The Nelson Gallery

I didn't get to attend the artist guest lecture last week, but I did manage a trip to the Nelson Gallery.  This quarter's theme was "WONDERS"--photographs inspired by Riis.  Other times that I've visited the Nelson, usually paintings were being showcased, but this time it was photographs, so I was rather excited!  Photographs, as I've come to understand it, is all about aesthetics--the way the photographer intended the audience to experience the photo.  Design is only 10% aesthetics--whAt?! In all my experience with art (and design)--and everything I do--I thought it was all about aesthetics, especially when it came to being creative.  To think that design--which is so much intertwined with art--is almost not about aesthetics at all, is almost mind boggling.

The photos at the Nelson played along the idea of Riis' photography.  Riis used flash photography to present his subjects, though human, to appear like objects.  For example, he would photograph an old lady beside a wooden plank, therefore making her resemble that plank, making the viewers connect her to the plank--the object.  The subject-object response was the aesthetic response that Riis intended for his viewers.  Does design have set aesthetic responses like Riis' photos and that's why design is only bases 10% of itself on aesthetics?

When I look for inspiration, maybe I rely on this aestheticisim to keep me creative.  The way I interpret a photo, picture, or image may be different from the way another person interprets the same image.  My experience is entirely my own. I can assume that maybe someone else has had a similar experience, but I will never truly know or understand someone else's experience, since its their experience alone.