What concerns me most about many 'new' ways of understanding people (which
usually means, reducing them to some kind of simplistic formula) is not that
we can or cannot do them, but who stops to ask - should we be doing them at
all?
Isn't the reasoning premise, because we can, we do, the same kind of
narcissistic thinking that has designed us into the global mess we are in at
the moment? Where is the designerly ethic ...the moral thinking? ...design
gone to the dogs
sitting atop a high horse,
Ian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lily Diaz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: Beauty - a mathematical aesthetic
> Hello,
>
> I suppose that it is actually not such a complex thing to create models
> that average and anticipate based on what is already known... (e.g. the
> norm, what is accepted and even desired within a monochromatic cultural
> landscape)
>
> What I imagine is more difficult is to derive expression from constantly
> changing parameters, such as would be the case if the problem space were
> to include the diversity of human cultures.
>
> Regards,
>
> Lily
>
> -------------------------------------
> õõ õ õ õ Dr. Lily Diaz-Kommonen
> Professor, Systems of Representation
> and Digital Cultural Heritage
> Media Lab
> University of Art and Design Helsinki
> 135C HŠmeentie SF 00560
> Helsinki, Finland
> + 358 9 75630 338
> + 358 9 75630 555 (FAX)
>
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
>
> On 6.2.2007, at 1.23, Chris Rust wrote:
>
>> This research (reported by Terry below) shows it is possible to predict
>>
>> acceptable faces. I suspect that any good orthodontist could do the
>> same. It says nothing about art or beauty and nothing about any area of
>> aesthetics where conformance to a norm is not the priority. It also
>> predicts a world in which deviance may become a prized aesthetic
>> characteristic - when the whole world has perfect teeth who then is the
>> attractive one?
>>
>> best wishes from Sheffield
>> Chris
>>
>> ********************
>> Professor Chris Rust
>> Head of Art and Design Research Centre
>> Sheffield Hallam University
>> Psalter Lane, S11 8UZ, UK
>> +44 114 225 2706 (direct)
>> +44 114 225 2686 (research admin)
>> [log in to unmask]
>> www.chrisrust.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Terence Love wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> Last year there was a brief debate on whether beauty (as a surrogate
>>> for
>>> aesthetics in general) could be defined mathematically instead of
>>> requiring
>>> artistic skill. This has strong implications for design practice -
>>> particularly if software can simply 'maximise beauty' automatically in
>>> a
>>> similar way to reducing red-eye. This would reduce the need for many
>>> professional artistic or design skills to do with creating better
>>> visual
>>> aesthetics in a competitive business environment.
>>>
>>> The ACM (see below) reports that researchers in Israel have developed
>>> new
>>> software that can automatically enhance visual beauty of a face in an
>>> image
>>> by manipulating 250 numerical characteristics of the shape of the face.
>>> Beauty at the click of an interface icon.
>>>
>>> Importantly, for Design Research, it implies it is straightforward to
>>> identify general technical processes by which the techniques of
>>> automatically improving visual aesthetics can be applied to any
>>> designed
>>> objects that are relatively common - and perhaps even to 'new'
>>> objects'. It
>>> would be interesting to extend the approach to abstract objects, e.g.
>>> entities in the realm of mathematics assessed in terms of 'elegance'.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>> Terry
>>>
>>> ===
>>> Dr. Terence Love
>>> Tel/Fax: +61 (0)8 9305 7629
>>> Mobile: 0434975 848
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> ===
>>>
>>> ACM Technical News 5 Feb 2007-02-06
>>>
>>> Israeli Researchers Promise a More Beautiful You
>>> Israel21c (02/04/07) Kloosterman, Karen
>>> Computer scientists at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have developed a
>>> computer
>>> program that can make an image of a person's face more attractive. The
>>> program is based upon a survey of 300 men and women who were asked to
>>> rank
>>> pictures of other people's faces on an attractiveness scale of one to
>>> seven.
>>> These results were correlated with exact measurements and ratios of
>>> facial
>>> features to produce an algorithm that can add desired elements of
>>> beauty to
>>> the image of a face. The program works in just minutes, and in a test
>>> conducted using large sample of volunteers 79 percent said the program,
>>> Beauty Function, made the face more attractive. TAU co-researcher
>>> Daniel
>>> Cohen-Or says, "Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is
>>> merely a
>>> function of mathematical distances or ratios. And interestingly, it is
>>> usually the average distances to features which appears to most people
>>> to be
>>> the most beautiful." Its creators believe that Beauty Function could
>>> become
>>> popular among plastic surgeons, or even become a "must-have" option for
>>> cameras, "just like the red-eye function is today," said co- researcher
>>> Tommer Leyvand.
>>>
>>> For fuller report see
>>> http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%
>>> 5El1543&enPage=BlankP
>>> age&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ********************
>> Professor Chris Rust
>> Head of Art and Design Research Centre
>> Sheffield Hallam University
>> Psalter Lane, S11 8UZ, UK
>> +44 114 225 2706 (direct)
>> +44 114 225 2686 (research admin)
>> [log in to unmask]
>> www.chrisrust.net
>>
>
>
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