systems esthetics
When Jack Burnham is talking about Systems Esthetics, he is talking about the dichotomy between expensive, fancy, “high class” artworks and something that can be done by ones own self.
When thinking about art, I feel that there is always a bubble. Inside of this bubble, there are the artworks that everyone knows; the Mona Lisa, Water Lilies, Starry Night, and more. The artwork that you could expect to find in the Louvre or National Gallery of Art would fall under this bubble. The systems esthetics talks about how that art is beautiful, but there is an entirely other side of art that doesn’t need this hype or press that the works of art we think of have.
Art also doesn’t just have to be pen and paper. Systems esthetics states that art can be considered anything. A great quote that talks about this is when Burnham talks about the “68th American Show” where he says “In the 1966 “68th American Show” at the Chicago Art Institute, the sculptor, Robert Morris, was represented by two large, L-shaped forms which were shown the previous year in New York. Morris sent plans of the pieces to the carpenters at the Chicago museum where they were assembled for less than the cost of shipping the originals from New York. In the context of a systems esthetic, possession of a privately fabricated work is no longer important. Accurate information takes priority over history and geographical location.”
Art doesn’t need to be expensive or crazy. I think a great example of systems esthetics are the films done by Blumhouse Productions. Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions is known for having extremely low budgets in the film industry but still making some of the worlds most critically acclaimed films. For example, The Belko Experiment which had a budget of $5 million, Whiplash which had a budget of $3 million, Unfriended which had a budget of $1 million, and even Paranormal Activity which had a insane budget of $15,000. All of these films are considered revolutionary in their idea’s and have gone on to be critically acclaimed. Paranormal Activity is considered a trend starter in the low budget horror category and the results of it can be seen on Youtube and in the video game industry. While none of these movies had big budgets, they still made such a revolution in the way that people consume media and film.
In conclusion, I believe that systems esthetics talks about the shift between high class and DIY art and how there is still space for one to do art and still make an impact. This industry is always shifting and changing, and this idea shows that its better to go along with the flow rather than stay behind.