Most of us here, in design school, are familiar with the term "aesthetics" as the appearances of things and unavoidably, many of our decisions on a daily life is based upon this concept of aesthetics, we are drawn, attracted to the things that are aesthetically pleasing to us. The common term; "beauty is in the eyes of the beholders " is widely used, and the concept behinds it is quite clear, that aesthetics, or "taste" is a personal, subjective manner. However, when we looked deeper into this concept, the question of it being totally subjective is questionable, since, our taste is mostly influenced and defined by our upbringings and societies, hence can we really called it subjective when we are actually talking in the manner of such "trends"? Thus, society adds values to a particular aesthetic, in which most people tends to conform and adapted that into their own taste hence, the subjective manner of "personal taste" is not really personal at all, in fact, the same aesthetics value is probably shared with others in almost a universal scale.
Furthermore, the simulation of choice on each individual can also be coercion, which is the choice that comes from rules such as uniforms while hegemony, is a choice that is made freely. Generally, people will tends to lead toward hegemony choices since it allows us to think that we are expressing ourselves through this chosen aesthetics, while really, in many cases, that chosen aesthetic, is a shared ideas of the society in which we live in, in other word, through this, we are still in a way, conforming to a particular trend of a society. Interestingly, aesthetics is what most of us used to express, whether it's a particular idea or statement, about ourselves; Modernism or the international style is famous in most post-colonial countries such as Singapore, since it represents newness while does not imply on any messages. The International Style is universal in terms that it could be used in any context, any nations, acting like a blank canvas, its main feature is its function. Also, there's an essence of newness, something totally inventive that came along with the birth of modernism, this unique quality is perhaps, what the post-colonial nations found to be worth celebrating. Thus, the aesthetics of modernism buildings represent freedom from the past, its independence and its success in the architectural world is what many post-colonial countries are striving for, in my opinion.
Another reason why I think that we're drawn to the aesthetic of modernism architectures is that there's an originality to it. even though, modernism existed long ago, its aesthetics "survives" to today and is stilled regarded as desirable. In a way, the aesthetic of modern building is so flexible that it does not only allow for the style to be use "internationally" (hence, the so called "international style") but other than the places, it is also very flexible in terms of time as the aesthetics is still often use and counted as "fashionable" today. So what makes good aesthetics? from my point of view, I feel that there's no such ideal aesthetics, there're only a particular aesthetics that one's prefer, however, this liking can differ from societies to societies as well as different time periods as well. since the desirable aesthetics are actually values that society had chosen in which we are influenced by, the concept of aesthetics was never actually totally subjective in the manner that our preference had to be inspired from somewhere, where this same values is shared. Hence the reason why, aesthetics is subjective yet universal at the same time.
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