Wabi Sabi V Modernism

MODERNISM Ostentatious | Materialistic | Perfection | Mass Production | Luxury | superiority | Progress	WABI SABI AESTHETICS (a cognitive mode that is sensitive to thought, emotive qualities of phenomena and things. Where something can be experienced and appreciated as art through the lens of beauty and taste)	WABI SABI applied to Environment| emotional states | moral and ethical states | spiritual orientation. Grounded in Zen Budism
Primarily expressed in the public domain Steel and glass buildings Production and globalisation Department stores commercialism	Primarily expressed in the private domain Stone and wood buildings Art and literature Boutiques independent shops	METAPHYSICAL BASIS: things are either devolving toward or evolving from nothingness. Idealizing moments in life
Implies a logical rational worldview That is absolute and looks for universal, prototypical solutions Success wealth status power luxury Ostentatious . one-upmanship Prestige Vanity	Implies an intuitive worldview Relative Looks for personal idiosyncratic solutions Spiritual richness, balance between pleasure and freedom Temporal events	SPIRITUAL VALUES: Truth comes from observation of nature, Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked detail. Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Spontaneity. Humanitarian philosophy. Modest
Mass-Produced/Modular Expresses faith in progress Future oriented	One-of-a-Kind and variable There is no progress Present oriented	STATE OF MIND: Acceptance of the inevitable and appreciation of the cosmic order. Inward and subjective Inherent incompleteness.
Romanticizes technology People adapting to machines Geometric, defined shapes and edges The box as metaphor, precise and contained.	Romanticizes Nature. People adapting to nature Organic, soft, vague shapes and edges. The bowl as metaphor, free and open at the top.  Ritualistic	MORAL PRECEPTS: Get rid of all that is unnecessary, Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy. Non-attachment. Not holding on to fixed ideas.
Man made materials Ostensibly slick Needs to be well maintained Purity makes its expression richer	Natural materials Ostensibly crude Accommodates to degradation, wearing down, corrosion, contamination and attrition makes it’s expression richer	BEAUTY: is defined where awareness of the feeling of pleasurable sensations emanates from something that makes us feel alive and connected to the world. That is compelling a sense of truth goodness and love.

Solicits the reduction of sensory information Is intolerant of ambiguity and contradiction Sameness. Standardisation Dominant convention Distinct Expansive	Solicits the expansion of sensory information Is comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction Undistinguished	Intuitive, non-verbal understanding of appreciation of beauty and simplicity. Non-verbal poetry.  One of the best reasons for living is to experience this.
Cool Generally light and bright Function and utility are primary values	Warm Generally dim and dark Function and utility are not so important Trivial and tentative Fascination and charm of physical things	Unpredictable, gracefulness in uncertainty, embracing poverty and simplicity, Highly Idiosyncratic
Perfect materiality is an ideal Shallow Surface deep High priced objects	Perfect immateriality is an ideal Deeper inner beauty	Eschewing slick aesthetic discourse. Where perfection might be lost, something else might be gained.
Ever lasting. fixed	To every thing there is a season. Unfixed unstable wonky	Perceiving something extraordinary in something ordinary insignificant and trivial. Changeable. Making the invisible visible.
Clinical, minimalist, gadgets, Sterile, spotless, smooth, Symmetrical perfection Accuracy, immaculate Designers names important	The suggestion of natural process Appreciation of the imperfect, irregular, intimate, unpretentious, earthly, murky and simple, flawed Rough textured, faint, tentative, delicate, subtle and Anonymous. Selfless agency.	IMPERFECTION: appreciation of entropy and degradation process. Thus Idealising the emphatic bond between objects and their beholder. (Could be between lovers, walking sticks, objects, photos etc..)

Technical and conceptual intervention	Appreciation of the stages of decomposition and spontaneous intervention	Entropy of love – awareness of the degradation and decomposition of love. Kindness to breaking down of relationships. The Demise of life and friendships.
Un touched, clean, preserved perfectly,		Objects have passed through the hand, culture, where the past connects to the eternal present.
DIGITAL progress Desensitization Loss of sensory information The BarCode	Requires effort encoding, Power failure External power source Virtual Binary structures. Pixels Digital displays, programming, software. Mandatory truncation	DIGITAL:. Effortless, uninterrupted interactions with real things. Actual form actual-ness Full bandwidth of actual reality Represents the archetypal,  analogue sensibility
REASON is superior to all other forms of cognition. SCIENCE: offers the ultimate solutions to mankind’s problems. The world is broken but in the future things will be better It is necessary for humans to master nature. Look for universal solutions to fit all instances and circumstances.		REASON is the only one of many equally important modes of cognition. SCIENCE: can only solve a limited range of mankind’s problems. The world simply ‘is’ and will always be so. Humans and nature are one, there is no master, there is no slave. Look for specific solutions for particular instances and circumstances.