(This post is copied from my older blog, by popular demand)
1. As this blog is about art, aesthetic concerns should be important.
2. I believe Plato has had a bad influence on the development of human thought. He is to blame for many things, but one of his worst ideas was associating Beauty with Goodness and Truth. You see, Socrates only really cared about Goodness (correct me if I'm wrong). Plato, on the other hand, used Socrates' philosophy to creat one mega-idea which combined pretty much everything (ethics, aesthetics and ontology). This three-for-one all-you-can-eat concept is only fine if everything you do or stumble upon in life is beautiful, good and true. How often does that happen ?
3. That's where this blog comes in.
This blog is ugly [that was about the old blog. this one is just a little better]. I hate the layout, I don't like the type of fonts, I don't like the fact that I don't have any control over what language appears on the buttons and links. I think this formula is outdated, and am disappointed with my complete designing ignorance.
This place should be as nice, as pretty, as fresh-looking as I hope its content will be.
But then, can't it be ugly and interesting at the same time? Attractive even? Don't we read books that all look pretty much the same? I mean, those are only letters! If they have something interesting to say - I'll like them, if not - who cares about the design, right?
Well, I'm not sure. After all, web pages are increasingly associated with aesthetic qualities. And with innovation. And even a blog is now receiving the same sort of judgement as an "artiste's web page". And will be criticized -and often punished by ignoring - for not being full-of-form.
The thing is - isn't it better to have content?
As in life, the question remains: if it's ugly who is going to stick around to discover it?
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2 comments:
I'll have to brush up on my Plato and Socrates, but it seems obvious that external (form) and internal (content) "goodness" don't always correspond. Your examples are helpful. We can't judge a book by its cover.
(Unless, of course, it's a Modern Library Classic.)
The problem here is that on a webpage it seems hard to tell the form from the content - the cover IS the book. So maybe: you can't a judge a cover by its cover? :)
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