Aesthetic judgment is the processing of social relations

Evidence

Ngai’s books Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (2012) and Theory of the Gimmick (2020) share the premise that the processing of aesthetics—in her case, aesthetic judgment (the practices and frames through which we assess the value of a work of art in accordance with a social imaginary of other’s parallel assessments)—is also the processing of social relations. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 369

Categorization

• DEFINE: The reader’s exact need: naming the aesthetic categories (‘cute’,‘gimmick’,‘interesting’) as mediated vertices of social judgment.
• XREF: connects to: When aesthetic judgment favors space over time, spatial practices dominate social action. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1300; Aesthetic convention can overrule biological health cues in mate preference — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 135; Aesthetic preference often quietly drives ecological choices — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 722 (+2 more)