Expanding Aesthetics

Abstract

This paper seeks to expand traditional aesthetic dimensions of design beyond the limits of human capability in order to encompass other species' sensory modalities. To accomplish this, the idea of inclusivity is extended beyond human cultural and personal identities and needs, to embrace multi-species experiences of places, events and interactions in the world. This involves drawing together academic perspectives from ecology, neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy and interaction design, as well as exploring artistic perspectives and demonstrating how these different frames of reference can inspire and complement each other. This begins with a rationale for the existence of non-human aesthetics, followed by an overview of existing research into non-human aesthetic dimensions. Novel aesthetic categories are proposed and the challenge of how to include non-human aesthetic sensibility in design is discussed.

Sensory Jam 2022

“…There have been some notable exceptions -creative approaches that have emerged from within and from outside the ACI community. Examples include people attempting to embody the 'other', people exploring and analysing close relationships, people creating literary forms to share imaginary perspectives, people using VR (virtual reality) as a technology to facilitate understanding and also people crafting objects to be shared with the 'other' (French, 2022).…”