Item #2: The Emotion of the Aesthetic

In 2005, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, published a book called The Happiness Hypothesis. It’s a great read. In the book, Haidt refers to the eight primary emotions identified by Robert Plutchik's psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion; they are: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, Surprise, Anticipation, Acceptance and Joy.

The fascinating thought and the basis for this Item #2: The Emotion of the Aesthetic is that he postulates that we may be able to classify a ninth primary emotion: Elevation.

Emotions, and engaging them, as we know, are tremendously important in the development of creative communications for advertising purposes. So the discovery of a new emotion can be extremely useful, especially if we know how to trigger it.

It appears that Elevation is real, and that it can be triggered via Aesthetics. Here’s why:

Emotions drive decision-making. The experience of positive emotion sets in place scripts in our minds, scripts that initiate behaviours. (Nico Frijda, American Psychologist). In fact it appears that without the triggering of emotion, we lose ability to make decisions (Antonio Damasio, changingminds.org).

Emotional appeal in communications drives persuasive impact. “Emotionally based campaigns are not only more likely to produce very large business effects, but also produce more of them, outperforming rationally based campaigns on every single business measure” (UK IPA Effectiveness Awards).

Elevation might just be the big kahuna of emotions for advertisers. University of Virginia moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who coined the term ‘Elevation’, writes, "Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental 'reset button,' wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration...." Wow.

And it looks like Elevation can be triggered through Aesthetics. According to philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), aesthetics is the philosophical notion of beauty. He states that beauty is objective and universal, thus certain things are beautiful to everyone; aesthetic judgment refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of such. Starts to sound a little like Elevation? Haidt and Keltner more recently observe this in scientific studies whereby experiences of Awe/ Responsiveness to Beauty and Excellence (A/RBE) (a.k.a. Aesthetics!) generate reactions that can be described as this feeling of Elevation. And there’s more who have hinted at this connection: Edmund Burke in a 1757 treatise on aesthetics; Clive Bell in his book Art (1914); and, more loosely, though linked, philosopher G.E. Moore (1903) who considered aesthetic value to be an intuited form of goodness.

If it’s true, what does it mean? Well, it means that the appreciation of aesthetics in and of itself triggers a positive emotional response of elevation. In communications, this means that the mere aesthetic appeal of creative can engage emotionally, powerfully, independently, bringing persuasive strength.

Proof that: Design matters. Beauty engages. And Art persuades.

Item #1: Tavi Gevinson

The small ‘c’ controversy of New York Fashion Week surrounded Tavi Gevinson, the 13-year-old fashion blogger phenomenon (http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/). Apparently the little-known wonder has made a name for herself as an influential style commentator, enough so, that she garnered herself a front row seat at some of fashion week’s most coveted shows.



http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/fashion/2010-01-26/tavi-hat/

Tavi’s apparent faux-pas centred around her chosen pink bow headpiece – which was, as an aside, glorious and I’ll be getting a slightly smaller version for myself. But perhaps there was a statement being made here, unconsciously or not?

Tavi chose to mark her appearance at New York Fashion Week with a headpiece, one in the shape of a bow. Hmmm. Let’s briefly investigate the significance of this move.

According to tradition, head-gear was worn by those of status or authority. Whether a crown or a hat of plumage, the head-piece accessory was unnecessary and often featured costly accoutrements – such as jewels, or exotic feathers.

The old saying goes 'if you want to get ahead and get noticed, then get a hat'.

A royal crown, for example, symbolizes power, legitimacy and victory or triumph. In custom, a new monarch is crowned. Reference wikipedia.org.

And I’ll leave the bow (tie) symbolism explanation to the far more eloquent Warren St. John from The New York Times:

"To its devotees the bow tie suggests iconoclasm of an Old World sort, a fusty adherence to a contrarian point of view. The bow tie hints at intellectualism, real or feigned, and sometimes suggests technical acumen, perhaps because it is so hard to tie. Bow ties are worn by magicians, country doctors, lawyers and professors and by people hoping to look like the above. But perhaps most of all, wearing a bow tie is a way of broadcasting an aggressive lack of concern for what other people think."

—Warren St John, The New York Times

So perhaps Tavi’s head-gear wearing choice was purely random and unintentional, or… perhaps Tavi was ‘crowning herself as one of status and authority, earned as a result of her acumen and contrarian point of view’.

Introducing Curated, by Heidi McCulloch.

The term curate comes from the Latin word curatus which has multiple meanings including: to attend to; to heal or cure; to provide for; to take care of; and to care about. From that root come the associated words: cure and care, as well as form the foundation for the modern day profession of Curator.

A Curator in modern-day is most often employed by museums, art galleries or other cultural institutions and is charged with maintaining a collection of items, items which often have some commonality: paintings, photographs, fashion garments, jewelry, or even books or cookware. A Curator is expected to bring a philosophy, a point-of-view and a certain taste to the items they personally select to form the collections they curate. Essentially, and true to the root meaning of the word, a curator’s collection represents that which they care about and hence take care of; perhaps they serve a healing purpose of some kind, for the curator, as well as those who experience the collection.

I will serve as Curator of the collection that will be presented here, on these pages. It will be a collection of finds, words, thoughts and perspectives that will be representative of my own philosophy, point-of-view and certain taste… this collection will be Curated, by me.

Heidi McCulloch, Curator