Simplicity and Beauty

[catherine]

I think the best kind of a simplicity is the kind that honors beauty. I think if you had a Venn diagram you could have one circle that says "Simplicity" and the other says "Beauty" and there may or may not be a lot of overlap.

For instance, two examples:
Example #1:
I LOVE the kinds of micro-homes that Tumbleweed sells, or like the kind bae posted on.
But I've also seen micro-homes that are shacks.
Both simple, but I'd live in one, and would no way live in the other.

Example #2:
In my permaculture class we saw a video of a community space that a group had turned into organic vegetable beds. Awesome, right? It was.. but one of the class members, who had more of a "gardening" orientation, commented that it was great, but wasn't very beautiful. It was kind of scrappy, and random. (I guess a "beautiful" community garden would be designed with more aesthetics in mind--with neat gravel pathways, orderly raised beds, etc.) The permaculture teacher's response was "Permaculture asks you to see beauty in a different way."

So, what does your Venn diagram look like?
When do you sacrifice beauty for simplicity? Simplicity for beauty?
And when do the two intersect?
What examples can you think of that are in the overlap?
And as my permaculture teacher suggested, has your personal aesthetic changed in your simple living journey?

[SteveinMN]

There may not be much intersection between the circles of Simplicity and Beauty. But I think I spend a lot of my time in that little intersection. I just do not find that the two values are largely incongruent.

I'm a huge fan of Scandinavian Modern furniture. I love the clean timeless lines and that the quality of the pieces show because flaws cannot be hidden with millwork or paint. I even find the teak color attractive as it ages. When I see "Laura Ashley" interiors or even "painted lady" Victorians, I can appreciate the effort involved in achieving the design, but I find the busy-ness unattractive and even less peaceful for all that's going on visually.

I love those sleek European kitchens (http://www.houzz.com/photos/121251/Timeline-by-Aster-Cucine-contemporary-kitchen-new-york). They're not cheap and you kind of have to remember what's stored where (and to store items and clean up), but for that level of Beauty and Simplicity, I'll do it. Our current kitchen is nowhere near that standard, though it has to be a heavily-used utensil or appliance to hold counter space. I'm not a fan of leaving stuff visible just for the ten seconds it'll save in retrieving it for occasional use (big ol' heavy stand mixer, I'm looking at you).

While it may be difficult to classify a computer as Simple, one of the things I like most about my Macs and iDevices is that they don't look like lumps of putty-colored plastic and almost the entire experience is smooth (it is a computer). When I boot up my Mac, the screen displays an orderly parade of images that tells me what's going on. It doesn't start with an ugly technical POST check, flash into a low-res Windows bitmap, and then shift resolutions and throw the mouse cursor all over the screen as various elements on the system start. Maybe Windows 8 is better, but Windows 7 was barely an improvement on Windows 95. Beautiful and Simple.

As I write, it occurs to me that one of the common denominators here is money. It can and often does cost more to design something beautiful and even simplicty has its cost, as ideas are tested and discarded and practical considerations impinge on the concept. But if it's something I will interact with often, even if it's just seeing it every day as I walk into the house, it's worth something to me to make sure that it works well and it's at least not unattractive.

[Spartana]

Being that beauty is in the eye of the beholder I think you'll find that simplicity and beauty often don't go together for a lot of people. Those Swedish torture devices you find at IKEA (called chairs by them but really a modern version of the Iron Maiden :-)!) are physically simple looking but I don't find them beautiful. Now show me a simple minimalist Shaker-style dining room or home and I'm all ga-ga. A tiny studio apt in a large city center with all white walls, bare floors, minimal beige furnishings and blank walls might be beautiful and peaceful to me, but may feel like a cramped claustrophobic "doctors waiting room" to someone else. Whereas someone's overstuffed, colorful, vibrant and artsy place would make me cringe and feel over burdened and stressed. Same with some of the lovely antique filled old farmhouses or Victorian homes - lovely places that make me feel hemmed in and want to get out side so I can breath. Yep, beauty, just like simplicity, is in the eye of the beholder :-)!

[CathyA]

hmmmm.........I'm having trouble with the term "beauty". Isn't that sort of a manufactured term? I mean, for alot of people a simple, huge lawn that is perfectly mowed, no weeds, etc. is simple and beautiful to them.
For me, as I look out the window and see my simple, totally overgrown, property.......I see beauty because I know what it means.........Food and cover for wildlife.
I'm having trouble getting my brain to work, so I may not even be answering your question.

As for the inside of my house, I do find a totally uncluttered area, simple and calming..........maybe that is beauty??

[pinkytoe]

I like the wabi-sabi concept of worn as beautiful. Wood, stone, metal, cloth used until they develop age and patina. I have a few old antiques that are classic in design and the wood is worn nicely. Although I appreciate the simple lines of many modern items, I also find many to be "cold" or sterile so not as beautiful to me. As far as gardens, I like a mix of jumbled and orderly, ie beautiful surprises.

[ApatheticNoMore]

For instance, two examples:
Example #1:
I LOVE the kinds of micro-homes that Tumbleweed sells, or like the kind bae posted on.
But I've also seen micro-homes that are shacks.
Both simple, but I'd live in one, and would no way live in the other.

quite frankly I'm not in the kind of income bracket that can have that choice, beauty in housing will cost you a pretty penny. But there is a line with shacks that is one I'll draw, like I lived in a really drafty falling apart apartment for awhile there - it was barely held together. I don't want to do that again :) Most small houses one actually sees are "back-houses" which are often converted garages (usually for rent). I'm not sure I want to live in a converted garage rather than something actually designed from the get go for human habitation but ... could happen. But none of this is really about beauty, it's about functionality :\


In my permaculture class we saw a video of a community space that a group had turned into organic vegetable beds. Awesome, right? It was.. but one of the class members, who had more of a "gardening" orientation, commented that it was great, but wasn't very beautiful. It was kind of scrappy, and random. (I guess a "beautiful" community garden would be designed with more aesthetics in mind--with neat gravel pathways, orderly raised beds, etc.) The permaculture teacher's response was "Permaculture asks you to see beauty in a different way."

if I had a plot in a community garden I would design it for beauty as well probably and I've got a really strong sense of aesthetics with regards to gardens (though I'd be happy with just produce if that's all I got form it :)) and I'd think others should design their plots as they want, because I value the ability to have individual expression more than overall beauty there (ie having a landscape designer come and design everyone's plots - no way!. Really how often do we really get individual expression - if not in community gardens even, then where?).


When do you sacrifice beauty for simplicity? Simplicity for beauty?

well there is this really ugly coffee table I got from the thrift shop, my heavens is it ugly, I will replace it WHEN ... I see a coffee table I really like .. from a thrift shop or something!!! I mean really I'm not buying new, I'm not producing more waste stream just so I can have some manufactured need of what a beautiful apartment looks like.


For me, as I look out the window and see my simple, totally overgrown, property.......I see beauty because I know what it means.........Food and cover for wildlife.

I see beauty there without the need for a reason (ie it's good for the environment etc.). Wildness is beauty to me. An abandoned lot is beautiful to me because it has better aesthetics and surprises than all but a truly well designed garden. When I aspire to beauty in my surroundings this ape only apes nature. And there's kind of an awareness that what I ape, I can't equal. Like I can try to make my apartment nice but it's not like taking a walk somewhere beautiful. Maybe I should stop wasting time on making my apt beautiful and just DO more of the latter ..... that's quite often the conclusion I come to! I really think some of the compulsive needs to keep improving one's interior home is just manufactured (it's just so you buy more and more stuff). Perhaps there's an element of obsessive-compulsiveness in all artistic impulses, but the interior decorating industry definitely channels this to consumption and waste.

By the way it's not lost on me that while my neighborhood is fine has some plants and trees, isn't too polluted or anything, can take nice walks there, blah blah, shelter in neighborhoods that are tree paradises and so on, where I really feel most content home, would cost me a lot more (and shelter in the opposite a lot less of course). Champagne tastes and a beer budget really.


I like a mix of jumbled and orderly, ie beautiful surprises.

that's what I like in gardens too, but again I think it only apes natures beautiful surprises, because nature is full of beautiful surprises (one might say and not so beautiful ones and be right - but peeps I'm just talking about an walk in the foothills or something :)). A good garden is full of beautiful surprises, wonder.

[kib]

Form Follows Function. (in other words, its appearance is due to what it does.) Lord deliver me from any man-made thing that looks lovely and doesn't work ... I tend to honor wabi-sabi not so much for intrinsic beauty, but for the appreciation that if it's survived and is still working, it is a Good Thing, it feeds my soul to look upon objects that bear up under scrutiny and use for so long.

Although I scurry around putting order to my local environment, I can appreciate a greater beauty to that grand chaos of the earth; it is magical to look upon something that is both ephemeral and constantly changing, and yet has been functioning reliably for eons.

[catherine]

hmmmm.........I'm having trouble with the term "beauty". Isn't that sort of a manufactured term?

As for the inside of my house, I do find a totally uncluttered area, simple and calming..........maybe that is beauty??

Good question. I do think a lot of things are manufactured to be beautiful--and fall in and out of fashion as a result.

But I also think there are universal standards of beauty. They've shown that there are elements of the human face that all people, regardless of culture, are drawn to. We are hard-wired to be attracted to certain proportions (called The Golden Ratio). I think you'd be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't find flowers to be beautiful. And interestingly, there is a certain pattern, called fractals, that supposedly represents an aesthetic appeal that we are just drawn to. These fractals are commonly found and repeated in nature in may ways, in clouds, and mountain ranges, and trees, which is perhaps why we are drawn to them. Artists intentionally or unintentionally often copy these fractals in their art and/or design.

That all sounds kind of pedantic, but just points to how some things are just plain beautiful. I personally believe we need beauty in our lives as much as we need air and water.

I also love the idea of wabi-sabi, kib. And actually, Steve, I do see that sometimes money is part of the equation in surrounding our homes with beauty, but I don't think a lot of money is a pre-requisite at all. For instance, when DH and I were looking for our first home, we almost bought one house that we immediately felt at home in. It was just such a good vibe. But the funny thing was, there was not one thing that was expensive in it. The owner was a single mother who couldn't afford the house anymore. But she had a way of placing simple objects around that made it appealing and cozy and just a pleasure to be in.

Anyway, interesting discussion--thanks all.

[razz]

I like harmony in appearance, music, finance etc and find that beautiful.

[iris lilies]

... "Permaculture asks you to see beauty in a different way."



This just stirs up un-beautiful thoughts in my mind, but I applaud your teacher for saying this.

Our community garden diva insists on grass grass grass all around the community garden, a big wide swath of it! Meanwhile, we have people on a waiting list for beds. She refuses to give up the "green space" as she calls it for more veggie beds. bitch. Yet two blocks away we have a 33 acre park.

This is a nice topic, I will have to think on this for a while.

[iris lilies]

Here's what I think is beautiful: catherine and kib trading ideas. They are two of the best writers on this website. You chickies rock! It reminds me why I am destined to be a reader (there's nothing wrong with that!) and hey, good writers need readers.So group hug.

[SteveinMN]

Steve, I do see that sometimes money is part of the equation in surrounding our homes with beauty, but I don't think a lot of money is a pre-requisite at all.
Agreed. In many respects it is no more expensive to design something simple or beautiful or both as it is to design something that's hard to use or ugly or both. The devils, though, seem to be in not thinking far enough ahead and ending up over time with something that looks or behaves like it's been tacked together, or with something that falls into disfavor quickly because it doesn't work well or age well and becomes something no one wants around.

The examples I mentioned depend somewhat on money as they are not the majority choice of most buyers, so they're not the kind of thing one is likely to end up with by default. Then again, IKEA makes a lot of money off simple lines and a relatively simple buying process, and their stuff is not hugely expensive. Honestly, I love the sample rooms they've created to show off their stuff. It's very appealing to see how much living they can get into just a few hundred square feet -- Simplicity in its own way.

[ApatheticNoMore]

That all sounds kind of pedantic, but just points to how some things are just plain beautiful. I personally believe we need beauty in our lives as much as we need air and water.

so arty types are always preaching. well whatever makes one happy (at least if it's as harmless as making art :)). but I don't know that I experience any strong needs for everything to be beautiful (martha stewart i'm never going to be). what i do experience a strong need for is some daily connection to the natural world, just sunlight and plants and so on. but I'm often left kind of hungry in that regard. at least I have air and water (and fire, but not always earth like I said ...).

[Gregg]

Since both beauty and simplicity are such subjective terms my own diagram is likely to change with each object reviewed, season, sunrise, cup of coffee, etc. What I do notice is that most of the things in my life that I consider beautiful are things that most people would say are fairly simple. There are exceptions, but that is a general trend. I also notice that my desire for cleaner, more efficient design (aka less clutter) grows a little bit each year. I like to think that sensibility is like a flower blooming, opening up to more truth, becoming more enlightened. Realistically it's probably because my mind can't process as much information as fast as it used to, but I don't always need the whole truth.

[catherine]

Here's what I think is beautiful: catherine and kib trading ideas. They are two of the best writers on this website. You chickies rock! It reminds me why I am destined to be a reader (there's nothing wrong with that!) and hey, good writers need readers.So group hug.

Aw, shucks, iris lilies! Thank you! Hugs back.

[Miss Cellane]

Some things just need to work. I'd see a vegetable garden as one of those. Nice if it looks pretty, but totally not necessary. You need to be able to access the plants to weed and harvest--those are the main goals. If you have the time and energy to make it all look nice, more power to you. But it's not a requirement.

Right now, my living room has a mish-mash of furniture. I'd greatly prefer that all the colors coordinated better. I think the room would be more "beautiful" if they did. But for right now, getting the room functional so that more than one person can sit down and chat or watch TV is more important. Eventually, the chairs will get recovered and I'll get a sofa and the room will look the way I want it to. Right now, it works, the chairs are comfortable and there's places to put your drinks and books and feet, but it is not pretty.

What bothers me is when perfectly good things are thrown out because they don't meet the current definition of "beautiful." Every time I hear that a kitchen or bathroom looks "dated," I cringe. Because I know the next words are going to be, "It needs to be updated." Well, no, it doesn't. Not if everything *works*. If all the appliances work and the drains are clear and the cabinets can hold what you need them to hold, and do that without falling off the wall, and you aren't taking massive amounts of extra steps to prepare a meal, then the kitchen doesn't *need* anything.

What is being updated is the way it looks. Because tastes seem to change more rapidly these days and the kitchen that was the height of fashion 10 years ago is now considered to be ugly and hopeless outdated.

Another way of looking at it is those lovely cookies you see around Christmas time. Those cutouts with the beautiful decorations. How many times have you grabbed one of those cookies and bitten into it, only to be disappointed that the flavor was not nearly as nice as the decoration?

You need to determine what the chief function of a thing is. If it is to taste good, then focus on making it taste good, and make the appearance be secondary. If the function of a garden is to produce food, then focus on that first, and making it look pretty second. But if the function of a garden is to look pretty, focus on placing flowering plants in a pleasing pattern. If the primary purpose of the cookies you are baking is to be ornaments on a Christmas tree, forgo flavoring entirely and focus on the decoration.

It's wonderful when you can have both beauty and function. And I'm all for that whenever possible. But when you have only the time/energy/money to have one or the other, you need to focus on the main purpose.

[JaneV2.0]

so arty types are always preaching. well whatever makes one happy (at least if it's as harmless as making art :)). but I don't know that I experience any strong needs for everything to be beautiful (martha stewart i'm never going to be). what i do experience a strong need for is some daily connection to the natural world, just sunlight and plants and so on. but I'm often left kind of hungry in that regard. at least I have air and water (and fire, but not always earth like I said ...).

It's not like it's either/or. The big window in my "playroom" looks out on a thicket of natural growth--most notably a big madrona tree with berries the native wildlife enjoy getting drunk on this time of year. But if I look to my right or left there are a Central American wall hanging in bright colors, a couple of wall quilts (handmade by me; I have to get back to that), and all kinds of media just waiting for me to (clumsily) make something beautiful.

I like several kinds of decor, from Ikea, to Shaker, to cluttered eclectic, to lots of pattern and color, and natural beauty just as much. I have had dreams of a little house in the forest (jungle, when I was younger) all my life.

To try and stay on track (for once), beauty can be simple, but it doesn't have to be. I often cite my mother, who was a consummate (and unsung) decorator: our house was a riot of unexpected treasures from her forays into the Goodwill, garage sales, and flea markets. There was nothing simple about it, but it was undeniably charming.

[kib]

Aw, shucks, iris lilies! Thank you! Hugs back. Ditto from the pithy one. :thankyou: