Evolutionary Aesthetics

81. I’m a really, really bad vegetarian: I basically hate vegetables. If boca burgers didn’t exst, I think I’d’ve died by now.

On the realm of loving to think, this occurred to me a few weeks ago when I was in Arizona for a photography blah-blah. ((Photos included for illustrative purposes, not because they were the ones that inspired me.))

Aesthetics is an evolutionary by-product. The thought popped into my head while looking at a (very beautiful) picture of a cup. I thought: why does this black and white cup just draw me in so much? Why do I keep staring at it? Then I thought, “I could make an image like this” and I looked down at the front entrance where beams of light streamed though the windows. I positioned myself in the exact space where the light was most beautiful and took a mental image. Then I thought:

Why is this exact position so much more appealing than any other angle?

Then, I realized that as I kept staring, my gaze would wander or I’d move my head just slightly to change the angle. And it struck me:

This isn’t the most beautiful angle, it’s the most appealing and attractive angle!

Big difference.

See, my brain saw the beams of light hit the floor and wall and instantly saw it as important. It thought:

this is different. This might be useful, or it might be threatening, either way it is novel and I should pay attention to it. I should look at it from a different angle.

And that is why I kept looking at it. I kept staring to see if it would change and when it didn’t, I tried to change how I was looking at it.

Recall the earlier photograph of a cup (or shovel, whatever). My mind stared at it and became enthralled over the possibility that such a phenomenon could exist in the world. It was captivated by it because it wanted to analyze it more closely or differently – – – but I couldn’t!

More broadly speaking, the reason we are attracted to certain things ((according to me)) is because our unconscious mind is trying to understand the objects (be they photos, sculptures, or paintings), but is limited in its appraisal process (by the frame or scope or whatnot). This makes it get stuck in a loop where it becomes extremely interested in something, it gets frustrated in the endeavor, and becomes drawn to it that much more.

Thus, the goal of a person seeking to make truly brilliant creative endeavors is to create something precisely limited in scope, but limited in the exact way that would unconsciously attract a person to it. Something is ‘good’ art to the extent that it does that effectively, bad art if it does not.

I’m probably really wrong about this, ((If only because I reduce a subjective experience to it’s evolutionary past.)) but my interest in aesthetics is only fleeting, so it doesn’t bother me if I’m wrong.

(This post was written with my eyes closed. Let’s see you do tht and not make a typo!)

81. I’m a really, really bad vegetarian: I basically hate vegetables. If boca burgers didn’t exst, I think I’d’ve died by now. On the realm of loving to think, this occurred to me a few weeks ago when I was in Arizona for a photography blah-blah. ((Photos included for illustrative purposes, not because they were…