The authority on beauty

Hello intersectional thinkers 👋

Greetings from my new Tokyo home where an embarassing train of thought went through my head as I was staring at our newly hung-up Isamu Noguchi washi paper print from the Omotesando MoMA design store.

I don’t think I get it... but I like it? Is that okay? Liking a piece of art without knowing what the artist is trying to say?

This internal turmoil reminded me of Richard Feynman’s ode to a flower, a practical monologues about beauty that, in my humble opinion, is much more practical and poetic than the melodramatic Shakespearean stuff we learnt in school!

Here it is:

I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well.

He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think that he’s kind of nutty.

First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe… I can appreciate the beauty of a flower.

At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.

To develop a complete mind, study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

- Leonardo da Vinci

What a mundane yet beautiful story to remind us that we see with our mind, not our eyes.

Have a beautiful week!

Vicky

P.S. I’m really digging Tommy Lee’s idea of adding music to his weekly emails! Reminds me of Edward Rooster’s soundtarcks for his massive fiction, written with one mini storie on Twitter at a time.

Both are unexpected sources of music inspo, and both are fascinating creatives if you want to read or listen to something unexpected.

Speaking of unexpected sources of music discovery, my recent song on repeat came from me Shazamming my downstairs neighbor’s alarm clock song. What a groovy way to wake up!