As you like it - A story of taste

Are there "good" and "bad" tastes? Can you learn and train "good" taste and cultivate "bad" taste? Or is it always a case of "as you like it!" when it comes to taste? Prof. Dr. Ulrich Raulff led the audience on a multi-layered journey into the history of taste at the start of the "Saturdays at 12" semester. The facets of taste were colorful, ranging from the classic film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) to Diderot's robe, the history of porcelain to the meaning of colors and the cult object cell phone. The event was moderated by Dr. Isabel Maurer Queipo.

The title, a reference to Shakespeare, was chosen deliberately: "It's so wonderfully catchy." Because: "It should be about pleasing. Everything that pleases you is good." Nowadays, liking is also a little pleasing. Especially on social media, people are quick to like - fingers up or down, top or bottom. "We rate almost everything." And yet, according to Isabel Maurer Queipo, taste is quite intuitive and is also determined by a person's inner self. Raulff: "Of course, this everything also stands for a personal profile, which is shaped not least by our upbringing." He continues: "It is more important to question a person's intellect than to deny their taste." Taste is the antenna into the world: "It is a very important tactile instrument that we have developed." Isabel Maurer Queipo: "Taste is what defines us."

There are time units of taste - the 60s or 70s, for example. Raulff: "Some are embarrassing for us today." Some return decades later. Vintage is not just a fashion movement, "but also has a serious background".

With a view to Shakespeare and the chosen book title, Raulff emphasized England's special role in terms of taste: "The English have also cultivated bad taste as a national characteristic." In England, taste is a kind of nobility: "You can have your say." The ability to differentiate is important - "you have to recognize and make differences".

Tastemakers, influencers, zeitgeist and advertising influence our taste. Raulff: "However, we are not forced into costumes, but have the opportunity to develop our own aesthetic stubbornness." He continues: "I didn't just want to write about tastemakers, but also about things." One example is porcelain. Until the 17th century, Chinese porcelain was considered the epitome of sophisticated tableware in Europe due to its delicacy, coloring and design. Raulff: "Ceramics were produced in Europe." In Delft, it was finally possible to create something on a par with Chinese porcelain. Delft porcelain eventually competed with Chinese porcelain. Then Wedgwood came along and stirred up the global market with antique patterns - copy and countercopy often led to major cultural exchange processes. Raulff: "The new comes from copying the old, where something goes wrong."