Aesthetics

The word “aesthetic” when used in a design context is usually loosely understood to be a synonym for “beauty” or “styling.” If an aesthetics specific to design was to be developed, it would need to avoid being split into, first, a theory of beautiful objects and, second, a critique of aesthetic judgment, but that process has yet to begin. It would also have to be open to an aesthetic theory that abides by that, which reveals itself to be aesthetic in perception and experience.

The term “aesthetics” has become a catchphrase in almost every area of life since (→) postmodernism. The radical pluralism that followed the reassessment of the modernist movement traced diverse paths leading out of Modernism, with many subsequent political, social, technical, and aesthetic upheavals. In the process, the standard definitions (that had prevailed until the 1970s) of aesthetics as an objective discipline and a branch of philosophy themselves changed. It became essential to reformulate the (→)...