14th May – aesthetics, contrast and feeling

Today was very white. A balmy -1 degrees C and snow all day, it felt a bit like Christmas! The skyfull of snow blended with the snow on the mountains and all views were turned to just white.

Today’s photo got me thinking about a lecture from Michael Haywood that we listened to last night on A.N. Whitehead’s philosophy of emotions, feelings and aesthetics. It was all about extending the notion of feeling to all things and beings…tricky, but interesting stuff.  According to the lecture, Whitehead defined aesthetics as a higher order of feelings that boils down to enjoyment of the contrasts between what is, and other possibilities – of what could be.

The almost ‘blank canvass’ of the whited out town also opens up scope for the imagination of other possibilities and made the visual contrasts of the few discernable features stand in stark relation to each other, the kayaks on a snow-covered beach, the wild west style huts and flags, the smoke stack …

Picture

Spot of kayaking anyone? A flash of colour in the white haze.

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