SML Pro Blog: aesthetics

Saturday, July 1, 2006

Functional = Beautiful

Living objects found in nature took their form not by how attractive they are aesthestically, but how useful their functions are. Yet, almost everything we find in nature is stunningly gorgeous. Man-made objects often sacrifice functionality to keep its beautiful form, but is statistically less beautiful than living things.

This is one of the main reasons why Manhattan Bridge is an ongoing subject for me. It is a functional utilitarian object created not for its beauty, but for its function. Like nature, living things take their forms not for its appeal, but for its necessity.

Here are some highlights from my Manhattan Bridge set on Flickr:

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Manhattan Bridge, New York City / Project (Set)
HDR Photography / Project (Set)
SML Photography (Set)
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Theorizing aesthetics

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I have always had an idea of theorizing aesthetics. I believe that aesthetic judgement, though seemingly abstract, can be quantified. And through the discovery of these aesthetics principals, it is possible to create aesthetic composition through programmatic algorithms.

Designers don't like this view of the world. The larger part of the design community, will in fact tell you that designers should be ashamed of themselves if their designs were formed by theory. I, on the other hand, believe that aided with such tool, it will provide enormous advantages in realizing a design.

The music community has created many variants of algorithm-based music generators. Artists have long utilize color theories in their paintings. Itten, from the Bauhaus, wrote a monumental book called The Art of Color on the subject matter. The language of architecture and urban planning was eloquently catalogued in Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language. This book on architecture has in turn inspired four programmers (Gang of Four) to write a book called Design Patterns, which revolutionized the object-oriented programming space.

So why is the design community so afraid of composition theories?

Related SML Pro Blog entries

Functional = Beautiful
HDR: Manhattan Bridge in Black and White
Manhattan Bridge HDR
Photography = Composition
Photography / Philosophy
SML Collection

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Saturday, July 1, 2006

Functional = Beautiful

Related SML Flickr sets and collections

Related SML Pro Blog entries

SML Copyright Notice

Theorizing aesthetics

Related SML Pro Blog entries

SML Copyright Notice