Re: [microsound] return of the son of metaphysics (was:beauty)

[Beau <beau@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 18, 2004, at 12:45 PM, guido henneböhl wrote:

> interesting point.. please consider that beauty,
> understood as an harmonic construction of the whole,
> occurs as a mechanism to eliminate those parts not
> fitting into this concept. it causes oppression and
> exclusion.

Here "beauty" is functioning either as an adjective or a trait
possessed by an object or set of objects, or as some kind of objective
ideal. That thing over there is beautiful, this set of things together
has the quality of beauty, etc. It makes more sense to me to approach
the idea of beauty from a different direction -- not asking "Does this
possess the attribute of beauty?" but "Can I see this in a beautiful
way?" This is why narrowly avoiding a train wreck can be a beautiful
thing.

Phenomena are not inherently or objectively beautiful. It is our ideas
about phenomena that inspire us to experience beauty. So if there is
exclusion, we are responsible for it, not beauty.


> isn´t an "aesthetics of failiure" a concept opposed to
> that of "beauty".. if we use failiure to construct
> just another homogenous structure - wouldn´t it be
> easier to keep the old one?
> to define our "postmodern" aesthetics we should think
> of concepts based on divergence, not beauty...


Sure, what people generally think of as beautiful changes over time.
One can contribute to the discussion by asserting "This is beautiful!"
or "This is not beautiful!" People will look at it, think about it,
agree or disagree, and the conventional idea of beauty slowly shifts
and comes along for the ride. But that just happens. One can't act in
opposition to something so abstract and personal, only in opposition to
other peoples' ideas of it. I think it's just better to let your work
flow, to create things that are interesting to you, perhaps even
beautiful to you (or not if you don't care to), than to worry about how
your work fits into the cultural conversation about beauty. Just don't
play the game. "Man, I don't fit into your boxes, man..."




beau

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