Natural Beauty, Adorno, IG

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According to the Aesthetic Theory of Theodor W. Adorno — the major figure of the School of Frankfurt and the pioneer of Critical Theory — natural beauty, as nature unmediated, had been constructed as the opposite of technique. Idyllic nature is a construct of the age of romanticism which does not exist in the modern world. That is why Adorno says that natural beauty as presented in art is closer to the industrial than the natural. Art restores the natural in the concept of natural beauty “only when, like impressionist art, it incorporates nature’s wounds”. In other words: “The rigid concept of natural beauty thereby becomes dynamic. It is broadened by what is already no longer nature. Otherwise nature is degraded to a deceptive phantasm.”

The Ideology of Natural Beauty

Adorno takes this thought a step further. Not only natural beauty in art is a bourgeois construct but also the very idea of experiencing the beautiful in nature. For Adorno, the very idea of someone appreciating the unmediated, “objectively” beautiful in nature is an ideological scheme. This scheme has infiltrated our culture so effectively to the point that it is not considered as ideologically charged. We could argue that following this logic all the way to something that Adorno probably did not mean to say, the bourgeois assertion of natural beauty is much like the narcissist who self-congratulates himself that he must without a doubt be a really fine person for enjoying himself with such grace.

Instagram?

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Half a century after Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory the world is living in the age of social media. Instagram in particular the most picturesque-driven social media filled with engaging images that seduce us to like them. There is however a specific kind of Instagram post that seems to be working great next to Adorno’s statements above. That is images or videos of people pretending to enjoy stuff, particularly enjoying stuff in nature. Think of the image of a hand holding a cup of coffee in front of an extraordinary view from the top of a hill. On the first level, the image is visually appealing; a beautiful view and an enticing cup of coffee. On a second level, however, we can hear the image screaming “Look how capable I am of enjoying this simple moment in life: I am drinking coffee in front of this view”. But that person is not just relishing the moment; that person is not even relishing the act of thinking that he is enjoying the moment. That person is taking pleasure in displaying it. “The true experience of nature is unconscious”, says Adorno; “the moment it becomes a conscious endeavor, the natural is already lost”. I can hardly think of a more conscious way to experience things than an Instagrammer’s.

Now many people at this point will be ready to ask something like: what’s your problem man? Should we stop posting on Instagram? No problem whatsoever. I also post on Instagram but let’s not pretend that 90% of the influencers have the attention span to stand on a hill and spend 5 minutes taking in the view without looking at their phone once.

Oh no, I just fell into the same bourgeois trap that I was talking about at the beginning of this rant: natural-beauty shaming.