The Aesthetics of Decay: Nothingness, Nostalgia, and the Absence of Reason

by Dylan Trigg

In The Aesthetics of Decay , Dylan Trigg confronts the remnants from the fallout of post-industrialism and postmodernism. Through a considered analysis of memory, place, and nostalgia, Trigg argues that the decline of reason enables a critique of progress to emerge. In this ambitious work, Trigg aims to reassess the direction of progress by situating it in a spatial context. In doing so, he applies his critique of rationality to modern ruins. The derelict factory, abandoned asylum, and urban alleyway all become allies in Trigg’s attack on a fixed image of temporality and progress. The Aesthetics of Decay offers a model of post-rational aesthetics in which spatial order is challenged by an affirmative ethics of ruin.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Art

265 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rhesa]

My 3rd hit list of this year. This book is a great companion to Yi Fu Tuan, Jonathan Dollimore & Simon Schama...

[Liz]

Some very useful concepts but a bit of a slog. I was interested in the idea that all preservationist impulses (and ecological impulses) stem from a terror of entropy — which I think Trigg sees as the ultimate truth