"A Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic teaches us to appreciate--and enact--grace in every dimension, from the physical to the emotional,"--Amazon.com.

"From New Yorker staff writer and author Kyle Chayka comes a timely history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture itself. From coffee shops to rental apartments to social media posts the world round, a sleek and deceptively simple aesthetic has come to predominate. It's in the neon signs and exposed brick of an Internet cafe in Nairobi or the skeletal, modern furniture of an Airbnb in Portland. These...

For centuries, men and women have sought to express beauty in architecture and art. But, it is only recently that neuroscience has helped determine how and why beauty plays such an important role in our lives. Founded on a series of lectures architect Donald H. Ruggles has given over the past ten years, Beauty, Neuroscience and Architecture: Timeless Patterns and Their Impact on Our Well-Being postulates that beauty can and does make a vital difference...

"Sly as a fox and swift as a bird, Lou Alice is determined to leave each day a little more beautiful than she found it. But when she moves away from her little house, no one in town notices she's gone. No one, that is, except a little girl, who sets out to carry on Lou Alice's work. But doing so is not enough. Can the girl find a way of her own to make the world a little more beautiful?"--Provided by publisher.

18th century German philosopher, poet, and playwright, Friedrich Schiller began writing while he was in the army. Commanded to stop by his superiors he deserted the army, moved to another country, and began writing under a false name. Schiller was a deep-thinker on ethics and aesthetics. His beliefs held that beauty is not just an aesthetic experience, but that it is also connected with goodness. An essay on aesthetics first published in 1794, "On...

Erotic encounters have been celebrated by artists from the beginning of time. This irresistible volume presents 120 of the most engagingly erotic paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings from diverse eras and cultures, coupled with revealing commentaries about their sexual and aesthetic content. Organised unlike any other collection of erotic images, The Art of Arousal traces the course of a sensual relationship. It begins by examining the elements...

In the adorably different town of Uglyville, weird is celebrated, strange is special, and beauty is embraced as more than simply meets the eye. Moxy loves her square-peg life in this round-hole town, but her curiosity about all things leads her to wonder if there's something, anything, on the other side of the mountain which nestles Uglyville. Moxy gathers a group of her closest friends and sets off to find what's on the other side in search of the...

William Desmond argues that philosophy, religion, and art begin in wonder. Desmond is widely recognized for his original metaphysics and his provocative philosophy of religion. Desmond's extensive writings on aesthetics, art, and literature, however, have received much less attention. Wonder Strikes is the first book-length examination of these dimensions of Desmond's thought. It offers nuanced commentary on his treatment of beauty and the sublime;...

Is there too much violence in hip-hop music? What's the difference between Kimberly Jones and the artist Lil' Kim? Is hip-hop culture a "black" thing? Is it okay for N. W. A. to call themselves niggaz and for Dave Chappelle to call everybody bitches? These witty, provocative essays ponder these and other thorny questions, linking the searing cultural issues implicit - and often explicit - in hip-hop to the weighty matters examined by the great philosophers...

We encounter in our lives things and situations that elicit from us special forms of attention. They affect and inform us in various ways, drawing us in and holding us in their grasp or turning us away. Works of art of all sorts, and nature in its myriad manifestations, exemplify these luring and repelling qualities and potencies. Dimensions of Aesthetic Encounters explores central perceptual, interpretative, and semiotic dimensions of these encounters,...