I think it is when someone sees something in someone else that reminds their own mind of some shadow in oneself. A reflection so to speak.

Rich

"I think there is a lot about what constitutes ugly, be it association,sublime stimulus etc, things that evoke negative emotional and perceptual reactions in people in other words, are deemed ugly for a number of reasons and we go to those reasons at great length. But what makes something Beautiful"?

William

suppose we are talking about something other than people? i dont think any people are ugly-i used to, but i dont any more.

what is ugly to me are house lizards, earthworms, fish, and i cant think of anything else offhand right now. so why do i think they are ugly? the first two are ugly colors and color is important to me; also they have a creepy way of moving. but fish are sometimes beautiful colors, yet i find them extremely ugly because they have no arms and legs and not even a neck-they are like impossible living things that dont make any sense at all.

but i dont really know why i think they are ugly. i am assuming it is because of some unconscious association. i would like not to find anything ugly.

maybe it is because these three things are what i would want to be least if i had to choose something? i know people who like lizards and fish, but i never knew anybody who actually liked earthworms. now i will probably have nightmares....:eek:

What makes people ugly? disrespect, that's one I can think of now oh and selfishness, (and im not talking about something like taking a longer hot bath than usual), and greed.

'Ugly', like 'beauty', is in the beholder.

There are many factors involved.

The thing deemed ugly may offend ones own sense of visual harmony. It may cause discomfort within the person, confusion or fear.
I don't think it merely stops at the thing in itself but the thoughts that are triggered in association with the thing.

Something "ugly" is something that conflicts with the mind's personal idea of "beauty," and vise versa. Really, neither beauty nor ugly exist, the mind has a way of formulating a negative and positive response through the imagery and auditories it is presented with.

The view you took upon something makes that something ugly.

Ugly is modular and scalar to beauty, in the set.

While death can be more ugly than life, the sustainable reproduction of this trajectory, causes more sets.

This inevitably leads to the known/unknown set of life-after-death, which seems to be in constant negotiation, Just as we are... or are not.

I think that uglyness is defined by ineffeciency and ineffectiveness in the evolutionary sense of the terms. And in art it is defined by that as well in effeciency nad in effectiveness of the art it self.

Perception. The intent of the artist means nothing. It is the perception of the observers that makes something ugly. If the artist deems their art to be ugly, then it is ugly to them. If they deem it to be beautiful, it is beautiful for them. There is no determined answer for this because it is in the eye of the beholder.

Jamie

"ugly" is what ever one feels, in contrast, to what gives them pleasure (beauty). "

Waste constitutes that which is ugly. That which is not essential, that which has and/or serves no purpose is ugly. As symmetry and efficiency are beautiful, so is dyssemetry, and impotence the hallmarks of hideousness.