beauty changes everything
Theories of beauty and taste have a long history in philosophy. However, new research—from neuroscience to organizational management to user experience and product design—has heightened our understanding about how aesthetics influences everyday decisions and actions.
Keeping a pulse on all that is new in aesthetics, ARL brings together different sectors engaged with aesthetic questions and solutions.
When discussing taste, we often speak about good or bad taste as if they are passively present in a person. “You either have good taste, or you don’t.” But what we choose to experience, and either like or dislike, is part of the process of developing taste. What it means to dislike something has not … Continue reading Dislike and Taste
One of the more fascinating books I’ve read recently is Lauren F. Klein’s An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States. Klein writes that “in the late colonial era and into the early republic, America’s cultural and political leaders identified a causal relation between the cultivation of the American palate and … Continue reading Eating and the Tasteful Subject
Aesthetics is a central motivation for human action. Yet, we continue to pretend that aesthetics is just an afterthought. Drawing from the history of aesthetics and current research in neuroaesthetics and beyond, ARL offers consulting, research, and speaking to show how aesthetics can make a difference in your work and life.
Featured work includes moderating a webinar on “Art and Aesthetics in the Healthcare Environment” for the project Applied Neuroaesthetics (NY); creating a workshop for the Executive Design Studio, called “Is Your Business Beautiful?”(LA/NY); leading a workshop for teens at a nonprofit graphic design studio, Artists for Humanity (BOS); and collaborating on digital fashion and aesthetics with the think tank Fashion Forward (NY).
