Aesthetics

Source paper: Learning-based Artificial Intelligence Artwork: Methodology Taxonomy and Quality Evaluation, ACM Computing Surveys (2024). Origin The rubric was built from art vocabulary and traditional principles of painting analysis, then validated through a user study to confirm the weightings felt reasonable across different artwork types. The goal was a consistent, repeatable way to evaluate AI-generated artworks across different styles. The Six Dimensions Beauty (50%) — The dominant criterion. Encompasses overall compositional harmony: balance, proportion, the arrangement of visual elements, and the pleasing relationship between subjects. An image can score well on every other dimension and still feel wrong if the composition is off. This is where Gestalt principles are most directly applied — does the whole hang together? ...

Gestalt principles are a set of rules from psychology describing how the human mind naturally organizes visual information into meaningful wholes rather than perceiving a collection of separate parts. The name comes from the German word Gestalt, meaning “shape” or “form,” and the core idea is captured in the phrase: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Main Principles Proximity — elements that are close together are perceived as belonging to the same group. ...