"Question of Beauty"
Created 03/08/04.

[COMPUTER GRAPHICS] This is an abstract digital artwork created based on ideas presented by two art exhibits entitled “Body Parts” and “Hair.” This particular piece is less based on skill or aesthetic value as much as the concepts behind the visuals.
The artwork mimics the style of John Coplans ("Body Parts") in its dual quality—that is, two separate pieces are set next to each other to imply one cohesive image. Basically, the left side of the piece represents beauty as we are conditioned to see it, and the right side represents ugliness. The theme of hair and how we see it in certain ways as attractive or unattractive is present—on the left side, a long flowing yellow shape represents long blonde hair, while on the right side, scratchings along the edges of shapes represent coarse or prickly hair (such as body hair). The left side is designed to contain more pleasing colors, while the right side includes more complex, muddled, and unpleasant colors. The left side is smooth and flowing, while the right has more inconsistencies and awkward shapes.
However, as stressed by Coplans, it is really one’s mind that does the seeing. The eye is objective and simply notices what is in front of it, but our mind develops ideas about what it is seeing based on past experience. Is the left side really intrinsically more appealing than the right? Probably not—we have simply become conditioned to think that certain things and qualities are attractive while others are not. It may be interesting to see which side viewers identify as the “prettier” one in order to further explore this “question of beauty.”
[post artwork creation note: I actually did run a survey on which side people found more appealing, but randomly IM'ing anyone available on my lists... The results were something like: only 3 or 4 out of 20 or more preferred the right (although a good number had a hard time deciding). Hmmmm.]

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