Transcendentalism Workshop

In “Nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “it seems as if the day was not wholly profane in which we have given heed to some natural object.” In this day-long workshop, participants will devote sustained attention to plants, observing in careful detail how they reveal themselves to the senses and how they live within dynamic ecological relationships.

Drawing on the work of Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the workshop will incorporate artistic practices — including pencil drawing and writing exercises — as methods for cultivating new ways of perceiving the natural world. As Thoreau observed, “the question is not what you look at, but how you look, and whether you see.”

Approaching transcendentalism as a living contemplative practice, the workshop invites participants to deepen their powers of observation and imagination through attentive engagement with the living wholeness of the plant world.

RYAN SHEA is a full-time researcher and educator at The Nature Institute in Ghent, New York. Previously, he taught environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, interdisciplinary humanities, and nature writing at Providence College for eight years. He is also a doctoral researcher with MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) at the University of Cologne in Germany.

His research seeks to develop the practice of experiential and participatory ecology, with a focus on metamorphosis in plants and insects. His work is informed by the tradition of Goethean transformative phenomenology—especially the work of Craig Holdrege, Mark Riegner, Henri Bortoft, Jochen Bockemühl, and Andreas Suchantke—which develops new ways of seeing that allow the whole to be directly experienced through the part.

Shea is the editor of The Nature Institute’s in-house publication, In Context, and co-producer of its podcast, In Dialogue with Nature. He also co-edited a recent translation of Goethean biologist Andreas Suchantke’s Insect Forms and Patterns: Exploring the Language of Nature.

Please note: Registration is required for this workshop. Participation is limited to 15 attendees, who must commit to attending both days: Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3. Visit the event registration page to register.