

Japanese aesthetic principles to change your thinking - peter123
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/09/exposing-ourselves-to-traditional-japanese-aesthetic-ideas-notions-that-may-seem-quite-foreign-to-most-of-us-is-a-goo.html

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jcromartie
These are all great... but I want to know what the Japanese aesthetic is for
totally over-the-top neon city streets and arcade designs. I love that real-
life cyberpunk stuff just as much as the more traditional stuff.

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caffeine
My theory is that it has much to do with a culture that grows up expressing
ideas pictorially. During my (admittedly short .. just 1yr) time in Japan, I
noticed that people don't just write in Kanji, they _think_ in Kanji. They
_pun_ in Kanji - one way to pun in Japanese is to use a word that can resolve
to alternative Kanji combinations whose combined meanings are funny in
context. If they're fishing for an idea or brainstorming, they start drawing
Kanji in the air with their fingertips.

And to me the cultural effect of this pervasive visual thinking nearly-since-
birth is cool aesthetics. For example, the average "How-to" book in a Japanese
book store is chock-full of diagrams and flow charts, with various sections
outlined in garish colors like blue and orange, and different fonts for each
different type of idea. (Also notice that China, whose characters Japan
shares, has very cool aesthetics of its own. Both countries have beautiful
landscapes, which probably contributes something as well).

Also, anyone who goes to Japan notices, that they go for totally-over-the-top-
ness (for example, the Tokyo reggae subculture is populated by people with
_really_ huge dreadlocks).

So combining heavy orientation towards visual stimuli and color, a love of
over-the-top-ness, and a healthy dose of anime with its romantic-teen-angst-
cool, you get that awesome cyberpunk stuff. But I think it's not easy to
characterize analytically as the Zen aesthetics, where the visual form is
meant to represent a well-defined state of mind and personal character.

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patio11
_Also, anyone who goes to Japan notices, that they go for totally-over-the-
top-ness_

Strike Japan, replace with "America", and every last one of my coworkers would
agree with this statement.

Here's the man on the street view: "When Americans build a car, you see, they
don't think of putting it down a tiny little street into a big driveway. They
think it is a covered wagon, travelling out west like you see in the cowboy
movies. So they make it HUGE. And then you go to their cities and do they make
little rinky dinky 10 story office buildings? No -- they make GIANT HUNDRED
FLOOR office buildings. They're also culturally predisposed to liking swagger,
because of the cowboys. That is why John Wayne and George Bush are so
popular."

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caffeine
Yeah, I used a bad example. It's not really over-the-topness in terms of size
or expense, like in the U.S. (where it's really an obsession with number-one-
ness).

Have you ever seen the "Human Tetris" video? It's a Japanese gameshow. You
might think that it's just one gameshow, but no ... _all_ the gameshows have
crazy-haired announcers who yell wild-eyed the whole time. I mean _that_ kind
of over-the-top-ness .. to me it's quite different :)

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bhousel
Lately I've been really interested in learning more about zen concepts and
aesthetics.. Can anyone recommend any good books on this subject?

The website lists a few but they all seem related to marketing and
presentation. I'm interested more in the philosophy.

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joeyo
I haven't actually gotten to it yet, but _Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers,
Poets & Philosophers_ by Leonard Koren has been on my to-read list for quite a
while.

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Nekojoe
It's a good book, but rather short. It's worth reading for an introduction
into Wabi-Sabi concepts.

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stcredzero
_Yugen - Profundity or suggestion rather than revelation._

Whenever I try this in conversation with most fellow Americans, they assume
I'm just muddle-headed and don't complete thoughts. I have to club them over
the head with the idea explicitly. Europeans tend to clue in quickly, however.
I wonder why? My foreign friends and acquaintances are somehow selected?

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jrockway
Dunno, but I have found that Americans and non-Americans alike have trouble
making connections without the conclusion spelled out for them. Simple
programming example; consider:

    
    
       my %hash = ( foo => 42, bar => 123 ); # create a map
       Class->new               # instantiate class
       Class->new( foo => 42 )  # instantiate class, setting foo = 42
       Class->new( bar => 123 ) # instantiate class, setting bar = 123
    

With this in mind, how would you instantiate Class, setting foo to 42 and bar
to 123? Many people are stumped, and wouldn't even think to try:

    
    
        Class->new( foo => 42, bar => 123 )
    

This confuses me. So I am now careful to spell out conclusions after showing
the reader what facts I used to reach them.

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j1o1h1n
Wabi-sabi is worth a look.

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unalone
Wabi-sabi is an incredibly relaxing mindset for a designer. Shizen is
something I try and stick to. I hate things that pretend to be what they're
not.

