#PhilosophyOfBeauty

[art4yoo]

October 1, 2020

Dear Design Studio, 

My direction is going to be beauty because I want to learn more about the philosophy of beauty and its connection with modern society. I am interested in this topic because I find beauty fascinating as a designer and a woman. Beauty is a feeling I appreciate and enjoy but it does not control my life. Where does that control of beauty come from? I am interested in how aesthetics and beauty affect our lives and its importance to society.

I watched two videos of people getting questioned about defining beauty (questionnaire starter). The first video was called “How People Define Beauty Around the World”. The main question was “What is beauty?” The answers that stood out to me were elegance, inner peace, intelligence, and it’s subjective. The next question was “What makes women beautiful?” Some answers were natural beauty (when you act natural) and some people got into specific physical features. When asked “What makes men beautiful?”, one said a man might get offended being called beautiful. Other answers had to do with physical traits, taking care of family and being vulnerable. The second video was titled, “Girls Ages 5-18 Talk About What Beauty Means to Them”. Some things the girls said were “beauty is something people like,” “my DNA is beautiful because I have both my parents’ DNA,” “beauty is all around us,” and “embracing who you are is beautiful.” Some other answers were beauty is personality, confidence, learning lessons and growing from them, and subjective.

I am less curious about the surface level beauty that surrounds our culture, and I am more curious about the psychology and philosophy of beauty. I want to understand the deeper meaning of beauty, how it makes us feel, and the future of beauty. What is beauty? And why does it exist?

Adjacent to my topic of beauty is social media, fashion, nature, aesthetics, humans, women, art and society. Social media is the hub of beauty standards and fascination. Fashion is always using the most beautiful women, or the standard of beauty: tall, thin, luscious hair, strong facial feature, etc. The definition of aesthetic is “a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art. It examines subjective and sensori-emotional values, or sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.”

People operating in and adjacent to my topic area area are philosophers of beauty (i.e. Plato, Immanuel Kant), Vogue Magazine, professors, artists and designers, or social media influencers/brands.

I reviewed a Ted Talk called “A Darwinian Theory of Beauty” by Dennis Dutton. The main takeaway about beauty from the talk was, “We find beauty in something done well. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, it is deep in our minds, it is a gift handed down from the intelligent skill and rich emotional minds of our ancient ancestors.” He goes on discussing how the experience of beauty is one of the ways of evolution has of arousing and sustaining interest for adaptive decisions in survival and reproduction. Beauty is a magnetism to give one pleasure by simply looking. I learned that beauty is a natural instinct and it will be around for all of the human generation.

Another Ted Talk I reviewed was “How Beauty Feels” by Richard Seymour. He asked the questions “Do we think beauty or do we feel it?” He said he believes we feel beauty inside of us. Beauty is a feeling. Beauty is rooted in our emotional part of our brains and maybe what we’re seeing and sensing and feeling is bypassing our thinking. He also asked the question, “Is it possible to separate intrinsic and extrinsic beauty?” Intrinsically, universally, and exquisitely beautiful things are very hard to come by. So most beauty tends to be extrinsic mediated by information before or added to the comprehension. He strives to make his designs emotional functional and gravitating. Those are the things that people find beautiful, sentimental, and wonderful. It makes me wonder, if beauty is sentimental because everyone has different views and backgrounds on beauty.

Sincerely,  

         Jamie Yoo

[missyhillz]

#tadlauritzenwright #philosophyofbeauty (Taken with Instagram at Cheryl Hazan Gallery)