Keith:
You wrote:
<SNIP>
That is, pre-conscious events in
the brain are affects of a kind but they only become affects as states of
mind when they enter consciousness. Hence, they are not directly related
to the object of perception (they are mediated by the act of
consciousness) and hence we are talking about ³aesthetics². Does the eye
take its own pleasures from what the eyes perceives? Quite possibly but
not in any way that makes sense to consciousness. When the eye looks away
because of strong light, is it expressing displeasure?
<SNIP>
In the following I am limiting myself to functional aesthetics, the kind I teach in undergraduate design classes, NOT the field of Aesthetics and associated philosophical concepts going back to Plato.
In teaching I have been replacing the words "aesthetics" and "beauty" with the words "perceptual engagement" and defining that as "you want to look at it, you want to keep looking at it, and you enjoy looking at it." I believe "aesthetic engagement" is a part of the pattern finding process of perception, and as such it is like the visual processes itself both bottom-up (preconscious) and top down (conscious).
Our perceptual thinking "enjoys" (is engaged by) finding patterns and solving form puzzles based on them. "Engaging" pattern finding is the simultaneously finding of similar patterns that are also dissimilar - linked and discontinuous - with surprises, new visual knowledge discovered, along the way. Total pattern unity is boring, ugly, unattractive, not engaging. Total pattern chaos / lack of any pattern is boring, ugly, unattractive, not engaging. Unity with diversity is perceptually beautiful, attractive, engaging.
Thus I agree with your comment above, the eye (metaphorically speaking, more precisely the visual perceptual process from eye through V1, V2) in part takes its own pleasure in what it sees when there is pattern unity with pattern diversity. It engages our perceptual processes and when unanticipated/new patterns are discovered/decoded it is pleasurable/surprising/engaging. This preconscious process also becomes conscious and can be discussed rationally, as I have tried to do here. There are of course many other dynamics in this unity and diversity of pattern: entry points, power of some forms, the length of the process of discovery, but this is a list post not a book, moreover, these ideas are my own and not proven empirically. As Chuck says so well, or so I believe...
Mike Zender
University of Cincinnati
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