Dear Student,
In our last MasterClass, I explored the impact of AI on Aesthetic Intelligence. Specifically, I asked whether artificial intelligence is actually intelligent? And, more importantly, how can we all leverage the benefits of technology, while still maintaining a distinct and sustainable human advantage?
Today, I want to turn that lens inward and pose a more personal and revealing question:
Where does taste come from? Why are we each drawn to certain images, objects, people, brands or ideas, while others leave us cold?
Our aesthetic tastes are the most intimate and authentic expressions of who we are, and they are shaped by a confluence of external forces. In this MasterClass, we will begin to uncover those forces. Not in the abstract, but at their source: the biological, ecological, and genetic foundations that shape what we each perceive as “good,” appealing, and desirable.
This is the first of a two-part inquiry. We begin with evolutionary aesthetics: how certain preferences were developed as mechanisms for survival and flourishing.
In the following session, we’ll explore how culture and society refine, reinforce, and elevate - or distort - those instinctive preferences.
If you want to sharpen your taste, you must first understand where it comes from. And as you’ll see, it’s less random - and more patterned - than you may have expected.
