Free write/ Brainstorm

Why do we all see beauty differently?
Some of us think of beauty as something in its rawest form, others see beauty as something perfect and flawless in every way. For some people nature is beauty, for others superficial items are beautiful. But what causes us to see things so differently?
Our upbringing is one source of this; memories, culture, personal tastes. All of these contribute to our positive and negative associations with different things. Then of course is the difficult to understand, personal tastes.
Memories; Brandi podcast.
She grew up in new England and descried it as “being harsh”. After living in other places that didn’t have the extreme seasons that we have here she learned to love and enjoy the true natural and extreme opposites of our seasons. This could have led to her affliction to the “raw” main coast. She describes it as “The water is harsh and it’s cold, and it’s really windy… it’s the grey swirling water” as she describes the beauty and artistic qualities of the Maine coast.
I think it’s important to include the connections art and beauty have. Has art become synonymous with beauty? If it’s beautiful to you is it art?
Art, just like beauty depends on personal taste. True art, usually evokes some type of emotion or thought.
“True beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time.” “When we recognize beauty in a piece of (Art), we see things that we know we have neglected or betrayed.” (Armstrong)
“Art is one of those things you think of as once it’s produced it is what it is, it’s not changing. But there’s the art of something that changes, that’s never quite the same every time—every single time there’s always something a little different in what the tide brings in with it… more like a moving art.” (Brandi)
What about the raw form of nature is so appealing especially when all of our lives we’ve been told that humans prefer symmetry? It’s the acceptance and appreciation of imperfections. In a world we always seem to be trying to reach visual and mental perfection, some part of us mays till yearn to accept and love the imperfections and flaws that we try to cover up. Seeing it in nature, we realize that it’s something that adds to the beauty, it adds to the “moment.” That moment no matter how hard you try will never be replicated, no matter how hard you try. Because nature is moving art, as every second passes it changes more and more. Is this the unexplainable appeal of nature? This imperfection and harshness?

Quotes:
“But the relationship between beauty and symmetry is not an absolute. The Rococo art that was popular in Europe in the 18th century was rarely symmetrical, and Zen gardens are prized for their lack of symmetry.” (Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman)
Naysayer: beauty/ art is simply based on optimum complexity?
“In 1973, the psychologist Gerda Smets ran experiments using electrodes on the scalp (known as electroencephalography, or EEG) to record the level of brain activity produced by exposure to different patterns. She noted that the brain shows the largest response to patterns with about a 20 percent level of complexity.” (Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman)
“The biologist E.O. Wilson suggested that this preference might give rise to a biologically-imposed universal beauty in human art” (Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman)
How culture is related to art?
“Although we come to the table with biological predispositions, a million years of bending, breaking and blending have diversified our species’ preferences. We are the products not only of biological evolution but also of cultural evolution.” (Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman)
“Although the idea of universal beauty is appealing, it doesn’t capture the multiplicity of creation across place and time. Beauty is not genetically preordained.” (Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman)