Abstract
How do we define, discuss or assess aesthetics within a contemporary philosophical framework? The indefiniteness that accompanies attempts to formalize a definition of the aesthetic is a primary focus of this paper. This lack of a definition has occupied philosophers for hundreds of years in attempts to delineate the boundaries of an elusively formless concept. This formlessness speaks to the incredibly evasive character of such a pervasive feature recognized in both natural and artificial systems, agents and artefacts. With the rapid growth of artificially intelligent systems and an astounding diversity in computational creativity, in what ways may we approach aesthetics? How is the aesthetic recognized, determined and produced? This paper seeks to critically engage issues of non-human agency, inter-object relations, and aesthetic theory in relation to computational entities and autonomous systems. The ability of these systems to operate outside of human cognitive limitations including thought patterns and constructions which may preclude alternative aesthetic outcomes, afford them in some ways limitless potential in relation to aesthetics. The designation of the accidental or provisional is utilized as an alternative approach to the production and assessment of aesthetic occurrences of the non-human.
Highlights
How do we define, discuss or assess aesthetics within a contemporary philosophical framework? The indefiniteness that accompanies attempts to formalize a definition of the aesthetic is a primary focus of this paper
The aesthetic and its related effects cannot be located to one key mechanism
It eludes specific definition and resides alongside other mysterious and opaque processes relating to emergent phenomena including human and non-human complex systems. This aesthetic void removes itself from direct contemplation or description and is a persistently fuzzy and elusive entity
Summary
Discuss or assess aesthetics within a contemporary philosophical framework? The indefiniteness that accompanies attempts to formalize a definition of the aesthetic is a primary focus of this paper. The aesthetic and its related effects cannot be located to one key mechanism It eludes specific definition and resides alongside other mysterious and opaque processes relating to emergent phenomena including human and non-human complex systems. This aesthetic void removes itself from direct contemplation or description and is a persistently fuzzy and elusive entity. The flat ontological designation he assigns to information, intimates that data has a unique role, in that it can manufacture and enable the proliferation of novel interactions between any manner of entities both real and imagined In this way computational or artificial approaches may operate around the aesthetic in less mediated and by extension more accidental ways. A computation that engages irrationality, that is not seeking to mimic or please but rather one that is looking for and is capable of generating novelty in interpretation, representation and translation may produce far superior aesthetic encounters and by this I mean more unexpected
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