- A dialogue with Aesthetic Research Lab (ARL) -
A few weeks ago, Micheal Spicher PH.D., who is the founder of Aesthetic Research Lab (ARL), interviewed me on the topic of aesthetics and my work as an organisational consultant and facilitator. There are five main questions involved, you can read the summary and outline down below.
Click the link to read the full interview:
https://aestheticsresearch.com/2023/09/01/bringing-beauty-to-business-an-interview-with-bella-zhang/
1. What brought you to think about aesthetics in your career? And what do you mean by aesthetics?
...Every time I encounter beauty, I can feel a warm and magical sensation in my heart that always makes me smile...Most of us are under a lot of pressure to perform and focus too much on external stimuli. I firmly believe aesthetics provides an antidote to our stress and anxiety; it helps us reconnect to our senses and inner world, enabling us to practice “being” instead of “doing.”
2. How do you think aesthetics can benefit your work and the work of people in similar roles?
As a facilitator and a coach, I think it’s extremely important to redirect people’s awareness to the present moment and help them reconnect to their bodily senses and their surroundings. This allows them to be temporarily disconnected from their compulsory thought patterns and opens up an inner space that is ready to learn, share, and initiate change. Aesthetics is helpful in this process for both participants as well as facilitators and coaches; it helps us ground ourselves and reconnect to things we often overlook when we work on autopilot.
In addition, aesthetics helps people connect with each other. As human beings, we have an innate love of beauty. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or economic status, all of us can have an aesthetic response toward what we perceive through our senses...we can create an inclusive atmosphere and a common ground for dialogue by allowing participants to co-create an aesthetic experience together.
3. Why do you think people neglect or even dismiss, aesthetics as an important aspect of the business?
I think part of the reason is because it is so accessible. If you look for beauty, you see it everywhere. Just like the air we breathe in, it is deeply ingrained in our everyday lives, but we easily forget about its value and existence. And just like the air, our life is dependent on it. If oxygen is a necessity for our bodily survival, I’d say aesthetics brings emotional and spiritual nourishment to our existence...
...the traditional business approach or mindset has limited our understanding of business or what matters to business; too much emphasis is placed on short-term profitability...what is missing is the humane side of it. Ultimately, people who are running and working for the business are not machines, they are humans who have feelings, emotions, imaginations, and aesthetic needs. Therefore, we cannot take aesthetics out of the equation when talking about running a successful and sustainable business...
4. What do you hope to do in the next phase of your career? And in what way will aesthetics play a part? And how much of a part?
The next phase of my career will focus on well-being promotion and cultivating transformational growth for individuals, groups, organizations, and society as a whole. In this process, art, nature, and aesthetics work together to help restore balance and harmony toward an inclusive and sustainable future. Aesthetics plays a central role because it is an innate desire that connects us, and it is a transformative power that enables us to briefly transcend time and space, shifting our awareness to a state of equilibrium, peace, and joy...
...Many divisive voices permeate the news and the internet, and we are also facing enormous challenges ahead. It is time to come back to what connects us all: the longing for beauty. Through perceiving and sensing beauty, we can evoke the inner beauty that radiates the energy of love, kindness, and compassion to the world around us...
5. Can you tell me something that you think people misunderstand about aesthetics? And what can we do to help change that?
...One of the most stereotypical associations is “aesthetics = being pretty.” Aesthetics is indeed related to beauty, but at the same time, something can be beautiful but not necessarily pretty; these two are not the same thing. This misunderstanding might partly be a result of our spoken language...
Another misunderstanding is to think aesthetics can only be used in art. Indeed, we often talk about aesthetics when we look at artworks, but aesthetics means more than just art. Based on its original meaning in Ancient Greek, aesthetics means sensation and perception. Therefore, we can have an aesthetic experience when perceiving an artwork, but that does not mean aesthetics only exists in the art world...
...people often tend to think aesthetics only belongs to certain groups in society, or only certain people have the privilege to include aesthetics in their lives. This has led many to believe aesthetics is too untouchable...and has nothing to do with ordinary people’s everyday lives. ...Aesthetics exists in every moment of our life and is accessible to everyone...it can be something very subtle but extraordinary at the same time.
This summer I had a reflection on this topic, and my personal experience inspired me to write a short paragraph on aesthetics and the meaning it has brought into my life:
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