Aesthetics Calculated; Design vs. Beauty by Individual Idealism

Aesthetics is an interesting beast. There is a very particular and calculated set of criteria that is present for an object to be considered aesthetically correct for the viewer. From Marcia Eaton’s standpoint, she believes that there must be an “understanding [of] the very nature of aesthetic activity, experience, and judgments. [It] demands [the explanation of] how communication is possible when key words seem to mean such different things to different people” (Eaton, 2). I couldn’t agree more with Eaton, it is a must for proper construction of aesthetic understanding, through accepting that any given consumer is an individual who is unique from thought to physical atoms that make up the nucleotide chains found in their DNA.

Obviously, it is common knowledge that even though there is this individual uniqueness in everyone, there are trends that indicate an attraction between individuals who have similar likes and dislikes. This attraction also bleeds over to what Edward Bullough suggests in his essay pertaining to Psychical Distance, “an experience of acuter unpleasantness producing feeling of anxiety, fears of invisible dangers, strains of watching and listening for distant and non-localized signals” (Bullough, 347). Bullough devised a way that described the emotional responses individuals encounter when faced with viewing a similar situation or object that has strong memory associations for the viewer. Most often the fear based response is due to the lack of understanding.

Looking at Edgar Allen Poe, all he wanted was to make a dramatic impression on the individuals encountering his writings. In order for the aesthetic to be correct, there must first be “denouement”. Poe strongly believed that a “denouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence or causation, by making the incidents and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention” (Poe, 453). Intention is a significant component to creating a piece of work that is aesthetically productive, but that intention and its meaning can quickly be lost if there is no understanding of the intention.

Another thing that needs to be thought about in terms of aesthetics is recognizing the “complex working relationship” that an object has with its environment (Agrest, 4). Diana Agrest states in her article “On Sergi M. Eisenstein” that architecture, form and other arts relate to one another as does a text to another text being configured in a way that resembles how languages are organized and understood (Agrest, 4). Later on Agrest addresses that this relationship is a perception that is solely individually founded.

Emotional responses and aesthetic responses are often confused. A great example was used by Eaton when discussing her mother’s reaction to a painting titled Mother. After reading the description of the painting it makes sense that Eaton’s mother had such a sour reaction. Eaton’s mother was reacting on the emotional level due to the lack of information and understanding of the artists intent. The aesthetics of the painting were lost to Eaton’s mother and due to the missing information, Eaton’s mother only had her emotions to derive the reaction and explanation of the poor response to the visual stimulation.

The poor response by Eaton’s mother just reminds me that beauty is an undefinable word, and as the statement goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is not intentional art or design. The only way to understand intentional art or design is to immerse oneself into gaining the needed information to make sense of the unknown.

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Works Cited

Agrest, D. (2001). On Sergei M. Eisenstein. In S. Gray (Ed.), Architects on Architects (pp. 1-9). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Bullough, E. (1912). "'Psychical Distance' as a Factor in Art and as an Aesthetic Principle". British Journal of Psychology, 5, pp. 87-117. Retrieved from http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361_r9.html

Eaton, M. M. (1987). Defining the Issues: An Overview. In Basic issues in aesthetics (pp. 1-13). Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Pub. Co.

Poe, E. A. (1956). The Philosophy of Composition. In E. H. Davidson (Ed.), Selected Writings Of Edgar Allan Poe (pp. 452-463). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Wolfe, T. (1975). Introduction. In The Painted Word (pp. 3-10). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.