The imperfect beauty

Excerpt

The evaluation of the surrounding world, either existing in the realm of materiality or in the ideal universe of abstract imagination, the perception of ourselves and the others, the emotional quality of our conversations, our mating preferences, and even our reproductive decisions, is energetically oriented by physical appearance and beauty, as pervasive and powerful agents in the human society. The recent emphasis on platform communications and image sharing produced an increased interest in idealized physical looks. Automatic analysis and machine-learning algorithms have been developed for the digital enhancement of human physical attractiveness, as well as for other application areas, such as platform image sharing, computer-assisted search of partners in online dating services, animation, advertising, and computer games [1]. Rather than being just a joyful entertainment, in the contemporary social context, the struggle for “beauty” became an obsessive task, as the ongoing tremendous demand for cosmetic surgery stands for. Indeed, the perception of beauty (referred to the real world, the artistic production, let alone the human body and face) has long been debated amongst philosophers, artists, psychologists, neurologists, and anthropologists. One of the topics in question is whether the perception of beauty is a social, cultural, and learned concept or it is, rather, hard-wired into our brain from birth. Although beautiful persons are often consistently recognized per se, they do not necessarily share common features. Moreover, there is no general agreement yet, on which facial/bodily/vocal qualities and characteristics appear to make a human being appealing and should discriminate between beautiful and normal persons. The truth of the matter is that no consensus has been reached in almost any field, as we are still frantically in search for even a definition for beauty. If we were to conceptually inquire on art and aesthetic experience, we should explore many aspects of beauty. What is beauty? What do we mean when we say “beautiful” about something? Beauty is appreciated following the same canons and rules when it is perceived looking at or listening to someone or something? Are the characteristics of beauty referred to the material world different from those we perceive when referring to humanity? May all the conceived beauties pertain to the same realm, as the final product of a common brain process? Most of the Western as well as non-Western aesthetic theories share the same concept of beauty. Accordingly, beauty is conceived of as something harmonious, as an organic whole, as a “gestalt” rather than a mere addiction of separate parts and, hence, as an object of pleasure. It is to say that, according to “philosophical aesthetics”, there exists a universally valid concept of beauty as there are respective criteria [2]. …