On Aesthetic Culture

Author: Zhang Jing
Editor:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: It should be noted that the popularization of mass taste can also bring many new contradictions and problems. From the perspective of cultural production, because of catering to mass taste, mediocre things may be hailed as trendy, while profound and noble things may seem outdated. This is the "vulgarity" tendency pointed out by Milan Kundera. From the perspective of cultural consumption, an excessive pursuit of popular taste may also foster and replicate people's superficial entertainment needs, or even produce certain distorted aesthetic tastes and psychological states, thereby forming a new focus in mass aesthetics—the conflict between refinement and vulgarity. It can be said that the emergence of popular culture has its historical necessity and practical rationality. It plays a positive role in promoting artistic democratization and satisfying people's diverse desires, as well as in promoting aesthetic liberation. However, when popular culture becomes a commodity and a pure object of consumption, or even descends into vulgarity, it may lead to the general decline of mass aesthetic taste. Only by reasonably overcoming the one-sided development of both refinement and vulgarity and properly regulating the relationship between production and consumption can we truly meet the diverse needs of human transformation and development in today's society.
Additionally, the consumption of contemporary aesthetic culture also manifests a reverence for pleasure. It gives rise to contemporary people's desire for "participation," "play," "leisure," "experience," as well as the demands for "entertainment" and "enjoyment." Its human-centric appeal is not solely focused on aesthetics and art; human consumption, including the ordinary state of life, also becomes poeticized and romanticized due to this reverence for pleasure. "Freedom" is no longer the indulgence of human nature, "consumption" is no longer the extravagance of human nature, and "enjoyment" cannot be simply seen as the decline of human nature. In fact, transforming material and utilitarian survival realities into a game-like and aesthetic attitude toward life is perhaps the deeper mystery behind contemporary people's reverence for pleasure.
Related to this is that reverence for pleasure also drives contemporary people to extremely value the group cultural atmosphere and aesthetic ritual effects in the process of survival, viewing them as important external mechanisms and cultural driving forces for generating pleasurable experiences. People have abandoned their past isolated and self-enclosed state, beginning to crave mutual communication and identification, and to feel the sense of cohesion and cultural centripetal force generated by groups, as well as the resonance effects of survival: participating in cultural hotlines, attending outdoor dance parties, celebrating festivals, and watching sports matches—individual, random, and entertainment-oriented gatherings are on the rise. Any public activities that are primarily centered on pleasure and carry ritualistic or game-like tendencies are widely loved and revered by contemporary people.
Although these modern public activities are somewhat commercialized, the special cultural centripetal and assimilative forces they contain are not merely a means of and, nor are they just about experiencing the charm of the revival of modern mythic rituals. For free individuals, their genuine cultural effects lie in providing a process of authentic and free development for human nature, dissolving the sense of boredom and boundless confusion. From an aesthetic perspective, pleasure and play may be a poetic and harmonious state of life.
Analyzing it from a philosophical level, one can find that the meaning of aesthetic pleasure lies in truly liberating the individual, freeing people from heavy spiritual oppression and real-life burdens, and granting them infinite survival space. Thus, pleasure nurtures free human nature. The original meaning and function of the term "aesthetic pleasure" also prove its intrinsic connection with the game of human beings, the recovery of human sensibility, the impulse of life, and freedom. The reason why pleasure in aesthetic activities is a free activity and nurtures the liberation and freedom of human nature lies in its ability to effectively overcome the opposition between subject and object, as well as the conflicts and antagonisms between sensibility and reason, instinct and spirit, desire and belief within human nature. If the unfreedom in material activities manifests as the opposition and conflict between subject and object, then the pleasure in aesthetic activities resolves this opposition spiritually, bringing subject and object into a unified and harmonious state, and achieving liberation. If the unfreedom in material activities stems from a "direct and one-sided enjoyment of things" relationship between subject and object, lacking the richness of human sensibility, then aesthetic pleasure, being more than just material enjoyment and instead a "sensory appropriation of objectified human beings and human creations," is a free activity.
It follows that the pleasure in aesthetic consumption has extremely important psychological effects and value.
Summary
Aesthetic culture represents the advanced form of human civilization and culture. As human survival and behavior increasingly demand aesthetic and spiritual freedom, and as human aesthetic consciousness expands and extends to all aspects of life, establishing a social cultural form dominated by human spiritual experience and aesthetic perspective becomes a historical necessity for aesthetic development. Aesthetic culture is born and matures in this historical transformation process. Unlike traditional aesthetic and artistic activities, aesthetic culture exhibits characteristics of sensuality, formalization, and consumption, with its marginalization and the generalization of aesthetic consciousness being particularly prominent. The production and consumption of aesthetic culture have also altered the attributes of traditional aesthetic and artistic activities, manifesting new phenomena and traits.
In terms of production, technical factors are increasingly prominent and elevated, with mass communication means being relied upon and utilized by aesthetic culture production. In terms of consumption, cultural sharing, the pursuit of taste, and reverence for pleasure are all notable issues in aesthetic culture consumption. For this reason, aesthetic culture research holds strong practical significance.
The Basic Contradictions of Contemporary Aesthetic Culture
Yao Wenfang
Contemporary aesthetic culture is a cultural form that emerged in modern commodity society, carried by mass communication media, and targeted at the urban masses. It differs significantly from previous cultural forms. Generally speaking, there are two key differences between contemporary aesthetic culture and other cultural forms: first, economic motives rise to become the dominant motive of cultural behavior; second, modern technology alters the intrinsic composition and operational methods of culture. These two points determine the two major basic contradictions of contemporary aesthetic culture: the opposition between economic impulse and cultural impulse, and the balance between technological content and humanistic content. The secrets of all contemporary aesthetic culture can largely be revealed through these two major basic contradictions.
1. The Pressure of Commodity Economy and Modern Technology
Contemporary aesthetic culture is an economic-type culture, with its effective operation driven by economic systems such as markets, transactions, and consumption, and its rise and fall determined by economic indicators like profits, returns, and sales. Thus, direct or indirect profit motives are pushed to the forefront. A simple principle is that if the goal of profit cannot be effectively achieved, then the operational process will inevitably slow down, stagnate, or even cease, and the business industry will face losses, closure, or bankruptcy. Therefore, every activity in the supply, demand, production, and sales of contemporary aesthetic culture must be organized according to the goal of profit, must adhere to business rules, grasp market dynamics, and align with consumption trends to maximize returns while minimizing potential damage.
In modern commodity society, the formation of this operational mechanism for contemporary aesthetic culture has its inevitability, but this very structure creates a misconception—the commercialization or commercialization tendency of culture. After all, contemporary aesthetic culture is a culture, and it is fundamentally different from general economic activities and material life. The characteristics of culture must still be guaranteed and respected here. Culture has an "otherness," "transcendence," and "criticism" toward direct reality, such as economic activities and material life. Marcuse proposed the concept of "advanced culture" to highlight this distinction. He pointed out that "advanced culture" constructs a different dimension distinct from direct reality by pursuing moral, aesthetic, and spiritual values, exhibiting an oppositional, otherworldly, and transcendent character to direct reality.
The oppositional, otherworldly, and transcendent nature of culture toward direct reality is the very soul of culture. Daniel Bell also believed that economics and culture have their own core principles and are mutually opposed. Economics is based on the "efficiency principle."