The Aesthetics of Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A little while back I blogged about the workrooms of famous men.\u00a0 Today comes news of a great-looking new book called Where They Create (Frame, 2012).\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/08\/the-aesthetics-of-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Aesthetics of Work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A little while back I blogged about the workrooms of famous men.\u00a0 Today comes news of a great-looking new book called Where They Create (Frame, 2012).\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/08\/the-aesthetics-of-work\/\" \/>\n<meta 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{"id":3719,"date":"2012-08-24T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=3719"},"modified":"2012-08-24T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T14:37:10","slug":"the-aesthetics-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2012\/08\/the-aesthetics-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aesthetics of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>A little while back I blogged about the workrooms of famous men.\u00a0 Today comes news of a great-looking new book called Where They Create<\/em><\/a> (Frame, 2012).\u00a0 It\u2019s very expensive and features the photography of a talented man named Paul Barbera.<\/p>\n

The little I\u2019ve seen from the PR of the book reminds me that aesthetics matter.\u00a0 Design has practical significance for our everyday lives.\u00a0 That may seem counterintuitive.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t we supposed to just, well, work in whatever surroundings we find ourselves?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t art\/design\/beauty ephemeral and unimportant?<\/p>\n

I go the other way.\u00a0 I think the physical environment you create matters.\u00a0 The cleanness of your desk, the pictures you hang on your wall, the natural lighting you favor over fluorescent lights, the chair in which you sit\u2013these things shape the way you think about your work.\u00a0 If you are in a messy, ugly environment, you have to fight against it in creating and working, I think.<\/p>\n

Of course, as I write this, I\u2019m reminded of Jonathan Edwards (everything reminds me of Jonathan Edwards).\u00a0 He did a good deal of his writing in what was essentially a closet.\u00a0 So there\u2019s some irony for you: the most aesthetic of evangelical theologians worked in a thoroughly plain setting.\u00a0 But\u2013and this is big\u2013Edwards absolutely relished <\/em>walks in the New England outdoors.<\/p>\n

That, my friends, is an office one can only dream of, and only an aesthetic God, the God who is himself beauty, can create.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"