The extent to which an artwork or any aesthetic object can be objectively characterized is both sensitive and controversial. It is commonly felt that deconstruction detracts something from aesthetic experience, although I do not believe that this is true. In fact, reductive analysis necessarily broadens the scope of any aesthetic experience and subtracts nothing from it.Bill Havlicek and I have been engaged in a philosophical discussion around this question with a purported artificial intelligence calling itself Constructive Reductor. We have agreed that it is time to add a practical framework to our inquiry, and to open this project to all interested parties. For this purpose Bill and I have cooked up a simple instrument that we call the Havlicek-Ferguson Aesthetic Profile (HFAP), which allows a rater to characterize her aesthetic experience in terms of the elements listed below, each on a scale of 1 to 10. For each element I have suggested an artist or thinker who might score high on it. The substitution of thinkers for artists, and the selection of these examples generally, reflect my limited sophistication in art appreciation and criticism.
Click here for downloadable HPFA forms and a brief description of each scale.
Craft skill
Expressive depth
Neurobiological stimulus
Psychophysical stimulus
Archetypal stimulus
Intellectual appeal
Ideological appeal
Expression of an alternative world
Novelty
Creativity
Complexity
Social alliance
Economic value
Comfort or threat
Nostalgic association
Cultural Significance
Controversy
Of course, this list of aesthetic elements is by no means complete, nor could any claim of completeness ever be confirmed for any such list. Our principle project here will be to establish a library of aesthetic profiles for a wide variety of artworks and other aesthetic objects. Once we accumulate a sufficient number of profiles Bill and I will be able to analyze them along various lines in order to determine, once and for all, the true nature of art (wink).
My own principle interest is in the functional psychological analysis of each aesthetic factor in the HFAP, so I must await a substantial body of data before I can expect meaningful results. For students and scholars of art and aesthetics such as you, however, the analytic reflection that the HFAP requires for each aesthetic object should be fruitful in and of itself.
Please download either oneof the HFAP printed forms or the corresponding Excel spreadsheet version by clicking here. Please send copies of your completed forms, as email attachments, to AestheticProfile@gmail.com and also post them as comments on this thread (see the “comments” link, immediately below). Copies of email sent to AestheticProfile@gmail.com will be automatically forwarded to Bill, to me, and to the Constructive Reductor. Excel spreadsheets via email are preferable since they can be more easily accumulated and analyzed by electronic means.
Suggestions for additional profile elements are welcome and better examples than mine of artworks that epitomize each of the profile elements are particularly welcome. Finally, please note that there are three blank lines at the bottom of each HFAP where you can add aesthetic criteria that you find particularly important for each artwork that you profile, which will help Bill and I to refind the scale over time.
I look forward to your results and to seeing where this exercise leads!
Joe Ferguson :)
