In 2007, if memory serves me right, Umberto Eco released a book titled "On Ugliness". Throughout the work, we're treated to insights on the perception of Ugliness throughout history, not just in the realm of arts but also in economics and semiotics.
St. Thomas Aquinas once said that the first of the three qualities of beauty was wholeness. Something incomplete was deemed Ugly.
Jacques de Vitry wrote that the Cyclopes were ugly, whether they had three eyes or just one.
A gem from Iamblichus (an Arab philosopher) in his book "Life of Pythagoras" goes like this: "Only beauty orders symmetry." and "conversely, ugliness disorders symmetry."
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At one point in the book, Umberto Eco tries to gather the concepts about Ugliness under a broader philosophical notion, and he comes up with this brilliant idea! Nonconformity! We tend to perceive something Nonconforming as Ugly.
Notice how the concept of Wholeness, in St. Thomas Aquinas, falls into this definition. Something complete is Beautiful, something incomplete is Ugly. A human being who, unfortunately, lacks a limb, a fence left incomplete or a tree without branches.
Both Jacques de Vitry's Cyclopes and Pythagoras's notion of asymmetry can also fit the idea of Nonconformity - what doesn't fit into the regularity or the status quo, either visual, social, economical, etc. designated by Eco as Conformity.
Ugliness is Nonconformity.
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© WATCH GARAGE
With all of this I've already lost track a bit and the idea is to talk about the Seiko "Ripley" 7A28-7000.
I'm sure if Pythagoras saw the famous Seiko Ripley, he'd have a fit. This ironic watch is anything but symmetrical.
It's also a cyclops which would lead Jacques de Vitry to challenge Giorgetto Giugiaro, the designer of the Seiko Ripley, to a duel at dawn.
As for Thomas Aquinas, he would look horrified at this creation of the Demon!
No, dear Thomas Aquinas, it's not a creation of the Demon, it's what you wear on your wrist when you're out fighting demons, get it? Aliens!
It's out of character for me to get a bit snappy, and I get that those thinkers were from a whole different era. But imagine Pythagoras, rescued after a 57-year deep space sleep, only to find himself on a mission to save a little girl from an alien-infested colony! I mean, that wasn't exactly in his syllabus, was it?
Or Imagine Jacques de Vitry encountering those "space Cyclopes." The moment he sees a little alien popping out of the big one's mouth, that's when you'd really see philosophy take a wild turn!
© WATCH GARAGE
© WATCH GARAGE
© WATCH GARAGE
In the words of Elvis Presley, a little less conversation a little more action please, Lt. Ripley gets down to business and saves the day with the 7A28-7000 on her wrist!
With all its asymmetries and peculiarities, it's a watch born of a stroke of genius design, iconic and forever linked to one of the greatest science fiction sagas.
Is there anything cooler than that?
Thank you André for the beautiful pictures!
