Tyler Cowen of the Marginal Revolution blog posted a short video meant as a preview of a long movie project discussing how we have eliminated ordinary beauty from our lives in the name of efficiency.
Sheehan Quirke moves about London comparing ornate, though mass produced objects from the Victorian era like lamp posts, door fixtures, etc., arguing that design has moved toward simple functionality and abandoned offering beauty in every day objects.
Perhaps the most striking example he provides is at the 6:50 mark when he introduces a location as being in Parliament before revealing the ornate room is actually located in a sewage pumping station, stating
Well people worked here and why shouldn’t people who work in sewers also have a beautiful place of work?
I have to think there is more to the story than the room being a reflection of Victorian sensibilities. Not too earlier he notes a neighborhood he was walking through was likely an overcrowded tenement area with sewage openly rotting in the streets. Beauty was not a priority everywhere.
As a commenter on the Marginal Revolution post noted, there is likely a bit of survivorship bias in operation where the really ugly sewage stations have all been razed while the gorgeous one has been preserved as a tourist attraction.
His point still bears considering. He didn’t mention it directly but I did start to wonder if the reduction of every day beauty in small things around us has resulted in an reduction of appreciation of art and culture. Perhaps even impacting the perception that one has the capacity to be creative.
I am reminded of the manhole covers in Japanese cities which evoke aspects of particular pride for that locale.
In the interviews with the former NEA chairs I posted on Monday, one of the chairs, (Bill Ivey, I think) mentioned the NEA has a program that helps mayors solve design problems in their city. I had no idea. I expected the program had been dissolved since Ivey’s tenure but it indeed still exists.
So if a community wanted to start thinking about how to integrate small pieces of beauty into everyday life, that NEA program might be a place to start.
