The intention with this idea is to consider beauty as a value judgement and ask whether it is an experience or an intrinsic property or both? Whilst an experience may diminish over time, can an object’s intrinsic beauty also be lost over time? These are the sort of questions I am trying to think about with this Idea.
To start with I have selected two Autumnal leafs and announced their beauty. Whilst I am acknowledging that this presumption is challengeable, I am hoping to use this judgement as the starting point from which a viewer can challenge for themselves whether they agree that it is beautiful, why they think so, whether their judgement would change over time, and what do these opinions on beauty say about the subject of beauty.
In order to illustrate this Idea, I have used a time-lapse series of photos of two decaying leaves. The first leaf is shown in the sequence of time as it gradually decays, whilst asking the viewer to determine when they believe that beauty has been lost (each photo will be numbered in order). The second leaf is juxtaposed with the first leaf but shown in a random order of time thus removing the gradual process of decay from the decision of when beauty is lost.
. There is no expected outcome other than to introduce the viewer to the concepts of instrumental beauty being linked to our joyous experience of beauty, intrinsic beauty being related to our personal judgement of something being beautiful just for being what it is, and also inherent beauty which is indisputably beautiful irrespective of our judgement. The hope is that this set up will introduce the philosophical concept of beauty as an experience and a value judgement
The following are a series of fairly crude timelapse stills of both leaves in the process of decay. They are to be seen as preliminary sketches. If I want to take this Idea further then I will need to think much more about their presentation and whether they should be presented in some kind of a video series, etc, etc.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Lost Beauty or Intrinsic Beauty?
Things to consider / develop:
The leaves chosen for this initial Idea are from the last breath of Autumn and if I was to develop this series further then I would need to consider the timing of choosing each leaf throughout the season to best illustrate the idea. I also know that my set-up for the still life photography will need to be more professional and colour controlled etc.
I also have thoughts to replace the second leaf with an inanimate object, such as a rock, which is not subject to the same process of decay. In a TED video of a talk by Denis Dutton; namely, “A Darwinian theory of beauty”, he argues that Acheulean hand axes, (made 50 – 100,000 years before language), were used for more than functional objects, and their accepted aesthetic qualities were most likely the earliest form of art. He uses this to argue that our eye for beauty is ‘a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins’, (http://www.ted.com/talks/denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty.html). By finding and using a similar object I can use it as a symbol of intrinsic, and almost inherent, beauty; from which the fragility of a decaying leaf can be compared. I could also look to find a leaf of a similar shape as a hand axe to further demonstrate its own intrinsic beauty based on these ‘evolutionary origins’.