

An Aesthetics Reading List for Programmers - atduskgreg
http://www.urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2009/04/an_aesthetics_reading_list_for.html

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javanix
I wonder what materials he read to come up with that beautiful pink aesthetic
and unreadable title font?

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trop
Have been reading the recommended "On Beauty and Being Just" by Elaine Scarry.
She argues that there is a continuum from physical beauty to mathematical
symmetry and elegance to traffic laws to a representative democracy -- which
is related to ancient Greek naval warfare, fwiw. It's vaguely utopian, in the
sense that she seems to suggest that universal is enough, and the cranky
shadows in the basement don't really enter the book. As a programmer into the
aesthetics of code, I find this absolutist view sort of inspiring, though
mucking around with steampunk Ruby makes me think that perhaps beauty and fun
don't always share the same trireme...?

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atduskgreg
If you're evaluating Scarry's thought, before dismissing her as utopian (not
that that's what you're doing) it's worth reading The Body in Pain as well
which is about the grounding of political and other varieties of authority in
the physical destruction of the body. It's a deep and serious book.

On Beauty, on the other hand, is definitely utopian. It's a poetic invocation
of the power of beauty to connect us to the world. That's specifically why I
thought it would be a good recommendation for programmers. As Scarry so
eloquently outlines in this book, the ethical power of beauty specifically
transforms aesthetics from something that's 'just a matter of subjective
taste' to something core to the importance and meaning of what we do.

