Aesthetic sense - A tool for survival?

Are we degrading ourselves from a naturally 'aesthetic' way of life to a progress-driven race to 'prosthetic' everything?

1. PURELY Prosthetic progress Are we going from Naturally Aesthetic ?

2. What is progress? ? Is ‘technology’ really a promise for absolute freedom to infinity and beyond? Have we lost our fascination and respect to Nature and its engineering wonders? A fancy way of re-organizing the past to show how ‘technology’ and every invention along the way made life ‘easier’? ?

3. Technology Theoretical basis that allows technology to take flight Goal is simply pursuit of knowledge and the higher utopia of idealism The knowledge that is built by science is always open to question and revision Science Practical application of science to create products that solve problems and improve human life. HUMAN INTERVENTION resulting in a change in terms of an invention or process. v/s

4. Technology Science and First technological interventions basic needs FOOD WATER SHELTER CLOTHING IMPLEMENTS and TRANSPORTATION MATERIAL COMFORTS SETTLEMENTS CITIES TO FLOURISH CULTURAL DIVERSIFICATION AND RISE OF ART FORMS INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Machines and CAPITAL GOODS to facilitate automation of the processes to create the basic goods Looks at the world as a ‘STANDING RESERVE’ to be used by man, thereby putting off-balance MAN’s SYMBIOSIS WITH NATURE Then the bloom of easier, faster and always at the tip of your finger CONSUMER GOODS

5. Technology Science and First technological interventions basic needs FOOD WATER SHELTER CLOTHING IMPLEMENTS and TRANSPORTATION MATERIAL COMFORTS SETTLEMENTS CITIES TO FLOURISH CULTURAL DIVERSIFICATION AND RISE OF ART FORMS INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Machines and CAPITAL GOODS to facilitate automation of the processes to create the basic goods Looks at the world as a ‘STANDING RESERVE’ to be used by man, thereby putting off-balance MAN’s SYMBIOSIS WITH NATURE Then the bloom of easier, faster and always at the tip of your finger CONSUMER GOODS Martin Heidegger in his essay ‘Questioning Concerning Technology ‘, he explains why this view of technology is bad It becomes ABSOLUTE and CONSTRAINING and we become unable to perceive and appreciate anything outside this box. As technology yields more tangible and IMMEDIATE results, we become more committed or even dependent on it.

6. Prosthetic Are we going from Aesthetic ?

7. Etymology ‘pros’ : In addition ‘ tithenai ’ : To place ‘ Aiestheticos ’  Sensitive, able to perceive or feel ‘ Aisthanomai ’  I perceive, feel, sense AESTHETIC PROSTHETIC Greek origin ~ Artificial, Attachment, Application ~ Ability to perceive through the senses and value the experience by appreciation of beauty or a feeling of wonder

8. ‘pros’ : In addition ‘ tithenai ’ : To place ‘ Aiestheticos ’  Sensitive, able to perceive or feel ‘ Aisthanomai ’  I perceive, feel, sense AESTHETIC PROSTHETIC ~ Artificial, Attachment, Application ~ Ability to perceive through the senses and value the experience by appreciation of beauty or a feeling of wonder Philosophical Aesthetics (Form over function) Evolutionary Aesthetics (Tool for survival) Aesthetic Experience Aesthetic property

9. ART Science AND TECHNOLOGY Interpretation of our sensory experiences processed with acquired knowledge and skills Intellectual and practical investigation of the physical and natural world through observation and experiments Are they really disconnected from each other?

10. ‘Philosophical Aesthetics’ The works of art, practices or activities of making and appreciating art Aesthetic Experience Aesthetic property A Property, feature or aesthetic aspect of things- beauty, grace or dynamism A certain kind of attitude, perception or experience that could be labelled ‘aesthetic’ ~ This poses a discrepancy since the beautiful is conceived as ‘immediately pleasurable’- and focuses only on the proximate first-hand experience of aesthetics. Form over function

11. TWO Misconceptions regarding ‘Aesthetic sense’ MYTH 1: “Aesthetic mode is passive and contemplative”, almost entirely philosophical More often than not it functions as a STRONG EMOTION Providing an ACTIVE TOOL to navigate the world astutely MYTH 2: “Aesthetic interest is unconcerned of the object’s nature and functionality” Literally ANY part of ANYTHING tangible or any experience that can be absorbed in some form through our senses can be AESTHETIC ‘Art’ in the ARTificial , Functionality, history, Cultural preferences, Economy and personal experiences influence our ability to find beauty

12. ESTHETICS How artists imagine, create and perform works of art; How people use, enjoy, and criticize art What happens in their minds when they look at paintings, listen to music, or read poetry, and understand what they see and hear. Judgments of beauty are sensory, emotional and intellectual all at once. STUDY OF

13. THEN WHAT IS art? Croce  suggested that "expression" is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be central Beauty may have some rational properties, such as “order, symmetry, and proportion,” but it is really an experience not explained by reason alone A work of art is explained not by its beauty or form, but by its effect on the audience or its creator.  Vincent Van Gogh, Leonid Afremov

14. THEN WHAT IS art? Marshall McLuhan  suggested that art always functions as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society. Leo Tolstoy said that art evokes a feeling to be shared “by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words.” As well, art is used to memorialize individuated biographies in a manner that allows persons to imagine that they are part of something greater than themselves. Lego art by Nathsn Sawaya

15. THEN WHAT IS art? Gregory Loewen  has suggested that the subject is key in the interaction with the aesthetic object. The work of art serves as a vehicle for the projection of the individual's identity into the world of objects, as well as being the irruptive source of much of what is uncanny in modern life. Tomas Misura’s Paint tube sculpture in Sydney

16. THEN WHAT IS art?

17. THEN WHAT IS art? A zoom sequence illustrating the set of complex numbers termed the Mandelbrot set. Étienne-Léopold Trouvelot , Direct electric spark obtained with a Ruhmkorff coil or Wimshurst machine, also known as " Trouvelot Figure"; 19th-century photograph; 

18. ‘Evolutionary aesthetics’ Evolutionary psychology theory arguing that the basic aesthetic preferences of Homo sapiens have evolved in order to enhance survival and reproductive success

19. DETERIORATING QUALITY and the expensive commodity OF ‘natural Freshness'

20. ‘Evolutionary aesthetics’ Evolutionary psychology theory arguing that the basic aesthetic preferences of Homo sapiens have evolved in order to enhance survival and reproductive success

21. 3D-Printed living pastry

22. ‘Aesthetic-Usability Effect’ as a result of evolution The condition where people perceive more aesthetic designs as much more intuitive and simple, than those considered to be less aesthetically pleasing,   A pretty design can make users more forgiving of  minor  usability problems, but not of larger ones. => Form and function should work together.  It was concluded that  users are strongly influenced by the aesthetics of any given interface, even when they try to evaluate the underlying functionality  of the system.

23. From beauty to duty. 'The ultimate historical foundations of nature preservation are aesthetic. Leopold connects the 'beauty of the biotic community' with the continuing existence of its members 'as a matter of biotic right'.

24. BIOMIMETICS Structural color Ventilated cooling Jagged-edged mosquito proboscis Thorny devil’s dew-harvesting bumpy back Anti-bacterial Vshaped  dermal denticles

25. Natural selection and the demands for function and efficiency have outstandingly engineered all animals and plants.

26. THANK YOU SOURCES: David M. Kaplan, “Readings in the philosophy of Tehcnology ” Alexandra King., “Internet Encyclopedia of Philisophy ” – (peer-reviewed) Immanuel Kant, ‘ Critigue of Judgement (1790) Dickie, George. 1964. “The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude.”  American Philosophical Quarterly  1, 56-65. Masaaki Kurosu , Kaori Kashimur , Apparent usability vs. inherent usability experimental analysis on the determinants of the apparent usability Images for biomimicry- Asknature.org