How optimisation aesthetics reshape art and identity

Optimisation has evolved from a technical term to a dominant aesthetic in digital and physical spaces, rooted in modernist principles of clarity and minimalism. Figures like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Tadao Ando in architecture, and Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt in art, stripped design to essentials. UX design inherited these values, eliminating skeuomorphism for flat design. Artists such as Petra Cortright and Martine Syms produce digitally native work. Social media platforms like Instagram impose a visual epistemology, training perception, per Lev Manovich. The 'clean girl' trend on TikTok (1.2 million uses by Feb 2026) exemplifies self-optimisation. A counter-aesthetic is emerging: messy, anti-aesthetic culture with artists like Cecily Brown, Mark Bradford, and Charline von Heyl using loose brushwork. Laura Lima's 'The Drawing Drawing' at London's ICA (2026) made process the spectacle. Manovich creates slow iPad paintings as refusal of efficiency. Postmodernism's 'less is a bore' ethos resurfaces. Anti-design remains a performance, per Marquard Smith.