The most common meaning of “aesthetics” today associates it with beauty. We use this term to refer to principles and techniques to make something beautiful, and to our experiences of that beauty. It comes from the ancient Greek _aisthetikos_, which meant “esthetic, sensitive, sentient, pertaining to sense perception”; that word was derived from _aisthanesthai_, meaning “I perceive, feel, sense.” Many human cultures developed explicit principles and rules to be used in order to achieve beauty. Such principles may concern proportion, symmetry, harmony, composition, use of colors, narrative organization, and so on. In between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries in the West, many philosophers developed theories of aesthetic experience, while art academies were teaching artists the practical principles to make beautiful artworks. In the twentieth century, such prescriptive aesthetic systems became less important, but some principles remain widely used (such as Euclid’s golden ratio). Modernist photographers, artists, and architects such as Le Corbusier continued to use the golden ratio as fundamental to their works. The concept of “aesthetics” has a unique relation to media studies. I can’t think of another concept that is so central to the modern culture industries and yet also to the creation of media by individuals—such as...