A FORMULA OF BEAUTY

THIS CONVERSATION took place years ago, 1986, to be exact:

“We all recognize that a 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso is better looking than a 1958 Buick,” I said, “but why is this so obvious to everyone from Giorgio Giugiaro to an Eskimo?”

“What’s the big deal?” responded Managing Editor Dottie, “just run two photos.”

Instead, we ran this wonderful illustration by Leo Bestgen. From R&T, July 1986.

I was persistent then; and I remain so 26 years later: Is there a metric, a mathematically analyzable description, of automotive beauty? Or of aesthetics in general?

This traces to a monograph on the subject, “Mathematics of Aesthetics,” by George David Birkhoff. It’s in The World of Mathematics, a classic four-volume collection of such essays.

The World of Mathematics, A small library of the literature of mathematics from A’h-mosé the Scribe to Albert Einstein, presented with commentaries and notes, by James R. Newman, Simon and Schuster, 1956. Both Amazon.com and ABEBooks.com list it.

Birkhoff’s analysis begins by looking at the object and sensing its harmony, its discord, its aesthetic effect on us. This takes some effort, depending largely on the thing’s complexity: A Fellini film wears us out, a Disney flick doesn’t. A hexagon generates more intellectual tension than a cirle.

With a car, each element requires a little episode of viewer concentration. The front fender sweep, A. The wheel design, B. The window shape, C. Also, many elements repeat: two front fenders, four wheels, etc. Let’s use a, b, and c for these corresponding repeats.

Then we can define a car’s (or any object’s) total complexity by

COMP = aA + bB + cC + ….

This is what we put into the aesthetic experience. Next, what do we get out of it?

We get sensations, prompted by associated ideas and feelings. Symmetry, for instance, is a visual pleasure. Repetition of a character line is another, as are elements in balance as well as combinations of color.  Underlying these and similar aesthetic pleasures is what’s known as “formal” order.

There’s another kind of aesthetic order that’s “connotative.” We appreciate the Lusso’s exhaust note not because of its particular tonal structure, but rather because we associate it with the car’s power, mechanism and mystique.

We identify the elements of order in a manner akin to our formulation of COMP. S might be the Lusso’s left/right symmetry; T, its echoing of a particular arc; U, the connotative order of its exhaust. And, once again, some of these repeat, s, t or u times.

Then ORD = sS + tT + uU +…. is the totality of order exhibited by the object we’re considering.

Finally, we define the object’s aesthetic merit, AEM = ORD/COMP.

In a sense, it’s measuring the density of order. If two objects are equally complex, the more orderly is aesthetically more pleasing. If two offer identical order, the less complex is better looking.

An 18-century Dutch philosopher, Frans Hemsterhuis, wrote “The Beautiful is that which gives us the greatest number of ideas in the shortest space of time.”

1958 Buick, left; 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, right.

Or, we could just run two photos. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2012