The meaning of aesthetics

Macquarie University PhD student Liam Dee’s study into the relatively untapped topic of aesthetics has this year seen him deliver a paper at an international conference and have his work profiled on national radio.

Aesthetics has interested Dee, who his completing his PhD in the Department of Critical and Cultural Studies, since his time as an undergraduate student.

“The very fact that it is seen as such an archaic, old-fashioned concern in academia was part of the attraction for me,” explains Dee. “It means I am not in a particularly crowded area which has been ‘mined out’, so to speak.”

One of the main aims of Dee’s thesis is to recover the original meaning of aesthetics, as well as renounce its associations with art and ‘shallow appearance’. The origin of aesthetics lies in the Greek word ‘aisthesis’, meaning sensuous cognition.

“It was in this form that aesthetics described the way we combine both the sensual and analytical to make sense of the world around us,” says Dee. “Sadly this has been lost.”

Dee has analysed a number of lifestyle products as part of his PhD and their trend towards ‘biomorphic’ design. Such products are designed to look organic with smooth, rounded curves that mimic the lines of the human body. They attempt to make lifestyle commodities less as objects and more as subjects according to Dee. Examples include those produced by Apple such as the i-Pod and the i-Mac. The desirability of these products is built into the shape, sleek form and colour which makes them less intimidating and mechanical.

“For my analysis I am claiming that such warm and friendly commodities can mask the often decidedly unfriendly sweatshop conditions in which they are produced,” Dee says. “In a world where people are being treated more like objects the effort to encourage subjective relationships with biomorphic objects is also something that needs to be analysed critically.”

The topic of aesthetics has wide-ranging appeal and Dee has been invited to speak at a number of conferences including one entitled ‘Negotiating the Sacred’. It was because of this presentation that Dee was asked to put together a five-minute ‘perspective’ on aesthetics for ABC’s Radio National.

“Even though it was a lot of work and I had to do multiple takes to get my microphone technique right, it was a great experience,” says Dee.

According to Dee the most rewarding part of undertaking a PhD has been his interaction with Macquarie’s postgraduate community. Interdisc, the Macquarie Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Group, was established late last year to rectify the problems of postgraduate isolation and insufficient dissemination of information.

“Through Interdisc I have made valuable social and intellectual connections with postgraduates,” says Dee. “I have also discovered various sources of potential funding and other support mechanisms at Macquarie.”

Thanks to funding from the Postgraduate Research Fund, Dee had the opportunity to visit Spain recently and deliver a paper at the International Society for the Study of European Ideas Conference. “This was the first time I had ever been overseas and it was only because of the funding I received,” Dee says. “I don’t know if I would ever have got the opportunity had I not been studying at Macquarie.” 

For further information visit the Department of Critical & Cultural Studies website: http://www.ccs.mq.edu.au/

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