Today's selection -- from The Elephant In The Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson.
The impact of extrinsic factors on what we consider to be valuable:
"Consider the lobster -- as David Foster Wallace invites us to do in an essay of the same name. 'Up until sometime in the 1800s,' writes Wallace,And from another of the internet's tiny treasures, Messy Nessy Chic, January 2017:
lobster was literally low-class food, eaten only by the poor and institutionalized. Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats. One reason for their low status was how plentiful lobsters were in old New England. 'Unbelievable abundance' is how one source describes the situation."Today, of course, lobster is far less plentiful and much more expensive, and now it's considered a delicacy, 'only a step or two down from caviar.'
"A similar aesthetic shift occurred with skin color in Europe. When most people worked outdoors, suntanned skin was disdained as the mark of a low-status laborer. Light skin, in contrast, was prized as a mark of wealth; only the rich could afford to protect their skin by remaining indoors or else carrying parasols. Later, when jobs migrated to factories and offices, lighter skin became common and vulgar, and only the wealthy could afford to lay around soaking in the sun.
"Now, lobster and suntans may not be 'art' exactly, but we nevertheless experience them aesthetically, and they illustrate how profoundly our tastes can change in response to changes in extrinsic factors. Here, things that were once cheap and easy became precious and difficult, and therefore more valued. Typically, however, the extrinsic factors change in ways that make things easier rather than more difficult.
"Prior to the Industrial Revolution, when most items were made by hand, consumers unequivocally valued technical perfection in their art objects. Paintings and sculptures, for example, were prized for their realism, that is, how accurately they depicted their subject matter. Realism did two things for the viewer: it provided a rare and enjoyable sensory experience (intrinsic properties), and it demonstrated the artist's virtuosity (extrinsic properties)....MUCH MORE
There's Realism, There's Hyperrealism, There's Photo-Realism and Then There's This
From Messy Nessy Chic, January 2017:
I Refuse to Believe these are Paintings
I consider this a super human talent. Alien in fact. Seriously, why aren’t they checking this painter’s DNA for extra-terrestrial origins? His name is Yigal Ozeri, an oil painter from Isräel best-known for his cinematic-scale portraits of pretty girls hanging out with nature in perfect sunlight. Let me know when you see a brushstroke…
...Oh come ON! That’s a painting? My huge bulky professional camera doesn’t even take photographs this good…MUCH MORE
That last is vaguely reminiscent of Ophelia but kinda makes Millais look like an amateur:
I'm thinking of taking back my suggestion in 2016's "Yellen: Fed Should Explore Purchasing ‘Broader Range of Assets’" :
Fine wines, single family detached housing, Pre-Raphaelite paintings (esp. Millais) junk silver coins etc....The closest talent we've had on the blog is probably:
So, You Think You Can Draw? Ha! Meet Paul Cadden
whose pencil drawings are amazing but as Nessy says, Ozeri is from another universe.
Previously from Messy Nessy:
Construction Used to Be More Labor Intensive (and other pictures you may not have seen before) CMB
Picasso Pics For Sale, Cheap (chateau included)
The Man Who Sold The Eiffel Tower, Twice and A (bath) Room With A View
Art Institute of Chicago Recreates Van Gogh's Bedroom, Puts it On Airbnb
Huh, Apparently The Barbie Doll Began Life As a High-end German Call Girl Named Lilli
