Introduction

Since the 1960s, society's values regarding the environment have evolved dramatically. A growing environmental movement has emerged in the United States which has stimulated a transition in the way people think, work and live. Many people now recognize that natural environments have been devastated by thoughtless exploitation and consumption of natural resources. Many believe it is necessary to reject this culture of destruction and embrace an ethic of responsible cooperation with nature in order to assure our very survival.

During the thirty years of this environmental movement, a parallel Environmental Art movement has also emerged. Environmental Art has expressed evolving cultural ethical attitudes about the landscape. In recent years, Environmental Art and environmental ethics have focused on ecological integrity of the landscape. Regenerative Art, which is an emerging genre of Environmental Art, represents art's most highly developed expression of this ecologically-oriented ethic. Regenerative Art differs from previous types of Environmental Art in that it creates human-scale, spatial experiences incorporating both ecological and utilitarian functions in the landscape. In these ways, Regenerative Art is closely allied with landscape architecture.

Like landscape architecture, Regenerative Art synthesizes aesthetics and function. Both landscape architectural designs and Regenerative artworks can be described as multi-layered, integral landscapes which: communicate abstract concepts and emotions via tactile, sensuous experience; create or enhance ecological systems for animal use and inhabitation; and provide utilitarian amenities for human use and inhabitation. The synthesis of these elements represents an ecologically-sensitive environmental ethic. This ethic characterizes both landscape architecture and Regenerative Art.