The "Psychophysical Field" of Spatiotemporal Awareness and the Perceptual Modes of Land Art— A Study on Land Art

Abstract

Land Art, also known as Earth Art, emerged in the United States in the 1960s against the backdrop of environmental movements and the counter-art zeitgeist. By engaging with the relationship between humans and nature, Land Art employs natural materials to create works that aim to rekindle human attention to and perception of nature. Through a wide variety of creations, Land Art seeks to awaken sensory capacities dulled by industrial civilization. This paper explores Land Art from three perspectives: the body’s return to the world and the “site-specificity” of artworks, the “psychophysical field” of perception and the primordial sensing of Land Art, and the temporality of natural spaces and the experiential dimensions of Land Art. By constructing psychophysical fields within natural environments through bodily engagement, Land Artists incorporate temporal and spatial elements to evoke human sensory perception, re-situating the body and its sensory faculties within nature. In the interwoven spatiotemporal field of nature, Land Art establishes an inseparable connection between humans and the natural world.