Aesthetic Viewpoints and Aesthetic Systems

Abstract

The key component in both criticism algorithms and design algorithms is an aesthetic viewpoint. An aesthetic viewpoint is an encoding of the complex of knowledge used in some given approach to art to understand and appraise objects as works of art. This knowledge may be used to respond to existing objects as works of art as in criticism or to make new objects as works of art as in design. There are many possible aesthetic viewpoints each corresponding more or less to some given approach to art and each deciding more or less whether and how an object can be experienced as a work of art.