Formalism for Stephen

By detaching personal desires and just enjoy an object for its own sake, rather than its benefit to us
Aesthetic appreciation consists of minimal to no thought.

To consider the act of just looking of equal worth to formal analysis.
In the context of created objects, content should always be of lesser importance when compared to the execution in which colours, lines and shapes are balanced.
To represent and imitate within art hinders the appreciation of pure form, instead you must inhabit a different perspective.
- If you can find no other perspective from which to appreciate the object, it must inherently be unworthy of viewing.
To be disinterested is to empty yourself of thought and rational procedure in the context of this formalism. You are best equipped to appreciate the form of nature when vacancy overtakes, uncluttered by thoughts of the object.
Other iterations of formalism dismiss completely art’s function to represent, express emotion and communicate thought. There is of course immense value in understanding a work of arts social context, but this is not to say that one perspective is of more worth than the other. Enjoying the colour red in a painting is a statement of equal validity as understanding the reasons why the artist has rendered the scene in a particular fashion.
It can be harmful to employ this mind when appreciating nature as you are failing to appreciate it on it’s own terms
- Be aware