A New Definition of Minimalism

I’ve been unsatisfied with the various general definitions of minimalism I’ve been able to find, accross the web and in books.

In most cases, they refer too heavily to just Minimal Art, while minimalism has long extended its influence to other creative disciplines – architecture, design, dance, theater, music (source), photography, fashion, literature and probably even pottery baking.

Also, let’s not forget the minimalist lifestyle movement, which is getting more and more followers. There’s even something called minimalist hiking, and have you been introduced to minimalist gastronomy?

For that reason, I’ve been working on a new definition of minimalism; an umbrella definition that spans all disciplines. This article describes the process, my considerations and the end result.

Criteria

First question: What makes a proper definition?

A definition aims to describe or delimit the meaning of some term (a word or a phrase) by giving a statement of essential properties or distinguishing characteristics of the concept, entity, or kind of entity, denoted by that term (source).

Additionally, a definition shouldn’t be:

Ambiguous (having more than one possible meaning)
Circular (it must not comprise of terms which are synonymous with it)
Over broad or over narrow (it should be be valid for all fields of minimalism, but not more)
Obscure (it should use common wording) (source)

Okay. Let’s find those ‘essential properties’ and ‘distingushing characteristics’ of minimalism.

Elements

I think our definition should consist of three elements:

The classification; where does it belong?
The ‘what’; what is it doing, what’s the goal?
The ‘how’; how is it doing that?

You could argue that the how should not be included. However, as we will see, the how is really a distinguishing characteristic and will prove valuable to the definition.

So. This is roughly the structure I’m looking at:

Minimalism is a [classification], where [what] is achieved, by [how].

Now let’s take each of these three elements and see if we can fill in the blanks.

The classification

Minimalism has been classified as a style (feels too superficial), a trend (feels too shortlived), a movement in visual arts and music (so where is architecture, literature and the other disciplines) and many other things…

But what’s an ‘-ism’ anyways? The most comprehensive explanation I could find that it’s a noun, indicating one these six:

An action, process, or result (criticism, terrorism)
A state or condition (paganism)
A doctrine, system, or body of principles and practices (Leninism, spiritualism)
Behaviour or a characteristic quality (heroism)
A characteristic usage, esp of a language colloquialism (Scotticism)
Prejudice on the basis specified (sexism, ageism) (source)

We can immediately cross #2, #4, #5 and #6 off the list. Leaves us with #1 and #3.

You could argue that minimalism is #1: An action, process or result – and of those: a process. It’s the working of a mechanism where you minimize some aspects in order to maximize some desired outcome.

But that’s not really how the term is used though.

Then is it #3? A doctrine, system, or body of principles and practices? Hmm. Sounds so ehm… dogmatic, don’t you agree? I have long considered that word practice, as in the application of certain principles (source). Because that’s really what we do: we each apply the principle of minimalism to our specific disciplines.

However, there’s one word that’s closely tied with #3, but which isn’t as heavy: concept. A concept is bigger than a loose idea, but smaller than a full philosophy. It’s also how people generally use the term. Perfect!

Minimalism is the concept of …

Now let’s see if we can elegantly fill in the remaining blanks.

The what & how

This is the tough part – or it was for me.

Originally, I attempted to find words which applied to all disciplines. I found myself summing up big words, resulting in some impressive pieces of prose:

…where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through the elimination of all non-essential forms, features or concepts (this oldie actually made it onto Wikipedia ;)
…where the work is characterized by pure formalism, inexpressiveness and neutrality, thanks to the elimination of anything that distracts from, diverts from, or obstructs the experience of a subject’s pure qualities of colour, form, space and materials
… where artistic expression, other than composition, and variation are minimised for reasons of literality, neutrality and/or purity

The thing is of course that each discipline (art, design, theater…) has its specific agenda and characteristics. The lists of characteristics and reasons should go on and on. Trying to squeeze them into stylish lists of 3 proved to be an impossible task.

So, after killing darling after darling, I killed the whole breed and shifted my focus. Rather than looking for common characteristics, I investigated common principles. And suddenly, things started to make sense (finally).

We all know Mies’ famous phrase Less is more. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s a 3-word translation of the central mechanism of minimalism: that (other than popular belief) taking the direction of ‘less’ instead of ‘more’ can also result in things of beauty and quality.

In other words, reduction (the direction of ‘less’) can create value (where ‘value’ is specific for each discipline). That’s what minimalism does: creating value through reduction. Yes!

Result

So here it is:

Minimalism is the concept of creating value through reduction.

An introduction paragraph to the topic of minimalism would now read something like this:

Minimalism is the concept of creating value through reduction. It has found application in many creative disciplines, including art, architecture, design, dance, film, theater, music, fashion, photography and literature. The minimalist principle also forms the core of a lifestyle movement and has made its way into sports, gastronomy, and many other areas.

I’m very happy with the result. Do you agree?

Please comment!

Any kind of feedback, positive or negative, is highly appreciated.