Spectral Aesthetics: Why Beauty Sits in the Gap — A Formal Account of Aesthetic Experience

We propose that aesthetic experience arises when a signal operates at C* = 1/(D+1) of the perceiving receiver. Signals too ordered (β > D/(D+1)) produce boredom; signals too random (β < D/(D+1)) produce noise. Beauty sits in the Gap C∈(0,1). This framework unifies aesthetic responses across music, visual art, literature, and architecture under the Axiomatica Universalis. Prediction: β of aesthetically preferred stimuli correlates with β = D/(D+1) of the perceiving system. Cross-cultural validation required.