The ethics of aesthetics are hardly ever discussed and questioned within our field, even at academic level, where we are taught to perpetuate rules of ordinariness and just make things look pretty︎We are taught to conform, to think like machines and algorithms︎
Everything that is beauty and standard in design is in support of the system︎It’s an aid in reinforcing a constantly evolving (but no so much) mono-aesthetic︎ It participates in a gate-keeping of taste, making us all want and like the same things︎ I’ve spent the second year of my MA at the Royal College of Art thinking, writing and researching about beauty and ugliness, the unfamiliar, control and liberation, rules and habits, social media and algortihms, ideologies and shared beliefs, the unconscious mind, nature VS history︎ At the same time I’ve explored new realms and techniques for making work, trying to dig beneath history to see if I could get a sneak peak at (my) nature︎I’ve started with automatic drawing following CoBrA’s ideas, drawing quickly (maybe the hand is faster than the brain) and erasing all aesthetic rules︎The artist needs to suspend judgement and accept the result whatever it may be - this is the tough bit (Zen buddhism says very similar things)︎ I’ve then looked at vernacular graphics as spontaneous use of design that knows no rules of beauty and communicates very efficiently︎I’ve tried to challenge my own design in response and started expoloring other realms that could help expand one’s sense of taste, like the archive for example, or different cultures︎ This book is a non-linear telling of the oh-so-non-linear journey that I went through this year︎ It collects all the things I’ve made and thought︎









Mark