Educational articles

Gintaras Šeputis / Photo by V. Makovskaja

The second claim concerns Apple. I have been a fan of Apple since 1991, when I first learned how to use its computer - the first one. "Apple is not only a brand, but also a way of living. Aesthetics are extremely important here. Anyone who has had to deal with the unboxing of these products knows exactly what I am talking about: "Unboxing an Apple product is a kind of process that is accompanied by sensations - touch, smell. The company's founder, Steve Jobs, has said that it is in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough. He said that Apple is about technology combined with the visual arts, with the humanities, to deliver results that make our hearts happy. In other words, the human being is at the centre of technology, not the other way round.

The third allegation concerns Kiren Rijiju, India's Minister of Earth Sciences, who posted a video on social media showing monkeys handling his phone. The video shows how they are perfectly capable of scrolling, changing and resizing images. The caption read: "Look at this - digital literacy awareness has reached an incredible level". In fact, that UX (User Experience) movement is linked to certain trends: natural vs. artificial, guessing vs. memorising. Products are designed as if they were designed for a three-year-old child. They are very easy and natural to use. Their design is essentially automatically intuitive.

The last statement is about the perception of beauty. In 2023, two American scientists - Dimitre Dimitrov and George Kroumpouzos - published the results of their research, which shows that each person's perception of beauty is influenced by their environment and perceptual adaptation, i.e. by processes based on experience: the environment in which we grew up and act has a direct influence on us.

We can experience beauty by observing nature: the proportions found in nature are everywhere and always recognised as perfect, universal. This can also be the case with works of art. Today, there is no doubt that art can have a therapeutic and recreational function - through the experience of aesthetics, proportion and beauty. In the UK, for example, paintings hung in medical institutions are carefully selected by experts. Meanwhile, in one of Vilnius' hospitals, stock photographs hang on the walls, where figures made up of little people communicate the institution's respective attitude towards people. Such things have a direct impact on our well-being, perception and creativity.

What conclusions can be drawn from all this?

1. Business creators should understand that it is business that creates the world every day through products, services and activities. Not public administration, not education, but business. Very often, entrepreneurs are reluctant to invest in innovation, especially in the early stages of product development, especially when it comes to design. If you can convince them, the business wins big.

2. Business needs an aesthetic environment. There are studies that show that the turnover of people in companies is lower if the environment is pleasant and inspires them to create.

3. Quality and professionalism are usually linked to aesthetics. The higher the quality, the more value there is in the objects created.

4. We admire aesthetic things regardless of time and fashion - whether it's been 100, 200 years or more.

Summary of the presentation "Aesthetics for Business" by G. Šeputis. HAI Institute event "Living Aesthetics in Future Business Strategies", Vilnius, 2023