Luke Burgis interviews Patrick Collison on aesthetics
It was very fun talking to @patrickc about New Aesthetics at the @ClunyInstitute ‘s conference last month. We talked about: —The origin story of the New Aesthetics grants — and why he and Tyler Cowen disagree on almost everything aesthetic (1:00) —Why culture is “stuck”: a 1926 Bauhaus building could pass for last year’s (2:30) —Modernism’s explicit, stated […] The post Luke Burgis interviews…
I had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick Collison about New Aesthetics at the Cluny Institute's recent conference. During our conversation, we explored various topics related to aesthetics and culture.
Collison and Tyler Cowen have differing views on aesthetics, disagreeing on almost every aspect of the subject (1:00). He believes that culture has become stagnant, as a 1926 Bauhaus building could easily blend in with structures from last year (2:30). Modernism's primary aim was to dismantle beauty, quite openly (3:30).
Collison cited Solzhenitsyn's perspective that while it's possible to feign goodness and truth, beauty inherently verifies itself (6:30). He pondered the question of objectivity in beauty, noting that people flock to Toledo, Spain, but no one visits Toledo, Ohio (7:30).
He pointed out that Detroit was once a thriving city, having built the DIA, while Silicon Valley has been prosperous for half a century, yet the two regions could easily be compared in a brief coffee break (14:30). Collison speculated whether Y Combinator's model was influenced by the art atelier (18:30).
The highest leverage point for aesthetic renewal historically lay with churches, but what could replace this now? (27:00). The sacred has become an endangered species, and Collison presented an alternative theory about the year 1971 when we lost the sacred, leading to a lack of appreciation for nice things (28:30).
He was reluctant to delve into Vatican II and technological stagnation, but I pressed the issue, and he obliged (34:30). When asked about AI-generated art, the silence was deafening (37:30). He also discussed Germany's dominance in music, literature, and philosophy, but its culinary offerings left much to be desired (41:30).
Collison remarked on the ugliness of biology compared to the beauty of physics (43:30) and described the "anti-beauty conspiracy" that has been quietly prevailing throughout the last century, with a vast latent demand waiting to be unleashed (52:30). Lastly, he shared his spontaneous reaction to beeswax art (56:30).
Written by urgent.news from Marginal Revolution's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
