Aesthetics: The Neglected Branch of Objectivism

[thenewintellectual]

I often get the feeling that many people who are not artists give up on the prospect of taking art seriously since most of the acclaimed works we are exposed to are so blatantly unintelligible. As for movies and fiction novels, these are hardly art works in the objectivist sense of the word. They have more in common with entertainment like sports than real art.

[ObjectivistAesthetic]

@thenewintellectual I'm going to politely disagree re: movies, fiction. I would hold that adhering to Objectivist aesthetics would lead a person to identify them, despite how popular or bad they often are, as works of art. Otherwise, what criteria could you use to differentiate them? Any art can be entertaining. I think sports serves a similar psych. function (as described by Rand in the Rom. Manifesto), but in a less outward manner.

[NewScholar9]

you're right, as an Objectivist, I do not care so much for the Aesthetics, I am a sudent of history and Philosophy so Objectivist ethics, metaphysics and epistemology are more interesting to me.

[Tallaias]

i relate to your story a lot as someone who studied music and is trying to be a composer. even though the section on music is a bit incomplete and contradictory, the general message of the romantic manifesto is still one of my primary influences.

[StudentOfObjectivism]

On a day to day basis, if I see 'art' that are BS, I can just ignore it; when I see political views that are BS I can't - because bad politics directly leads to a person holding up a gun and dictating the course of my life.

[yankeewh1te]

Seriously though, there are too many Objectivists who cannot figure out that Ethics and Esthetics is where it's at; if I was Peikoff I'd release that lecture onto YouTube, the one of him explaining Objectivism eloquently, briefly — highly persuasively — to some college students.

Every potential Objectivist should quickly find themselves there instead of trying to install Realplayer and blubbering around with .rm files. Peikoff covered esthetics sweepingly, building on the prior material. Class.

[yankeewh1te]

What is the painting behind you? If I'm not incorrect, is that a spider gaussian blurred/layered 50 times in photoshop such to amplify the effect of its claws, to make it look giant? Is it postmodern?

/me wonders where his Gattaca poster went

Hope you got a chuckle out of that :)

[ObjectivistAesthetic]

@yankeewh1te Ha ha. It's a landscape by a former-friend of mine named Alyssa Schmidt. I am very proud to own two of her paintings.  I think I might make a video about art I own in the near future--but no promises.

[qtutoringhelps]

In what way do you think art is connected with sense of life?

[TheMessianicManic]

Have you ever done a video explaining the relationship between your art and objectivism? I love your paintings, I think they're fantastic, but when I look at them I don't think, "ah, these were done by an objectivist."

[ObjectivistAesthetic]

@TheMessianicManic Thanks! Yeah, I certainly don't try to make them look like sort of stereotypical Objectivist stuff. Plus, I can't seem to shake making slightly depressing artwork! The relationship I have to my work is a long and sordid tale--I'll make a video about it sometime.

[WarVideo]

I have absolutly no artistic ability, but Im very interested in the theory of art. My interest involves trying to understand what a particular artwork means and the method of figutring out what an artist is trying to convey. Romantic Manifesto is actually my favorite non fiction book by Ayn Rand.

[vNorilor]

Maybe you could introduce your subscribers to some of your favorite "objectivist" art? (I'm aware of Brian Larsen's work.)