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The Four Quadrants of Esthetic Experience

Roberto Rodríguez Galán

Introduction

Throughout history, numerous authors have attempted to define what beauty is. However, no definition, no matter how comprehensive, can account for the entire variety of natural and artistic objects considered esthetically valuable. In this sense, it is more useful to understand the beautiful not as a fixed category, but as a zone or region within a broader esthetic territory. This work proposes the creation of a conceptual map that allows us to navigate this territory, integrating ideas from philosophy, sociology, psychology, and neuroscience within the same theoretical framework.

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Map configuration

First, we draw a horizontal line, which we will call the chaos-order axis. On this line, we can place all objects of experience, placing those that fit our pre-existing mental models to the right, and those that do not to the left. The former are orderly, predictable, and do not require much effort to be processed smoothly. The latter, on the other hand, seem chaotic, unpredictable, and difficult to process (Friston, 2010; Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004).

If an object is placed very close to the left end of the line, it is likely that we will not be able to understand it and it will seem ugly to us. On the other hand, if it is located near the far right end, its understanding will be too easy and it will seem boring to us. Only objects located within a specific range between the boring and the ugly can produce pleasure (Berlyne, 1971).

During this process, we not only adapt objects to our preexisting structures, but these structures also adjust to the object, generating knowledge (Piaget, 1952). In this context, the feeling of relief that arises as a consequence of the organization of chaos acts as a reward mechanism that motivates us to continue learning (Chatterjee, 2014).

In the early stages, processing is carried out in the primary areas of the cerebral cortex, but as we acquire more knowledge, it becomes more dependent on mental representations and previous experiences, activating the associative cortical areas (Zeki, 1999). We can represent this upward movement through a vertical axis, which goes from the sensory to the conceptual.

We thus obtain a Cartesian system with two axes, where we can draw the boundaries of the boring and the ugly as two vertical lines, generating a vertical strip of pleasure that we will divide into negative pleasure, closer to chaos, and positive pleasure, closer to order.

Finally, we divided the vertical axis according to the cognitive faculty involved in each type of knowledge, placing the senses at the bottom and reason at the top, and then, following the Aristotelian and Scholastic tradition, subdividing the senses into lower and higher, and reason into theoretical and practical.

This creates a map of sixteen quadrants. However, the type of experience we call "aesthetic" only occurs in the four central quadrants, where pleasure is neither purely sensory nor purely conceptual.

The four aesthetic quadrants

Next, we will analyze each of these four quadrants:

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  1. Positive sensory pleasure (Free beauty).

    It arises from the adaptation of form to our innate mental structures. We can subdivide it into two categories:

    1. The simple. It includes everything that possesses a certain degree of regularity that facilitates information processing: simple geometric shapes with defined edges and flat colors (Zeki, 1999), symmetry, continuous lines, and repetitive patterns (Wertheimer, 1923), harmonic proportions and self-similarity (Mandelbrot, 1982), etc.

    2. The safe. It includes everything that is easily processed by the brain, not because it is simple, but because it represented an evolutionary advantage for our ancestors for thousands of years: rounded shapes (Köhler, 1929; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001), visual stability and balance (Arnheim, 1974), open spaces with water and abundant vegetation (Dutton, 2009; Wilson, 1984), tender and juvenile traits (Lorenz, 1943), signs of health and genetic quality (Miller, 2000), etc.

  2. Negative sensory pleasure (Free sublime).

    It arises from the inadequacy of form to our innate mental structures. We can subdivide it into two categories:

    1. The complex. It includes everything that has a certain degree of irregularity that makes information processing difficult: shapes with poorly defined edges, irregular surfaces, complex or amorphous geometric figures, asymmetry, lack of proportion, visual noise, multiplicity, absence of recognizable patterns, etc.

    2. The dangerous. It includes everything that is processed with difficulty by the brain, not because it is complex, but because it represented a threat to our ancestors for thousands of years: angular shapes (Köhler, 1929; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001), visual instability and imbalance (Arnheim, 1974), bodies with a sickly appearance (Dutton, 2009), inhospitable environments, destructive forces of nature (Ishizu & Zeki, 2014), etc.

  3. Positive conceptual pleasure (Dependent beauty).

    It arises from the adaptation of form to our learned mental structures. We can subdivide it into two categories:

    1. The familiar. It includes everything that resembles what we already know, which facilitates information processing: everyday objects, childhood memories, recognizable environments, archetypal forms, prototypicality (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004), etcetera.

    2. The normative. It includes everything that is easily processed by the brain, but not because it is familiar to us, rather because it is socially accepted: demonstrations of wealth and power (Veblen, 1899), art validated by cultural institutions (Dickie, 1974), symbols of belonging or social distinction (Bourdieu, 1979), etcetera.

  4. Negative conceptual pleasure (Dependent sublime).

    It arises from the inadequacy of the form to our learned mental structures. We can subdivide it into two categories:

    1. The strange. It includes everything that differs from what we already know, which makes information processing more difficult: objects without a clear function or meaning, unusual shapes, avant-garde art, etc.

    2. The subversive. It includes everything that is processed with difficulty by the brain, but not because it seems strange to us, rather because it challenges the established order: social criticism, provocative art, transgression of moral and esthetic norms, countercultural expressions, etc.

Dialectic of the quadrants

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Dialectic of the quadrants

These four quadrants of the esthetic experience do not exist in isolation, but rather relate to each other dialectically, following the "thesis-antithesis-synthesis" formula. We can illustrate this process with four examples of works about Christ and the crucifixion, each representing a different stage in the development of the idea. The examples do not necessarily follow a chronological order, as the dialectical process repeats itself time and again throughout history:

  1. Thesis: Christ of the Minerva by Michelangelo (free beauty). The figure shows a perfect, healthy body, reminiscent of the ideals of Greek sculpture: harmonious proportions, defined musculature, serene expression, etc. Its clarity and balance generate an immediate, almost instinctive perceptual pleasure, as a result of hundreds of thousands of years of natural and sexual selection.

  2. Antithesis: The Crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald (sublime free). The image is raw and direct: a man is dying nailed to a wooden cross, with bleeding wounds and lacerations that cause him extreme pain. If we were to encounter this scene in real life, we would probably look away, horrified, because its intensity exceeds what our mind is capable of assimilating. We are therefore compelled to create new cognitive structures that facilitate processing, elevating consciousness to a more conceptual plane that allows it to recognize its own safety and overcome fear, through a process of "catharsis."

  3. Synthesis / new thesis: Crucifix of Arezzo by Cimabue (dependent beauty). Here, the figure of the tortured man has become an object that is no longer valued solely for its physical characteristics, but for the associations that—consciously or unconsciously—we make based on the cognitive structures we had to create. Thus, the cross goes from representing punishment and death to symbolizing forgiveness and salvation within a religious and ritual context. In this way, the object acquires a special "aura," which reinforces the social structures upon which its beauty depends.

  4. Antithesis of the new thesis: Christ in Urine by Andrés Serrano (sublime dependent). The light and golden tones in the photograph may seem beautiful at first glance, but knowing that the artist achieved this effect by submerging the crucifix in his own urine challenges our socially consolidated cognitive structures and generates discomfort, inviting us to question the true essence of the sacred: should we really feel offended by a plastic object submerged in urine, or is what matters the faith, morality, and Christian values that transcend the iconographic? The work of art thus becomes a tool for critical thinking, enabling access to a pleasure, no longer of the pleasant or the beautiful, but of the good or the useful.

Using the map

Consciously or unconsciously, the artist or designer will try to position their work in one of the four quadrants, depending on the effect they want to achieve with it:

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  1. n Free Beauty, if what you seek is perceptual harmony.

  2. In Sublime Libre if what you're looking for is emotional intensity.

  3. In dependent beauty if what you seek is social validation.

  4. And in Sublime Text, it depends if what you're looking for is intellectual depth.

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This alone does not guaranty that the work will bring us pleasure, but it does provide a heuristic model that can guide the creative process and esthetic analysis, as long as the following is taken into account:
 

  1. That chaos and order are not absolute values, but relative to the mental models of the subject at a given moment.​

  2. That the quadrants should be understood as regions within a continuous space and not as airtight compartments.

  3. That a single work can be located in multiple quadrants at once, through multiple layers of meaning or esthetic dimensions.

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In this way, the map becomes a tool that allows us to study the esthetic experience systematically, while also helping us place our own taste within a larger spectrum of possible esthetic experiences.

Sources

Arnheim, R. (1974). Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye (New Version). University of California Press.

 

Berlyne, D. E. (1971). Aesthetics and Psychobiology. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

 

Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.

 

Chatterjee, A. (2014). The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art. Oxford University Press.

 

Dickie, G. (1974). Art and the aesthetic: An institutional analysis. Cornell University Press.

 

Dutton, D. (2009). The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution. Bloomsbury Press.

 

Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138.

 

Ishizu, T., & Zeki, S. (2014). A neurobiological enquiry into the origins of our experience of the sublime and beautiful. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 891.

 

Köhler, W. (1929). Gestalt Psychology. Liveright.

 

Lorenz, K. (1943). Die angeborenen Formen möglicher Erfahrung. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 5(2), 235–409.

 

Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The fractal geometry of nature. W. H. Freeman and Company.

 

Miller, G. (2000). The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature. Doubleday.

 

Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. International Universities Press.

 

Ramachandran, V. S., & Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synaesthesia—A Window Into Perception, Thought and Language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(12), 3–34.

 

Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(4), 364–382.

 

Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. Macmillan.

 

Wertheimer, M. (1923). Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt II. Psychologische Forschung, 4(1), 301–350.

 

Wilson, E. O. (1984). Biophilia. Harvard University Press.

 

Zeki, S. (1999). Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain. Oxford University Press.

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