Visualizing Aesthetics Across Two Centuries

Abstract

Empirical aesthetics is associated with two research questions: How the mind generally assigns value to sensory stimuli and how it responds specifically to art objects. Researchers have debated whether these phenomena share enough to warrant being collapsed into a single field. To ask how these particular questions came to be associated with aesthetics, we conducted Google Ngram analyses over a corpus of books spanning two centuries. Analyses trace the frequency of "big questions" about art and beauty, and how the term aesthetic appears relative to other concepts. Results indicate the 19th century was dominated by notions of beauty and an aesthetic sense. Questions about art and aesthetic experience become more frequent during the 20th century. Results are interpreted with respect to associated affective and evaluative concepts, art movements, and scientific debates. Understanding how aesthetics is used over time can cast light on the ways current work is being conceived and pursued.

What counts as aesthetics in science? A bibliometric analysis and visualization of the scientific literature from 1970 to 2018.

“…Therefore, a more fruitful way forward, in our view, is to infuse debates about the foundation of aesthetics with a greater understanding of the, often tacit, assumptions guiding different traditions. The concept of aesthetics does not refer to a well-defined, unitary phenomenon, but is a historical construction that has metamorphosed many times over its 300 years of history (Kranjec & Skov, 2020). Individual traditions very clearly tap into different ideas accumulated throughout this history, emphasizing, for example, the relation of aesthetics to art over its relations to taste or beauty, or vice versa (Hyman, 2010; Noë, 2015; Pearce et al, 2016).…”

The Art of Experiencing Art: On the Nature and the Origins of the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX)

“…Whether or not the study of the psychological mechanisms governing the experience of art should be separated from the study of aesthetics is still an open question [85]. In fact, it seems that what exactly constitutes an aesthetic experience is not entirely agreed upon [31].…”