It’s human nature to judge, evaluate and express a preference. Criticism is one of man’s basic survival instincts: he simply wants to avoid things that are not good for him. In modern life, with an abundance of things to choose from, criticism is commonly used to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The critic judges an object by structures he knows and criteria he has set up for himself. The quality of this reference material differs per person. A sommelier or wine connoisseur, for example, can rely on a treasure of comparisons and tasting notes. When drinking a new wine, he mentally compares it to alternatives and can easily explain why the wine is good or bad. A person with little knowledge of wines can just say that he likes it – or not.
There’s no accounting for taste, the ignorant will always proclaim. And indeed, it is quite useless to argue with people who have little knowledge of a certain subject. Enter Wikiconic. We bring people up to speed. The icons featured on our site are units of crystalized taste. The Western canon of materialism. Tasting notes from connoisseurs if you will – for you to use as a reference. When planning on buying an object, you can ask yourself why the object you want to purchase is better than the iconic alternative as featured on Wikiconic. This way, discussing taste actually becomes a fun thing to do.
