The current prevailing thought on aesthetics is essentially down to the works of Hume and Kant on the subject. Their arguments can be loosely summarised in two keys points: 1.) that all aesthetic judgement presupposes taste, by which they meant a special mental faculty for making these judgements; and 2.) that aesthetic qualities such as 'beautiful' are subjective.
I definitely agree that there is a large degree of subjectivity involved. Looking out of the train window, even on a gloomy, overcast day like today, I find the flat fields and scattered farms beautiful. Even in winter, with no green grass, flowers or leaves on the trees. To me, the Norfolk countryside brings instant memories of my later childhood. Yet, parallel to this aesthetic judgement of my own, I also recognise that objectively, it is not beautiful. A sunny, summers day on rolling hills, I think, would be judged objectively beautiful in a comparison of the two contrasting scenes.
Does this recognition of mine highlight an objective level of aesthetics?
Looking back over the year of bakes I've posted, I pick what I think will be the pictures most universally judges 'pretty' or whatever. There is a clear degree of aesthetic selection going on here. So against this, here's some of the less pretty photos that didn't make it onto the final presentation, and a reminder of some of my favourite bakes.
