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 pretty︎We are taught to conform, to think like machines and algorithms︎
Everything that is beauty and standard in design is in support of the system︎It’s an aid in reinforcing a constantly evolving (but no so much) mono-aesthetic︎ It participates in a gate-keeping of taste, making us all want and like the same things︎ 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 history︎ 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) nature︎I’ve started with automatic drawing following CoBrA’s ideas, drawing quickly (maybe the hand is faster than the brain) and erasing all aesthetic rules︎The 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 efficiently︎I’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 cultures︎ This book is a non-linear telling of the oh-so-non-linear journey that I went through this year︎ It collects all the things I’ve made and thought︎
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Everything that is beauty and standard in design is in support of the system︎It’s an aid in reinforcing a constantly evolving (but no so much) mono-aesthetic︎ It participates in a gate-keeping of taste, making us all want and like the same things︎ 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 history︎ 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) nature︎I’ve started with automatic drawing following CoBrA’s ideas, drawing quickly (maybe the hand is faster than the brain) and erasing all aesthetic rules︎The 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 efficiently︎I’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 cultures︎ This book is a non-linear telling of the oh-so-non-linear journey that I went through this year︎ It collects all the things I’ve made and thought︎
