Learning the Aesthetics of Art

It is unusual if one grew up learning aesthetics through textbooks.

I grew up with games, then films, then new media, in that order. I learned what made them aesthetically good by experiencing them, always gradually gravitating toward newer (to me) aesthetic ideas. I learned of new media only once I moved to cities because they only exist there. They’re not circulated around the world as films, games, and books are.

Once an aesthetic idea is learned, it sticks. Any later experienced implementation of the same idea is outdated. For example, I read Watchmen first, the rest of comic books (including grpahic novels), seem outdated.

When one creates, the learned aesthetic ideas mingle. That is the wrong way to go about creating.