Aesthetics and Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aesthetics and Experience - Essay Example Attfield (2000) suggests understanding culture through objects ‘acknowledges the physical object in all its materiality and encompasses the work of design, making, distributing, consuming, using, discarding, recycling and so on. But above all it focuses on how things have gone through all those stages as part of the mediation process between people and the physical world at different stages in their biographies’ (1-7). From this it is clear that objects can have multiple meanings. For example, a shaver may hold numerous positions in society. It holds its place in history as a social and cultural object, its history can trace the development of technology, there are now male and female versions of the shaver in most of its manifestations (manual, electric, etc.) and it has been designed to suit the lifestyle of the person that uses it as it is either plugged into the wall, carries a battery pack, is designed for travelling or is given a more aesthetic appearance for displ ay on the bathroom counter. Advertising, design and materials have been constructed to suit a particular market and durability has also been taken into account. All these factors are what make this and thousands of other objects what they are. How these elements function together to appeal to the individual’s personal sense of function and appearance is what is referred to as aesthetics. This term is most often used in the art world to designate important works of art. To understand these concepts better, I applied what I have learned about aesthetics to a specific photographic print entitled ‘Smutty’. In looking at photographs or other works of art, it is important to remember that what I may see as beautiful may appear quite different to another person. It is true that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, as John Armstrong suggests. He says aesthetics is the process that ‘enables one person to