Hello Again! So you might be curious as to what “aesthetic” actually is. Aesthetic is concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty, a set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. Being interested in how something looks and feels is simply a part of human nature...
All people chase the pleasant, positive or artful appearance of both themselves, others and things. Some might say that they don’t care how they appear or what others and other things look like… well my friend, that is in and of itself an aesthetic. Sorry. Art and beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
But wanting to be aesthetically pleasing (or just aesthetic if you don’t wish to be pleasing) does not have to be vain or self-absorbed.
Our first impression of someone we meet is of how they look… and it is crucial as people to make connections and develop relationships from these connections. It in some ways defines humanity. We have lasted this long because of our relationships; we wouldn’t survive if we simply found our own space and never interacted with anyone. We would die out. Become extinct and starved of human touch… and beauty.
Aesthetics don’t simply stop at visual appearances. The term can be applied to everything, from personalities, to sounds, tastes, touches and even emotions.
Do you find cute personalities or outgoing personalities attractive? Maybe you like a combination of both or something completely different? Hopefully you can see how personalities can be described as beautiful and artful.
If you have any form of social-media, but most likely Snapchat, you may have heard of ASMR, which is a feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, as experienced by some people in response to a specific gentle stimulus, often a particular sound. So, sounds can be described as aesthetically pleasing too.
Tastes being aesthetically pleasing may seem like an odd concept to you, but everyone, I mean everyone has a unique set of preferences for flavour. Taste as one of the five senses relies heavily on personal aesthetic preferences. To make this point, just ask a room full of people if they “like” eating raw mushrooms. Then prepare for a divided room and verbal shots being fired.
There are two types of people in this world: those who hate their hair being played with, and those who will end you simply for trying. This would come under the aesthetics of touch; feeling pleasure or finding beauty in physical sensations and touches is something that is unique to the individuals aesthetic. Another example would be having the car windows down while driving. Some people hate the sensation of so much wind blowing through their car, messing with their hair and overall making them feel unstable while they drive. I personally fall under the category of loving having the windows down while driving up the mountain ranges where I live. It makes me feel grounded and the sensation of the (usually cold) wind tangling my hair and whipping around my skin is personally an aesthetic I adore.
Aesthetically pleasing emotions are something that is harder to give an exact explanation of, because the concept is so abstract. Emotions are very closely related to the five senses and due to this, separating the cause and effect is difficult. Are you feeling gloomy because of the weather, or does the weather seem gloomy because you are sad? As a concept, this can spiral around in circles until the you mentally crash just thinking about it. So, before you fall into a rabbit hole, let me explain. In the end, it doesn’t really matter which came first, the emotion or the impact of the environment. What does matter, is your individual emotional aesthetic/reaction overall, at any given moment or in any situation. For me, rain always makes me feel calm, sleepy and overall cuddly with the strong inclination to curl up under a pile of blankets and read. But for some, rain makes them feel claustrophobic, mildly panicked and in some cases downright depressed. There are so many pictures on Pinterest alone depicting both reactions to emotions as aesthetics unto their own.
So now you know! Aesthetics as a topic I want to broach is so complicated, and there is so much more that I want to discuss with you, a figurative treasure trove in my mind that I want to share. I can’t wait to unpack, explore and experiment with this concept, hopefully with you joining me for the ride! It might get bumpy, but the view will be fantastically, aesthetically, appealing and pleasing.
Please feel free to share and comment, theaesthetic fam! I would love to hear from you all.
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