In the three parts of this paper, I shall first present a new terminology, eco-aesthetica, then treat the semantic transformation of the concepts "perception" and "concentration", both of which are necessary for aesthetic activity, and conclude with a philosophical reflection on silence as the revelation of the positive meaning of concentration in our technological environment.

"Eco-aesthetica" is proposed here as a new concept which should be taken as the essential systematic feature of aesthetics. Briefly put, eco-aesthetica treats problems of aesthetics in the present day situation in close connection with the new concept "eco-ethica". In the twentieth century the ecological situation of man has been entirely changed from what it was in the past. The environment is no longer merely a sphere of physical things, namely, "nature", but instead is a technological sphere, a systematically structured set of technological relations. This complicated technological context exerts an important influence upon human existence. To take a rather simple instance, the telephone creates many invisible neighbors. The semantic transformation of the concept "neighbor" from "the well-known person who lives next door" to "the unknown person in the telephone network" is one of the most important newly emerging problems in present social and interpersonal relations. We can speak immediately and directly with the invisible person at long distance, and we can always menace such a technological neighbor by virtue of our invisibility. Professor Tomonobu Imamichi has therefore proposed that a new ethics should be developed to respond to this technological reformation. More than fifteen years ago he proposed for that purpose a new ethical term, eco-ethica.

Inspired by that concept, I propose the term "eco-aesthetica" to mean an aesthetics that deals with the newly developed art-phenomena and newly proposed problems of beauty. I avoid the term "environmental-aesthetics" because the environment of aesthetics is not limited merely to the outer world; aesthetics is for the subjective inner world as well. The purpose behind the choice of "eco-aesthetica" is the desire to demonstrate the tension between our newly developed environment and human subjectivity.

Perception emerges from the first moment of the aesthetic coincidence between subjectivity and environment; it is the first and fundamental stage of the aesthetic experience. In the past, the first stage was regarded as the relative contact of human unsubjective nature with the subject itself, and the range of perception was limited to what was sensually accessible. Thus perception was the direct relation between subject and objective substance. Of course, through perception we could reach the level of understanding. Now, however, perception sometimes occurs without this direct substantive relation. Consider, for instance, the case of television in which the physical perception of substance no longer has any importance. The principal object in this kind of perception is a floating shadow on the screen, of which the original substance obviously is far from the subject. In our day, perception becomes an indirect semantic comprehension of "nonsubstantive" information; the world filled with natural things "vanishes". In an information society perception is no longer substantive contact on the ontological level, but instead semantic apprehension on the "skialogical" level (a term derived from the Greek for shadow). We are confronted now with a "skialogical" perception without ontological substance.

As a second example of semantic transformation one might consider "concentration". Although perception is a conditio sine qua non both for aesthetic creation and for appreciation, it is not yet sufficient for them. Neither aesthetic creation nor appreciation can be achieved without concentration.

The aim of Plato’s philosophy was to concentrate one’s consciousness upon oneself in the contemplation of idea. The soul of a philosopher rids itself of the constraint of his corporeality and becomes pure soul; the concentration of consciousness upon one’s self is an attempt to touch true reality itself. Through art as the skia (shadow) of idea, the artist concentrates his consciousness upon himself and perceives beauty itself in himself. According to Plotinus, exteriority is emission from the One, and everything must return to that origin. The artist’s search for beauty expresses this orientation to the One. The logos of beauty is interior to the beautiful soul; by concentrating consciousness upon oneself, we can transcend the phenomenal world and contemplate eternity (nous). For Augustine one concentrates one’s consciousness upon one’s interiority (through prayer) in order to transcend oneself and coincide with God. Classical antiquity and the middle ages in both the East and the West concentrated upon oneself as the most important spiritual process in relation to absolute beauty.

But with the arrival of the scientific period the other tendency, namely, concentration upon the outside world also appeared. Galileo observed the phenomenon of light and discovered that light passing through a lens concentrates itself on its focus. It is not an internal but an external concentration at the level of the physical phenomenon. This external concentration was emphasized by the natural sciences. On the level at which technology operates, the human being concentrates his consciousness not upon the self, but upon the external world. Man’s attitude toward concentration is changed into its opposite, as concentration upon the objective world. In modern times this concentration invites us to devote ourselves to work. It takes a centripetal orientation, tending to the spot where our hands work; the more intensively we concentrate upon our work, the more effective we are. There remains no place for spiritual beauty except in the creation of art where spiritual beauty realizes itself.

In the present technological context, the alienated outward tendency is reinforced so that paradoxically concentration sometimes produces dispersion. Spiritual movement is expressed through processes within the mechanical environment. Even the artist must disperse his consciousness through operative institutions: artistic **activity is often executed in a three-dimensional space or in new media, such as the electronic television. In such cases artistic activities have to be calculated so the mechanical systems can be operated in a controlled manner. The artist must pay attention to the dynamic transfiguration of his art. In this case his concentration results, paradoxically, in a divided subjectivity, totally directed upon the outer world. He must attend to his instruments, watch light and tone conditions, phenomenal transformations, and so on. Through the concentration of consciousness upon these operations one is entirely alienated from one’s subjectivity. Inside one becomes empty, and art, even in the stage of creation, finishes in alienation.

This paradoxical situation of concentration is in precise contrast to the past which stressed the concentration of consciousness upon oneself. This semantic transformation is caused by the present technological conjuncture.

In order to be free from this technological context art may reject that influence and return to nature or to the Lebenswelt where it can recover its domain only as the making of folk crafts, but that is not the ideal situation for art. The tension between art and technology can run to extremes, so that in current society art must keep a distance from the technological. The time belonging essentially to human consciousness is destroyed by the technological efficiency required to make things instantly at the sacrifice of consciousness, whereas art takes us into aesthetic experience for which time is indispensable. Therefore art stands against technology. Art is a topos where the human being ensures his conscious existence, especially concerning temporality; reconstruction or recovery of temporality through aesthetic experience is one of the most important problems of eco-aesthetica

Art must be created and appreciated in order to achieve perfect liberty from the dominance of the technological context. True art to support human existence must be suitable for this perfect spiritual liberty and hence distant from the technological. This distance must be expressed by silence as the expression of profound self-consciousness. Therefore silence in art is a revelation of the positive meaning of concentration. This character of art is derived from eco-aesthetica reflection. Silence is the immense perspective where the concentration of consciousness manifests itself in spatial and temporal dimensions. Japanese art, Ma, is the symbol of this perspective.

With the development of the technological conjuncture, art transforms itself into two phases, (1) the adjustment to that conjunction -- the mechanization of art, art’s self-mechanization -- and, (2) keeping a distance from technological conjuncture -- rejection and silence.

Owing to the current technological conjuncture, the artist can now craft art works on a large scale. Mechanization is abstraction, but what we need to know is the meaning of abstraction. In painting, abstraction should remain a challenge to extract the essence of being (Sein). What are some of the features of the technological conjuncture in painting?

For painting, in Mondrian for instance, abstraction is merely the emphasis of geometrical form made explicit by a technological two-dimensional cropping, whereas in the case of abstraction, like Klee’s, the essence of being is expressed by a repetition of figures and symbolic signs. In painting, there is no place for the concentration of consciousness, except in the abstraction of dynamic movement and the limitation of meanings.

The new media in music, involving newly created electronic sounds, revolutionize creation and appreciation. Electronic sounds that fill the space of the auditorium leave no place for self-consciousness. Repetitions, collages, systematically structured combinations are the concrete appearance of the mechanization of art.

Mechanization is abstraction. If abstraction is the essence of a technological conjuncture, it is because this abstracts from process, namely, temporality, and introduces efficiency. Moreover, in computer art the dominant role is taken by the program, which transforms art into simplified arithmetical numbers, figures, or signs. In a technological conjuncture, art becomes self-mechanization, which means that art must introduce technological phases into itself and assimilate them. The more the environment changes into a technological conjuncture, the more art becomes self-mechanized. This is a typical problem for eco-aesthetica.