Building 'Natural' Beauty Drought and the Shifting Aesthetics of Nature in Santa Barbara, California

摘要

This article analyzes the tension between the built and intrinsic elements that constitute Santa Barbara, California, as a place, by investigating two related questions: How is Santa Barbarans' sense of place impacted by city-wide cultural preferences for a specific plant aesthetic? and How have recent drought conditions affected that plant aesthetic, and its population's cultural relationship to nature and the environment? The analysis focuses primarily on two key informant interviews, with Madeline Ward, the city's water conservation coordinator, and Timothy Downey, the city arborist, and is further supported by ethnographic field notes. I argue that the California drought has brought parallel changes to both the city's physical appearance and its residents' aesthetic preferences regarding plants. This has further prompted changes to popular conceptions of Santa Barbara as a place, stemming from residents' desire for an aesthetic that is better in tune with the ecological conditions of the area.