since photography and design are art, I am curious: what kind of art/design/architecture do you like? Do you have one or more favorite artists/styles?
I am an art historian and I am specialized on Old Masters and Netherlandish art. I used to be very specialized, e.g. I had little access to modern/contemporary art, architecture in general or Italian and southern European art. But since 5 or 10 years, my horizon appears to get wider and wider. Some time ago I worked on a project about Raphael (it was my choice) and I think I performed better than I expected. Recently I went to the Moderne Galerie in SaarbrĂĽcken and loved almost everything in it including the architecture. As far as architecture is concerned, in general I prefer architecture before 1850, but I do not dislike modern and contemporary architecture. In fact there are very few artists or styles that I dislike, e.g. Historism.
My experience is that almost everybody likes (or loves) art, at least some kind of it (even the most uneducated people). Although it is true that people who are mainly interested in technology, science, physics and math have less access to art than other people. But there is evidence that even some animals like art, especially birds.
So what about you? I am very curious about your feedback.
I thought of one that you might not expect: disposable coffee cups with lids. One day someone dropped one on the ground; it didn’t spill.
Many disposable cups are well designed. I have read a book or two that mentioned the Dixie cup. Paper cups have been in use since the invention of paper.
Sadly, they aren’t environmentally friendly. Go to any food court or office and observe how often the staff discards the overflowing bags of trash.
It depends on the object or piece of art. As said, I like stuff that make me go I guess in the case of the cup, I do enjoy the everyday things, since I am an everyday type of person. One moment at a time.
Oh, almost forgot, still on the nerd taste, I link here the most bizarre, excentric web site I’ve ever came to know: Mental Landscape
In my personal, biased opinion (towards space exploration and stuff like that), I consider the whole web site as a work of art.
Interesting to stress that the author seems to be a specialist in image processing and apparently he has been given the opportunity to handle old soviet raws from their space probes to Venus (I’m not completely sure about this…), and he seems to have done his own processing. I find it super cool!
@gadolf I think “an atlas of space” has something to do or somehow derives from Pop Art @afre basically paper cups with lids are abstract sculptures (geometric abstraction)
Whenever a “what’s your favourite X” or “name your top five X” question is asked my brain reacts like it did to your question. A bit like when fireworks explode shooting trails in all directions only to quickly fade away leaving me with no answer.
For me its about context. The question has to be qualified. I see/learn/appreciate many different things in the work of many differences artists. I guess I’m trained to read and appreciate a range of expressions and not really set in one “style”. My own work doesn’t necessarily reflect what I find interesting in others.
I’m most of the time designing software. It is kind of art if you consider chess games to be art (not all of them). There I appreciate clear ideas and simplicity.
Not really, typically I’m avoiding work on GUI. GUI is usually implemented through highly hierarchical libraries, trees of classes, so simplicity and clear ideas are impossible. I am using Linux at home but unfortunately couldn’t find job where I will work on Linux. Windoza comes with clear idea, let us introduce new features and force suckers to replace old version with new one, some minor licensing fee involved
Usually I do system/backend. Few years ago they come (.NET) with some “tasks” what would be fire and forget threads, like runtime will manage those. It is nice for simple stuff but for something solid one needs control. It resulted in hundreds of threads were created and CPU started choking. Very innovative, should be avoided.
Hard question to answer really. I could not say I have a favorite artist I don’t really research that so I am not very well versed. What I can say that I am very passionate about environments. I love environmental art I am not so much a fan of portraiture. I like a lot of the stuff old masters did if it contains a environment. I could care less about the person in the painting depicted but the environment it takes place in really catches me. Even in something as famous as The Last Supper painting the shear lighting and detail of the environment is captivating.
From a technological perspective it is the same I love CG environments be it a still render, game, or movie.
For me environments pull on a lot of emotions, journeys, and tells stories. I guess that is why when I started photography as a hobby a couple months ago I was drawn heavily to nature as my subject.
Architecture while I really love Victorian style Architecture more then anything although some of the wild modern stuff is pretty inspiring as well.
@blj I think that’s one of the the most useful answers here so far but what exactly do you mean by “environment”? I suspect you mean interior and exterior/landscape (including cityscapes, seascapes etc.), or “views”. in Europen painting, there are several categories or genres such as history (religios/mytholgy, or in general the depictions of scenes with people, where something is happening), portrait, landscape, interior etc although some paintings are pretty much all of this. I also suspect you like in general the way space is rendered.
I guess in the case of the cup, I do enjoy the everyday things, since I am an everyday type of person. One moment at a time.
Tastes good too. 
