Beauty

Is beauty human? What sense do other species have for beauty? Does it go beyond reproductively useful biological stimuli? And in view of the Anthropocene: does humanity make things more beautiful or ugly? Primeval wilderness or modern architecture, sometimes also the mixture of wilderness and form, spaces covered with forest or rice terraces, they seem beautiful and sublime, at least to some. A creative intention or chance and chaos—both can be beautiful. In the Anthropocene, some pose the question whether the human sense of beauty cannot be shaped to allow for more complexity, diversity, and mixture; instead of glossy aesthetics, learning to love chaos, depleting fewer resources in the process. Perhaps due to the physical and meteorological alterations of the Anthropocene, our aesthetic orientation is so out of control that new perspectives and modes of experience arise spontaneously and unexpectedly.

More information in the media section

HKW Talk on the Anthropocene. With David Rothenberg and Bernd M. Scherer

Is the Anthropocene.... Beautiful? Dialogue between Emma Marris and Erle Ellis

HKW Talk on the Anthropocene. With Ursula K. Heise

External links for further reading

Unhuman Music (Unmenschliche Musik). Program

Andrew Pekler. The prepaid piano

Ralf Hoyer. Mid Size Robo Soccer Music (TechUnited vs. Carpe Noctem)