Why beauty matters
Alan Moore explains why we should strive to create beauty in everything
I have always been fascinated by beautiful things: architecture, furniture, books. Beautiful things are prepared with love. The act of creating something of beauty is a way of bringing good into the world. Infused with optimism, it says simply: Life is worthwhile.
The effort to create enduring beauty is not dependent on style but truth. Beauty is what lends things their immortality.
These objects outlive their creators. They are a gift their creators give to the world. Beauty is resilient, it is life-affirming, it gives back to create more life.
We were all born inherently creative. We all have the capacity to bring beautiful things into this world and should be unapologetic about wanting to create them, whatever they are.
Ask yourself this simple question: Do I want a beautiful meal or a dreary one? A beautiful relationship or an ugly one? To live a beautiful life or an average one? Work for, or create, a remarkable business, product or service, or mediocre ones? There is of course range in what we call beauty, but in the end the truth is that beautiful things endure.
When astronauts go into space and look down at the earth they find themselves having a deep spiritual connection with it that is both shocking and beautiful. Theirs is a profound epiphany — a realisation of the inseparable relationship between the cosmos, the earth and humanity. It is a moment of transformation, of catharsis, an irreversible cognitive shift.
This experience is called the overview effect — the moment of seeing at first hand the reality of the earth in space. It is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. Again and again astronauts talk about the overwhelming, almost indescribable beauty, and an awareness that the sun, the moon and the earth, our universe, us, are all made from the same atomic stuff.
We are all interconnected at the level of atoms. The earth is one system, we are all part of that system and there is a certain unity to it, which also has implications for us all.
Edgar Mitchell, scientist, astronaut and lunar pilot from the third lunar landing, experienced this transcendental moment. He wanted to understand it better, more deeply. Returning to earth, Mitchell sought out literature that might explain what was to him a profound, life-changing, even sacred encounter. He found an explanation not in modern religious or scientific texts, but in ancient literature. The term used was salve corpus amanti, literally translated as ‘save the lover’s body’. This is Mitchell’s interpretation of this phrase:
‘You see things as you see them with your eyes but you experience them emotionally and viscerally as if it was ecstasy and a sense of total unity and oneness. The molecules in my body and the molecules in my partners’ bodies, and in the spacecraft had been prototyped in some ancient generation’s stars. In other words, it was pretty obvious … we’re all stardust.’
From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide people become less important, and they feel an overwhelming need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect. This becomes both blindingly obvious and imperative. They speak of unity, rather than discord. They speak about humanity rather than nationality, acquiring a deeper insight into what unity really means.
Many astronauts come home with the purpose and conviction that they must contribute to the future of both the natural world and humanity. They have a calling, an incessant striving for a better way to live, to exist.
We can use design to work on behalf of the human spirit, to uplift us physically and spiritually, to connect us to our human nature. Design elevates, nurtures and improves our lot. It intertwines our spiritual and material wellbeing.
It is my hope that Do Design inspires, guides, and shows how we might so elegantly create for enduring beauty — and explores how we can design and create beautiful products, services, art and culture, stuff filled with so much optimism that it lifts us up.
Adapted from Do Design: Why beauty is key to everything. by Alan Moore (alansmlxl). Copyright © 2016 by Alan Moore. Published by The Do Book Co.
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