Science and Beauty: Aesthetic Structuring of Knowledge

Human activity, art oriented or not, implies an aesthetic component. Intelligence participates in this activity by helping to define goals in knowledged-based selection from among many options, while the aesthetic component structures outcomes, endows them with expressive power, and facilitates communication. Artifacts qualifying as works of art embody human intelligence and sensibility, as well as the experience of aesthetically applied technology. Imitation of past artistic paradigms, even when new technologies (computer-based or not) are used, precludes the discovery of new sources of beauty and thus precludes originality. The expansion and redefinition of the artistic universe that new science and technology make possible have already resulted in a broader notion of art and in new forms of artistic activity. Consequently, our concept of beauty is emancipated and expanded to include the beauty of scientific theories, some requiring visual means of expression that only new technology makes available.