What did other people do in the past to make our world beautiful but which we do not notice now?
I am rural and I want to plant some trees and copses on my land, in particular places, with beauty in mind. It just occurred to me that others, who are long gone, may have done the same thing here in the past; planting a particular tree in its place only for its beauty. It may have outlived both themselves and their vision of what beauty is and I have not noticed it. Perhaps there are things around us which we thought were utilitarian, or even mistakes, but which were a choice made by someone with a subtler purpose than we give them credit for.
Have you ever noticed something in your surroundings and thought that it was done deliberately to be beautiful, and maybe you are the only person around now to have noticed it as such?
A lot of modern foods – corn, bananas, carrots, more – were pretty much inedible by modern standards before ancient people created the current edible version through selective breeding.
OG GMOs
There’s this cool hidden shortcut that I used to take in my neighborhood throughout my childhood that local people took rocks and made a nice patterned path and fixed damage as it can up. Supposedly it started before I was born. Its a parking lot now though. Actually that’s kinda the opposite but about a decade ago when it still existed it probably counted.
The most impactful examples to me are architecture and furniture. Art deco and nuveau buildings were beautiful, even minute details were meant to be looked at. The same goes for craftsman and machine age furniture. Everything has become so minimalist and utilitarian since the eighties.
Everything has become so minimalist and utilitarian since the eighties.
Since the start of industrialization.
Before that, all craftsmen were also artists. It was no conflict, it was the same. Things were built to be beautiful and useful, all in one.
I say since the eighties because thats when the pseudo minimalist home design and plastic siding started, and all furniture became laminated particle board, and fucking everything starting turning beige and grey for “resale value”. Everything became so commercial it had no substance, and we quit making things that would become antiques because they became garbage.
Make everything utilitarian, but make it so poorly it fails at it’s own utility.
There’s a reason “craftsmen” used to be called “artisans”. No idea if it actually relates to art but I imagine it does
You say since the '80s but I’m thinking back more like hundreds of years. Where are all of the lasting, beautiful buildings that are being made in recent decades? Not in the US, that’s for sure.
We bought a house last year that was the first on the street by a decade. Everything was asparagus farms and some forest.
- It needed to be fully stripped and redone, but damn is that house strong. 20cm thick brick wall going down like 5m underground or something. Load bearing walls also have like 2cm iron rods running vertically for support. This house will not budge.
Trying to renovate it respectfully while repairing damage done by the previous owner and complying with the many, many strict Belgium housing regulations. So much potential and almost no problems with damp in an extremely wet region.
(from title) Just as a guess - you were.
The ability to appreciate beauty in life is far too easily suppressed, and takes active effort to overcome.
Dogs. Like, have you seen a poodle or a chihuahua? They’re super cute little gremlins. On the other hand, you’ve got pugs… poor little dudes, they just want to breathe.
So much this one. I hate the “we don’t deserve dogs” trope because we totally deserve them; we made them. Also, we co-evolved with them, so we deserve each other.
Jan Wilsgard designed The most beautiful vehicle of all time, if that counts.
A volvo?? Who decided it holds this distinction?
Me
Well, if it is beautiful to you, then it is beautiful!
I mean, electricity is beautiful.
The sensation of cruising down the road with the windows down is beautiful, and all the bloodshed and struggle of history gave that to us.
Youtube is beautiful.
The photographs coming from the James Webb telescope are beautiful.
All the work people did to fill our market with gluten free food, multiple kinds of nut butters, protein powders of every possible type, kombucha, all the hippy food that now fills our grocery stores, that’s beautiful.
Burning man is beautiful, as is the enormously varied festival culture it has evolved into.
People have worked very hard for decades to get mushrooms to be studied with vets for PTSD. That’s beautiful.
Whoever invented the guitar made a lot of beauty. Not to mention the millions of people who’ve spent billions of hours practicing to make all the music we have today.
All the people throughout prehistory who stood up and fought sabertooth tigers, to allow us to have this world, were displaying what’s most beautiful about the human spirit.
I have not thought that I may be the only one to notice intentional human made instances of forgotten beauty, though it is an interesting idea. I do often think the beauty of certain aspects of nature is frequently overlooked, though… not your basic flowers or classically beautiful things, but the beauty of death and resilience and futility.
San Louis Obisbo reservoir has made an otherwise unremarkable hilly area pretty scenic.
Maybe not beautiful, but heartwarming- https://fosstodon.org/@marcioaleks/112404975446615194
This is awesome!
