Menu
Donate
SIGN IN

Philosophy

Essays and videos on philosophy, the history of ideas, ethics and life’s big questions
The art of rules | Aeon
Save

essay

Art

The art of rules

Conceptual art often confounds. The key is to understand the rules of the artwork and the aesthetic experiences they yield

Sherri Irvin

The sonnet machine | Aeon
Save

essay

Stories and literature

The sonnet machine

A sonnet contains an emotional drama of illusion and deception, crisis and resolution, crafted to make us think and feel

Timothy Hampton

Drawings of my BF | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

Patterns of the lifeworld | Aeon
Save

essay

Beauty and aesthetics

Patterns of the lifeworld

Machine learning theory is shedding new light on how to think about the mysterious and ineffable nature of art

Peli Grietzer

Dark Goya | Aeon
Save

video

Art

Tracing Goya’s ‘dark’ journey from Spanish court painter to macabre visionary

51 minutes

Where went the wolf? | Aeon
Save

essay

Animals and humans

Where went the wolf?

The very attributes that make small dogs cute and popular are slowly strangling their ability to function as real animals

Jessica Pierce

The impossible architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée | Aeon
Save

video

Architecture

The radically impractical 18th-century architect whose ideas on beauty endure

19 minutes

Chemical somnia | Aeon
Save

video

Chemistry

A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations

4 minutes

The first Romantics | Aeon
Save

essay

History of ideas

The first Romantics

How a close group of brilliant friends, in a tiny German university town, laid the foundations of modern consciousness

Andrea Wulf

Attuned to the aesthetic | Aeon
Save

essay

Beauty and aesthetics

Attuned to the aesthetic

The ultimate value of the world can be discovered if you are sensitive to what is beautiful

Tom Cochrane

The science of symmetry | Aeon
Save

video

Evolution

Symmetry rules life on Earth – but it comes with many fascinating exceptions

9 minutes

What does art do? | Aeon
Save

essay

Beauty and aesthetics

What does art do?

Good art, laced with irony, ambiguity and suspense, is not obviously political. That’s what makes it politically interesting

Vid Simoniti

Not just a bowl of fruit | Aeon
Save

video

Ageing and death

‘It’s not beautiful, but it’s interesting’ – an ageing nude model surveys her body

4 minutes

Great art explained: Rothko’s Seagram Murals | Aeon
Save

video

Art

Can art in a swanky restaurant ever be transcendent? On Rothko’s Seagram Murals

15 minutes

Ed and Pauline | Aeon
Save

video

Film and visual culture

At the movies with Pauline Kael – in the arthouse cinema where she got her start

19 minutes

The modern invention of white antique marble | Aeon
Save

video

Archaeology

Ancient Greek sculptures were colourful. Why does the white marble ideal persist?

6 minutes

EXCLUSIVEAnémic cinéma | Aeon
Save

video

Art

Dizzying discs and obscene wordplay – revisiting Marcel Duchamp’s 1926 film debut

7 minutes

James Wines: nature’s revenge | Aeon
Save

video

Architecture

Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design

9 minutes

John Ruskin: in awe of nature | Aeon
Save

video

Beauty and aesthetics

For Ruskin, words couldn’t capture nature’s palette. So here it is in black and white

6 minutes

Who decides what art means? | Aeon
Save

video

Beauty and aesthetics

Does the artist’s intention matter, or is it indeed all in the eye of the beholder?

4 minutes

The painter who revolutionised landscapes | Aeon
Save

video

Beauty and aesthetics

Why Caspar David Friedrich pits nature’s grandeur against the humble human

7 minutes

The six sides of Merce Cunningham | Aeon
Save

video

Dance and theatre

Technology, philosophy, randomness – how Merce Cunningham pushed dance to its limits

7 minutes

Great art explained: Mona Lisa | Aeon
Save

video

Beauty and aesthetics

Not just a meme, but a masterpiece – why the Mona Lisa earns its exalted place in art

33 minutes

The beautiful experiment | Aeon
Save

essay

Philosophy of science

The beautiful experiment

Science has become extraordinarily technocratic and complex. Is the simple and decisive experiment still a worthy ideal?

Milena Ivanova