Speaking of aesthetics in design may pose certain difficulties. Often, aesthetics is discussed in a rather vague way characterised by implicit assumptions. And often, the aesthetic aspect of design is under attack, as some claim that designers today should not only address ‘form and aesthetics’ but also, for example, strategic processes. But what is aesthetics, and how may one approach a discussion about aesthetics in design? Professor of Aesthetics and Culture Morten Kyndrup from the University of Aarhus offers a good platform for this debate in his book Den æstetiske relation (The aesthetic relation).

By Mads Nygaard Folkmann

The book Den æstetiske relation is Morten Kyndrup’s contribution to a clarification of the role of aesthetics today. He points out that an updated science on aesthetics is relevant for our ability to understand the modern world in its many presentations and appearances.

In this book, Morten Kyndrup applies two devices that are essential for understanding how aesthetics may be perceived. First, he briefly summarises the conceptual history of aesthetics, i.e. the ways in which it has been perceived as well as the philosophical and conceptual contexts within which it has operated. Secondly, he attempts to establish a more systematic theory for what can be perceived as ‘aesthetic’, which is a particular type of relation between a subject and various types of objects. In this endeavour, Morten Kyndrup’s book takes a very general aim, but both approaches to the aesthetic can be related to design and treated as relevant to design.

Aesthetics as concept
In a relatively brief treatment, Morten Kyndrup describes the development of aesthetics as a scientific discipline. It is not until the appearance of the philosopher Alexander Baumgarten’s work Aesthetica (1750/58) that aesthetics is introduced as a concept that can be addressed in discussion. Baumgarten seeks to establish a philosophy for sensuous perception, and to this end he turns to the Greek word aisthetik, ‘that which can perceived with the senses’.

From this point of departure, Den æstetiske relation describes a line via Kant’s influential theory on taste and value judgment, among other things, in Critique of Judgement (1790) to the ‘marriage’ between art and the aesthetic that took place during the 1800’s. Consequentially, aesthetics virtually becomes the exclusive domain of art: ‘aesthetics’ is perceived as synonymous with ‘art’. With Hegel, aesthetics simply becomes synonymous with a philosophy of art.

The book’s main contribution is to analyse and emphasise that the intimate link between aesthetics and art that has influenced the perception of art from the Age of Enlightenment until this day is not nature-given but rather the expression of a philosophical construction. Morten Kyndrup points out that art and aesthetics can be viewed as two separate entities that overlap in some areas, but which also have their differences. He points out that aesthetics is something other than and different from art – for example, it may be viewed as certain types of experiential relations that occur as we relate to the world, and which confer upon the experience a value in itself as opposed to, say, a purpose-oriented or instrumental relation, where the emphasis is squarely on utility.

Design as a part of the aesthetic field
In describing the concept of aesthetics as something that goes beyond art, Den æstetiske relation is in accordance with certain trends in recent aesthetics theory, as expressed, for example, by the philosophers Gernot Böhme, Martin Seel and Richard Schusterman. They describe a return to aesthetics as aisthesis, i.e. as a general model of sensory perception and of ways of relating to the world. This is also a topic that Carsten Friberg, associate professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture, has addressed, for example in his book Æstetiske erfaringer (Aesthetic experiences; Multivers 2007).

Something that, in Morten Kyndrup’s view, has led to the situation where art and aesthetics no longer ‘cover’ each other fully is that major elements of our surroundings produce “relations to us that resemble the ones we had learned were reserved for our relations with art”. The background for this is that “our life world increasingly and in every sense of the word appears to us as something that has been given shape” (p. 66).
Our environment has become increasingly aestheticised, and Morten Kyndrup points to design as a field that plays an increasingly crucial role in this ongoing aestheticisation. And precisely because this is the case, it is important to address how design acts as something that conveys itself as ‘aesthetic’, for example by drawing attention to itself as something that has been ‘given form’.

The book Den æstetiske relation (The aesthetic relation) provides a firm foundation for the ongoing debate about aesthetics as a concept that is no longer tied exclusively to art. The book is by Morten Kyndrup, who is a professor of aesthetics and culture at the University of Aarhus.

The aesthetic as relation
Thus, the issue that book revolves around is what, then, constitutes the aesthetic. Morten Kyndrup’s answer does not attempt to qualify particular objects or elements as aesthetic; to him it is, rather, a functional category. In a series of important chapters on ‘acts of meaning’ and ‘the locus of the aesthetic’ he says that the aesthetic is something that arises in a relation between a subject experiencing and assessing something in a particular manner and an object, which may be calculated to appear ‘aesthetic’.

Thus, the issue that book revolves around is what, then, constitutes the aesthetic. Morten Kyndrup’s answer does not attempt to qualify particular objects or elements as aesthetic; to him it is, rather, a category. In a series of important chapters on ‘acts of meaning’ and ‘the locus of the aesthetic’ he says that the aesthetic is something that arises in a relation between a subject experiencing and assessing something in a particular manner and an object, which may be calculated to appear ‘aesthetic’.

Morten Kyndrup discusses how objects may contain an ‘implicit aestheticity’, where they “invite the establishing of an aesthetic relation” (p. 98). In Morten Kyndrup’s analysis, this may take on many different expressions: It may have to do with the appearance of something (in agreement with, among others, philosopher Martin Seel’s analysis in his books on ‘appearance’, including Aesthetics of Appearance from 2000) or with the way in which meaning is created and emphasised. For example, aesthetics arises when someone does not simply see ‘through’ something but is forced to also notice the way in which they ‘see’.

Den æstetiske relation is in its core a conceptual work, and it offers few specific examples. But the questions that Morten Kyndrup raises in extension of his idea of the aesthetic relation is highly relevant for a design context: What are the elements in “the implicit, communicative construction of objects” (p. 102) that cause these objects to establish an aesthetic relation? What does it mean that we live in a world where all “man-made things appear as more and more explicitly existing-for-us, as designed in the widest sense” (p. 120)? How can one calculate the aesthetic relations and turn them into an asset in a design process?

The value function of form 
Morten Kyndrup treats the aesthetic relations as a general mechanism of value-creation, which means that aesthetics as a knowledge discipline becomes a matter of “aesthetic value-creation processes and the conditioning of their potential” (p. 144).
Thus, in a manner of speaking, in design, aesthetics is in a general sense a value process through form. This consideration can be used as an instrument for analyses of design: “To perceive something ‘aesthetically’ means to pick one particular type of relation among several other possible ones. To enter into an ‘aesthetic relation’ with something in this sense means to make it the object of one’s sensory perception with a particular purpose of assessment” (p. 116).

However, from a practical design perspective, one may also attempt to turn the process upside down. Instead of analysing objects and their aesthetic effect, one may attempt to activate one’s analytical insights. One may make a deliberate attempt at designing objects with a high degree of ‘implicit aestheticity’ that invite the formation of aesthetic relations. Here lies a great potential for further studies.

Morten Kyndrup: Den æstetiske relation. Sanseoplevelsen mellem kunst, videnskab og filosofi. Gyldendal, Copenhagen 2008. 175 p. ISBN 978-87-02-06299-1

Mind Design #11, 2008