the enjoyment of beauty, wherever beauty presents itself to our senses and our judgment—the beauty … of natural objects and landscapes and of artistic and scientific creations. ... Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it. The science of aesthetics investigates the conditions under which things are felt as beautiful, but it has been unable to give any explanation of the nature and origin of beauty.”
Although Freud cannot give us a source for beauty, I have found that the very heart of beauty can be found in nature, and I believe that the human idea of beauty has its roots in the environment that inspires the artist to create. Through Environmental Aesthetics, I will be able to explore the relationships between humans, art, beauty, and the natural environment.
Today’s world is full of technology. I believe that society has lost much of its appreciation for the natural world, and I would like to build a major which prepares me to share my own appreciation of the beauty of nature and to promote its value to others. I would like to tailor this focus even further to prepare me to share the value of natural environments and the beauty found there to children as a way to preserve the next generation’s appreciation for nature.
The goal of this coursework is to help me to understand the environment and nature, art and beauty, and people, specifically children, in order to gain an integrated understanding of the interactions of people and the environment through the ideas of art and beauty.
This major will help me to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of nature both apart from and as a part of an artistic objective. Through a combination of Biology, Environmental Studies, Art, Psychology, and Philosophy courses, I will synthesize my love of people, plants, and paint to explore the idea of the beauty of nature and discover ways in which I can relate and teach the value of this idea to others. I will celebrate the poignancy of natural aspects through art and build a focus on appreciating and preserving natural environments in which beauty can be found.