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Science and Beauty: Aesthetic Structuring of Knowledge

Profile image of Mihai NadinMihai Nadin

1991

https://doi.org/10.2307/1575471
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6 pages

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Abstract
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Human activities, including art, inherently contain an aesthetic dimension where intelligence aids in selecting knowledge-based options, while aesthetics enhance expressive power and communication. Artifacts classified as art reflect human intelligence and experience with technology. Reliance on past artistic paradigms restricts the discovery of new beauty, obstructing originality. Advances in science and technology facilitate an expanded artistic landscape, embracing beauty in scientific theories and enabling new artistic expressions, leading to a redefined understanding of beauty.

Figures (6)
The rise and fall of the concept of beauty has come about against the background of a rationalistic approach in aes- thetics. Max Bense, whose foundational work in information aesthetics is still relatively ignored outside Germany, dis- tinguished between Hegelian (speculative) and Galilean (descriptive) aesthetics [2]. His work, inspired not so much by the attempt to model works of art mathematically as by the rational component of the artist's work, extended the Kantian line of rationalistic explanation of aesthetics. There is no doubt that our attempt to use technology for generat- ing images, musical works, texts, sculpture, film, installa. tions, video compositions, etc., was encouraged by the CONSTRAINT
The rise and fall of the concept of beauty has come about against the background of a rationalistic approach in aes- thetics. Max Bense, whose foundational work in information aesthetics is still relatively ignored outside Germany, dis- tinguished between Hegelian (speculative) and Galilean (descriptive) aesthetics [2]. His work, inspired not so much by the attempt to model works of art mathematically as by the rational component of the artist's work, extended the Kantian line of rationalistic explanation of aesthetics. There is no doubt that our attempt to use technology for generat- ing images, musical works, texts, sculpture, film, installa. tions, video compositions, etc., was encouraged by the CONSTRAINT
Fig. 2. Vasiliy Kandinsky, Relations (also known as Impressions ), mixed media on canvas, 89 x 116 cm, 1934. (Copyright 1991 ARS N.Y/ ADAGP) In this painting, as well as in Dominant Violet, Kandinsky approached an unusual physical reality and discovered formal and color relations that form the basis of new aesthetic expressions.
Fig. 2. Vasiliy Kandinsky, Relations (also known as Impressions ), mixed media on canvas, 89 x 116 cm, 1934. (Copyright 1991 ARS N.Y/ ADAGP) In this painting, as well as in Dominant Violet, Kandinsky approached an unusual physical reality and discovered formal and color relations that form the basis of new aesthetic expressions.
algorithms made into programs able to drive machines. He formed descriptive theories of how the artist should repre- sent leaves on trees (Fig. 1) and distin- guish proximity among objects [3]. He also set forth what computer scientists would today call ‘pseudocode’ repre- sentations of his aesthetic algorithms. Improvisation and spontaneity (among other characteristics) distin-
algorithms made into programs able to drive machines. He formed descriptive theories of how the artist should repre- sent leaves on trees (Fig. 1) and distin- guish proximity among objects [3]. He also set forth what computer scientists would today call ‘pseudocode’ repre- sentations of his aesthetic algorithms. Improvisation and spontaneity (among other characteristics) distin-
on our senses (which is Baumgarten’s definition of aesthetics [7]). There is more intuition in science because we came to understand that what is medi- ated by precision mechanisms (mathe- matical, chemical, biological, etc.), as well as what is afforded through direct relations to our environment, partici- pate in our scientific models. So too, we now understand that aesthetic mecha- nisms of ordering, sequencing, har- mony, rhythm and symmetry, to name a few, are essential for optimal expres- sion of our knowledge, our hypotheses and our modeling activity. This basic thesis requires some examples in order to document the expansion of the artis- tic universe, in particular, the emerging new media, made possible by the new science and technology. results is actually a ‘realistic’ repre- sentation with aesthetic characteristics that can identify it as a work of art. It also opens an entire artistic horizon by suggesting new expressive qualities in terms of both formal relations and color interaction. The intelligent obser- vatory (‘observatory on the chip’) con- tains fast computer graphics worksta- tions using artistic knowledge now available. Such an observatory becomes a camera open to the extremes of our planetary system, capturing knowledge about it as well as its beauty. ising scientific norizon opens, made possible by intelligence. The array of radio telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in San Augustin, New Mexico, captures radio signals from remote cosmic systems. The whole system can be understood as an intelligent and aesthetically sensitive observatory. Let me explain both the intelligent and the aesthetic charac- teristics. The intelligence embodied in sophisticated programs requiring the power and memory of a supercomputer helps to correct, for example, the ‘twin- kling’ of radio sources that occurs when messages enter the earth’s atmosphere. Once the data are received, intelligent processing prepares them for generat- ing images of the phenomena ob- served. Definitely, the relationship of the form of the arrays of radio tele- scopes, of the various functions, and of the theoretical underpinnings repre- sent the first level of aesthetic rele- vance. The second level is that of the actual output, initially an array of data and, in the end, families of images. Such images attest physical phenom- ena relevant to science, but also a reality with a distinct beauty that impresses us through its unusual scale, distance and dynamics. It is more than the seduction of the crepuscular or the spectacular cosmic landscape brought under our wondering eyes, even more than an un- usual playback never before possible. The apparently abstract picture that
on our senses (which is Baumgarten’s definition of aesthetics [7]). There is more intuition in science because we came to understand that what is medi- ated by precision mechanisms (mathe- matical, chemical, biological, etc.), as well as what is afforded through direct relations to our environment, partici- pate in our scientific models. So too, we now understand that aesthetic mecha- nisms of ordering, sequencing, har- mony, rhythm and symmetry, to name a few, are essential for optimal expres- sion of our knowledge, our hypotheses and our modeling activity. This basic thesis requires some examples in order to document the expansion of the artis- tic universe, in particular, the emerging new media, made possible by the new science and technology. results is actually a ‘realistic’ repre- sentation with aesthetic characteristics that can identify it as a work of art. It also opens an entire artistic horizon by suggesting new expressive qualities in terms of both formal relations and color interaction. The intelligent obser- vatory (‘observatory on the chip’) con- tains fast computer graphics worksta- tions using artistic knowledge now available. Such an observatory becomes a camera open to the extremes of our planetary system, capturing knowledge about it as well as its beauty. ising scientific norizon opens, made possible by intelligence. The array of radio telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in San Augustin, New Mexico, captures radio signals from remote cosmic systems. The whole system can be understood as an intelligent and aesthetically sensitive observatory. Let me explain both the intelligent and the aesthetic charac- teristics. The intelligence embodied in sophisticated programs requiring the power and memory of a supercomputer helps to correct, for example, the ‘twin- kling’ of radio sources that occurs when messages enter the earth’s atmosphere. Once the data are received, intelligent processing prepares them for generat- ing images of the phenomena ob- served. Definitely, the relationship of the form of the arrays of radio tele- scopes, of the various functions, and of the theoretical underpinnings repre- sent the first level of aesthetic rele- vance. The second level is that of the actual output, initially an array of data and, in the end, families of images. Such images attest physical phenom- ena relevant to science, but also a reality with a distinct beauty that impresses us through its unusual scale, distance and dynamics. It is more than the seduction of the crepuscular or the spectacular cosmic landscape brought under our wondering eyes, even more than an un- usual playback never before possible. The apparently abstract picture that
brated scientific discoveries. Kandinsky integrated his ‘snapshot’ of life on the ocean floor, displaying the red and pink firola-shaped nematode and the swaying fish and seaweed in his abstract painting Dominant Violet. The biological world of complicated relationships con- stitutes one of the references of his celebrated work Relations (Fig. 2). Paul Klee gave classes at the Bauhaus in which physics, chemistry and biology were the sources of his visual vocabulary [9]. Mixed Weather (Fig. 3) is only one example of the integration of scien- tific knowledge into means of expres- sion, reuniting diagram conventions, geometric configurations and the po- etry of suggestion. This attitude is not a characteristic of the modern only. Leonardo da Vinci, like many Renais- sance artists, combined his interest in science and machines with his artistic work [lo]. He pointed out, as did Descartes almost 100 years later, that the scientist’s intelligence is aided by aesthetic sensibility [11]. Beauty in the precise formulation of theories and at- tention to both rationality and sensi- bility facilitate a better understanding of nature and reality. Intelligent ma- chines bring out the beauty of that part of nature and matter that is beyond our direct touch, sight, smell and hearing, but no less relevant to our under- standing and appreciation of reality. They can also be used by artists to ex- pand their aesthetic universe. intelligence and aesthetics are re- lated inasmuch as our ability to under- stand (which is the initial meaning of intelligence) and to perform successful actions based on this understanding is dependent on our aesthetic sense. We project into all our actions experiences filtered through an aesthetic matrix, i.e. a matrix organized according to patterns of harmony, rhythm, sym- metry, self-similarity (captured in the scientific concept of fractals), dynamics and openness [8]. The interrelation be- tween intelligence and the aesthetic characteristics of our activity is usually associated with art. This interrelation is at least as relevant in scientific theories or technological accomplishments. Pro gress in what some people already de- fine as the algorithmic age makes our understanding of the relation between intelligence and aesthetic factors more and more possible exactly because we acquire new means for capturing various aspects of this relation. Interactive computer graphic repre- sentations support visual thinking, especially when we move from tradi- tional models of linear representation to nonlinearity. John von Neumann, the visionary of the sequential compu- ter, anticipated that high-speed proces- sors and artificial intelligence would help us tackle nonlinear problems in general geometrics, i.e. transcend the limitations of linear differential equations and special geometries [ 13]. Scientists using computers in the visu- alization of black holes and related astronomical phenomena noticed that the increasing complexity of theories makes the coexisting aesthetics (re- flected in the characteristics of their visualizations) not only possible but also necessary (Fig. 4). We become aware that static equilibrium coexists with an ideal of static beauty and that dynamic equilibrium necessitates a form of expression with a new aesthetic con- dition. Scientists agree that their own theories are shaped under the in- fluence of the beauty they discover in these explorations. The qualitative aspects of the interaction of two mole- cules of water is a subject never ap- proached until recently because scien- tists did not have the laboratory facilities needed to assess the inter- action. This interaction has also an aesthetic dimension, quite different from the aesthetic dimension we no-
brated scientific discoveries. Kandinsky integrated his ‘snapshot’ of life on the ocean floor, displaying the red and pink firola-shaped nematode and the swaying fish and seaweed in his abstract painting Dominant Violet. The biological world of complicated relationships con- stitutes one of the references of his celebrated work Relations (Fig. 2). Paul Klee gave classes at the Bauhaus in which physics, chemistry and biology were the sources of his visual vocabulary [9]. Mixed Weather (Fig. 3) is only one example of the integration of scien- tific knowledge into means of expres- sion, reuniting diagram conventions, geometric configurations and the po- etry of suggestion. This attitude is not a characteristic of the modern only. Leonardo da Vinci, like many Renais- sance artists, combined his interest in science and machines with his artistic work [lo]. He pointed out, as did Descartes almost 100 years later, that the scientist’s intelligence is aided by aesthetic sensibility [11]. Beauty in the precise formulation of theories and at- tention to both rationality and sensi- bility facilitate a better understanding of nature and reality. Intelligent ma- chines bring out the beauty of that part of nature and matter that is beyond our direct touch, sight, smell and hearing, but no less relevant to our under- standing and appreciation of reality. They can also be used by artists to ex- pand their aesthetic universe. intelligence and aesthetics are re- lated inasmuch as our ability to under- stand (which is the initial meaning of intelligence) and to perform successful actions based on this understanding is dependent on our aesthetic sense. We project into all our actions experiences filtered through an aesthetic matrix, i.e. a matrix organized according to patterns of harmony, rhythm, sym- metry, self-similarity (captured in the scientific concept of fractals), dynamics and openness [8]. The interrelation be- tween intelligence and the aesthetic characteristics of our activity is usually associated with art. This interrelation is at least as relevant in scientific theories or technological accomplishments. Pro gress in what some people already de- fine as the algorithmic age makes our understanding of the relation between intelligence and aesthetic factors more and more possible exactly because we acquire new means for capturing various aspects of this relation. Interactive computer graphic repre- sentations support visual thinking, especially when we move from tradi- tional models of linear representation to nonlinearity. John von Neumann, the visionary of the sequential compu- ter, anticipated that high-speed proces- sors and artificial intelligence would help us tackle nonlinear problems in general geometrics, i.e. transcend the limitations of linear differential equations and special geometries [ 13]. Scientists using computers in the visu- alization of black holes and related astronomical phenomena noticed that the increasing complexity of theories makes the coexisting aesthetics (re- flected in the characteristics of their visualizations) not only possible but also necessary (Fig. 4). We become aware that static equilibrium coexists with an ideal of static beauty and that dynamic equilibrium necessitates a form of expression with a new aesthetic con- dition. Scientists agree that their own theories are shaped under the in- fluence of the beauty they discover in these explorations. The qualitative aspects of the interaction of two mole- cules of water is a subject never ap- proached until recently because scien- tists did not have the laboratory facilities needed to assess the inter- action. This interaction has also an aesthetic dimension, quite different from the aesthetic dimension we no-
Fig. 6. Mihai Nadin, Personal Time (from the cycle Time ), mixed media, 60 x 100 cm, 1984. The image results from digital processing of a found image and from mixed-media techniques used to manipulate components. The space convention is based on the conven- tions of realism, although the three-dimensional synthesized space is artificial. Cohen’s Aaron [ 16]-even in an inter- active environment. These feats will perhaps be easier to accomplish than will the changes in some of our ideas about art and artists. While some people are still suspicious of the use of intelligent machines for art purposes, the same machines are revealing re- sources of beauty impossible to ignore. Such machines are even helping us un- derstand that there is no intelligence without an aesthetic component that makes communication of knowledge easier and adds expressive power to balance the precision sought. A world totally precise is as unbearable as one totally beautiful. Intelligence, whether natural or artificial, finds the balance. programs, attempts that evolved into the new field of computer graphics. It did not occur to any of us that we were producing computer art, but we knew that we could understand art a little more by emulating some of its tech- niques (Fig. 6). Today, these and other computational models of reflection, refraction, shading, 3-D mapping, etc. (some already ‘hard wired’) are com- ponents of sophisticated machines. Even more sophisticated aesthetic func- tions are available; with the advance- ment of aesthetic knowledge and science, we can expect machines to be used for distinguishing originals from counterfeits, or for performing auton- omous creative work-such as Harold
Fig. 6. Mihai Nadin, Personal Time (from the cycle Time ), mixed media, 60 x 100 cm, 1984. The image results from digital processing of a found image and from mixed-media techniques used to manipulate components. The space convention is based on the conven- tions of realism, although the three-dimensional synthesized space is artificial. Cohen’s Aaron [ 16]-even in an inter- active environment. These feats will perhaps be easier to accomplish than will the changes in some of our ideas about art and artists. While some people are still suspicious of the use of intelligent machines for art purposes, the same machines are revealing re- sources of beauty impossible to ignore. Such machines are even helping us un- derstand that there is no intelligence without an aesthetic component that makes communication of knowledge easier and adds expressive power to balance the precision sought. A world totally precise is as unbearable as one totally beautiful. Intelligence, whether natural or artificial, finds the balance. programs, attempts that evolved into the new field of computer graphics. It did not occur to any of us that we were producing computer art, but we knew that we could understand art a little more by emulating some of its tech- niques (Fig. 6). Today, these and other computational models of reflection, refraction, shading, 3-D mapping, etc. (some already ‘hard wired’) are com- ponents of sophisticated machines. Even more sophisticated aesthetic func- tions are available; with the advance- ment of aesthetic knowledge and science, we can expect machines to be used for distinguishing originals from counterfeits, or for performing auton- omous creative work-such as Harold

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References (17)

  1. References and Notes
  2. Leonardo daVinci, in Artists on Art: From the 14th to the 20th Century, Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves, eds. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972) p.
  3. Max Bense, Aesthetica (Baden-Baden: Agis Ver- lag, 1965).
  4. Cf. E. H. Gombrich, New Light on Old Masters (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1986) pp. 39-54.
  5. G. W. Leibniz, "Lettre s u r la philosophic Chi- noise à Nicolas de Redmond", in Zwei Briefe über das binäre Zahlen System und die Chinesische Philosophie (Stuttgart: Belser-Presse, 1968).
  6. Mozart wrote Guide to the Composition of Waltzes with the Aid of Two Dice without any Knowledge of Music or Composing (1793). Similar works were written by William Hayes, The Art of Composing Music by a Method Entirely New(1751) and Johann Kirnberger, Die Kunst da reinen Sätzes in Musik ( 1757).
  7. Lejaren Hiller, Experimental Music (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959); and L. Hiller (with A. Lea1
  8. May), MUSICOMP Manual, Rev. Ed. (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1966). Together with t h e m a t h e m a t i c i a n L e o n a r d I s a a c s o n , H i l l e r developed a new technique of musical composi- tion; in association with Robert Baker, Hiller elaborated programs supporting logical choices characteristic of music. dane and G. R. T. Ross, trans., The Philosophical Works of Descartes, 1 (London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1967) pp. 54-65.
  9. A. G. Baumgarten, Aesthetica (1750); cf. H. R. Schweizer, Ästhetik als Philosophir der sinnlichen Erkenntnis (Basel: Schwabe, 1973).
  10. Dean W. Curtin, ed., The Aesthetic Dimension of Science: The Sixteenth Nobel Conference (New York: Philosophical Library, 1982).
  11. M i h a i N a d i n , Mind-Anticipation and Chaos (Stuttgart/Zürich: Belser-Presse, 1991).
  12. John von Neumann, in Papers of John von Neumann on Computing and Computer Theory, Wil- liam Asprey and Arthur Burks, rds. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/ Los Angeles: Tomash Publishers, 1987); and Continuous Geometry (Princeton: Prince- ton Univ. Press, 1960).
  13. Paul Klee, in Beiträge zur bildnerischen Formlehre Faksimilierte Ausgabe des Originalmanuskripts von Paul Klees erstem Vortragzyklus am Staatlichen Bauhaus Wei- mar, 1921/22, J. Glasemer, e d . ( B a s e l : Schwabe, 1979).
  14. Enrico Clementi et al., Molecular Dynamics Mod- els in Fluid Dynamics, 'Chaire Francqui' Lecture Series, Part 7 (Kingston, NY: IBM Data Systems Division, 1987).
  15. Carlo Pedretti, Leonardo da Vinci on Painting, a Lost Book, (Libro A) (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1964) p. 71.
  16. Ivan E. Sutherland, "The Ultimate Display: In- formation Processing, 1965", Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 65 (1965) pp. 506508.
  17. René Descartes, "Rules for the Direction of thr 16. Pamela McCorduck, Aaron's Code (Nrw York: Understanding" (1628), rules 14-15, in E. S. Hal- W. H. Freeman, 1991).

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