About the Project

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As the first lockdown began in March, like many people, I found myself spending far more time outdoors, often taking long walks with the dog, and catching glimpses of beauty everywhere along the way.

 

This autumn I began studying for an MA, learning about how beauty has been understood by the philosophers through the ages and just how hard a subject it is to pin down. Is beauty somehow ‘out there’ as Plato believed? Or is it entirely ‘in the eye of the beholder’ as Hume maintained? And what does it ‘do’ for us psychologically and spiritually when we have that mysterious experience of finding something beautiful?

 

As I read the many elaborate theories about how all this might work, I began wondering how people were actually experiencing beauty now, in this time of intense suffering and loss. I know how important beauty has been to me in these past six months and I wanted to see if I could gather together a record of how it has been for others.

 

So this is a project about sharing and exploring our experience of beauty during the pandemic.

 

I  hope that it will provide a place of hope and encouragement in these dark times.

 

Please share an experience if you can.