Beauty
Intro Activity
What is Beauty?
 Can you draw Beauty?
Can you describe something beautiful by
hearing it?


Beauty…

“the qualities that give pleasure to the senses.”

“characteristic of a person, place, object or idea
that provides a perceptual experience of
pleasure, meaning or satisfaction.”
Definition one: Aesthetics
1. a particular taste for or
approach to what is
pleasing to the senses-especially sight.
Aesthetics in this definition is something that appeals to the
senses. Someone’s aesthetic has to do with his or her
perceptual or artistic judgment.
It comes from the root word:
Aesthesia: the ability to feel or
perceive; being awake and
able to feel senses.
The opposite is:
Anesthesia: the inability to feel
or perceive; to be asleep or
non-feeling.
We make informal
aesthetic choices every
day.
From what we wear . . .
to the things we
buy: books,
music, and
objects for our
homes.
Public figures make aesthetic
choices to convey something
about who they are.
Andy Warhol wore various
silver wigs throughout
the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s to
change his personal
appearance--to create a
signature look.
Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait (Fright Wig), 1986,
Polaroid™ Polacolor ER, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. (10.8 x 8.6
cm.). ©AWF
Who does this in today’s
popular culture?
The aesthetic choices we make influence many
parts of our lives.
We all have a personal aesthetic
(preferences and tastes based on what we see).
The perfect
prom dress?
Beautiful?
Wassily Kandinsky,
Composition IV, 1911
 Achieves both
emotional and
intellectual impact
through colours and
symbols

Art?


Graffiti art
Heavy Contact
Classic conception of beauty

Beauty is in the Phi of the beholder

Beauty governed by mathematical
principals of proportion, ratio and symmetry

What’s your number?
1.1618

This ancient Greek sculpture was
designed with the Golden Ratio
throughout. The following calculations
each equal close to 1.61803399.
consequently the face is pleasing to the
eye.
Measured in mm.
• Top of the head to the chin ÷ width of
the head
• Top of the head to pupil ÷ pupil to lips
• nose tip to chin ÷ lips to chin
• nose tip to chin ÷ pupil to nose tip
• width of nose ÷ nose tip to lips
• outside distance between eyes ÷
hairline to pupil
• length of lips ÷ nose tips to lips
• of the head to the chin ÷ width of the
head
• Top of the head to pupil ÷ pupil to lips
For those of you who are curious…

http://facethis.blogspot.ca/2012/01/perfectface-golden-ratio-beauty.html
The perfect man?

Michelangelo, David
The perfect man?
Does David Beckham embody these proportions?
Revisited


Ron Jeremy
Pornography icon
The perfect Woman?



Venus of Willendorf
20000 BCE
Natural History
Museum, Vienna
Updated…
The perfect Woman?
How do we define beauty today?
The Media Model Woman
Louise P. Young
Al-che-my Consulting and Design






…is 14 to 23 years young
…wears a size 6 to 8 garment
…weighs in at 110 pounds
…stands 5’9” to 6’ tall
…wears a small petite shirt
(cropped over a minute and
flawless belly button) with a
34” length sleeve
How do we define beauty today?
The Media Model Woman
Louise P. Young
Al-che-my Consulting and Design





…wears a size large glove and size 5
ring
…wear NO bra (doesn’t need one)
…wears size 10 triple A shoe
…measurements are 40”, 30”, 30”,
30” (40 required for shoulders)
…has long flowing (blowing gracefully
in a perpetual breeze) glossy hair


Note: The perfect woman does not
exist except in your head and heart.
What else influences our definition of
beauty?




MONEY!
Historically ideals of
wealth have been
associated with beauty
Eg. The 19th Century look
was to be pale - tanning
was indicative of outdoor
labour
During the 1920s wealthy
people started taking
vacations to sunny
destinations - the tanned
look was born
Wealth and beauty


Larger, well-fed body
types were also once
the ideal
What is the ideal now?
What does this mean?




75% of women endorse unhealthy feelings
or behaviours towards food and their
bodies
½ of 9-10 year olds are dieting
40% of newly identified cases of anorexia
are found in girls 15-19
Anorexia most lethal psychiatric disorder
How has the diet industry benefited?


The diet industry is a
315 billion dollar
industry (3% of
overall US economy
95% of all dieters will
regain their lost
weight within 1-5
years.
Video - The most beautiful woman
in the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCkfAR
H2eE
Philosophical responses to beauty



Subjective vs Objective
How do we define it?
Is it culturally relevant or relative?
Quotes
Everything has beauty, but not everyone
sees it.
Confucius
We live only to discover beauty. All else is a
form of waiting. – Kahlil Gibran
Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred,
profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing,
inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited
variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with
indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it
speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate
friend. If there are people who are indifferent to
beauty, then it is surely because they do not
perceive it. - Roger Scruton, Beauty
Aristotle and Plato

Finally they agree on something!!!

Beauty is not localized in the eye of the
beholder. Beauty is reliably achieved using
objective proportions.
Phi-losophy baby!
Subjective approaching objectivity





Hume “Of Standards of Taste”
Kant “Critique of judgement”
Both saw beauty and art as an antimony of
taste
Qualities of subjectivity and objectivity
Judgement on aesthetics remains subjective
but is laiden with demand that everyone
should reach the same judgement
Beauty in the 21st century



Sartwell claims that beauty is not attributed
entirely to the subject or object but to the
relation between them
When we look at the beauty of a flower,
night sky, ocean we are turned outward
towards beauty. Not purely subjective.
Beauty emerges in situations where subject
and object are both juxtaposed and
connected
Beauty in the 21st century




Nehemas argues that beauty invites us to
explore and interpret
Beauty has a social dimension
It is something we share or want to share
with others
Connects observers to works of art and
literature in communities of appreciation
A beautiful life?
Our Town
 Reading
Afterlife (1998)
Cinqueterre, Italy
Life at 25
Who has the last word?