Aesthetics and technology

"[...] it is not the atom bomb that is the key technical event of our age, but the construction of large-scale mathematical thinking machines. They are extraordinarily universal in nature, they are at the same time technological, mathematical, logical, sociological and neurological principles [...]"

As early as 1954 onwards, Bense showed in his work "Aesthetica" that we live in a world whose reality is to a large degree artificial and technological. This insight allowed him to derive an innate connection between art and technology, aesthetics and construction.

Art and technology can both possess beauty, and thus can be given aesthetic justification. Both are "made" or "constructed". The difference lies in the finer structure of the two forms. A technical construction such as a machine, consists of interconnected parts, with each part having a specific function. A work of art, on the other hand, has an independent aesthetic existence, it does not function but simply exists. Art and technology can be brought closer together through the concept of "completeness". Completeness is a state of both artistic and technological forms. Completeness is part of aesthetics and of construction.

"How close the involuntary connection between a work of art and a product is can be demonstrated by juxtaposing sculptures and cars taken from the same period."

Thus the familiar classical aesthetic terms of "artistic beauty" and "natural beauty" can be complemented by a third term, namely "technical beauty".

Aesthetics is among the disciplines that mediate between the natural sciences and the humanities, and, like any other science, has its own philosophical basis. It is not an exhaustive system, but an as yet incomplete theory, and thus an open science that must remain in need of completion, revision and evaluation.