News Conference on the Aesthetics of Sky and Heaven The series of seven international conferences on environmental aesthetics has focused on the landscape in general and its elements: forests, bogs, aquatic nature, agriculture and rock. The final conference of the series, its culmination, will focus on the ceiling above the landscape, the sky. This international conference on the Aesthetics of Sky and Heaven will take place between 26 and 28 March 2009 in the Valamo Monastery in Heinävesi, Finland. Sky in this context denotes the air and space that we can sense, experience and image, as well as its spiritual and mythological dimensions. The conference will approach this multiple concept of sky from three perspectives: through significances, perceptions and the imaging of experiences. Looking at the subject from the perspective of cultural history, aesthetics, spirituality and the sciences will open interesting views on the matter. The conference consists of keynote speeches, an artistic programme and field trips in the monastery grounds. The conference series on environmental aesthetics is further complemented by a series of publications from the Finnish Maahenki publishing house. So far, the series consists of five books, the next one being on the aesthetics of rock and stones. The series will conclude with the celestial topic. The main organizer of the conference series, which began in 1994, is the University of Joensuu. Partners to the celestial conference are The Union of Rural Education and Culture (MSL), North Karelia Summer University, the Valamo Monastery and the Valamo Lay Academy..

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