i am in the process of collecting/crowd sourcing images of rainbows that are posted on facebook or emaiiled to me from people’s phones. they need not be taken with a phone camera, any amatuer, unstaged snap works for me. i am interested in the way we venerate the rare occurance of a rainbow in the sky. through this project i’ve come to notice that while we often can’t capture the complete beauty we are confronted with (i.e. the color isn’t as bright or the second rainbow doesn’t show up) we are driven to document the occurance anyway. another phenomena i’ve noted is the fact that the images of rainbows very rarely have people in them. i think of that as further evidence of the total delight we feel when experiencing the appearance of a rainbow.
Tag Archives: beauty
inspiration
i’m reading a lot right now about beauty and wonder. i’m interested in understanding more about beauty’s role in art and nature and the separation of beauty and aesthetics.
i probably should have listened more in undergrad when they were talking about greenberg and modernism right? some of the sources i’m looking at talk about beauty being removed from aesthetics way before modernism by philosophers drawing a stark like between anything that elicits desire and anything aesthetic.
i’m more inclined to side with plato’s take on the whole thing (which i am currently interpreting as) beauty makes you feel all awesome and that makes you want to understand and that leads to knowledge. or something.
i think work should be able to hold up criticism or evaluation that can take longer than an instant to be fully realized.
but is that hook so bad? (schopenhaur thinks so) maybe beauty can be the neon sign that brings somebody in closer, a means to an end. but where does beauty end and wonder begin?
“the wonder of the aesthetic state of wonder is the play of te mind over the details of the object itself. aesthetics is part of the mobility of attention, interest and delight. its lingering over the widest range of details so as to prolong its pleasurable contact…” phillip a. fisher
thanks to mia familia for all this green inspiration.